id,url_legal,license,excerpt,target,standard_error
c12129c31,,,"When the young people returned to the ballroom, it presented a decidedly changed appearance. Instead of an interior scene, it was a winter landscape.
The floor was covered with snow-white canvas, not laid on smoothly, but rumpled over bumps and hillocks, like a real snow field. The numerous palms and evergreens that had decorated the room, were powdered with flour and strewn with tufts of cotton, like snow. Also diamond dust had been lightly sprinkled on them, and glittering crystal icicles hung from the branches.
At each end of the room, on the wall, hung a beautiful bear-skin rug.
These rugs were for prizes, one for the girls and one for the boys. And this was the game.
The girls were gathered at one end of the room and the boys at the other, and one end was called the North Pole, and the other the South Pole. Each player was given a small flag which they were to plant on reaching the Pole.
This would have been an easy matter, but each traveller was obliged to wear snowshoes.",-0.340259125,0.464009046
85aa80a4c,,,"All through dinner time, Mrs. Fayre was somewhat silent, her eyes resting on Dolly with a wistful, uncertain expression. She wanted to give the child the pleasure she craved, but she had hard work to bring herself to the point of overcoming her own objections.
At last, however, when the meal was nearly over, she smiled at her little daughter, and said, ""All right, Dolly, you may go.""
""Oh, mother!"" Dolly cried, overwhelmed with sudden delight. ""Really?
Oh, I am so glad! Are you sure you're willing?""
""I've persuaded myself to be willing, against my will,"" returned Mrs. Fayre, whimsically. ""I confess I just hate to have you go, but I can't bear to deprive you of the pleasure trip. And, as you say, it would also keep Dotty at home, and so, altogether, I think I shall have to give in.""
""Oh, you angel mother! You blessed lady! How good you are!"" And Dolly flew around the table and gave her mother a hug that nearly suffocated her.",-0.315372342,0.48080497
b69ac6792,,,"As Roger had predicted, the snow departed as quickly as it came, and two days after their sleigh ride there was scarcely a vestige of white on the ground. Tennis was again possible and a great game was in progress on the court at Pine Laurel. Patty and Roger were playing against Elise and Sam Blaney, and the pairs were well matched.
But the long-contested victory finally went against Patty, and she laughingly accepted defeat.
""Only because Patty's not quite back on her game yet,"" Roger defended; ""this child has been on the sick list, you know, Sam, and she isn't up to her own mark.""
""Well, I like that!"" cried Patty; ""suppose you bear half the blame, Roger. You see, Mr. Blaney, he is so absorbed in his own Love Game, he can't play with his old-time skill.""
""All right, Patsy, let it go at that. And it's so, too. I suddenly remembered something Mona told me to tell you, and it affected my service.""",-0.580117966,0.476676226
dd1000b26,,,"And outside before the palace a great garden was walled round, filled full of stately fruit-trees, gray olives and sweet figs, and pomegranates, pears, and apples, which bore the whole year round. For the rich south-west wind fed them, till pear grew ripe on pear, fig on fig, and grape on grape, all the winter and the spring. And at the farther end gay flower-beds bloomed through all seasons of the year; and two fair fountains rose, and ran, one through the garden grounds, and one beneath the palace gate, to water all the town. Such noble gifts the heavens had given to Alcinous the wise.
So they went in, and saw him sitting, like Poseidon, on his throne, with his golden sceptre by him, in garments stiff with gold, and in his hand a sculptured goblet, as he pledged the merchant kings; and beside him stood Arete, his wise and lovely queen, and leaned against a pillar as she spun her golden threads.",-1.05401339,0.450007142
37c1b32fb,,,"Once upon a time there were Three Bears who lived together in a house of their own in a wood. One of them was a Little, Small, Wee Bear; and one was a Middle-sized Bear, and the other was a Great, Huge Bear. They had each a pot for their porridge; a little pot for the Little, Small, Wee Bear; and a middle-sized pot for the Middle Bear; and a great pot for the Great, Huge Bear. And they had each a chair to sit in; a little chair for the Little, Small, Wee Bear; and a middle-sized chair for the Middle Bear; and a great chair for the Great, Huge Bear. And they had each a bed to sleep in; a little bed for the Little, Small, Wee Bear; and a middle-sized bed for the Middle Bear; and a great bed for the Great, Huge Bear.",0.247197446,0.510844957
f9bf357fe,,,"Hal and Chester found ample time to take an inventory of the general's car. It was a huge machine, and besides being fitted up luxuriously was also furnished as an office, that the general might still be at work while he hurried from one part of the field to another when events demanded his immediate presence. Even now, with treachery threatening, and whirling along at a terrific speed, General Joffre, probably because of habit, fell to work sorting papers, studying maps and other drawings.
For almost two hours the car whirled along at top speed, and at length pulled up in the rear of an immense body of troops, who, even to Hal and Chester, could be seen preparing for an advance. General Joffre was out of the car before it came to a full stop, and Hal and Chester were at his heels. An orderly approached.
""My respects to General Tromp, and tell him I desire his presence immediately,"" ordered General Joffre.",-0.861808583,0.480936493
eaf8e7355,,,"Hal Paine and Chester Crawford were typical American boys. With the former's mother, they had been in Berlin when the great European conflagration broke out and had been stranded there. Mrs. Paine had been able to get out of the country, but Hal and Chester were left behind.
In company with Major Raoul Derevaux, a Frenchman, and Captain Harry Anderson, an Englishman, they finally made their way into Belgium, where they arrived in time to take part in the heroic defense of Liége in the early stages of the war. Here they rendered such invaluable service to the Belgian commander that they were commissioned lieutenants in the little army of King Albert.
Both in fighting and in scouting they had proven their worth. Following the first Belgian campaign, the two lads had seen service with the British troops on the continent, where they were attached to the staff of General Sir John French, in command of the English forces. Also they had won the respect and admiration of General Joffre, the French commander-in-chief.",-1.759061403,0.476507368
0a43a07f1,,,"On the twenty-second of February, 1916, an automobile sped northward along the French battle line that for almost two years had held back the armies of the German emperor, strive as they would to win their way farther into the heart of France. For months the opposing forces had battled to a draw from the North Sea to the boundary of Switzerland, until now, as the day waned—it was almost six o'clock—the hands of time drew closer and closer to the hour that was to mark the opening of the most bitter and destructive battle of the war, up to this time.
It was the eve of the battle of Verdun.
The occupants of the automobile as it sped northward numbered three. In the front seat, alone at the driver's wheel, a young man bent low. He was garbed in the uniform of a British lieutenant of cavalry. Close inspection would have revealed the fact that the young man was a youth of some eighteen years, fair and good to look upon.",-0.95232462,0.498115881
f7eff7419,,,"The boys left the capitol and made their way down the long hill to the main business part of the town. As they struck onto the main business street, Garry noticed the familiar blue bell sign of the telephone company.
""Say, boys, I have an idea. Let's stop in here and put in long distance calls and say hello to our folks. How does the idea strike you?"" said Garry, almost in one breath.
""Ripping,"" shouted Phil, while Dick didn't wait to make any remark, but dived in through the door, and in a trice was putting in his call. Phil followed suit, while Garry waited, as he would talk when Dick had finished.
This pleasant duty done, they went to a restaurant for dinner. Here they attracted no little attention, for their khaki clothes looked almost like uniforms. Added to this was the fact that they wore forest shoepacks, those high laced moccasins with an extra leather sole, and felt campaign hats.",-0.371640688,0.463710362
d96e6dbcd,,,"One day he had gone beyond any point which he had ever before visited. He traveled through an open wood, which enabled him to see a great distance. At length he beheld a light breaking through the foliage of the distant trees, which made him sure that he was on the borders of a prairie. It was a wide plain, covered with long blue grass, and enameled with flowers of a thousand lovely tints.
After walking for some time without a path, musing upon the open country, and enjoying the fragrant breeze, he suddenly came to a ring worn among the grass and the flowers, as if it had been made by footsteps moving lightly round and round. But it was strange—so strange as to cause the White Hawk to pause and gaze long and fixedly upon the ground—there was no path which led to this flowery circle. There was not even a crushed leaf nor a broken twig, nor the least trace of a footstep, approaching or retiring, to be found. He thought he would hide himself and lie in wait to discover, if he could, what this strange circle meant.",-1.238432225,0.465899778
c57b50918,,,"It was believed by the principal men of Virginia that Talbot's sympathies were with the revolted colonies; but the influence of his mother, to whom he had been accustomed to defer, had hitherto proved sufficient to prevent him from openly declaring himself. His visit to England, and the delightful reception he had met with there, had weakened somewhat the ties which bound him to his native country, and he found himself in a state of indecision as humiliating as it was painful. Lord Dunmore and Colonel Wilton had each made great efforts to enlist his support, on account of his wealth and position and high personal qualities. It was hinted by one that the ancient barony of the Talbots would be revived by the king; and the gratitude of a free and grateful country, with the consciousness of having materially aided in acquiring that independence which should be the birthright of every Englishman, was eloquently portrayed by the other. When to the last plea was added the personal preference of Katharine Wilton, the balance was overcome, and the hopes of the mother were doomed to disappointment.",-3.081337118,0.553259513
8d8a2667f,,,"This Pedrarias was seventy-two years old. He was of good birth and rich, and was the father of a large and interesting family, which he prudently left behind him in Spain. His wife, however, insisted on going with him to the New World. Whether or not this was a proof of wifely devotion—and if it was, it is the only thing in history to his credit—or of an unwillingness to trust Pedrarias out of her sight, which is more likely, is not known. At any rate, she went along.
Pedrarias, up to the time of his departure from Spain, had enjoyed two nick-names, El Galan and El Justador. He had been a bold and dashing cavalier in his youth, a famous tilter in tournaments in his middle age, and a hard-fighting soldier all his life. His patron was Bishop Fonseca. Whatever qualities he might possess for the important work about to be devolved upon him would be developed later.",-2.145248365,0.518351049
a0d4cd896,,,"The Emperor walked nervously up and down the long, low-ceiled apartment, the common room of the public inn at Nogent. Grouped around a long table in the center of the room several secretaries were busy with orders, reports and dispatches. At one end stood a group of officers of high rank in rich uniforms whose brilliance was shrouded by heavy cloaks falling from their shoulders and gathered about them, for the air was raw and chill, despite a great fire burning in a huge open fireplace. Their cloaks and hats were wet, their boots and trousers splashed with mud, and in general they were travel-stained and weary. They eyed the Emperor, passing and repassing, in gloomy silence mixed with awe. In their bearing no less than in their faces was expressed a certain unwonted fierce resentment, which flamed up and became more evident when the Emperor turned his back in his short, restless march to and fro, but which subsided as suddenly when he had them under observation. By the door was stationed a young officer in the uniform of the Fifth Regiment of the infantry of the line.",-1.400318025,0.494799321
0963b8cf9,,,"The clock in a nearby church struck the hour of two. The areaway was dark. No one was abroad. He plunged down the steps, opened the window and disappeared. No man could move more noiselessly than he. In the still night he knew how the slightest sounds are magnified. He had made none as he groped his way through the back of the house, arriving at last in a room which he judged to be the library. Then, after listening and hearing nothing, he ventured to turn the button of a side light in a far corner of the room.
He was in a large apartment, beautifully furnished. Books and pictures abounded, but these did not interest him, although if he had made further examination, he might have found things worthy of his attention even there. It so happened that the light bracket to which he had blundered, or had been led, was immediately over a large wall safe. Evidently it had been placed there for the purpose of illuminating the safe door. His eyes told him that instantly. This was greater fortune than he expected. A wall safe in a house like that must contain things of value.",-0.495298635,0.471694283
587502a70,,,"Aunt Abigail was gone, Eleanor was gone. The room was quite empty except for the bright sunshine pouring in through the small-paned windows. Elizabeth Ann stretched and yawned and looked about her. What funny wall-paper it was—so old-fashioned looking! The picture was of a blue river and a brown mill, with green willow-trees over it, and a man with sacks on his horse's back stood in front of the mill. This picture was repeated a great many times, all over the paper; and in the corner, where it hadn't come out even, they had had to cut it right down the middle of the horse. It was very curious-looking. She stared at it a long time, waiting for somebody to tell her when to get up. At home Aunt Frances always told her, and helped her get dressed. But here nobody came. She discovered that the heat came from a hole in the floor near the bed, which opened down into the room below. From it came a warm breath of baking bread and a muffled thump once in a while.",0.245805709,0.491792885
af79954c5,,,"So off went Lionel to be made a King. He had never expected to be a King any more than you have, so it was all quite new to him—so new that he had never even thought of it. And as the coach went through the town he had to bite his tongue to be quite sure it was real, because if his tongue was real it showed he wasn't dreaming. Half an hour before he had been building with bricks in the nursery; and now—the streets were all fluttering with flags; every window was crowded with people waving handkerchiefs and scattering flowers; there were scarlet soldiers everywhere along the pavements, and all the bells of all the churches were ringing like mad, and like a great song to the music of their ringing he heard thousands of people shouting, ""Long live Lionel! Long live our little King!""
He was a little sorry at first that he had not put on his best clothes, but he soon forgot to think about that.",-0.188185864,0.481518476
7656dea91,,,"Her name was Simpkins, and her cottage was just beyond the churchyard, on the other side from our house. On the different military occasions which I have remarked upon this widow woman stood at her garden gate and looked on. And after the cheering she rubbed her eyes with her apron. Alice noticed this slight but signifying action.
We feel quite sure Mrs Simpkins liked soldiers, and so we felt friendly to her. But when we tried to talk to her she would not. She told us to go along with us, do, and not bother her. And Oswald, with his usual delicacy and good breeding, made the others do as she said.
But we were not to be thus repulsed with impunity. We made complete but cautious inquiries, and found out that the reason she cried when she saw soldiers was that she had only one son, a boy. He was twenty-two, and he had gone to the War last April. So that she thought of him when she saw the soldiers, and that was why she cried.",-1.28603909,0.470564481
60ecc9777,,,"The children had explored the gardens and the outhouses thoroughly before they were caught and cleaned for tea, and they saw quite well that they were certain to be happy at the White House. They thought so from the first moment, but when they found the back of the house covered with jasmine, and in white flower, and smelling like a bottle of the most expensive scent that is ever given for a birthday present; and when they had seen the lawn, all green and smooth, and quite different from the brown grass in the gardens at Camden Town; and when they had found the stable with a loft over it and some old hay still left, they were almost certain; and when Robert had found the broken swing and tumbled out of it and got a lump on his head the size of an egg, and Cyril had nipped his finger in the door of a hutch that seemed made to keep rabbits in, if you ever had any, they had no longer any doubts whatever.",-0.617733261,0.496645177
057f69731,,,"It was a wet day, so none of the plans for seeing all the sights of London that can be seen for nothing could be carried out. Everyone had been thinking all the morning about the wonderful adventures of the day before, when Jane had held up the charm and it had turned into an arch, through which they had walked straight out of the present time and the Regent's Park into the land of Egypt eight thousand years ago. The memory of yesterday's happenings was still extremely fresh and frightening, so that everyone hoped that no one would suggest another excursion into the past, for it seemed to all that yesterday's adventures were quite enough to last for at least a week. Yet each felt a little anxious that the others should not think it was afraid, and presently Cyril, who really was not a coward, began to see that it would not be at all nice if he should have to think himself one. So he said—
‘I say—about that charm—Jane—come out. We ought to talk about it, anyhow.'",-1.126247781,0.47702836
5e7c0b55b,,,"Father had been away in the country for three or four days. All Peter's hopes for the curing of his afflicted Engine were now fixed on his Father, for Father was most wonderfully clever with his fingers. He could mend all sorts of things. He had often acted as veterinary surgeon to the wooden rocking-horse; once he had saved its life when all human aid was despaired of, and the poor creature was given up for lost, and even the carpenter said he didn't see his way to do anything. And it was Father who mended the doll's cradle when no one else could; and with a little glue and some bits of wood and a pen-knife made all the Noah's Ark beasts as strong on their pins as ever they were, if not stronger.
Peter, with heroic unselfishness, did not say anything about his Engine till after Father had had his dinner and his after-dinner cigar. The unselfishness was Mother's idea—but it was Peter who carried it out. And needed a good deal of patience, too.",-1.009999064,0.496148262
a9ebe5d33,,,"Then the man took off his hat and walked away, and Philip and his sister went home. She seemed different, somehow, and he was sent to bed a little earlier than usual, but he could not go to sleep for a long time, because he heard the front-door bell ring and afterwards a man's voice and Helen's going on and on in the little drawing-room under the room which was his bedroom. He went to sleep at last, and when he woke up in the morning it was raining, and the sky was grey and miserable. He lost his collar-stud, he tore one of his stockings as he pulled it on, he pinched his finger in the door, and he dropped his tooth-mug, with water in it too, and the mug was broken and the water went into his boots. There are mornings, you know, when things happen like that. This was one of them.",0.281178362,0.510595335
47e98a5c8,,,"At that moment the queen came out through the palace door, and the prince was so dazzled by her beauty, that only for the golden bracelet he wore upon his right arm, under the sleeve of his silken tunic, he might almost have forgotten the Princess Ailinn. This bracelet was made by the dwarfs who dwell in the heart of the Scandinavian Mountains, and was sent with other costly presents by the King of Scandinavia to the King of Erin, and he gave it to the princess, and it was the virtue of this bracelet, that whoever was wearing it could not forget the person who gave it to him, and it could never be loosened from the arm by any art or magic spell; but if the wearer, even for a single moment, liked anyone better than the person who gave it to him, that very moment the bracelet fell off from the arm and could never again be fastened on. And when the princess promised her hand in marriage to the Prince Cuglas, she closed the bracelet on his arm.",0.278203141,0.4840451
7285ba024,,,"Were you ever on the coast of Maine? If so, you know how the rocky shores stretch out now and then clear into the ocean, and fret the salt waves till they are all in a foam. Old Ocean is not to be so set at defiance and have his rightful territory wrung from him, without taking his revenge after his own fashion. Far up into the land he sends his arms, and crooks and bends and makes his way amid the rocks, and finally falls asleep in some quiet harbor, where the tall pines stand by the shore to sing him a lullaby.
In just such a spot as this the town we shall call Fairport was built. Axe in one hand and Bible in the other, stern settlers here found a home. Strong hard-featured sons, and fair rosy-cheeked daughters made glad the rude cabins that were soon scattered along the shore. The axe was plied in the woods, and the needle by the fireside, and yet grim Poverty was ever shaking her fist in the very faces of the settlers, and whispering sad things of what the uncertain future might have in store for them.",-1.566220068,0.485318409
66f0a9ff1,,,"If nature afflicts in one direction she frequently makes amends in another direction, and this dwarf, small as he was, was gifted with a most wonderful mind. His mechanical ingenuity bordered on the marvelous. When he went to school, he was a general favorite with teachers and pupils. The former loved him for his sweetness of disposition, and his remarkable proficiency in all studies, while the latter based their affection chiefly upon the fact that he never refused to assist any of them at their tasks, while with the pocket-knife which he carried he constructed toys which were their delight. Some of these were so curious and amusing that, had they been secured by letters patent, they would have brought a competency to him and his widowed mother.
But Johnny never thought of patenting them, although the principal support of himself and mother came from one or two patents, which his father had secured upon inventions, not near the equal of his.",-2.386484836,0.526078693
e4f3550b2,,,"One beautiful misummer night in 18— a large, heavily laden steamer was making her way swiftly up the Pacific coast, in the direction of San Francisco. She was opposite the California shore, only a day's sail distant from the City of the Golden Gate, and many of the passengers had already begun making preparations for landing, even though a whole night and the better part of a day was to intervene ere they could expect to set their feet upon solid land.
She was one of those magnificent steamers that ply regularly between Panama and California. She had rather more than her full cargo of freight and passengers; but, among the hundreds of the latter, we have to do with but three.
On this moonlight night, there were gathered by themselves these three personages, consisting of Tim O'Rooney, Elwood Brandon and Howard Lawrence. The first was a burly, good-natured Irishman, and the two latter were cousins, their ages differing by less than a month, and both being in their sixteenth year.",-1.483887001,0.476218591
e6181a3fb,,,"When Nick Ribsam set out to find his missing sister Nellie, he made the search as thorough as possible.
The first house at which he stopped was that of Mr. Marston, which, it will be remembered, was only a short distance away from his own home. There, to his disappointment, he learned that their little girl had not been at school that day, and consequently they could tell him nothing.
Without waiting longer than to give a few words of explanation he resumed his trot, and soon after turned into the lane leading to the home of Mr. Kilgore. He found that both Bobby and Sallie had been to school, but they had nothing to tell. When we are more than usually anxious to learn something, it seems that every one whom we meet is stupid beyond endurance. If we are in a strange place and apply for information, the ignorance of nearly every person is exasperating.",0.633138503,0.51578045
08104f366,,,"We three reached the old poplar the next evening between ten and eleven o'clock. Arthur had escaped inquiry by slipping out of his bedroom window after bidding his parents good-night; and, inasmuch as the lantern which I carried was not lit until we arrived at the tree, we were confident of escaping attention. Still I watched sharply, and was greatly relieved to discover no persons abroad at that hour beside ourselves.
Since the treasure was located but three feet below the surface, in sandy soil, I brought only one shovel, while the boys watched me, one holding the lantern, and both casting furtive glances around to guard against eavesdroppers. It would be useless to deny my excitement. My heart at times throbbed painfully, and more than once I was on the point of ceasing until I could regain mastery of myself.",-1.394485086,0.474054569
2df8a90eb,,,"But, somehow or other, Mr. Lathrop was different from the teachers that had preceded him. He never spoke angrily or shouted, and his first act on entering the schoolroom was to break up the long tough hickory ""gad"" lying on his desk and to fling it out of the window. The next thing he did, after calling the school to order, was to tell the gaping, open-eyed children the most entertaining story to which they had ever listened. The anecdote had its moral too, for woven in and out and through its charming meshes was the woof of a life of heroic suffering, of trial and reward.
At its conclusion, the teacher said to the pupils that if they were studious and transgressed no rules, he would be glad to tell them another story the next day, if they would remain a few minutes after the hour of dismissal. The treat was such a rare one that all the girls and most of the boys resolved to earn the right to enjoy it.",-0.146083426,0.503310325
fc36fd8ff,,,"It was quite early in the forenoon, Melville having made an early start from the border-town of Barwell, and he was well on his way to his home, which lay ten miles to the south. ""Dot,"" as his little sister was called by her friends, had been on a week's visit to her uncle's at the settlement, the agreement all round being that she should stay there for a fortnight at least; but her parents and her big brother rebelled at the end of the week. They missed the prattle and sunshine which only Dot could bring into their home, and Melville's heart was delighted when his father told him to mount Saladin and bring her home.
And when, on the seventh day of her visit, Dot found her handsome brother had come after her, and was to take her home the following morning, she leaped into his arms with a cry of happiness; for though her relatives had never suspected it, she was dreadfully home-sick and anxious to get back to her own people.",-1.314628766,0.449363562
060e33d14,,,"Before Fred could complete the sentence his foot struck an obstruction and he was precipitated headlong over and down a chasm which had escaped his notice. He fell with such violence that he was knocked senseless.
When he recovered he was in darkness, his torch having been extinguished. The smell of the burning resin recalled him to himself, and it required but a moment for him to remember the accident which had befallen him. For a time he scarcely dared to stir, fearing that he might pitch headlong over some precipice. He felt of his face and hands, but could detect nothing like blood. The boy had received quite a number of severe bruises, however, and when he ventured to stir there were sharp, stinging pains in his shoulders, neck and legs.
""Thank God I am alive!"" was his fervent ejaculation, after he had taken his inventory. ""But I don't know where I am or how I can get back again. I wonder what has become of the torch.""",-1.413743883,0.492639527
aa6f9e224,,,"We must have been squatting for an hour and a half, and the sun was down close to the top of the draw, behind us, when Fitzpatrick nudged me with his foot, and nodded. He made the sign of birds flying up and pointed down the trail, below, us; so that I knew somebody was coming, around a turn there. We scarcely breathed. We just sat and watched, like two mountain lions waiting.
Pretty soon they came riding along—four of them on horseback; we knew the horses. The fellows were Bill Duane, Mike Delavan, Tony Matthews, and Bert Hawley. They were laughing and talking because the trail we made was plain and they thought that we all were pushing right on, and if they could read sign they would know that the tracks were not extra fresh.
We let them get out of sight; then we went straight down upon the trail, and followed, alongside, so as not to step on top of their tracks and show that we had come after.",-0.479830828,0.495426627
4d5b83eba,,,"Now in that same country there lived a large handsome tiger, with sharp, sharp teeth and bright, cruel eyes. One day the tiger said to himself, ""I am tired of having no home of my own,—of just living around anywhere! I shall build me a house."" Accordingly the tiger searched for a place to build his house. He searched on every hill, in every valley, by every stream, and under all the trees. At last he found a place which was just right. It was not too high nor too low, not too near a stream and not too far away from one, not under too thick trees and yet not away from the trees out in the hot sun. The tiger said to himself, ""I am going to build my house here. The place is all ready for me for there isn't very much underbrush here."" He began at once and finished clearing the place. Then it became daylight and he went away.",0.404633391,0.482963505
918a52c5a,,,"The children wondered that nothing worse than hard words fell to their share, and were somewhat relieved that the next question referred to Bob, and not to their doings.
""You say he ain't come home?"" said Coomber.
""I ain't seen him since he went with you to Fellness. Ain't you just come from there?"" said his wife, timidly.
""Of course I have, but Bob ought to have been back an hour or so ago, for I had something to do in the village. Come to the boat, and I'll tell you all about it,"" he added, in a less severe tone; for the thought of the child he had rescued softened him a little, and he led the way out of the washing-shed.
The storm had abated now, and the boat no longer rocked and swayed, so that the children waded back through the mud without fear, while their father talked of the little girl he had left with Dame Peters at Fellness.",-0.952123031,0.452621482
83e4f4031,,,"Katie Haydon is going to London, ma'am. Did she tell you on Sunday?"" The speaker was Esther Odell, who could think of nothing else but her schoolfellow's good fortune, and, meeting her teacher later in the week, hastened to impart the important news to her.
Miss Eldon looked surprised and a little disappointed, for she had heard of an excellent opening for Kate, in the nursery of a lady not far off, who needed a bright, clever girl, able to assist the nurse sometimes with the one child, and also learn to wait upon the young ladies who were growing up. Such a nice place as this was not often to be met with, and Miss Eldon had waited at home all day on Monday, expecting Mrs. Haydon to call about it. She was on her way there now, thinking she must be ill, or something had happened; she could hardly think Kate had forgotten her message, for she was so anxious to obtain a situation only a short time before.
But Esther Odell's news made her think it was very possible Kate had forgotten all about it. ""Did Kate tell you about this on Sunday,"" she said.",-1.053897658,0.470510397
c8ff70806,,,"When Josie arrived at her destination she went to the one small hotel the village boasted and, engaging the only room in the house with a private bath, she made herself comfortable for the time being. She needed sleep before she could engage in the adventure she was planning. A hotel or boarding house is a good place in which to pick up information and Josie wanted to pick up a little information before she proceeded.
The proprietor of the hotel was a sieve for gossip and in less than twelve hours Josie had not only had a good night's rest but she had learned several things she considered of importance. The host was a man of generous proportions and a loud emphatic utterance, with which he gave voice to a perpetual grievance he had concerning the high cost of food and the low price of board.",0.022597727,0.510076717
bdd8488dd,,,"He sang of long summer days and the music of waters beating upon the shore. He sang of the moonlight and the starlight. All the wonders of the night, all the beauty of the morning, were in his song.
""Dear southwind,"" said the Great Spirit ""here are some beautiful things for you to bear away with, you to your summer home. You will love them, and all the little children will love them."" At these words of the Great Spirit, all the stones before him stirred with life and lifted themselves on many-colored wings. They fluttered away in the sunshine, and the southwind sang to them as they went.
So it was that the first butterflies came from a beautiful thought of the Great Spirit, and in their wings were all the colors of the shining stones that he did not wish to hide away.",-0.473701994,0.481322996
4b7a4b258,,,"This is the story of how the swallow's tail came to be forked.
One day the Great Spirit asked all the animals that he had made to come to his lodge. Those that could fly came first: the robin, the bluebird, the owl, the butterfly, the wasp, and the firefly. Behind them came the chicken, fluttering its wings and trying hard to keep up. Then came the deer, the squirrel, the serpent, the cat, and the rabbit. Last of all came the bear, the beaver, and the hedgehog. Every one traveled as swiftly as he could, for each wished to hear the words of the Great Spirit.
""I have called you together,"" said the Great Spirit, ""because I often hear you scold and fret. What do you wish me to do for you? How can I help you?""
""I do not like to hunt so long for my food,"" said the bear.",0.610318885,0.530621694
0cc4c4124,,,"The wren is very small, but she cried even more eagerly than the others, ""Let us choose the bird that flies highest,"" for she said to herself, ""They think the owl is wise, but I am wiser than he, and I know which bird can fly highest.""
Then the birds tried their wings. They flew high, high up above the earth, but one by one they had to come back to their homes. It was soon seen which could fly highest, for when all the others had come back, there was the eagle rising higher and higher.
""The eagle is our king,"" cried the birds on the earth, and the eagle gave a loud cry of happiness. But look! A little bird had been hidden in the feathers on the eagle's back, and when the eagle had gone as high as he could, the wren flew up from his back still higher.
""Now which bird is king?"" cried the wren. ""The one that flew highest should be king, and I flew highest.""
The eagle was angry, but not a word did he say, and the two birds came down to the earth together.",-0.041920098,0.443630513
b8445380e,,,"Winter was coming, and the birds had flown far to the south, where the air was warm and they could find berries to eat. One little bird had broken its wing and could not fly with the others. It was alone in the cold world of frost and snow. The forest looked warm, and it made its way to the trees as well as it could, to ask for help.
First it came to a birch-tree. ""Beautiful birch-tree,"" it said, ""my wing is broken, and my friends have flown away. May I live among your branches till they come back to me?""
""No, indeed,"" answered the birch-tree, drawing her fair green leaves away. ""We of the great forest have our own birds to help. I can do nothing for you.""
""The birch is not very strong,"" said the little bird to itself, ""and it might be that she could not hold me easily. I will ask the oak."" So the bird said, ""Great oak-tree, you are so strong, will you not let me live on your boughs till my friends come back in the springtime?""",0.857926832,0.528575904
8cc328cc3,,,"The reeds did whisper the angry words of the aspen to the queen bee, and she said, ""I was going to guide my swarm to the aspen, but now I will drive the tree out of the forest. Come, my bees, come.""
Then the bees flew by hundreds upon the aspen. They stung every leaf and every twig through and through. The tree was driven from the forest, over the prairie, over the river, over the fields; and still the angry bees flew after it and stung it again and again. When they had come to the rocky places, they left it and flew back to the land of flowers. The aspen never came back. Its bright green leaves had grown white through fear, and from that day to this they have trembled as they did when the bees were stinging them and driving the tree from the forest.",-1.292569679,0.464429805
ee2908eeb,,,"Tired as they were, they did not have time to go to sleep before they heard a bear calling ""Ugh! Ugh!"" in the woods. They sprang up and ran out of the woods, and just before they came to the bottom of the hill, they saw right in front of them a beautiful little lake. They were not frightened any more, for there in the water was something radiant and shining. ""It is our own star,"" said they, ""and it has come down to us."" They never thought of looking up into the sky over their heads. It was enough for them that the star was in the water and so near them. But was it calling them? They thought so. ""Come,"" cried the brother, ""take my hand, and we will go to the star."" Then the spirit of the skies lifted them up gently and carried them away on a beautiful cloud.",-0.134892994,0.48422207
4835579c1,,,"There once was a little grain of wheat which was very proud indeed. The first thing it remembered was being very much crowded and jostled by a great many other grains of wheat, all living in the same sack in the granary. It was quite dark in the sack, and no one could move about, and so there was nothing to be done but to sit still and talk and think. The proud little grain of wheat talked a great deal, but did not think quite so much, while its next neighbour thought a great deal and only talked when it was asked questions it could answer. It used to say that when it thought a great deal it could remember things which it seemed to have heard a long time ago.
""What is the use of our staying here so long doing nothing, and never being seen by anybody?"" the proud little grain once asked.",-0.130374529,0.462687032
860580bf0,,,"Jem hid her face on her arms and cried as if her heart would break. She cried until her eyes were heavy, and she thought she would be obliged to go to sleep. But just as she was thinking of going to sleep, something fell down the chimney and made her look up. It was a piece of mortar, and it brought a good deal of soot with it. She bent forward and looked up to see where it had come from. The chimney was so very wide that this was easy enough. She could see where the mortar had fallen from the side and left a white patch.
""How white it looks against the black!"" said Jem; ""it is like a white brick among the black ones. What a queer place a chimney is! I can see a bit of the blue sky, I think.""",0.394615951,0.509473387
e355dc94d,,,"He forgot nothing. He lived looking out on all things from great, clear, joyous eyes. Upon his mountain crag he never heard a paltry or unbeautiful word or knew of the existence of unfriendliness or baseness in thought. As soon as he was old enough to go out alone he roamed about the great mountain and feared neither storm nor wild beasts. Shaggy-maned lions and their mates drew near and fawned on him as their kind had fawned on young Adam in the Garden of Eden. There had never passed through his mind the thought that they were not his friends.
He did not know that there were men who killed their wild brothers. In the huge courtyard of the castle he learned to ride and to perform great feats of strength. Because he had not learned to be afraid he never feared that he could not do a thing. He grew so strong and beautiful that when he was ten years old he was as tall as a youth of sixteen, and when he was sixteen he was already like a young giant.",-1.059970759,0.514747948
7017e31a7,,,"The birthday was to be celebrated by great festivities. The schoolroom was to be decorated, and there was to be a party. The boxes containing the presents were to be opened with great ceremony, and there was to be a glittering feast spread in Miss Minchin's sacred room. When the day arrived the whole house was in a whirl of excitement. How the morning passed nobody quite knew, because there seemed such preparations to be made. The schoolroom was being decked with garlands of holly; the desks had been moved away, and red covers had been put on the forms which were arrayed round the room against the wall.
When Sara went into her sitting room in the morning, she found on the table a small, dumpy package, tied up in a piece of brown paper. She knew it was a present, and she thought she could guess whom it came from. She opened it quite tenderly. It was a square pincushion, made of not quite clean red flannel, and black pins had been stuck carefully into it to form the words, ""Menny hapy returns.""",-0.58635946,0.468367926
2dc93434f,,,"He followed us, hopping in the grass or from rose bush to rose bush. No word of ours escaped him. If our conversation on the enthralling subjects of fertilizers and aphides seemed in its earnest absorption to verge upon the emotional and tender he interfered at once. He commanded my attention. He perched on nearby boughs and endeavored to distract me. He fluttered about and called me with chirps. His last resource was always to fly to the topmost twig of an apple tree and begin to sing his most brilliant song in his most thrilling tone and with an affected manner. Naturally we were obliged to listen and talk about him. Even old Barton's weather-beaten apple face would wrinkle into smiles.
""He's doin' that to make us look at him,"" he would say. ""That's what he's doin' it for. He can't abide not to be noticed.""",-1.926422049,0.545728753
e97e914c6,,,"When they came back from the graveyard, The Rat was silent all the way. He was thinking of what had happened and of what lay before him. He was, in fact, thinking chiefly that nothing lay before him—nothing. The certainty of that gave his sharp, lined face new lines and sharpness which made it look pinched and hard.
He had nothing before but a corner in a bare garret in which he could find little more than a leaking roof over his head—when he was not turned out into the street. But, if policemen asked him where he lived, he could say he lived in Bone Court with his father. Now he couldn't say it.
He got along very well on his crutches, but he was rather tired when they reached the turn in the street which led in the direction of his old haunts. At any rate, they were haunts he knew, and he belonged to them more than he belonged elsewhere.",0.277144328,0.47274442
12da06b54,,,"The following morning, an early breakfast over, Hamilton started on the journey to his enumeration district, stopping at the office for a moment's chat with his friend the supervisor, and receiving his good luck wishes before he went. The mare was a delight, being well-paced, and the horseman from whom Hamilton had bought the animal had taken a great deal of pains to get him a saddle tree that fitted him, so that the boy enjoyed every minute of the ride. He reached the first point in his district about one o'clock, and after a hasty dinner started to work. The place was a tiny village, containing about forty houses.
The population work, as Hamilton had expected, proved to be comparatively simple, and the first house he visited was a fair sample of the greater number of those he tabulated all through the month. As a typical example it impressed itself upon his memory. He began next door to the house where he had eaten dinner. The natural privacy of a home was quite different from the public nature of a factory, and Hamilton felt a little strange as he walked up to the door and knocked.",-0.998571415,0.47608218
90f7894fc,,,"One night, returning from a hard day, on which he had not only ridden his fire patrol, but had also spent a couple of hours rolling big rocks into a creek to keep it from washing out a trail should a freshet come, he found a large party of people at his camp. There was an ex-professor of social science of the old régime, his wife and little daughter, a guide, and a lavish outfit. Although the gate of Wilbur's corral was padlocked and had ""Property of the U. S. Forest Service"" painted on it, the professor had ordered the guide to smash the gate and let the animals in.
Wilbur was angry, and took no pains to conceal it.
""Who turned those horses into my corral?"" he demanded.
The professor, who wore gold-rimmed eyeglasses above a very dirty and tired face, replied:
""I am in charge of this party, and it was done at my orders.""",-1.014199763,0.474240771
086a01dde,,,"""Let me look, Billie,"" and Donald reached out his hand for the field glass through which Broncho Billie was gazing down from the summit of Real del Monte upon the plain of Quesco, through which the Pachuca river winds its way. ""Maybe I can make out who they are.""
Billie handed over the glass without a word and stood expectant, while Donald scrutinized closely a body of horsemen—twenty or more in number—which had halted beside the railroad that connects the little city of Pachuca with the City of Mexico.
""They are not soldiers, that's certain,"" was Donald's comment after he had inspected the riders carefully for a couple of minutes.
""That's what I thought,"" from Billie. ""They look like a bunch of vaqueros to me; but what would a crowd of fifty cowpunchers be doing in a country where the only cattle are goats?""",-0.746615421,0.459709887
e894309c3,,,"There were but few passengers on deck, for it was quite cold, and it now began to grow dark, and we went below. Pretty soon the dinner-bell rang, and I was glad to hear it, for I had the appetite of a horse. There was a first-rate dinner, ever so many different kinds of dishes, all up and down the table, which had ridges running lengthwise, under the table-cloth, to keep the plates from sliding off, if a storm should come up. Before we were done with dinner the shelves above the table began to swing a good deal,—or rather the vessel rolled and the shelves kept their places,—so I knew we must be pretty well out to sea, but I had not expected it would be so rough, for the day had been fine and clear. When we left the table, it was about as much as we could do to keep our feet, and in less than a quarter of an hour I began to feel dreadfully. I stuck it out as long as I could, and then I went to bed.",-0.462051139,0.462571569
e25d16cf4,,,"The Sea Lion was a United States submarine, yet she was not constructed along the usual naval lines. It was said of her that she looked more like a pleasure yacht built for under-surface work than anything else. It is not the purpose of the writer to enter into a minute description of the craft. She was provided with a gasoline engine and an electric motor. She was not very roomy, but her appointments were very handsome and costly.
There were machines for manufacturing pure air, as is common with all submarines of her class, and the apparatus for the production of electricity was modern and efficient. Every compartment could be closed against every other chamber in case of damage to the shell. The pumps designed to expel the water taken into the hold for the purpose of bringing the craft to the bottom were powerful, so that she seemed to sink and rise as easily as does a bird on the wing. At top speed she would make about twenty miles an hour.",-0.503614479,0.495474086
e492c3e0a,,,"The others were watching him closely. They guessed something of the nature of what must be passing through Ned's mind, for both Jack and Teddy followed his gaze up the uneven shore. Jimmy had the glasses again, and was busily engaged in scrutinizing the blur on the distant horizon, which all of them had agreed must be smoke hovering close to the water. Perhaps he half-believed the fanciful suggestion made by Teddy, with reference to Captain Kidd, and was wildly hoping to discover some positive sign that would stamp this fairy story with truth. All the previous adventures that had befallen himself and chums would sink into utter insignificance, could they go back home and show evidences of having made such a romantic discovery up there in the Hudson Bay country.
""See the feather they say he always wore in his hat, Jimmy?"" asked Frank.",-0.371471833,0.502372489
59d87380b,,,"Four boys were standing in the pilot house of a sturdily built and splendidly equipped motor boat that was being rolled and tossed by the, waves driven from the Gulf of Mexico before a southerly wind. Great banks of fog were rolling inland before the wind--fog so thick it was scarcely possible to see a boat's length ahead.
The boys were all dressed in suits of oil skins under which might have been seen neat khaki Boy Scout Uniforms. If their jackets had been exposed one might have distinguished medals that betokened membership in the Beaver Patrol, Boy Scouts of America. Other insignia indicated to the initiated that the boys had won distinction and were entitled to the honors in Seamanship, Life Saving, Stalking and Signaling. On the jacket of the one addressed as ""Jack"" were insignia that betokened his rank as Scout Master and also as Star Scout. These had been won by sheer merit.
All four were manly young fellows of about seventeen and, though young, their faces gave evidence of alert natures thoroughly reliable and ready for any emergency.",-1.621394692,0.467809342
fa84dbf46,,,"With trembling hands the lad took the shavings from Jack's hand. Carefully shielding the tiny flame from possible draughts of air, the boy held the point of one of the thin pieces of wood over the flare. In a moment it had caught fire. Licking up the curl, the flame gradually leaped from one piece of wood to another until the entire handful was ablaze. The dancing light played upon the three faces and sent a glow out into the surrounding blackness. Harry deposited the burning shavings upon the floor, where the fire was soon transmitted to the larger piece of wood Jack had used in whittling.
As the boys saw that the matter of fire was assured, they glanced first at each other, then let their gaze wander about the apartment.
""Goodness, the rats don't seem to be much afraid of fire!"" exclaimed Jack, pointing toward a horde of rodents swarming about the place.",0.08814816,0.499267062
97376dd89,,,"It had been hard for Harry, when his father's business called him to England, to give up a all the friendships and associations of his boyhood. Had been hard to leave school; to tear up, by the roots, all the things that bound him to his home. But as a scout he had learned to be loyal and obedient. His parents had talked things over with him very frankly. They had understood just how hard it would be for him to go with them. But his father had made him see how necessary it was.
""I want you to be near your mother and myself just now, especially, Harry,"" he had said. ""I want you to grow up where I can see you. And, more-over, it won't hurt you a bit to know something about other countries. You'll have a new idea of America when you have seen other lands, and I believe you'll be a better American for it. You'll learn that other countries have their virtues, and that we can learn some things from them.",-0.017160917,0.465672956
3941a0775,,,"Morning brought awakening to the two friends with the sounding of reveille from bugles, seemingly just outside their window. Together they sprang from bed, raced to the window, wide open as it had been all night, and looked out. Not far away, in a small park, one of those for which the city of Amiens is famous, they saw an array of white tents that they had not seen the night before when they had gone to bed. Already the camp was stirring; even as they watched the soldiers were all about. And early as it was, they saw a scout ride up on a bicycle, speak to the sentry who challenged him, and wait. In a moment an officer came out, the scout saluted, and his salute was returned as stiffly and gravely as it had been given. Then the scout handed the officer a letter, saluted again and, receiving permission, turned away and vaulted on his wheel.",-1.170766776,0.475845379
419a460ef,,,"She did not cry long, however, for she was as brave as could be expected of a princess of her age. After a good cry, she got up, and brushed the dust from her frock. Oh, what old dust it was! Then she wiped her eyes with her hands, for princesses don't always have their handkerchiefs in their pockets, any more than some other little girls I know of. Next, like a true princess, she resolved on going wisely to work to find her way back: she would walk through the passages, and look in every direction for the stair. This she did, but without success. She went over the same ground again an again without knowing it, for the passages and doors were all alike. At last, in a corner, through a half-open door, she did see a stair. But alas! it went the wrong way: instead of going down, it went up. Frightened as she was, however, she could not help wishing to see where yet further the stair could lead. It was very narrow, and so steep that she went on like a four-legged creature on her hands and feet.",-0.209570237,0.462096006
1c5eaf24e,,,"When in the winter they had had their supper and sat about the fire, or when in the summer they lay on the border of the rock-margined stream that ran through their little meadow close by the door of their cottage, issuing from the far-up whiteness often folded in clouds, Curdie's mother would not seldom lead the conversation to one peculiar personage said and believed to have been much concerned in the late issue of events.
That personage was the great-great-grandmother of the princess, of whom the princess had often talked, but whom neither Curdie nor his mother had ever seen. Curdie could indeed remember, although already it looked more like a dream than he could account for if it had really taken place, how the princess had once led him up many stairs to what she called a beautiful room in the top of the tower, where she went through all the—what should he call it?—the behaviour of presenting him to her grandmother, talking now to her and now to him, while all the time he saw nothing but a bare garret, a heap of musty straw, a sunbeam, and a withered apple.",-1.857994444,0.533949321
741b12820,,,"Of course all boys are not full of tricks, but the best of them are. That is, those who are the readiest to play innocent jokes, and who are continually looking for chances to make Rome howl, are the most apt to turn out to be first-class business men. There is a boy in the Seventh Ward who is so full of fun that sometimes it makes him ache. He is the same boy who not long since wrote a note to his father and signed the name ""Daisy"" to it, and got the old man to stand on a corner for two hours waiting for the girl. After that scrape the old man told the boy that he had no objection to innocent jokes, such as would not bring reproach upon him, and as long as the boy confined himself to jokes that would simply cause pleasant laughter, and not cause the finger of scorn to be pointed at a parent, he would be the last one to kick. So the boy has been for three weeks trying to think of some innocent joke to play on his father.",-0.715517237,0.459120479
939541b15,,,"In the meantime, one of the grocery man's best customers—a deacon in the church—had come in and sat down on the counter, over the darning needle, and as the grocery man came in with the coal, the boy pulled the string, and went out door and tipped over a basket of rutabagas, while the deacon got down off the counter with his hand clasped, and anger in every feature, and told the grocery man he could whip him in two minutes. The grocery man asked what was the matter, and the deacon hunted up the source from whence the darning needle came through the counter, and as the boy went across the street, the deacon and the grocery man were rolling on the floor, the grocery man trying to hold the deacon's fists while he explained about the darning needle, and that it was intended for the boy. How it came out the boy did not wait to see.",-1.156364261,0.460134705
a925cdb49,,,"Uncle Ike was sitting in his room with a bath robe on, and his great, big, bare feet in a tub of hot water, in which some dry mustard had been sifted, and on a table beside him was a pitcher of hot lemonade, which he was trying to drink, as it got cool enough to go down his neck without scorching his throat. His head was hot, and he had evidently taken a severe cold, and occasionally he would groan, when he moved his body, and place his hand to the small of his back. His pipe and tobacco were far away on the mantel, though he could smell them, and the odor so satisfying to him when he was well, almost made him sick, and when the red-headed boy came in the room the first thing the old man said was:
""Take that dum pipe and terbacker out of the room, and put it in the woodshed. Your Uncle Ike ain't enjoyin' his terbacker very well,"" and the old fellow made up a face, and looked as though he was on a steamboat excursion in rough weather.",-0.542735004,0.461071654
b6f05e0c2,,,"The female kangaroo is surely a wonder, and seems to be built on plans and specifications different from any other animal, cause she has got a fur-lined pouch on her stomach, just like a vest, that she carries her young in. When the babies are frightened they make a hurry-up move towards ma, the pouch opens, and they jump in out of sight, like a gopher going into its hole, and the mother looks around as innocent as can be, as much as to say: ""You can search me. I don't know, honestly, where those kids have gone, but they were around here not more than a minute ago."" And when the fright is over the two heads peep out of the top of the pouch, and the old man grunts, as much as to say: ""O, come on out, there is no danger, and let your ma have a little rest, 'cause she is nervous,"" and then the babies come out and run around the cage, and sit up on their hind feet and look wise.",-0.013470524,0.495153474
bebf505e3,,,"Pa ought to have believed the scientists, 'cause they know all about their business, but after the scientists had gone to bed the cowboys began to string pa. They told him that about a hundred miles to the north, in a valley in the mountains, the dinosaurus still existed, alive, and that no man dare go there. One cowboy said he was herding a bunch of cattle in a valley up there once, and the bunch got into a drove of dinosauruses, and the first thing he knew a big dinosaurus reached out his neck and picked up a steer, raised it in the air about 80 feet, as easy as a derrick would pick up a dog house, and the dinosaurus swallowed the steer whole, and the other dinosauruses each swallowed a steer. The cowboy said before he knew it his whole bunch of steers was swallowed whole, and they would have swallowed him and his horse if he hadn't skinned out on a gallop.",-0.732148623,0.50735277
b5d69a031,,,"Next year it would be Dorothy's turn. This year her party had consisted merely in taking her cousins on an automobile ride. A similar ride had been planned for Ethel Blue's birthday, but the giants had plans of their own and the young people had had to give way to them. Dorothy had come over to spend the afternoon and dine with her cousins, however. She lived just around the corner, so her mother was willing to let her go in spite of the gathering drifts, because Roger, Ethel Brown's older brother, would be able to take her home such a short distance, even if he had to shovel a path all the way.
The snow was so beautiful that they had not wanted to do anything all the afternoon but gaze at it. Dicky, Ethel Brown's little brother, who was the ""honorary member"" of the U.S.C., had come in wanting to be amused, and they had opened the window for an inch and brought in a few of the huge flakes which grew into ferns and starry crystals under the magnifying glass that Mrs. Morton always kept on the desk.",-0.609884124,0.51857214
3411fc5bb,,,"The big brown automobile gave three honks as it swung around the corner from Church Street. Roger Morton, raking leaves in the yard beside his house, threw down his rake and vaulted over the gate.
""Good afternoon, sir,"" he called to his grandfather, saluting, soldier fashion.
""Good afternoon, son. I stopped to tell you that those pumpkins are ready for you. If you'll hop in now we can go out and get them and I'll bring you back again.""
""Good enough!"" exclaimed Roger. ""I'll tell Mother I'm going. She may have some message for Grandmother,"" and he vaulted back over the gate and dashed up the steps.
In a minute he was out again and climbing into the car.
""Where are the girls this afternoon?"" inquired Mr. Emerson, as he threw in the clutch and started toward the outskirts of Rosemont where he had land enough to allow him to do a little farming.",1.039927275,0.551908357
0f1656963,,,"The big maroon car glided along in such perfect rhythm that Cora Kimball, the fair driver of the Whirlwind, heard scarcely a sound of its mechanical workings. To her the car went noiselessly—the perfection of its motion was akin to the very music of silence.
Hazel Hastings was simply sumptuous in the tonneau—she had spread every available frill and flounce, but there was still plenty of unoccupied space on the luxuriously cushioned ""throne.""
It seemed a pity to passers-by that two girls should ride alone on that splendid morning in the handsome machine—so many of those afoot would have been glad of a chance to occupy the empty seats.
Directly following the Whirlwind came another car—the little silver Flyaway. In this also were two girls, the Robinson twins, Elizabeth and Isabel, otherwise Belle and Bess. Chelton folks were becoming accustomed to the sight of these girls in their cars, and a run of the motor girls was now looked upon as a daily occurrence. Bess Robinson guided her car with unmistakable skill—Cora Kimball was considered an expert driver.",-1.742983825,0.502888476
fd1213183,,,"Joe Dale was a credit to the family. Although only a boy in his tenth year, he possessed as much manliness as many another well in the teens. He was tall, and of the dark type, while Dorothy was not quite so tall, and had fair hair; so that, in spite of the difference of their ages, Joe was often considered Dorothy's big brother. Roger was just a pretty baby, so plump and with such golden curls! Dorothy had pleaded not to have them cut until his next birthday, but the boys, of course, thought seven years very old for long hair.
""Only for a few months more,"" the sister had coaxed, and, so the curls were kept. Dorothy always arranged them herself, telling fairy stories to conceal the time consumed in making the ringlets.
Both boys were to sell papers today, for the Bugle was out, and Dorothy had told her brothers of the necessity for extra efforts to help with money matters.",-0.377746885,0.462365615
61d943954,,,"Dorothy and Cologne were gathering berries this morning, while Tavia ran off to a spot where she declared she could get the better kind of fruit, better than any they had yet secured. She turned in back of the big barn, then ran over behind the ice-house, and then she smelled apples, ripe apples.
""There are harvest apples around here, somewhere,"" she told herself. ""I simply must find them.""
From tree to tree she scampered along until she was out in the lane that ran into the next estate.
""That's a road,"" she was thinking. ""And there's a man.""
Glancing around to see if she could discern Dorothy or Cologne, Tavia had a sudden thrill of terror.
""I didn't know I had gone so far,"" she thought, ""and that man is coming this way.""
Something familiar about the manner in which the stranger advanced toward her attracted her attention.
""Looks like that man! It is he! The fellow who stopped the hay-wagon runaway!""
She was still frightened, but a trifle more at ease, since she recognized the man in the big slouch hat. ""Whatever could have brought him here?"" she asked herself.",-0.286843482,0.481677464
a7b02232a,,,"""Oh, dear,"" said Polly to herself, the next morning, trying to get a breakfast for the sick ones out of the inevitable mush; ""everything's just as bad as it can be! they can't ever eat this; I wish I had an ocean of toast!""
""Toast some of the bread in the pail, Polly,"" said Mrs. Pepper.
She looked worn and worried; she had been up nearly all night, back and forth from Ben's bed in the loft to restless, fretful little Phronsie in the big four-poster in the bedroom; for Phronsie wouldn't get into the crib. Polly had tried her best to help her, and had rubbed her eyes diligently to keep awake, but she was wholly unaccustomed to it, and her healthy, tired little body succumbed—and then when she awoke, shame and remorse filled her very heart.
""That isn't nice, ma,"" she said, glancing at the poor old pail, which she had brought out of the ""Provision Room."" ""Old brown bread! I want to fix 'em something nice.""
""Well, you can't, you know,"" said Mrs. Pepper, with a sigh; ""but you've got butter now; that'll be splendid!""",-0.883909592,0.459284246
c8248450c,,,"It was all over. Phronsie had been swept off, a vision of loveliness, to the cave; the dragons had roared their loudest, and the gallant knight had covered himself with glory in the brilliant rescue of the Princess; the little page had won the hearts of all the ladies; Mr. King had applauded himself hoarse, especially during the delivery of the prologue, when ""I cry you mercy, sirs, and ladies fair,"" rang out; the musical efforts of Polly and Jasper in the ""Wait"" between the two acts were over, and the crowded house, in every way possible, had expressed itself delighted with all things from beginning to end.
""Phronsie, Phronsie, they're calling you,"" whispered Polly excitedly, out in the green room.
""Come, Princess."" The head dragon held out his hand. ""Hurry dear! See the flowers!""
""They can't be for me,"" said Phronsie, standing quite still; ""Polly has done all the work; they're hers.""
""Nonsense, child!"" cried Polly, giving her a gentle push forward. ""Go on, and take them.""
""Polly, you come too,"" begged Phronsie, refusing to stir, and holding her by the gown.",-1.570217995,0.458065911
6e7e7ea91,,,"Joel sat bolt upright as well as he could, being crammed in between a big fat man and his kind friend, and directed this way and that way, his tears all gone, and before any one could hardly think twice, the pair of black horses and the jingling harness and big carriage had stopped before the little brown house, and the doctor was springing over the stepping-stones in such a lively fashion that Joel had to run to keep up with him, until there they were, with Grandma Bascom waddling around in search of some herbs that were drying in the corner of the woodshed, and Polly still holding David's hand as he lay on the pile of grain bags. And in five minutes the new doctor had all the examination made, and Davie was sitting up, his head on Polly's shoulder; and no bones were broken, and all the trouble was the fright produced by the shock of the fall. And the color flew back into Polly's cheek, and Grandma Bascom kept saying, ""Praise the Lord--and who be ye, anyway?"" bobbing her cap-border at the new doctor. And he laughed and didn't tell her.",-1.968100078,0.474456482
0060c36b9,,,"""We'll go there the first day, Polly,"" said Jasper, ""the Louvre, I mean. Well, here we are in Paris!"" And then it was all confusion, for the guards were throwing open the doors to the compartments, and streams of people were meeting on the platform, in what seemed to be inextricable confusion amid a babel of sounds. And it wasn't until Polly was driving up in the big cab with her part of Mr. King's ""family,"" as he called it, through the broad avenues and boulevards, interspersed with occasional squares and gardens, and the beautiful bridges here and there across the Seine, gleaming in the sunshine, that she could realise that they were actually in Paris.
And the next day they did go to the Louvre. And Adela, who was to stay a day or two at the hotel with them before going back into her school, was very important, indeed. And she piloted them about, the parson and Mrs. Henderson joining their group; the others, with the exception of the little Widow Gray, who stayed at home to look over Adela's clothes, and take any last stitches, going off by themselves.",-1.333456479,0.492383619
9e69a612d,,,"Looking both sides of the road, not daring to think what she would say if she really did see Clem, Polly sped on. But not a glimpse of the tall girl's figure met her eyes, and at last she turned in at a gateway and ran up the little path to the door. Mrs. Forsythe saw her through the window that opened on the piazza.
""Why, Polly Pepper,"" she cried, ""what a pity that Clem didn't find you! She went over to your house.""
""Oh, I know, I know,"" panted Polly, with scarlet cheeks.
""Don't try to talk,"" said Mrs. Forsythe, ""you are all out of breath. Come in, Polly.""
""Oh, I can't. I mean I would like to see Clem,"" mumbled Polly, with an awful dread, now that she was on the point of finding her, of what she should say. It was all she could do to keep from running down the piazza steps and fleeing home as fast as she had come.",0.009684341,0.493302077
08aa1ae28,,,"In another instant, however, the girl's attention was caught by the appearance of a figure which seemed to spring up suddenly out of nowhere and to stand gazing intently toward the Ashton house. It was almost dark, and yet Betty could distinguish a young man, roughly dressed, wearing no overcoat, with his coat collar turned up and a cap pulled down over his eyes. Without being frightened, she was curious and interested. Why should the man behave so strangely? He now walked past the house and then turned and came back, not once but several times. Evidently he had not observed the girl at the window. At last however he gave up, and Betty believed that she saw him disappear behind the closed cottage of the O'Neills. No longer entertained, she prepared to leave the drawing room. It was too chilly to remain there any longer. Moreover, studying the familiar objects she had loved so long only made the thought of their surrender more painful. Betty once more faced her three candles.",-0.506932291,0.480850804
cd96e48f5,,,"An immense place, it held rows on rows of other cot beds with white-clad nurses passing about among them. When they spoke or when the patients spoke Mildred could rarely guess what was being said, as she knew so few words of Russian. Yet she had little difficulty with her nursing, for the ways of the ill are universal and she had already seen so much suffering.
Now the hospital room was in half shadow, but it was never light nor aired as the American nurse felt it should be.
The hospital quarters were only a portion of the fortress, a great room, like a barracks which had been hastily turned into a refuge for the wounded.
The long stone chamber boasted only four small windows hardly larger than portholes and some distance from the ground. These opened with difficulty and were protected by heavy iron bars. But then in Russia in many private houses no window is ever voluntarily opened from autumn until Easter, as the cold is so intense and the arrangements for heating so crude.",-0.605646629,0.485509004
cf3189919,,,"Though very few knew it, the Prince in coming to the chapel had met with an accident. A young lady of rank, whose duty it was to carry him to and from the chapel, had been so busy arranging her train with one hand, that she stumbled and let him fall. She picked him up—the accident was so slight it seemed hardly worth speaking of. The baby had turned pale, but did not cry. No one knew that anything was wrong. Even if he had moaned, the silver trumpets were loud enough to drown his voice. It would have been a pity to let anything trouble such a day.
Such a procession! Heralds in blue and silver; pages in crimson and gold; and a troop of little girls in dazzling white, carrying baskets of flowers, which they strewed all the way before the child and the nurse,—finally the four and twenty godfathers and godmothers, splendid to look at.",-0.849038856,0.455795089
f0f26aafc,,,"For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor, and no one thought very much about him. He was naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of the more expensive toys quite snubbed him. The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real. The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them and never missed an opportunity of referring to his rigging in technical terms. The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn't know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles. Even Timothy, the jointed wooden lion, who was made by the disabled soldiers, and should have had broader views, put on airs and pretended he was connected with Government.",0.288984342,0.497874903
526455fc3,,,"It was now well into October.
Already the leaves had begun to turn scarlet and gold on some of the hedges, and even in the forest, where the boys were beginning to go for the early nuts. Early in the mornings there was a decided tang to the air that hinted at frost. Considerable talk was being indulged in whenever a group of boys came together, concerning the prospects for a regular old-fashioned winter, and many hopes along this line were indulged in.
There was a good reason for this, Chester being most favorably situated to afford her young people a chance to enjoy ice sports when the bitter weather came along. Right at her door lay beautiful Lake Constance, several miles across; and the intake at the upper end near the abandoned logging camp was the crooked and picturesque Paradise River, where wonderful vistas opened up with each hundred yards, did any one care to skate up its course for miles.",-1.102082476,0.503284709
89bc2974e,,,"The life of a pelican seems to be a very lazy, if not a very pleasant one. Man, ever on the watch to turn the habits of animals to his own account, observing how good a fisherman the pelican is, often catches and tames him, and makes him fish for him. I have heard of a bird of this kind in America, which was so well trained, that it would at command go off in the morning, and return at night with its pouch full, and stretched to the utmost; part of its treasure it disgorged for its master, the rest was given to the bird for its trouble. It is hardly credible what these extraordinary pouches will hold; it is said, that among other things, a man's leg with the boots on was once found in one of them.
Pelicans live in flocks; they and the cormorants sometimes help one another to get a living. The cormorant is a species of pelican, of a dusky color: it is sometimes called the sea crow.",-0.762805067,0.46371036
5a14e5c1b,,,"So Elsie went to bed very happy in the thought of the pleasure Arthur would have in receiving her present.
She was hurrying down to the breakfast-room the next morning, a little in advance of Miss Rose, who had stopped to speak to Adelaide, when Arthur came running up behind her, having just come in by a side door from the garden, and seizing her round the waist, he said, ""Thank you, Elsie; you're a real good girl! She sails beautifully. I've been trying her on the pond. But it mustn't be a present; you must let me pay you back when I get my allowance.""
""Oh! no, Arthur, that would spoil it all,"" she answered quickly; ""you are entirely welcome, and you know my allowance is so large that half the time I have more money than I know how to spend.""
""I should like to see the time that would be the case with me,"" said he, laughing. Then in a lower tone, ""Elsie, I'm sorry I teased you so. I'll not do it again soon.""",-0.416734159,0.48007482
b533bc27e,,,"Mr. Horace Dinsmore was quite remarkable for his conversational powers, and Rose, who had always heretofore found him a most entertaining companion, wondered greatly at his silence on this particular evening. She waited in vain for him to start some topic of conversation, but as he did not seem disposed to do so, she at length made the attempt herself, and tried one subject after another. Finding, however, that she was answered only in monosyllables, she too grew silent and embarrassed, and heartily wished for the relief of Elsie's presence.
She had proposed summoning the child to accompany them as usual, but Mr. Dinsmore replied that she had already had sufficient exercise, and he would prefer having her remain at home.
They had walked some distance, and coming to a rustic seat where they had often rested, they sat down. The moon was shining softly down upon them, and all nature seemed hushed and still. For some moments neither of them spoke, but at length Mr. Dinsmore broke the silence.",-1.515342423,0.462019211
a38c47dc1,,,"It was in the midst of school-hours that the Ion carriage came driving up the avenue, and Philip Ross, lifting his head from the slate over which he had been bending for the last half hour, rose hastily, threw down his pencil and hurried from the room, paying no attention to Miss Fisk's query, ""Where are you going, Philip?"" or her command, ""Come back instantly: it is quite contrary to rules for pupils to leave the school-room during the hours of recitation, without permission."" Indeed he had reached the foot of the staircase before the last word had left her lips; she being very slow and precise in speech and action, while his movements were of the quickest.
""What now is to be done in this emergency?"" soliloquized the governess, unconsciously thinking aloud. ""Miss Gertrude Ross,"" turning to a girl of nine whose merry blue eyes were twinkling with fun, ""follow your brother at once and inform him that I cannot permit any such act of insubordination; and he must return instantly to the performance of his duties.""",-1.378839273,0.483424107
a1940242f,,,"A brisk five minutes' walk brought them to the shore of the lake, a tiny one, scarce a quarter of a mile in circumference, not very deep and the water so clear that the pebbly bottom could be distinctly seen; gold and silver fish, too, gliding hither and thither; while a pretty painted row-boat lying at the water's edge, rocked gently in the morning breeze.
Eddie hailed the scene with a shout of delight; the little girls danced about gleefully, Vi clapping her hands and asking eagerly if they might get into the boat.
Papa looked at his watch, ""Yes, there will be time for a row; one trip around the lake. Step in, all of you, and I will take the oars.""
Vi was quite ready and Eddie gallantly handed her in, then turned and offered his hand to Elsie. She demurred. ""But mamma! shouldn't we have mamma with us the first time?"" and she looked up inquiringly into her father's face.",-0.684945065,0.460071504
cb682b5d0,,,"The Ion family were at home again after their summer on the New Jersey coast.
It was a delightful morning early in October: the dew-drops on the still green grass of the neatly kept lawn sparkled in the rays of the newly risen sun; the bright waters of the lakelet also, as, ruffled by the breeze, they broke gently about the prow of the pretty row-boat moored to the little wharf; the gardens were gay with bright-hued flowers, the trees gorgeous in their autumnal dress.
But though doors and windows were open, the gardener and his assistants at work in the grounds, there seemed a strange quiet about the place: when the men spoke to each other it was in subdued tones; there was no sound—as in other days—of little feet running hither and thither, nor of childish prattle or laughter.",-0.477948265,0.488589361
74498048f,,,"The house stood very high, and from that window one might look north and south over wooded mountain, hill and valley, or east upon the majestic river and its farther shore.
The nearer view was of well-kept, though not extensive, grounds; a flower-garden and lawn with a winding carriage-way leading up the hill by a gradual ascent.
It was a pleasant place to sit even on a sunny summer morning, for a tall tree partially shaded the window without greatly obstructing the view, and it was there the master of the house was usually to be found, at this time of day, with Evelyn, his only child, close at his side.
They were there now, seated at a table covered with books and papers, he busied in drawing plans for a building, she equally so with her lessons.
But presently, at the sound of a deep sigh from her father, she glanced hastily up at him.",-0.508062794,0.463224692
b1bf8bb2d,,,"Max is still a cadet in the Naval Academy, pursuing his course there in a manner altogether satisfactory to his father and friends. The captain thinks no man ever had a brighter, better son than his first-born, or one more likely to do good service to his country in his chosen profession. It seems hard at times, a sad thing to have to do without his boy, yet he never really regrets that Max has made choice of the naval service as his life work. He did, however, regret that Max would not be able to go to Chicago to visit the World's Fair, in which they were all much interested.
Some of the connection had attended the dedication ceremonies of the previous autumn, and nearly all talked of going to the formal opening, appointed for the first of May; among them Grandma Elsie, her father and his wife, Captain Raymond and his wife and family.",-0.525784067,0.491325081
c9ffcb15b,,,"This time he had to carry fish, and his basket was so laden that he bore nearly a cartload, with which he ran to the castle. There the cook, amazed at his strength, first gave him a hearty meal, and then offered him good service under himself, with food and lodging for his wages. This offer Havelok accepted, and was installed as cook's boy, and employed in all the lowest offices—carrying wood, water, turf, hewing logs, lifting, fetching, carrying—and in all he showed himself a wonderfully strong worker, with unfailing good temper and gentleness, so that the little children all loved the big, gentle, fair-haired youth who worked so quietly and played with them so merrily. When Havelok's old tunic became worn out, his master, the cook, took pity on him and gave him a new suit, and then it could be seen how handsome and tall and strong a youth this cook's boy really was, and his fame spread far and wide round Lincoln Town.",-1.221284385,0.500263759
b0eab5ef8,,,"Time is a very odd sort of thing, dear readers. We neither know whence it comes nor whither it goes;—nay we know nothing about it in fact except that there is one little moment of it called the present, which we have as it were in our hands to make use of—but beyond this we can give no account of, even that little moment. It is ours to use, but not to understand. There is one thing in the world, however, quite as wonderful, and quite as common, and that is, the Wind. Did it never strike you how strange it was that the strongest thing in the world should be invisible? The nice breezes we feel in summer and the roughest blasts we feel in winter in England are not so extremely strong you will say: but I am speaking, besides these, of the winds called hurricanes that arise in the West Indian Islands, and in other places in the world. These dreadful hurricanes have at times done as much mischief as earthquakes and lightning.",-1.240080878,0.468612795
06ce84c6d,,,"Flora Lee's birthday came in July. Her mother wished very much to celebrate the occasion in a proper manner. Flora was a good girl, and her parents were always glad to do any thing they could to please her, and to increase her happiness.
They were very indulgent parents, and as they had plenty of money, they could afford to pay well for a ""good time."" Yet they were not weak and silly in their indulgence. As much as they loved their little daughter, they did not give her pies and cakes to eat when they thought such articles would hurt her.
They did not let her lie in bed till noon because they loved her, or permit her to do any thing that would injure her, either in body or mind. Flora always went to church, and to the Sunday school, and never cried to stay at home. If she had cried, it would have made no difference, for her father and mother meant to have her do right, whether she liked it or not.",-0.098809527,0.459438911
5accb45d5,,,"Lawrence Wilford was a full-fledged water-fowl. From his earliest childhood he had paddled in Lake Champlain. His father had a small place, consisting of ten acres of land with a small cottage; but it was still encumbered with a mortgage, as it had been for twenty years, though the note had passed through several hands, and had been three times renewed. John Wilford was not a very sagacious nor a very energetic man, and had not distinguished himself in the race for wealth or for fame. He wanted to be rich, but he was not willing to pay the price of riches.
His place was a short distance from the village of Port Rock, and John Wilford, at the time he had purchased the land and built his house, had established a ferry, which had been, and was still, his principal means of support; for there was considerable travel between Port Rock and Pointville, on the Vermont side of the lake.",-0.867608836,0.487871234
7f947f364,,,"Sophie was the daughter of a well-to-do worker in wood near Amsterdam. She was his only daughter, and although he had nothing to say against the English sailor who had won her heart, and who was chief owner of the ship he commanded, he grieved much that she should leave her native land; and he and her three brothers determined that she should always bear her former home in her recollection. They therefore prepared as her wedding gift a facsimile of the home in which she had been born and bred. The furniture and framework were similar in every particular, and it needed only the insertion of the brickwork and plaster when it arrived. Two of her brothers made the voyage in the Good Venture, and themselves put the framework, beams, and flooring together, and saw to the completion of the house on the strip of ground that William Martin had purchased on the bank of the river.",-0.703780283,0.474315584
5.81E+10,,,"The change at the school was very speedily made. The squire generally carried out his resolutions while they were hot and, on the very day after his conversation with his wife on the subject, he went first to the vicar and arranged for the retirement of the clerk, and the instalment of White in his place; and then went to the school house, and informed the master of his intention. The latter had been expecting his dismissal, since Mrs. Ellison had spoken to him on the previous day; and the news which the squire gave him was a relief to him. His emoluments, as clerk, would be smaller than those he received as schoolmaster; but while he would not be able to discharge the duties of the latter for very much longer, for he felt the boys were getting too much for him, he would be able to perform the very easy work entailed by the clerkship for many years to come. It was, too, a position not without dignity; and indeed, in the eyes of the village the clerk was a personage of far greater importance than the schoolmaster.",-1.56314024,0.498372665
4e62e645b,,,"His life was chiefly passed among artists, and like them as a class, he affected loose and easy attire. He wore turn-down collars with a carelessly-knotted necktie, and a velvet jacket. He was one of those men whom his intimates declared to be capable of doing anything he chose, and who chose to do nothing. He had never distinguished himself in any way at Harrow. He had maintained a fair place in his forms as he moved up in the school, but had done so rather from natural ability than from study. He had never been in the eleven, although it was the general opinion he would have certainly had a place in it had he chosen to play regularly. As he sauntered through Harrow so he sauntered through Cambridge; keeping just enough chapels and lectures to avoid getting into trouble, passing the examinations without actual discredit, rowing a little, playing cricket when the fit seized him, but preferring to take life easily and to avoid toil, either mental or bodily. Nevertheless he read a great deal, and on general subjects was one of the best informed men of his college.",-1.696766222,0.496707344
92de89438,,,"In a moment all were at their stations. The helm was put on the yacht, and she paid off on the opposite tack to that on which she had before been sailing. As soon as the jib filled, Tom gave two vigorous blows with his hatchet on the hawser, and, as he lifted his hand for a third, it parted. Then came the sharp rattle of the chains as they ran round the hawser-holes. The try-sail was hoisted and sheeted home, and the Seabird was under way again. Tom, as before, conned the ship from the bow. Several times she was in close proximity to the rocks, but each time she avoided them. A shout of gladness rose from all on deck as she passed the last patch of white water. Then she tacked and bore away for Jersey.
Tom had now time to go down below and look after his passengers. They consisted of the captain and two sailors—the sole survivors of those who had been on deck when the vessel struck—three male passengers, and six engineers and stokers.",-1.622131769,0.471847323
6eb22333a,,,"By the time Gregory returned, the merchant's mind was made up. He had come to the conclusion that the story he had heard was a true one. The way it had been told was convincing. The man was undoubtedly a gentleman. There was no mistake in his manner and talk. He had quarrelled with his family, probably over his marriage; and, as so many had done, found it difficult to keep his head above water. His wife had been ordered to a warm climate, and he was ready to do anything that would enable him to keep her there.
It would assuredly be a great advantage to have one who could act, in an emergency, as a clerk; of course, his knowledge of language would greatly add to his utility. It certainly was not business to take a man without a reference, but the advantages more than counterbalanced the disadvantages. It was not likely that he would stay with him long; but at any rate, the fact that he was taking his wife with him would ensure his staying, until he saw something a great deal better elsewhere.",-0.607166564,0.444810654
8de3a8dd8,,,"The young page was strongly and sturdily built. His garb was an English one, but with some admixture of Norman fashions. He wore tightly-fitting leg coverings, a garment somewhat resembling a blouse of blue cloth girded in by a belt at the waist, and falling in folds to the knee. Over his shoulders hung a short mantle of orange colour with a hood. On his head was a cap with a wide brim that was turned up closely behind, and projected in a pointed shovel shape in front. In his belt was a small dagger. He wore shoes of light yellow leather fastened by bands over the insteps. As he ran down the steps of the palace he came into sharp contact with another page who had just turned the corner of the street.
""I crave your pardon, Walter Fitz-Urse,"" he said hurriedly, ""but I was in haste and saw you not.""",-1.137032552,0.498112146
d8c5b6ac8,,,"The good woman had made for her a pretty little red-colored hood, which so much became the little girl, that every one called her Little Red Riding Hood.
One day her mother having made some cheesecakes, said to her, ""Go, my child, and see how your grandmother does, for I hear she is ill; carry her some of these cakes, and a little pot of butter."" Little Red Riding Hood straight set out with a basket filled with the cakes and the pot of butter, for her grandmother's house, which was in a village a little way off the town that her mother lived in. As she was crossing a wood, which lay in her road, she met a large wolf, which had a great mind to eat her up, but dared not, for fear of some wood-cutters, who were at work near them in the forest. Yet he spoke to her, and asked her whither she was going.",0.061007468,0.49740385
9156a494a,,,"Now came the autumn. The leaves in the forest turned yellow and brown; the wind caught them so that they danced about, and up in the air it was very cold. The clouds hung low, heavy with hail and snowflakes, and on the fence stood the raven, crying, ""Croak! croak!"" for mere cold; yes, it was enough to make one feel cold to think of this. The poor little Duckling certainly had not a good time. One evening—the sun was just setting in his beauty—there came a whole flock of great, handsome birds out of the bushes. They were dazzlingly white, with long, flexible necks—they were swans. They uttered a very peculiar cry, spread forth their glorious great wings, and flew away from that cold region to warmer lands, to fair open lakes. They mounted so high, so high! and the ugly Duckling felt quite strangely as it watched them. It turned round and round in the water like a wheel, stretched out its neck towards them, and uttered such a strange loud cry as frightened itself.",0.182081688,0.470526968
da2dbbc70,,,"When the two friends had thus become reconciled, they examined the cub, and saw that it had a slight wound in its foot, and could not walk; and while they were thinking what they should do, they spied out the herb called ""Doctor's Nakasé,"" which was just sprouting; so they rolled up a little of it in their fingers and applied it to the part. Then they pulled out some boiled rice from their luncheon-box and offered it to the cub, but it showed no sign of wanting to eat; so they stroked it gently on the back and petted it; and as the pain of the wound seemed to have subsided, they were admiring the properties of the herb, when, opposite to them, they saw the old foxes sitting watching them by the side of some stacks of rice straw.",-0.811519925,0.465811698
669c8bb53,,,"The priest, smiling at this speech, answered: ""Being such as I am, I have no desire and no wishes. Glad as I am to hear your kind intentions, there is nothing that I can ask you to do for me. You need feel no anxiety on my account. As long as I live, when the winter comes, you shall be welcome here."" The badger, on hearing this, could not conceal its admiration of the depth of the old man's benevolence; but having so much to be grateful for, it felt hurt at not being able to requite it. As this subject was often renewed between them, the priest at last, touched by the goodness of the badger's heart, said: ""Since I have shaven my head, renounced the world, and forsaken the pleasures of this life, I have no desire to gratify, yet I own I should like to possess three riyos in gold. Food and raiment, I receive by the favor of the villagers, so I take no heed for those things.",-1.972670519,0.521496877
cbbd1d214,,,"""Whence did he come? What is his purpose? Who can this old man be?"" whispered the wondering crowd.
Meanwhile, the venerable stranger, staff in hand, was pursuing his solitary walk along the centre of the street. As he drew near the advancing soldiers, and as the roll of their drum came full upon his ear, the old man raised himself to a loftier mien, while the decrepitude of age seemed to fall from his shoulders, leaving him in gray but unbroken dignity. Now, he marched onward with a warrior's step, keeping time to the military music. Thus the aged form advanced on one side, and the whole parade of soldiers and magistrates on the other, till, when scarcely twenty yards remained between, the old man grasped his staff by the middle, and held it before him like a leader's truncheon.",-1.820642814,0.456798741
c337534cd,,,"One night they saw one star that shone brighter than all others. Its location was far away in the south, near a mountain peak. For many nights it was seen, till at length it was doubted by many that the star was as far distant in the southern skies as it seemed to be. This doubt led to an examination, which proved the star to be only a short distance away, and near the tops of some trees. A number of warriors were deputed to go and see what it was. They went, and on their return said it appeared strange, and somewhat like a bird. A committee of the wise men were called to inquire into, and if possible to ascertain the meaning of, the strange phenomenon. They feared that it might be the omen of some disaster. Some thought it a precursor of good, others of evil; and some supposed it to be the star spoken of by their forefathers as the forerunner of a dreadful war.",-0.760367894,0.469706475
ad1ad157a,,,"Many many years back the Captain's wife had been a child herself, and had laughed to see the village mummers act the Peace Egg, and had been quite happy on Christmas Eve. Happy, though she had no mother. Happy, though her father was a stern man, very fond of his only child, but with an obstinate will that not even she dared thwart. She had lived to thwart it, and he had never forgiven her. It was when she married the Captain. The old man had a prejudice against soldiers, which was quite reason enough, in his opinion, for his daughter to sacrifice the happiness of her future life by giving up the soldier she loved. At last he gave her her choice between the Captain and his own favour and money. She chose the Captain, and was disowned and disinherited.
The Captain bore a high character, and was a good and clever officer, but that went for nothing against the old man's whim.",-1.00707269,0.46242697
15df7f4ab,,,"It is not often (out of a fairy tale) that wishes to change the whole current of one's life are granted so promptly as that wish of mine was.
The next morning's post brought a letter from Mrs. Arkwright. They were staying in the south of England, and had seen the Bullers, and heard all their news. It was an important budget. They were going abroad once more, and it had been arranged between my two guardians that I was to remain in England for my education, and that my home was to be—with Eleanor. Matilda was to go with her parents; to the benefit, it was hoped, of her health. Aunt Theresa sent me the kindest messages, and promised to write to me. Matilda sent her love to us both.
""And the day after to-morrow they come home!"" Eleanor announced.",-1.289408299,0.493040271
60f36e48c,,,"Strangely beautiful those prawns are when you see them at home. And that one seems to do in the Great Aquarium; though, I suppose, it is much like seeing land beasts and birds in the Zoological Gardens—a poor imitation of their free life in their natural condition. Still, there is no other way in which you can see and come to know these wonderful ""sea gentlemen"" so well, unless you could go, like Jack Dogherty, to visit them at the bottom of the sea. And whilst I heartily recommend every one who has not seen the Aquarium to visit it as soon as possible, let me describe it for the benefit of those who cannot do so at present. It may also be of some little use to them hereafter to know what is most worth seeing there, and where to look for it.",-1.236415384,0.477508474
436ce79fe,,,"The sun was shining in a cloudless sky, and no shadows lay on the mountain, and all day long they watched and waited, and at last, when the birds were singing their farewell song to the evening star, the children saw the shadows marching from the glen, trooping up the mountain side and dimming the purple of the heather.
And when the mountain top gleamed like a golden spear, they fixed their eyes on the line between the shadow and the sunshine.
""Now,"" said Connla, ""the time has come.""
""Oh, look! look!"" said Nora, and as she spoke, just above the line of shadow a door opened out, and through its portals came a little piper dressed in green and gold. He stepped down, followed by another and another, until they were nine in all, and then the door slung back again.",0,0
8f576a796,,,"Enda took the helmet, dress, and spear, and it was not long until he came to the sedgy banks where his little boat was waiting for him. As he stepped into the curragh the moon was rising above the mountains. He rowed on until he came to the hut, and having moored the boat to the door, he put on the water-dress and the crystal helmet, and taking the spear in his hand, he leaped over the side of the curragh, and sank down and down until he touched the bottom. Then he walked along without minding where he was going, and the only light he had was the shimmering moonlight, which descended as faintly through the waters as if it came through muffled glass. He had not gone very far when he heard a horrible hissing, and straight before him he saw what he thought were two flaming coals. After a few more steps he found himself face to face with the dragon of the lake, the guardian of the palace of the fairy queen.",-0.708095165,0.456211602
1b2275a6b,,,"When she was close to the water she waved her wand, and in a second a thousand boats, shining like glass, shot up from beneath the lake and set their bows against the bank. The queen and Cuglas stepped into one, and when they were seated two fairy harpers took their places in the prow. All the other boats were soon thronged by fairies, and then the queen waved her wand again, and an awning of purple silk rose over the boat, and silken awnings of various colors over the others, and the royal boat moved off from the bank followed by all the rest, and in every boat sat a harper with a golden harp, and when the queen waved her wand for the third time, the harpers struck the trembling chords, and to the sound of the delightful music the boats glided over the sunlit lake.",-0.254103124,0.499529454
e39b68366,,,"He awoke at the breaking of the morning, and saw that he was almost at the water's edge. He looked out to sea, and saw the island, but nowhere could he see the water-steeds, and he began to fear he must have taken a wrong course in the night, and that the island before him was not the one he was in search of. But even while he was so thinking he heard fierce and angry snortings, and, coming swiftly from the island to the shore, he saw the swimming and prancing steeds. Sometimes their heads and manes only were visible, and sometimes, rearing, they rose half out of the water, and, striking it with their hoofs, churned it into foam, and tossed the white spray to the skies. As they approached nearer and nearer their snortings became more terrible, and their nostrils shot forth clouds of vapor.",0.270832416,0.536822821
80035934c,,,"Then the little young Etin, for that was the name of Margaret's eldest son, took his mother's hand and called his six little brothers, and together they went through Elmond wood as fast as ever they could go. It may be that the mother led the way, it may be that so it chanced, but soon they had left the greenwood far behind and stood on an open heath. And there, before them, stood a castle.
Margaret looked and Margaret smiled. She knew she was standing once again before her father's gate.
She took three rings from her pocket and gave them to her eldest wee boy.
'Give one,' she said, 'to the porter. He is proud, but so he sees the ring, he will open the gate and let you enter.
'Give another to the butler, my little wee son, and he will show you where ye are to go.",-0.282044397,0.487883171
3a25b6fbc,,,"King Horn smiled, and his voice was soft as he answered, 'No need is there to take the gold combs from thy hair or to change thy white robe for one less fair. This is thy wedding-day, and I have come to claim my bride.' And King Horn flung aside the old torn coat, and the Princess Jean saw that beneath the rags Hynde Horn was clothed as one of kingly rank.
Then throughout the palace the tidings spread, 'Hynde Horn hath come back, Hynde Horn hath come back, and now is he king of his own country.'
And that very day King Horn was wedded to the beautiful Princess Jean, with her father's blessing, and amid the rejoicings of the people.
And Prince Fykenyld slunk away, ashamed to look his old playmate in the face.
Not many months passed ere King Horn and Queen Jean sailed away to reign together in the far East. And never again in the years to come did the diamonds on King Horn's ring grow dull or dim.",-1.642969499,0.461003907
46a13c6ea,,,"When another day dawned the goshawk left the birch-tree and alighted on the gate, a little nearer to the lattice window where sat the beautiful lady to whom he had been sent. Here again he sang his song. Loud and clear he sang it first, loud and clear that all might hear. Soft and sweet he sang it after, soft and sweet that only Lord William's lady might catch the note of love. And ever, loud or soft, the last words of his song were these, 'Your true love cannot come to you here.'
Then said the lady to her four-and-twenty maidens, 'Eat, my merry maidens, eat and drink, for the feast is spread. I go but to my lattice window to listen to the birds, for hark! they are singing their evensong.'
But in her heart the lady knew there was only one song she longed to hear. Wide she opened her lattice window and, leaning out, she hearkened to the song of the merry goshawk.",-1.937949286,0.517524294
79b580b77,,,"Quiet and patient she waited in the little anteroom, close to the queen's bedchamber, waited until she felt sure the royal pair were fast asleep. Then tripping lightly on tiptoe, she stole into the bedroom, where, as she had guessed, both king and queen were slumbering sound.
She crossed the room, quiet as any mouse, and reached the toilet table. There lay the king's gold comb, and close to it the little pearl knife, the king's wedding gift to his queen.
Back tripped Margaret, still on tiptoe, to the ante-room, and stood, her breath coming quick.
Had she roused the king or queen? Was that the bed creaking?
No, there was not a sound. The royal pair slept sound as before.
Then downstairs in the dark fled Margaret, down to the room where Sir John Carmichael lay slumbering, without a thought of his prisoner, the young Laird of Logie.",-0.216514978,0.47199989
9ce1ddb37,,,"The three friends began to converse openly and familiarly together. First the Knight asked a few questions about the forest, but the old man would not say much of that; least of all, said he, was it fitting to talk of such things at nightfall; but, on household concerns, and their own way of life, the old folks talked readily; and were pleased when the Knight told them of his travels, and that he had a castle near the source of the Danube, and that his name was Lord Huldbrand of Ringstetten. In the middle of their discourse, the stranger often observed a noise outside a small window, as if someone were dashing water against it. The old man knit his brows and looked grave whenever this occurred; at last, when a great splash of water came full against the panes, and some found its way into the room, he could bear it no longer, but started up, crying, ""Undine! will you never leave off these childish tricks—when we have a stranger gentleman in the house too!""",-1.492648909,0.56888508
3723e3a8f,,,"In the meantime the distant thunder gave notice of a shower at hand, and just as we reached Polley's tavern the rain poured down in torrents. It was soon over, the cloud passing in the direction of the turnpike toward Providence. In a few moments after, a respectable-looking man in a chaise stopped at the door. The man and child in the chair having excited some little sympathy among the passengers, the gentleman was asked if he had observed them. He said he had met them; that the man seemed bewildered, and inquired the way to Boston; that he was driving at great speed, as though he expected to outstrip the tempest; that the moment he had passed him a thunderclap broke distinctly over the man's head and seemed to envelop both man and child, horse and carriage. ""I stopped,"" said the gentleman, ""supposing the lightning had struck him, but the horse only seemed to loom up and increase his speed, and, as well as I could judge, he travelled just as fast as the thunder cloud.""",-1.18578775,0.53791779
57e274d73,,,"On the way Mother Mitchel arranged in her head the plan of the monument which was to immortalize her, and considered the means of executing it. As to its form and size, it was to be as exact a copy of the capitol as possible, since the King had willed it; but its outside crust should have a beauty all its own. The dome must be adorned with sugarplums of all colors, and surmounted by a splendid crown of macaroons, spun sugar, chocolate, and candied fruits. It was no small affair.
Mother Mitchel did not like to lose her time. Her plan of battle once formed, she recruited on her way all the little pastry cooks of the country, as well as all the tiny six-year-olds who had a sincere love for the noble callings of scullion and apprentice. There were plenty of these, as you may suppose, in the country of the Greedy; Mother Mitchel had her pick of them.",-1.101295212,0.45402302
10c0e9378,,,"There had been very peculiar weather in Colchester during this month of October, 1705. First, on the 13th (Old Style), an unprecedently early date, had come a ""terrible cold snap,"" lasting three days. This was followed by two days of phenomenal mildness. The river had frozen over during the ""cold snap,"" and the ice had melted during the warm days, until, on the 19th, it was breaking up and preparing to go out to sea. In the night of the 19th had descended a frigid blast, colder than the original one. This had arrested the broken ice, piled it up in all sorts of fantastic forms, and congealed it till it looked like a rough Alaskan glacier. After the cold wind had come a heavy snowstorm. All Colchester lay under three feet of snow. Footpaths and roads were broken out somewhat in the immediate village, but no farther. It was most unusual to have the river closed so early in the season, and consequently the winter supplies, which were secured from New London and Norwich, had not been laid in. Even Mr. Chapin, the storekeeper, was but poorly supplied with staples of which he ordinarily kept an abundance on hand.",-1.968184473,0.527605413
074f70bbe,,,"The Pilgrims said that one day was not enough; so they planned to have a celebration for a whole week. This took place most likely in October.
The great Native American chief, Massasoit, came with ninety of his bravest warriors, all gayly dressed in deerskins, feathers, and foxtails, with their faces smeared with red, white, and yellow paint.
As a sign of rank, Massasoit wore round his neck a string of bones and a bag of tobacco. In his belt he carried a long knife. His face was painted red, and his hair was so daubed with oil that Governor Bradford said he ""looked greasily.""
Now there were only eleven buildings in the whole of Plymouth village, four log storehouses and seven little log dwelling-houses; so the Native American guests ate and slept out of doors. This was no matter, for it was one of those warm weeks in the season we call Indian summer.
To supply meat for the occasion four men had already been sent out to hunt wild turkeys. They killed enough in one day to last the whole company almost a week.",-0.206408222,0.458163163
dd8a9d2f4,,,"The new barn had exhausted the revenues completely, and there would be no more income until January 1st; but one must have a turkey for Thanksgiving, and there was Miltiades. To catch Miltiades became the household problem, and the heaven-born inventor set wonderful traps for him, which caught almost everything but Miltiades, who easily avoided them. Eph used to go out daily before breakfast and chase Miltiades, but he might as well have chased a government position. The turkey scorned him, and grew only wilder and tougher, till he had a lean and hungry look that would have shamed Cassius.
The day before Thanksgiving it looked as if there would be no turkey dinner at Todd's, but here Fisherman Jones stepped into the breach. It was a beautiful summer day, and he hobbled out into the field for an afternoon's fishing. Here he sat on a log, and began to make casts in the open. Nearby, under a savin bush, lurked Miltiades, and viewed these actions with the scorn of long familiarity.",-1.702971145,0.475033068
833efe648,,,"In those days there were none of the thousand ameliorations of the labors of housekeeping which have since arisen—no ground and prepared spices and sweet herbs; everything came into our hands in the rough, and in bulk, and the reducing of it into a state for use was deemed one of the appropriate labors of childhood. Even the very salt that we used in cooking was rock salt, which we were required to wash and dry and pound and sift before it became fit for use.
At other times of the year we sometimes murmured at these labors, but those that were supposed to usher in the great Thanksgiving festival were always entered into with enthusiasm. There were signs of richness all around us—stoning of raisins, cutting of citron, slicing of candied orange peel. Yet all these were only dawnings and intimations of what was coming during the week of real preparation, after the Governor's proclamation had been read.",-2.315611548,0.51309025
26d07b3b3,,,"Donald strained his eyes, and, sure enough, there were wishbones sticking out of the ground in every direction. He thought they looked like little croquet hoops, but he made no comments, for fear of offending the old gobbler. But he felt that he must say something to make the gobbler think that he was not frightened, so he remarked, in an offhand way:
""Let's break one and make a wish.""
The ghost of the old gobbler frowned, drew himself up, and uttered a ghostly whistle that seemed to cut the air. As he did so, the ghosts of the other turkeys long since eaten popped out of the thickets with a great flapping of wings, and each one perched upon a wishbone and gazed upon poor Donald, who was so frightened that his collar flew into a standing position, while he stood upon his toes, with his knees knocking together at a great rate.",-0.235148658,0.523394688
10079320a,,,"Within less than a week the whole complexion of affairs in that little island city was entirely changed. Both the Massachusetts and the Maryland claimants ceased, for a time at least, their unfounded demands. A treaty at Hartford settled the disputed question of boundary-lines, and the Maryland governor declared ""that he had not intended to meddle with the government of Manhattan."" Added to this, Sewackenamo, chief of the Esopus Native Americans, came to the fort at New Amsterdam and ""gave the right hand of friendship"" to the Heer Governor, and by the interchange of presents a treaty of peace was ratified. So, one by one, the troubles of the Heer Governor melted away, his brow became clear and, ""partaking of the universal satisfaction,"" so says the historian, ""he proclaimed a day of general thanksgiving.""
Thanksgiving in the colonies was a matter of almost yearly occurrence.",-1.679509559,0.473492851
6980ceba4,,,"When the hubbub downstairs started the four Rover boys were up in their adjoining bedrooms partly undressed and in the midst of a couple of impromptu boxing matches, one taking place between Andy and Jack and the other between Randy and Fred.
""There, my boy, how do you like that?"" cried Andy, as, dancing around, he managed to land a slapping blow on Jack's bare shoulder.
""Fine, child! fine!"" retorted young Jack. ""But not half as good as this,"" he continued, and, with a sudden spring, he landed one blow on Andy's chest and another on his shoulder which sent Tom's son staggering half-way across the bed.
""Hurrah! one man down! Now for the next!"" cried Fred, and managed to land several blows in quick succession on Randy's shoulder.
But then the fun-loving twin came at him with a rush, sending him into a corner and on to a little table containing a number of books. As Fred went down the table did likewise and the books fell all over him.",-0.451994374,0.465056986
5c5d57c8a,,,"The majority of the cadets had their dormitories on the second floor of the building. Each room held from four to eight students, and was both bright and clean. The rules of Putnam Hall were similar to those in force at West Point, and every pupil was expected to keep his clothing, his books, and his other possessions in perfect order. Each had a cot, a chair, and a clothes closet to himself, extra closets having been introduced in the rooms for that purpose, and each was allowed the use of his trunk in addition. Each cadet had to take his turn at keeping the room in order, although the dormitories were given a regular sweeping and cleaning once a week by the servants.
As before, the Rover boys were placed in one room, and into this came also Larry Colby, Fred Garrison, and George Granbury. The apartment was at an angle of the building, and next to it was another occupied by Songbird Powell, Tubbs, Hans, and three other cadets. Between the two rooms was a door, but this was closed, and was supposed to be kept locked.",-0.093604041,0.456729006
97cfc08c1,,,"At first Sam and Tom demurred to entering the cave—which looked dark and forbidding. But Dick insisted that he was going ahead, and rather than be left behind they went along.
""We'll light some kind of a torch,"" said the eldest Rover. ""Got some matches?""
""Yes, I brought along a pocketful,"" answered Sam. ""Didn't know but what we'd want to build a campfire this noon.""
""We'll want one now—to dry our clothing by,"" said Tom. ""Let us pick up the driest of the sticks.""
This they did, and having entered the cave, they made a good-sized blaze. This sent a ruddy glow around the cavern, and as the boys moved about fantastic shadows went dancing on the rocky walls, adding to the weirdness of the scene.
From the fire each of the youths provided himself with a torch, and thus equipped they moved around the cave with care, taking precautions not to fall into any more holes. They soon found the opening on the mountainside long and narrow and running downward.
""We don't want to get lost,"" cautioned Sam.",-0.365378816,0.475720661
664ef8cdd,,,"""There is no telling how dangerous those explosions may become,"" said Captain Dale, ""and Colonel Colby thinks it is best that you remain here where it is comparatively safe. Even as it is, we may have some big shells coming this way.""
The Hasley Shell Loading Company had been located on the opposite shore of Clearwater Lake for a number of years previous to the opening of the war in Europe. But at that time it had been only a small concern, employing but a handful of men. A year after the opening of hostilities, however, the plant had been enlarged, and now, since the entrance of the United States into the war, the force of workmen had been again doubled and many additional buildings had been erected, some along the lake front and others in the hills further back. A spur of the railroad had also been built to the plant, and on this were numerous cars, all painted to show the dangerous nature of the freight they were destined to carry.",-0.690307884,0.456535215
0cdf53452,,,"It so happened that Worcester was captain of Biffen's house, and also of Biffen's ""footer"" team. My own opinion was that poor old Worcester would have given a lot to be out of such a house as Biffen's, and I know he utterly despised himself for having in a moment of inexplicable weakness consented to be permanent lead to Biffen's awful crowd on the Acres. He died a thousand deaths after each (usual) annihilation. Worcester and Acton had nothing in common, and, except that they were in the same house and form, they would not probably have come to nodding terms. Worcester, of course, looked up to the magnificent ""footer"" player as the average player looks up to the superlative. After the first game of the season, when Acton had turned out in all his glory, Dick had thereupon offered to resign his captaincy, even pressing, with perhaps suspicious eagerness, Acton's acceptance of that barren honour. But Acton did not bite. Captains were supposed to turn out pretty well every day with their strings, and Acton was not the sort of fellow to have his hands tied in any way. So he had gently declined.",-2.461999582,0.521125829
0921dcfa3,,,"Her husband gasped at the audacity of the idea. Erley Chase! The finest place around, one of the largest properties in the county, and Marianne suggested that he should take it! That he should remove from his fifty-pound house into that stately old pile! The suggestion appalled him, and yet why not? His lawyer assured him that he could afford it; his children were growing up, and he had their future to consider. He thought of his handsome boys, his curly-headed girl, and decided proudly that nothing was too good for them; he looked into the future, and saw his children's children reigning in his stead, and the name of Chester honoured in the land. So Erley Chase was bought, and little Mrs. Chester furnished it, as we have seen, to her own great contentment and that of the tradespeople with whom she dealt; and in the course of a few months the family moved into their new abode.",-1.186614667,0.473386248
a45668166,,,"There were two thoughts that filled Frank's mind most of the time. The first was that he would give about all he had to leave his aunt's house. The other was a wish that his father would write to him soon, telling him, as he had promised to do, that he had decided that his son could leave Tipton and go to boarding-school.
What with the constant nagging of his sour-visaged relative, the worry over his sick father, and the suspense as to his own future movements, Frank did not have a very happy time of it. He felt a good deal like a boy shut up in a prison. His aunt used her authority severely. She kept him away from company, and allowed none of his friends to visit the house. From morning until night she pestered him and nagged at him, ""all for his own good,"" she said, until life at the Jordan home, roomy and comfortable as it was, became a burden to the lad.",-0.007393824,0.469067173
ed7084c72,,,"The team to play in any match was always put upon the notice-board at the foot of the stairs in the senior block a day before the date of the fixture. Both first and second fifteens had matches on the Thursday of this week. The second were playing a team brought down by an old Wrykinian. The first had a scratch game.
When Barry, accompanied by M'Todd, who shared his study at Seymour's and rarely left him for two minutes on end, passed by the notice-board at the quarter to eleven interval, it was to the second fifteen list that he turned his attention. Now that Bryce had left, he thought he might have a chance of getting into the second. His only real rival, he considered, was Crawford, of the School House, who was the other wing three-quarter of the third fifteen. The first name he saw on the list was Crawford's. It seemed to be written twice as large as any of the others, and his own was nowhere to be seen. The fact that he had half expected the calamity made things no better. He had set his heart on playing for the second this term.",-2.01911713,0.472213416
e9a3ac07b,,,"Everybody who has moved about the world at all knows Ring's Come-one Come-all Up-to-date Stores. The main office is in New York. Broadway, to be exact, on the left as you go down, just before you get to Park Row, where the newspapers come from. There is another office in Chicago. Others in St. Louis, St. Paul, and across the seas in London, Paris, Berlin, and, in short, everywhere. The peculiar advantage about Ring's Stores is that you can get anything you happen to want there, from a motor to a macaroon, and rather cheaper than you could get it anywhere else. England had up to the present been ill-supplied with these handy paradises, the one in Piccadilly being the only extant specimen. But now Mr. Ring in person had crossed the Atlantic on a tour of inspection, and things were shortly to be so brisk that you would be able to hear them whizz.",-0.416552018,0.488731772
cc053446f,,,"Dunstable was a youth of ideas. He saw far more possibilities in the routine of life at Locksley than did the majority of his contemporaries, and every now and then he made use of these possibilities in a way that caused a considerable sensation in the school.
In the ordinary way of school work, however, he was not particularly brilliant, and suffered in consequence. His chief foe was his form-master, Mr. Langridge. The feud between them had begun on Dunstable's arrival in the form two terms before, and had continued ever since. The balance of points lay with the master. The staff has ways of scoring which the school has not. This story really begins with the last day but one of the summer term. It happened that Dunstable's people were going to make their annual migration to Scotland on that day, and the Headmaster, approached on the subject both by letter and in person, saw no reason why—the examinations being over—Dunstable should not leave Locksley a day before the end of term.",-2.62550662,0.522564257
df9a91b62,,,"Life at St. Austin's was rendered somewhat hollow and burdensome for Pillingshot by the fact that he was raked by Scott. Not that Scott was the Beetle-Browed Bully in any way. Far from it. He showed a kindly interest in Pillingshot's welfare, and sometimes even did his Latin verses for him. But the noblest natures have flaws, and Scott's was no exception. He was by way of being a humorist, and Pillingshot, with his rather serious outlook on life, was puzzled and inconvenienced by this.
It was through this defect in Scott's character that Pillingshot first became a detective.
He was toasting muffins at the study fire one evening, while Scott, seated on two chairs and five cushions, read ""Sherlock Holmes,"" when the Prefect laid down his book and fixed him with an earnest eye.
""Do you know, Pillingshot,"" he said, ""you've got a bright, intelligent face. I shouldn't wonder if you weren't rather clever. Why do you hide your light under a bushel?""
Pillingshot grunted.",-2.457151723,0.51729887
72abfc738,,,"In traveling we often meet with persons of different nationalities and languages; we also meet with incidents of various character, some sorrowful, others, joyful and instructive. One of the latter character I witnessed recently while traveling upon the cars. The train was going west and the time was evening. At a station a little girl about eight years old came aboard, carrying a budget under her arm. She then commenced an eager scrutiny of faces, but all were strange to her. She appeared weary, and placing her budget for a pillow, she prepared to try and secure a little sleep. Soon the conductor came along collecting tickets and fare. Observing him she asked him if she might lie there. The gentlemanly conductor replied that she might, and then kindly asked for her ticket. She informed him that she had none, when the following conversation ensued.",-0.951697208,0.463285188
cf051fa19,,,"I have here a knife. It was given me by a friend, a token of his affection and esteem, when I went aboard the steamer in Manila, Philippine Islands, to return to the homeland. All these years since then the knife has been on my study desk, daily teaching me. What lessons does this knife teach?
First of all the knife tells me of Strength. The most important part of this knife is what I call the backbone. It is the main portion of the knife to which all the blades are fastened, as well as the polished pearl handle. This would be a weak and useless knife did it not have a backbone. It says to me every day ""Be strong, stand up, have convictions, be steadfast.""
Lesson number two, Discipline. This knife has been subjected to many trials and tests. The steel of which these blades are made had to go through a hard, hot, trying process before they were tempered and fit to take an edge and hold it. Sometimes I rebel about certain processes of the days, then I think of my knife and learn from it the lesson of discipline.",-0.646751102,0.458887935
b81d4f07a,,,"Once upon a time the owner of a very large garden planted therein a tree, the fruit of which was very precious and of great value to all who ate of it. For a time, the tree grew and bore much good fruit. But the owner of the garden had an enemy who went about secretly sowing seeds of weeds and all manner of briers and brush, that they might spread all over the garden and kill out the good tree which the master had planted. The enemy also persuaded many of the workmen in the garden to neglect the good tree, and let the briers and weeds grow up around it and so prevent its growth. Thus in time the once precious fruit of the good tree became wild and scrubby, no better than the enemy's trees which grew around it.",-0.057672423,0.483333212
2fd1bc415,,,"It was impossible for two boys to keep such an important discovery to themselves, and the shed was soon filled with an eager crowd, all anxious to view the mysterious footprints. The Triple Alliance gained fresh renown as the originators of the scheme by which the disclosure had been made, and it was unanimously decided that the matter should be reported to Mr. Blake.
The master cross-questioned Acton and Diggory, but seemed rather inclined to doubt their story.
""I think,"" he said, ""you must be mistaken. I expect the piece of cotton blew away, and the foot-marks must have been there before. I don't see what there is in the shed that should make it worth any one's while to break into it; besides, if the door was locked, the thief must have broken it open, and you'd have seen the marks.""",-0.36066138,0.472332831
17f811ae2,,,"The big five-seater car came punctually at three and conveyed the young people and all their belongings to The Warren, where their arrival caused much satisfaction.
""You've saved us from a most awkward predicament,"" declared Mrs. Glyn Williams. ""I hardly know how to thank you. Wasn't it clever of Babbie to think of it?""
""We've never forgotten how you did a scene here once!"" said Tudor. ""Couldn't do it myself to save my life! And Gwen says the same. Oh, here she is! I was looking for you, Gwen! Here are the Ramsays, and Talland.""
The Gwen who advanced to shake hands was so different from their old acquaintance that the girls felt they scarcely would have recognized her. She did her hair in a new fashion, and was wonderfully grown-up, and even more patronizing than formerly. She said a languid ""How d'you do,"" then left Babbie to entertain them, which the latter did with enthusiasm, for she was fond of Mavis and Merle.",-0.876649387,0.47919998
fb249919c,,,"Gwen went back to school feeling rather tamed and sober. The bad cold and face-ache, subsequent on her adventure in the snow, had seriously interfered with her plans for the holidays, and she had not accomplished half she intended to do in the time. Dick Chambers had been laid up in bed with an attack of rheumatism, so she had scarcely seen anything of him, and altogether the much-longed-for month had held its disappointments. She returned to her desk in the Fifth almost glad to begin a fresh term, though she knew many difficulties awaited her. First and foremost was the horrible fact that she owed a whole sovereign to Netta Goodwin, and had absolutely no prospect of paying it. She tried to avoid any private conversation with her chum, but the ruse was not successful for long. Netta was a girl who was accustomed to get her own way, and she followed Gwen round the school until she caught her alone.",-0.839434724,0.477745374
dd679b1ae,,,"Little Sara Crewe never went in or out of the house without reading that door plate and reflecting upon it. By the time she was twelve, she had decided that all her trouble arose because, in the first place, she was not ""Select,"" and in the second she was not a ""Young Lady."" When she was eight years old, she had been brought to Miss Minchin as a pupil, and left with her. Her papa had brought her all the way from India. Her mamma had died when she was a baby, and her papa had kept her with him as long as he could. And then, finding the hot climate was making her very delicate, he had brought her to England and left her with Miss Minchin, to be part of the Select Seminary for Young Ladies. Sara, who had always been a sharp little child, who remembered things, recollected hearing him say that he had not a relative in the world whom he knew of, and so he was obliged to place her at a boarding-school, and he had heard Miss Minchin's establishment spoken of very highly.",-0.634326216,0.481065383
9fcd7cf25,,,"The great day of the boat race between Riverport and Mechanicsburg opened with a clear sky. This made happy the hearts of the hundreds of young people belonging to the two towns on the Mohunk River.
Daily the husky crew of the town up the river had been busily engaged in practicing; and all sorts of ominous rumors were current among the more timid Riverport boys and girls as to the astonishing speed they had shown.
But when those who had faith in the ability of their own crew to come in ahead heard these tales, they only laughed, and nodded, as though they felt no fear. As to the ability of their rivals to ""make circles"" around the boys of Riverport, did they not realize that these stories were being industriously circulated for the very purpose of making them count the race lost even before it was started?
The clever coach, Corney Shays' father, warned them against believing anything of this sort. He said it was an old trick, and had been used by college men as far back as he could remember.",-1.035478244,0.466951209
11e21679d,,,"The more Fred thought of it the stronger became his conviction that Buck and Billy would be a long time in finding the lonely Masterson farmhouse, that was off the main road.
They had left him going in a direction that was really at right angles to the shortest way there. But then possibly Buck knew of another route. And after all it was none of his business.
Evening had now settled down in earnest. There would be a moon later; but darkness was beginning to shut out the last expiring gleams of daylight.
Fred was feeling pretty ""chipper"" as he himself expressed it. So far as he could ascertain no serious result had accompanied his fall into that hole, and the exposure that followed the mishap.
His muscles having come back to their old condition, he was running as easily as ever before; and he believed himself to be in splendid condition.",-0.440313211,0.501756107
bf2b74953,,,"""You really wish me to understand, Brady, that not you alone, but all the elder boys—day-pupils and boarders alike—desire of your own free-will to devote your next Saturday's half-holiday to conveying this poor man's plants from his house at Brickland to the Rookwood sale?""
""Yes, sir, that's what we want to do.""
""H'm! Well, the proposal does you credit, and you certainly might employ your time much worse than in carrying it out. I don't think it would be right for me to refuse your request. Mr. Anderson, I feel sure, will be ready to help and advise you, if necessary, but as the idea is your own I should like you, as far as possible, to carry it out by yourselves.""
""Thank you, sir!"" said Jack, and withdrew.
It was evening when this dialogue took place. The day-boys had departed in an irritable frame of mind, on account of various annoyances of which they had been the victims during the past two days. Bacon had been tripped up twice by a piece of string, Hughes had found his coat-sleeves tightly sewn up with packing-thread, and Simmons's pockets had been crammed with moist, wriggling earthworms.",-1.461300604,0.458410321
e2633499a,,,"On the Monday evening, the head boy reported to Dr. Rowlands that the perpetrator of the offence had not been discovered, but that one boy was very generally suspected, and on grounds that seemed plausible. ""I admit,"" he added, ""that from the little I know of him he seems to me a very unlikely sort of boy to do it.""
""I think,"" suggested the Doctor, ""that the best way would be for you to have a regular trial on the subject, and hear the evidence. Do you think that you can be trusted to carry on the investigation publicly, with good order and fairness?""
""I think so, sir,"" said Avonley.
""Very well. Put up a notice, asking all the school to meet by themselves in the boarders' room tomorrow afternoon at three, and see what you can do among you.""
Avonley did as the Doctor suggested. At first, when the boys assembled, they seemed inclined to treat the matter as a joke, and were rather disorderly; but Avonley briefly begged them, if they determined to have a trial, to see that it was conducted sensibly; and by general consent he was himself voted into the desk as president.",-1.246653509,0.46786563
d015b4eb7,,,"The bedroom shared by Glyn Severn and Singh was one of a series, small and particularly comfortable, in the new annexe the Doctor had built expressly for lecture-room and dormitories when his establishment began to increase.
The comfortably furnished room just sufficed for two narrow beds and the customary furniture; and as soon as the two lads had entered, Singh hurried to his chest of drawers, unlocked one, took out a second bunch of keys to that he carried in his pocket, and was then crossing to a sea-going portmanteau standing in one corner, when Glyn, who was looking very thoughtful and abstracted, followed, and as Singh knelt down and threw open the travelling-case, laid his hand upon the lad's shoulder. ""What are you going to do?"" he said shortly. ""Only look out two or three things that there's not room for in the drawer.""",-2.158514499,0.495333699
d80263492,,,"""I have important news to communicate,"" began Old Dut dryly, after tapping the bell for the beginning of the afternoon session.
Dick and some of his friends looked up rather placidly, for they knew what the news was to be.
""All lovers of football in the Central Grammar School,"" continued the principal, ""are requested to meet in the usual field immediately after the close of school. The purpose is to form a league and to arrange for games between the three Grammar Schools of Gridley. I will add that I am glad that so much interest in athletics is being displayed by our young men. To show my pleasure, I will add that if any of the young men in this school are so unfortunate as to incur checks this afternoon that would keep them in after school they may serve out the checks to-morrow instead. First class in geography! For the next twenty minutes the boys of this class are requested to remember that football is not geography!""",-0.151042306,0.473328727
5a237df4a,,,"About six weeks after the beginning of the half, as Tom and Arthur were sitting one night before supper beginning their verses, Arthur suddenly stopped, and looked up, and said, ""Tom, do you know anything of Martin?""
""Yes,"" said Tom, taking his hand out of his back hair, and delighted to throw his Gradus ad Parnassum on to the sofa; ""I know him pretty well. He's a very good fellow, but as mad as a hatter. He's called Madman, you know. And never was such a fellow for getting all sorts of rum things about him. He tamed two snakes last half, and used to carry them about in his pocket; and I'll be bound he's got some hedgehogs and rats in his cupboard now, and no one knows what besides.""
""I should like very much to know him,"" said Arthur; ""he was next to me in the form today, and he'd lost his book and looked over mine, and he seemed so kind and gentle that I liked him very much.""
""Ah, poor old Madman, he's always losing his books,"" said Tom, ""and getting called up and floored because he hasn't got them.""",-0.887361895,0.47831051
16e883aee,,,"After the Easter holidays, several new boys came. One of them was called Edward Ellis. He had a remarkably quiet and subdued manner. The general remark was, that he looked as if he was cowed. He was certainly out of spirits. He spoke very little, avoided making friends, or, at all events, confidants, and seldom entered into any of our games. He seemed prepared to suffer any amount of bullying, even from little fellows, and if he was struck, he never struck again. He had been at school before, but he never said where. Probably, however, he had been there for some time, for he was already fourteen, though not big or strong for his age. With such a disposition and habits as I have described, of course he could not be a favorite with any one; at the same time, it could not be said that he was positively disliked. Ernest, seeing how solitary and melancholy he appeared, compassionated the poor fellow, and never lost an opportunity of speaking kindly to him. This conduct had its due effect, and Ellis took pains to show his gratitude.",-1.061181523,0.466641807
c25c2e48c,,,"The next morning, after the early school-hours, Doctor Wilkinson kept Reginald back as he was following the stream to breakfast, and led the way into the class-room, where, after closing the door, he seated himself, and motioning Reginald to draw closer to him, thus opened his inquiry.
""I wish to know, Mortimer, how this affair began last night: it appears, from all I can make out, to have been a most unprovoked attack on your part, but as there is often more than appears on the surface, I shall be glad to hear what you have to allege in extenuation of your savage conduct.""
Reginald colored very deeply, and dropping his eyes under the piercing gaze of his master, remained silent.
""Am I to conclude from your silence that you have no excuse to make?"" asked the doctor in a tone of mixed sorrow and indignation; ""and am I to believe that from some petty insult you have allowed your temper such uncontrolled sway as nearly to have cost your cousin his life?""",-0.722882817,0.46802062
4563a70ca,,,"Over some of the girls of the Great Shirley School there passed that morning a curious wave of excitement. Those girls who had joined Kathleen's society were almost now more or less in a state of tension. Once a week they were to meet in the quarry; once a week, whatever the weather, in the dead of night, they were to meet in this sequestered spot. They knew well that if they were discovered they would run a very great chance of being expelled from the school; for although they were day scholars, yet integrity of conduct was essential to their maintaining their place in that great school which gave them so liberal an education, in some cases without any fees, in all other cases with very small ones. One of the great ideas of the school was to encourage brave actions, unselfish deeds, nobility of mind.",-0.662764496,0.456101105
eb45f741d,,,"I am old, and run down, and good for nothing now; but many a time do I find my thoughts wandering back to this far-off day; and remembering all that has befallen me since that eventful moment, I humbly hope my life has not been one to disgrace the good character with which I went out into the world.
I was young at the time, very young—scarcely a month old. Watches however, as every one knows, are a good deal more precocious in their infancy than human beings. They generally settle down to business as soon as they are born, without having to spend much of their time either in the nursery or the schoolroom.
Indeed, after my face and hands had once been well cleaned, and a brand-new shiny coat had been put on my back, it was years before I found myself again called upon to submit to that operation which is such a terror to all mortal children.",-1.008790802,0.446248963
687eb6e91,,,"The misgivings of the Classics were justified. The Moderns did not accept their victory at Elections with a meekness which augured harmony for the coming half.
On the contrary, they executed that difficult acrobatic feat known as going off their heads, with jubilation.
For many terms they had groaned under a sense of inferiority, partly imagined but partly well founded, in their relations with the rival side. The Classics had given themselves airs, and, what was worse, proved their right to give them. In its early days the Modern side was not ""in it"" at Fellsgarth. Its few members were taught to look upon themselves as altogether a lower order of creation than the pupils of the old foundation, and had accepted the position with due humility. Then certain rebellious spirits had arisen, who dared to ask why their side wasn't as good as any other? The answer was crushing. ""What can you do? Only French, and book-keeping and ‘stinks'"" — (the strictly Classical nickname for chemistry).",-2.188914658,0.501300376
df052152b,,,"The Grandcourt match was the only match of the season which Templeton played away from home. All its other matches, the house match, and even the match against the town, were played in the Fields, in the presence of the whole school. But once every other year, Templeton went forth to war in drags and omnibuses against its hereditary rival, and mighty was the excitement with which the expedition and its equipment were regarded by every boy who had the glory of his school at heart.
Seventy boys, and seventy only, were permitted to form the invading army, the selection of whom was a matter of intrigue and emulation for weeks beforehand. But for a few broad rules, which eliminated at least half the school, the task might have been still more difficult than it was. For instance, all juniors, to the eternal wrath and indignation of the Den, were excluded.",-1.758594754,0.496717714
865e80e6a,,,"Smith and I had a good deal more than dinner to discuss that morning as we rested for twenty minutes from our office labours. He was very much in earnest about his new work, I could see; and I felt, as I listened to him, that my own aspirations for success were not nearly as deep-seated as his. He didn't brag, or build absurd castles in the air; but he made no secret of the fact that now he was once in the business he meant to get on, and expected pretty confidently that he would do so.
I wished I could feel half as sure of myself. At any rate, I was encouraged by Jack Smith's enthusiasm, and returned at the end of my twenty minutes to my desk with every intention of distinguishing myself at my work. But somehow everything was so novel, and I was so curiously disposed, that I could not prevent my thoughts wandering a good deal, or listening to the constant running fire of small talk that was going on among my fellow-clerks. And this was all the less to be wondered at, since I myself was a prominent topic of conversation.",-1.095873973,0.477183795
4a50c22ba,,,"The rowers were all too tired and enraged to talk much, and the journey down stream was silent and gloomy. They heard, about a mile from home, the school bell ringing for call-over, and groaned inwardly when presently it ceased, and they knew their names were being called over and not one of them there to answer. Parson alone made any attempt to keep up the drooping spirits of his crew.
""Never fear. We'll pay them out, you see. And if they do report us we'll only get impots. The beasts! I wish we'd run into them and drowned them all! So I do.""
At this point the speaker became aware of an outrigger skiff rapidly approaching them. The rower of course had his back turned, and evidently not expecting anything ahead, was steering himself ""over his toes,"" as the term is—that is by some landmark behind the boat. Who he was Parson could not make out, but he wore a light-blue ribbon on his straw, and that was enough. Light-blue was the schoolhouse colour. Here was a chance of paying out of the enemy, anyhow!",-1.713306482,0.49828052
79cafacb6,,,"The room was beautifully fitted up, and he thought within himself, ""Come what come may, I shall make myself at home in this room."" So he stretched himself upon a couch. He lay there for a while lost in thought, when, lo and behold! the table began to lay itself. When the cloth was spread, all sorts of good cheer began to appear upon it. ""Come what come may,"" he thought to himself again, ""I am hungry."" So he fell to and ate to his heart's content. When he had eaten all that he could swallow he threw himself upon the couch again and began to consider. Suddenly three women entered, clothed entirely in black. One seated herself at the piano, while the two others danced. Tired as he was, when he saw this he arose and skipped about with them. After this entertainment they began to talk with him, speaking of one thing and another, and finally came round to the question how he might break the spell that bound them.",-0.85532196,0.475242192
8b31124fd,,,"The three brothers left the empty house, and went each to seek his fortune in his own way. Ali Haitam bought a piece of muslin, folded it into a turban, sewed the lapis lazuli inside, and fixed it firmly on his head. Then he went to the bazaar and waited for an influx of wisdom, and see! The power of the stone set to work and his mind was filled with knowledge! He knew the origin of all things, and his eyes could see through walls five feet thick! He passed the Caliph's palace, and he could see that in the recesses of the cellars were hidden 9,000 sacks of gold, and that Fatma, the daughter of the Caliph, was the most lovely maiden in the East; and an idea occurred to him that dazzled him. ""How would it be,"" he thought, ""if I placed my wisdom at the Caliph's disposal, became his first adviser, and finally married the lovely Fatma?"" But together with this dream came the longing to display to an admiring crowd some proofs of his wisdom.",-1.556397958,0.478916906
5129ab90e,,,"Some days after the marriage the Knight of the Fish said to his wife that he would like to look over the palace, which was so extensive that it covered a league of ground. They inspected the place together, and the task occupied them four days. On the fourth day they ascended the roof, and the knight was struck with amazement at the prospect. Never had he seen anything like it, nor ever could he have seen its equal, even if he had visited all Spain and the Empire of Morocco as well. ""What castle is that?"" inquired the Knight of the Fish, ""which I see standing in the distance, so solitary and sombre."" ""That,"" responded the princess, ""is the castle of Albastretch; it is enchanted, and no one is able to undo the enchantment; and no one of all those who have gone to it has ever been known to return."" The knight listened intently to this, and as he was valiant and adventurous, on the following morning he mounted his horse, seized his lance, and set out for the castle.",-1.034282779,0.484307881
5db0d38de,,,"Yes, the lad was quite content; so he thanked his brothers, and went at once up on the hill, where the twelve mares were out at grass. And when he got up there he found them; and one of them had along with her a big dapple-gray foal, which was so sleek that the sun shone from its coat. ""A fine fellow you are, my little foal,"" said the lad. ""Yes,"" said the foal, ""but you wait until another year has passed, and then see how big and sleek I'll be."" So the lad went home again, and when he came back the next year to look after his foal and mares, the foal was so sleek and fat that the sun shone from its coat, and it had grown so big the lad had hard work to mount it. ""Well, it's quite plain I lost nothing by leaving you to graze for a twelvemonth,"" said the lad to the yearling, ""but now you're big enough to come along with me.""",-0.374275101,0.468877498
f745bb842,,,"They were about to unload the elephant, which carried the dinner and the service, when it was discovered that Topaz and Ebony were no longer with the party. They called them loudly: the forest echoed with the names of Topaz and Ebony; the men sought them in every direction and filled the woods with their shouts, but they came back having seen no one and heard no answer. ""We saw nothing,"" they said to Rustem, ""but a vulture fighting with an eagle and plucking out all its feathers."" The history of this struggle excited Rustem's curiosity; he went to the spot on foot. He saw no vulture or eagle, but he found that his elephant, still loaded with baggage, had been attacked by a huge rhinoceros. One was fighting with his horn, the other with his trunk. On seeing Rustem the rhinoceros retreated, and the elephant was led back. But now the horses were gone. ""Strange things happen to travellers in the forest!"" exclaimed Rustem.",-0.377960173,0.485041274
5b786d0b1,,,"Chang-ngan was the old capital of China, a very great city indeed, and Pin-Too, the master to whom Pei-Hang was sent was the wisest man in it. And there Pei-Hang soon learned what the world was thinking about, and many things besides. And as soon as he was eighteen he took the red silk out of his pigtail and the silver chain from his neck; for grown-up people do not need charms to protect them from the Genii—they can generally protect themselves. When he was twenty, Pin-Too told him he could not teach him any more. ""It is time for you to go back to your parents, and comfort them in their old age,"" he said. He looked very sorry as he said it, for Pei-Hang had been his favourite pupil. ""I will start tomorrow, Master,"" replied Pei-Hang, obediently. ""I will leave the city by the Golden Bridge."" ""No, you must go by the Indigo Bridge, for there you will meet your future wife,"" said Pin-Too. ""I was not thinking of a wife,"" observed Pei-Hang, with some dismay. And Pin-Too wrinkled up his eyes and laughed.",-1.143987806,0.482787052
59e6b07ad,,,"The king's daughter was now mournful, tearful, blind-sorrowful for her married man; she was always with her eye on the loch. An old soothsayer met her, and she told how it had befallen her married mate. Then he told her the thing to do to save her mate, and that she did. She took her harp to the sea-shore, and sat and played; and the sea-maiden came up to listen, for sea-maidens are fonder of music than all other creatures. But when the wife saw the sea-maiden she stopped. The sea-maiden said, ""Play on!"" but the princess said, ""No, not till I see my man again."" So the sea-maiden put up his head out of the loch. Then the princess played again, and stopped till the sea-maiden put him up to the waist. Then the princess played and stopped again, and this time the sea-maiden put him all out of the loch, and he called on the falcon and became one, and flew on shore. But the sea-maiden took the princess, his wife.",-1.536538691,0.480196197
2cc7ad1da,,,"Han Chung ran for his father's axe, and Ho-Seen-Ko, his little sister, came out of the cottage with him. ""Remember it is the Feast of Lanterns tonight, father,"" she said. ""Don't fall asleep up on the mountain; we want you to come back and light them for us."" She had a lantern in the shape of a fish, painted red and black and yellow, and Han Chung had got a big round one, all bright crimson, to carry in the procession; and, besides that, there were two large lanterns to be hung outside the cottage door as soon at it grew dark. Wang Chih was not likely to forget the Feast of Lanterns, for the children had talked of nothing else for a month, and he promised to come home as early as he could.",-0.455012507,0.474201929
dab96a9ab,,,"When the two friends had thus become reconciled, they examined the cub, and saw that it had a slight wound in its foot, and could not walk; and while they were thinking what they should do, they spied out the herb called ""Doctor's Nakasé,"" which was just sprouting; so they rolled up a little of it in their fingers and applied it to the part. Then they pulled out some boiled rice from their luncheon box and offered it to the cub, but it showed no sign of wanting to eat; so they stroked it gently on the back, and petted it; and as the pain of the wound seemed to have subsided, they were admiring the properties of the herb, when, opposite to them, they saw the old foxes sitting watching them by the side of some stacks of rice straw. ""Look there! the old foxes have come back, out of fear for their cub's safety. Come, we will set it free!""",-0.855847764,0.463986242
82eba3cf1,,,"One day the Emperor went hunting, and before setting out he said to his son-in-law, ""Do you remain in the castle during my absence. I give to you nine keys which you must keep carefully by you. I give you free leave to open three or four rooms. You will find in them silver and gold in abundance; there is also no lack of weapons, or of any kind of treasure. You may even, if you feel inclined, open eight of the rooms. But beware of unlocking the ninth. Leave that one alone; for,"" he added, ""if you do not it will be the worse for you."" Upon this the Emperor departed, leaving his son-in-law at home alone. Hardly was the Emperor gone when the Prince began to open one door after another, until he had examined eight rooms in succession. His eyes beheld in them treasures of all kinds. When at last he came to the door of the ninth room he said to himself, ""I have seen and done so many wonderful things, and shall it be forbidden me to enter a certain room?"" So he unlocked the door and went in. What a sight!",-0.610791351,0.488468624
4331e23fb,,,"""My most solemn and wise bird,"" said Minerva one day to her Owl, ""I have hitherto admired you for your profound silence; but I have now a mind to have you show your ability in discourse, for silence is only admirable in one who can, when he pleases, triumph by his eloquence and charm with graceful conversation."" The Owl replied by solemn grimaces, and made dumb signs. Minerva bade him lay aside that affectation and begin; but he only shook his wise head and remained silent. Thereupon Minerva commanded him to speak immediately, on pain of her displeasure. The Owl, seeing no remedy, drew up close to Minerva, and whispered very softly in her ear this sage remark: ""Since the world is grown so depraved, they ought to be esteemed most wise who have eyes to see and wit to hold their tongues.""",-1.478416193,0.462133265
472447dbf,,,"""Oh, I wish I could be rich and lie at ease on a soft couch with a curtain of red silk!"" Just then a beautiful fairy floated down from heaven, and softly said, ""Thy wish is granted thee."" So the poor stonecutter found himself rich and powerful and resting easily on his silken couch with its red curtain. As he gazed out, however, he saw the king of the country ride by with many horsemen before and behind him, and with a great golden sunshade held over his head. It irritated the rich man to have no parasol over his head and to see another more powerful than himself, and in his discontentment he exclaimed, ""Would that I were a king such as that one."" Once again his good fairy appeared, waved his wand, and said, ""It shall be as thou desirest."" Immediately the man was king, and before him and behind him rode his men-at-arms, and over his head was a golden sunshade. But elsewhere the sun shone fiercely down and dried up the vegetation with its terrible heat. Once more he sighed discontentedly, ""If I could only be the sun!""",-0.129115374,0.475917634
3985c8e37,,,"At last the great folding doors were thrown open. Summer announced that dinner was served, and a long procession of old and young being quickly formed, led by Mrs. November and her daughter Thanksgiving, whose birthday it was, they filed into the spacious dining room, where stood the long table groaning beneath its weight of good things, while four attendants ran continually in and out bringing more substantials and delicacies to grace the board and please the appetite. Winter staggered beneath great trenchers of meat and poultry, pies and puddings; Spring brought the earliest and freshest vegetables; Summer, the richest creams and ices; while Autumn served the guests with fruit, and poured the sparkling wine.
All were jolly, and many a joke was cracked as the contents of each plate and dish melted away like snow before the sun; and the great fires roared in the wide chimneys as though singing a glad Thanksgiving song.",-1.033506428,0.465561241
a1864cd44,,,"""Take care of yourselves,"" called grandmother, ""for I don't want to send any broken bones home to your mothers.""
""I can take care of myself,"" said John.
""So can we,"" said the rest; and off they ran.
First they went to the kitchen where Mammy 'Ria was getting ready to cook the Thanksgiving dinner; then out to the barnyard, where there were two new red calves, and five little puppies belonging to Juno, the dog, for them to see. Then they climbed the barnyard fence and made haste to the pasture where grandfather kept his woolly sheep. ""Baa-a!"" said the sheep when they saw the children; but then, they always said that, no matter what happened.
There were cows in this pasture, too, and Mary Virginia was afraid of them, even though she knew that they were the mothers of the calves she had seen in the barnyard.",0.877184835,0.54999546
a5c22fbff,,,"When Naomi saw that Ruth loved her so much, she forgot how tired and hungry she was, and the two journeyed on together until they came to Bethlehem in Judah in the beginning of the barley harvest. There was no famine in Bethlehem. The fields were full of waving grain, and busy servants were reaping it and gathering it up to bind into sheaves. Above all were the fields of the rich man, Boaz, shining with barley and corn.
Naomi and Ruth came to the edge of the fields and watched the busy reapers. They saw that after each sheaf was bound, and each pile of corn was stacked, a little grain fell, unnoticed, to the ground. Ruth said to Naomi: ""Let me go to the field and glean the ears of corn after them."" And Naomi said to her, ""Go, my daughter."" And she went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers.",-0.714561333,0.438978885
424abc511,,,"Again that afternoon he walked—or rather, ran—to his mother, and after consulting with her, joyfully accepted Mr. Crooker's offer.
Interviews between his mother and his employer soon followed, resulting in something for which at first the boy had not dared to hope. The lonely, childless old man, who owned so many houses, wanted a home; and one of these houses he offered to Mrs. Hampton, with ample support for herself and her children, if she would also make it a home for him.
Of course this proposition was accepted; and Bert soon had the satisfaction of seeing the great ambition of his youth accomplished. He had employment which promised to become a profitable business (as indeed it did in a few years, he and the old man proved so useful to each other); and, more than that, he was united once more with his mother and sisters in a happy home where he has since had a good many Thanksgiving dinners.",-0.714391937,0.534529785
d031fb6b8,,,"She was naturally a girl of quick and tender sensibilities, gladsome in her general mood, but with a bewitching pathos interfused among her merriest words and deeds. It was remarked of her, too, that she had a faculty, even from childhood, of throwing her own feelings like a spell over her companions. Such as she had been in her days of innocence, so did she appear this evening. Her friends, in the surprise and bewilderment of her return, almost forgot that she had ever left them, or that she had forfeited any of her claims to their affection. In the morning, perhaps, they might have looked at her with altered eyes, but by the Thanksgiving fireside they felt only that their own Prudence had come back to them, and were thankful. John Inglefield's rough visage brightened with the glow of his heart, as it grew warm and merry within him; once or twice, even, he laughed till the room rang again, yet seemed startled by the echo of his own mirth.",-1.572265988,0.490050082
344524c76,,,"Once in a while a newspaper came from Uncle Obadiah, but only one letter in two years. Perhaps if he knew what hard luck they were having he would write oftener. The boy had heard his mother say only the week before that she wanted to write to Brother Obie, but was no hand at letters, especially when there was no good news to write.
A thought now came to young Obadiah. He would write to his Uncle tomorrow, and his brain began fairly to hum with what he would say. When his time came he invested one cent in a clean white stick of candy and the remaining two in a postage stamp. ""I'll pay two cents back to pa as soon as I get the answer,"" he said confidently to his questioning conscience.
His walk home abounded in exasperations. Never had game appeared so plentiful. Three separate flocks of prairie chickens flew directly over his head, a rabbit scurried across his path, and in the stubble of the ruined grainfields rose and fell little clouds of quail.",-1.333634907,0.492994759
79fb5f325,,,"This last accusation was one with which Aunt Kittredge was accustomed to overwhelm Clorinda when she burned the pies or wore her best bonnet to evening meeting. Minty's face grew so long that it looked like the reflection of a face in a spoon, and the tears came into her eyes. It must be a hard world, since Jason found it so. He was much stouter-hearted than she; his round, snub-nosed, freckled face was generally as cheerful as the sunshine. Jason had his troubles—Minty well knew what they were—but he bore them manfully. He didn't like to have Clorinda use his hens' eggs when he was saving them to sell, and perhaps it was even more trying to be at school when the eggs man came around, and have Aunt Kittredge sell his eggs and put the money into her pocket. Jason wished to go into business for himself, and he had a high opinion of the poultry business for a beginning. Cyrus, their ""hired man,"" had once lived with a man at North Edom who made fabulous sums by raising poultry.",-1.860140006,0.466927285
38548788f,,,"They were very busy. Katie, the eleven-year-old, and Malcolm, ten, Guy's age, were cutting citron into long, thin strips, piling it on a big blue plate. Mary and James, the eight-year-old twins, were paring apples with a paring machine. The long, curling skins fell in a large stone jar standing on a clean paper, spread on the floor. Charlie, who was only four years old, was watching to see that none of the parings fell over the edge of the jar. Susan, who was seven, was putting raisins, a few at a time, into a meat chopper screwed down on the kitchen table. George, three years old, was turning the handle of the chopper to grind the raisins. Baby Joe was creeping about the kitchen floor after a kitten. Mrs. Burns was taking a great piece of meat from a steaming kettle on the back of the stove. Every one was working, except the baby and the kitten, but all seemed to be having a glorious time. What they were saying seemed so funny it was some time before Guy could understand it. At last he was sure it was some kind of a game.",-0.548446675,0.459181551
d6461df4e,,,"Ezra had written a letter to the home folks, and in it he had complained that never before had he spent such a weary, lonesome day as this Thanksgiving Day had been. Having finished this letter, he sat for a long time gazing idly into the open fire that snapped cinders all over the hearthstone and sent its red forks dancing up the chimney to join the winds that frolicked and gamboled across the Kansas prairies that raw November night. It had rained hard all day, and was cold; and although the open fire made every honest effort to be cheerful, Ezra, as he sat in front of it in the wooden rocker and looked down into the glowing embers, experienced a dreadful feeling of loneliness and homesickness.
""I'm sick o' Kansas,"" said Ezra to himself. ""Here I've been in this plaguey country for goin' on a year, and—yes, I'm sick of it, powerful sick of it. What a miser'ble Thanksgivin' this has been! They don't know what Thanksgivin' is out this way. I wish I was back in ol' Mass'chusetts—that's the country for me, and they hev the kind o' Thanksgivin' I like!""",-1.083722413,0.473141718
669b6d8e1,,,"They had got ""way through,"" as Terry said, to the nuts. It had been a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner ""so far."" Grandmother's sweet face beamed down the length of the great table, over all the little crinkly grandheads, at grandfather's face. Everybody felt very thankful.
""I wish all the children this side o' the north pole had had some turkey, too, and squash and cram'bry—and things,"" said Silence quietly. Silence was always wishing beautiful things like that.
""An' some nuts,"" added Terry, setting his small white teeth into the meat of a big fat walnut. ""It wouldn't seem Thanksgivingy 'thout nuts.""
""I know somebody who would be thankful with just nuts,"" smiled grandfather. ""Indeed, I think he'd rather have them for all the courses of his Thanksgiving dinner!""
""Just nuts! No turkey, nor puddin', nor anything?""
The crinkly grandheads all bobbed up from their plates and nut-pickers in amazement. Just nuts!
""Yes. Guess who he is?"" Grandfather's laughing eyes twinkled up the long table at grandmother.",-1.215512674,0.489927907
76f4e081f,,,"All was now quiet in the meeting-house save the calm, steady voice of the preacher. Pretty soon a wee creature dressed all in soft brown stole across the floor of a certain pew. She was a courageous little body indeed, but what mother would not venture a good deal for her hungry babies? Such a repast as this was certainly the opportunity of a lifetime. Looking cautiously around, then concluding that all was safe, she disappeared down a hole in a corner way under the seat. In a twinkling she was back again; this time, however, she was not alone. Four little ones pattered after Mamma Mouse, and eight bright eyes spied a dinner worth running for.
Never mind what they did; but when Johnnie awoke at the strains of the closing hymn and tried to remember what had gone wrong, he saw nothing of the pink-frosted cakes save some scattered crumbs.",-0.802785602,0.462168
7aad3c01f,,,"Be this as it might, the breach had begun when the Davis cattle broke down the worn fence and demolished the Dun crop of corn, and it widened when the Dun hogs found their way through an old water gap and rooted up a field of the Davis sweet potatoes. Several times similar depredations were repeated, and then shotguns were used on both sides with telling effect. The climax was reached when John Dun eloped with Rebecca, the only child of the Davises.
The young couple were forbidden their respective homes, though the farm they rented was scarce half a mile away, and the weeks rolled into months without sign of their parents relenting.
When Walter was born, however, the two grandmothers stole over, without their husbands' knowledge, and mingled their tears in happy communion over the tiny blue-eyed mite.",-1.964773354,0.49517044
1eafabcd1,,,"She ate her supper with a hearty appetite, said her prayers with John, and curled down on the featherbed in the cart, while John heaped on more wood, and, shouldering his musket, went to lengthen the ropes that tethered his oxen, and then mounted guard over the camp. Hannah watched his fine, grave face, as the flickering light illuminated it, for a few minutes, and then slept tranquilly till dawn. And by sunset next day the little party drew up at the door of the log hut they called home.
It looked very pretty to Hannah. She had the fairy gift, that is so rare among mortals, of seeing beauty in its faintest expression; and the young grass about the rough stone doorstep, the crimson cones on the great larch tree behind it, the sunlit panes of the west window, the laugh and sparkle of the brook that ran through the clearing, the blue eyes of the squirrel caps that blossomed shyly and daintily beside the stumps of new-felled trees—all these she saw and delighted in.",-1.237728792,0.490356608
13c214c34,,,"One day Robin was walking alone in the wood, and reached a river spanned by a very narrow bridge, over which one man only could pass. In the midst stood a stranger, and Robin bade him go back and let him go over. ""I am no man of yours,"" was all the answer Robin got, and in anger he drew his bow and fitted an arrow to it, ""Would you shoot a man who has no arms but a staff?"" asked the stranger in scorn; and with shame Robin laid down his bow, and unbuckled an oaken stick at his side. ""We will fight till one of us falls into the water,"" he said; and fight they did, till the stranger planted a blow so well that Robin rolled over into the river. ""You are a brave soul,"" said he, when he had waded to land, and he blew a blast with his horn which brought fifty good fellows, clad in green, to the little bridge.",0.384222695,0.47104469
3b3d2bad7,,,"Although the Farmer of Mount Vernon was much retired from the business world, he was by no means inattentive to the progress of public affairs. When the post bag arrived, he would select his letters and lay them aside for reading in the seclusion of his library. The newspapers he would peruse while taking his single cup of tea (his only supper) and read aloud passages of peculiar interest, remarking the matter as he went along. He read with distinctness and precision. These evenings with his family always ended at precisely nine o'clock, when he bade everyone good night and retired to rest, to rise again at four and renew the same routine of labour and enjoyment.
Washington's last days, like those that preceded them in the course of a long and well-spent life, were devoted to constant and careful employment. His correspondence both at home and abroad was immense. Yet no letter was unanswered. One of the best-bred men of his time, Washington deemed it a grave offence against the rules of good manners and propriety to leave letters unanswered.",-1.16337267,0.454724178
2490e8a15,,,"So the poor miller's daughter sat down. She hadn't the least idea of how to spin straw into gold, and at last she began to cry. Suddenly the door opened, and in stepped a tiny little man who said: ""Good evening, Miss Miller-maid; why are you crying so bitterly?""
""Oh!"" answered the girl, ""I have to spin straw into gold, and haven't the slightest notion how it's done."" ""What will you give me if I spin it for you?"" asked the manikin.
""My necklace,"" replied the girl.
The little man took the necklace, sat down at the wheel, and whir, whir, whir, round it went until morning, when all the straw was spun away, and all the bobbins were full of gold.
As soon as the sun rose, the King came, and when he saw the gold he was astonished and delighted, but he wanted more of the precious metal. He had the miller's daughter put into another room, much bigger than the first and full of straw, and bade her, if she valued her life, spin it all into gold before morning.",0.572044972,0.475316674
68f464a42,,,"Now it happened when the child was still very little that her father was obliged to go to the capital of the kingdom. As it was so long a journey, neither his wife nor his child could go with him and he departed alone, promising to bring them many pretty gifts on his return.
The mother had never been away from the neighborhood and was not able to get rid of some fear when she thought of the long journey her husband must take. At the same time, however, she could not but feel pride and satisfaction that it was her husband who was the first man in all that region to go to the rich city where the king and the nobles lived, and where there were so many beautiful and marvelous things to be seen.
At last, when the good wife knew that her husband would return, she dressed her child gaily in the best clothes she had and herself in the blue dress that she knew he liked very much.
It is not possible to describe the joy of the good woman when she saw her husband return safe and sound.",-0.492691685,0.485243083
1e1bc114d,,,"Out in the forest stood a pretty little Fir Tree. It had a good place; it could have sunlight, air there was in plenty, and all around grew many larger comrades—pines as well as firs. But the little Fir Tree wished ardently to become greater. It did not care for the warm sun and the fresh air; it took no notice of the peasant children, who went about talking together, when they had come out to look for strawberries and raspberries. The children often came with a whole basketful, or with a string of berries which they had strung on a straw. Then they would sit down by the little Fir Tree and say, ""How pretty and small this one is!"" The Fir Tree did not like that at all.
Next year he had grown bigger, and the following year he was taller still.
""Oh, if I were only as tall as the others!"" sighed the little Fir. ""Then I would spread my branches far around and look out from my crown into the wide world. The birds would then build nests in my boughs, and when the wind blew I would nod grandly.""",-0.290306006,0.520044345
6525f8ffd,,,"The Norse peoples believed that their gods lived above the earth in a wonderful city named Asgard. From this city they crossed to the earth on a bridge, which by people on earth was known as the rainbow.
It seems strange that any one who might have lived with the gods in their beautiful city of Asgard and have shared in their joys and their good works should have preferred to associate with the ugly, wicked giants. But that was the case with Loki—Red Loki, as he was called, because of his red hair. He was handsome like a god; he was wise and clever like a god—more clever than any of the other gods. In one way, however, he differed from the others; he had a bad heart, and liked much better to use his cleverness in getting gods and men into trouble than in making them happy. Besides this, he was very proud, and could not bear to submit even to Odin, the king of the gods.",0.604258906,0.507271585
f317805ab,,,"In the great square the boldest among the boys often tied their sledges to the country people's carts, and thus rode with them a good way. They went capitally. When they were in the midst of their playing there came a great sledge. It was painted quite white, and in it sat somebody wrapped in a rough, white fur, with a white, rough cap on his head. The sledge drove twice round the square, and Kay bound his little sledge to it, and so he drove on with it. It went faster and faster, straight into the next street. The man who drove turned round and nodded in a familiar way to Kay; it was as if they knew one another. Each time when Kay wanted to cast loose his little sledge, the stranger nodded again, and then Kay remained where he was, and thus they drove out at the town gate.",-1.73683059,0.522753723
2cc85e648,,,"Just such a farmhouse stood out in the country; and in this house dwelt an old couple—a peasant and his wife. Small as was their property, there was one article among it that they could do without—a horse, that lived on the grass it found by the side of the highroad. The old peasant rode into the town on this horse; and often his neighbors borrowed it of him, and rendered the old couple some service in return for the loan of it. But they thought it would be best if they sold the horse, or exchanged it for something that might be more useful to them. But what might this something be?
""You'll know that best, old man,"" said the wife. ""It is fair day today, so ride into town, and get rid of the horse for money, or make a good exchange; whichever you do will be right to me. Ride off to the fair.""",0.178615292,0.494941278
61e97c2ce,,,"Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house; and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. Then said the king unto her, ""What wilt thou, Queen Esther? and what is thy request? It shall be given thee even to the half of my kingdom.""
And Esther answered, ""If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him.""
Then the king said, ""Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther hath said.""
So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.",-1.557810164,0.46970495
cb5c0092d,,,"One day while they played and laughed and sang, vying with each other as to which could make the most beautiful garlands, they were startled by a strange rumbling sound. Nearer it came, louder it grew; and suddenly to the frightened eyes of the maidens there appeared a great chariot, drawn by four wild-looking, foam-flecked black steeds. Not long did the girls gaze at the horses or the chariot—all eyes were drawn in fascination to the driver of the car. He was handsome as only a god could be, and yet so gloomy that all knew instantly he could be none other than Pluto, king of the underworld.
Suddenly, while his horses were almost at full speed, he jerked them to a standstill. Then he sprang to the ground, seized Proserpina in his arms, mounted his chariot, and was off before the frightened nymphs could catch their breath to cry out.",-1.160410121,0.477601103
4fbca0146,,,"The house was dark and cold; but the poor man bade his wife wait and see what would happen. He placed the little hand-mill on the table, and began to turn the crank. First, out there came some grand, lighted wax candles, and a fire on the hearth, and a porridge-pot boiling over it, because in his mind he said they should come first. Then he ground out a tablecloth, and dishes, and spoons, and knives and forks, and napkins.
He was himself astonished at his good luck, as you may believe; and his wife was almost beside herself with joy and astonishment. Well, they had a capital supper; and after it was eaten, they ground out of the mill every possible thing to make their house and themselves warm and comfortable. So they had a merry Christmas eve and morning, made merrier by the thought that they need never want again.",-0.14670831,0.495686269
56dc08499,,,"The presidential election in the fall of 1848 aroused a good deal of interest, for Wisconsin had now become a state, and citizens could vote for national candidates. I was in Jonathan Piper's store one evening, with my father, when about a dozen men were present. A political discussion sprang up and grew hot, and finally a division was called for. Two or three voted for Zachary Taylor, the Whig candidate; one for Lewis Cass, the Democrat; and the rest for Martin Van Buren, Free Soiler. The State went with the lone voter, for Cass carried it by a small plurality.
Good health was the rule among the hardworking, plain-living pioneers, but plowing up the soil released the poison which nature seemed to have put there on guard, and every one at one time or another came down with the ""shakes."" However, the potent influence of sunshine, quinine, and cholagogue speedily won their way, and in a few years malaria had become a mere reminiscence.
In November, 1848, my parents moved to Beaver Dam, and thus our life in the Rock River country came to an end.",-0.889420014,0.479930268
d09e70eb3,,,"All that night the valiant captain and his men kept a careful and vigilant watch, for the Spanish were almost within gunshot. No sooner had daylight come, however, than the buccaneers weighed anchor and again set sail, starting their course for the Spanish vessels. The latter, seeing them come, themselves put on sail and moved to meet the attack. The fire ship in its place at the head of the line soon met the largest ship, and instantly grappled itself firmly to her side. Too late the Spaniards discovered their terrible danger, and although they made strenuous efforts to free themselves, they were unable to do so. The flames from the burning vessel seized upon the timber and rigging of the ship, and in a very short space of time consumed the stern of the vessel, leaving the fore part to sink into the sea, carrying with it the survivors.",-0.003118553,0.510084714
020e5345a,,,"It had been decided that Walter should follow his father's profession, that of the law, and accordingly he entered his father's office, to serve a five years' apprenticeship. Though it may seem surprising, in view of his former indolence, it is true that he gave himself to his work with great industry. At the same time, however, he continued to read stories of adventure and history and other similar works with as much zest as ever, and entered into an agreement with a friend whereby each was to entertain the other with original romances. The monotony of office duties was also relieved by many trips about the country, in which the keenest delight was felt in natural beauties and in the historical associations of old ruins and battlefields and other places of like interest. Then, too, there were literary societies that advanced the young law-apprentice both intellectually and socially. Thus the years with his father passed. Then, as he was to prepare himself for admission to the bar, he entered law classes in the University of Edinburgh, with the result that in 1792 he was admitted into the Faculty of Advocates.",-2.056437688,0.490444418
160038234,,,"When the lads reached home they told their plan to Willie's sister Matie, and then all three determined to carry it out.
""Rap-a-tap, tap,"" sounded briskly at the library door after supper. ""Come in,"" was the response, and in bounded the three children, their faces lighted up with smiles at the prospect of spending an evening with Uncle Jack.
""Welcome, youngsters,"" said he, in a cheery tone. ""But you look as if you were expecting something; what is it?""
""Oh, Uncle Jack, we want you to tell us all about pottery,"" cried the boys.
""Yes, please do,"" chimed in Matie.
""All about pottery? Why, my dear children, that's very like asking me to tell you all about the whole world, for a complete history of one would be almost a history of the other; and I could hardly do that, you know,"" said Uncle Jack, with a smile.
""Willie said you could talk about pottery all night,"" cried Matie.
""And so I might, dear, and not get further than the ABC of its history, after all,"" answered Uncle Jack.",-0.280993878,0.463259995
b9cca6661,,,"The principal business of the people of this country was the raising of sweet marjoram. The soil and climate were admirably adapted to the culture of the herb, and fields and fields of it were to be seen in every direction. At that time, and this was a good while ago, very little sweet marjoram was raised in other parts of the world, so this country had the trade nearly all to itself.
The great holiday of the year was the day on which the harvest of this national herb began. It was called ""Sweet Marjoram Day,"" and the people, both young and old, thought more of it than of any other holiday in the year.
On that happy day everybody went out into the fields. There was never a person so old, or so young, or so busy that they could not go to help in the harvest. Even when there were sick people, which was seldom, they were carried out to the fields and staid there all day. And they generally felt much better in the evening.",-0.74845172,0.433000257
2de580130,,,"Among many interesting reminiscences and reflections, this dignified and delightful old gentleman said he thought the young people of today were less mannerly than in the olden time, less deferential, less decorous. This may be true, and I tried to be sufficiently deferential to my courtly host, not to disagree with him. But when I look upon the young people of my own acquaintance, I recall that Jamie took the hand luggage as naturally as if he were born for nothing else; Frank never failed to open a door; Arthur pulled out Maggie's chair at table before he took his own; Nelly and Ruth came to my party sweet and bright as if they did not know that the young gentlemen whom they had expected to meet were prevented from attending; while Lucy will run herself out of breath for you, and Mary sits and listens with flattering intentness, and Anne and Alice and—well, looking over my constituency, I find the young people charming.",-1.740491482,0.453533745
0555a5d4c,,,"For a week, Jack wondered and mused within himself how he could get something for Christmas presents for his little sisters. He couldn't make anything at home without their seeing it, nor at school without the teacher's seeing it, or else the big boys plaguing him about it. Besides, he would rather buy something pretty, such as they had never seen before—china dolls in pink dresses, or something of that kind. One morning, however, Jack discovered some quail-tracks in the snow near the straw-stack, and he no longer wondered about ways and means, but in a moment was awake to the importance of this discovery. That very evening he made a wooden trap, and the next morning early set it near the stack, and laid an inviting train of wheat quite up to it, and scattered a little inside. He told his sisters, Mary and Janey, about the trap, but not about what he meant to do with the quails when he caught them.",0.938783027,0.51269741
17a410c5a,,,"Maggie soon thought she had been hours in the attic, and it must be tea time, and they were all having their tea, and not thinking of her. Well, then, she would stay up there and starve herself—hide herself behind the tub, and stay there all night—and then they would all be frightened, and Tom would be sorry. Thus Maggie thought in the pride of her heart, as she crept behind the tub; but presently she began to cry again at the idea that they didn't mind her being there. If she went down again to Tom now—would he forgive her? Perhaps her father would be there, and he would take her part. But then she wanted Tom to forgive her because he loved her, not because his father told him. No, she would never go down if Tom didn't come to fetch her.",0.277737321,0.486535066
dd3eebaf4,,,"It is said that loons have been caught in the New York lakes eighty feet beneath the surface, with hooks set for trout—though Walden is deeper than that. How surprised must the fishes be to see this ungainly visitor from another sphere speeding his way amid their schools! Yet he appeared to know his course as surely under water as on the surface, and swam much faster there. Once or twice I saw a ripple where he approached the surface, just put his head out to reconnoiter, and instantly dived again. I found that it was as well for me to rest on my oars and wait his reappearing as to endeavor to calculate where he would rise; for again and again, when I was straining my eyes over the surface one way, I would suddenly be startled by his unearthly laugh behind me.",-0.895007116,0.466532389
59e7951b6,,,"After a still winter night I awoke with the impression that some question had been put to me, which I had been endeavoring in vain to answer in my sleep, as what—how—when—where? But there was dawning Nature, in whom all creatures live, looking in at my broad windows with serene and satisfied face, and no question on her lips. I awoke to an answered question, to Nature and daylight. The snow lying deep on the earth dotted with young pines, and the very slope of the hill on which my house is placed, seemed to say, Forward! Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution. ""O Prince, our eyes contemplate with admiration and transmit to the soul the wonderful and varied spectacle of this universe. The night veils without doubt a part of this glorious creation; but day comes to reveal to us this great work, which extends from earth even into the plains of the ether.""",-2.063722887,0.484609263
0f01f53b1,,,"When the ground was not yet quite covered, and again near the end of winter, when the snow was melted on my south hillside and about my wood-pile, the partridges came out of the woods morning and evening to feed there. Whichever side you walk in the woods the partridge bursts away on whirring wings, jarring the snow from the dry leaves and twigs on high, which comes sifting down in the sunbeams like golden dust; for this brave bird is not to be scared by winter. It is frequently covered up by drifts, and, it is said, ""sometimes plunges from on wing into the soft snow, where it remains concealed for a day or two."" I used to start them in the open land also, where they had come out of the woods at sunset to ""bud"" the wild apple trees. They will come regularly every evening to particular trees, where the cunning sportsman lies in wait for them, and the distant orchards next the woods suffer thus not a little. I am glad that the partridge gets fed at any rate. It is Nature's own bird which lives on buds and diet-drink.",-0.282288378,0.487354895
2.56E+08,,,"The bull's-horn thorn does not grow at the mines in the forest, nor are the small ants attending on them found there. They seem specially adapted for the tree, and I have seen them nowhere else. Besides the little ants, I found another ant that lives on these acacias, whose habits appear to be rather different. It makes the holes of entrance to the thorns near the centre of one of each pair, and not near the end, and it is not so active as the other species. It is also rather scarce; but when it does occur, it occupies the whole tree, to the exclusion of the other. The glands on the acacia are also frequented by a small species of wasp. I sowed the seeds of the acacia in my garden, and reared some young plants. Ants of many kinds were numerous; but none of them took to the thorns for shelter, nor the glands and fruit-like bodies for food; for, as I have already mentioned, the species that attend on the thorns are not found in the forest.",-1.734617807,0.458624082
c77f6c356,,,"Though young Whittier was a wide-awake boy and eager to learn, there was only the district school, held for a few weeks each winter, for him to attend. Yet an opportunity was not lacking for bringing to light his poetic gift. One of his schoolmasters, who lived for part of the term in the Whittier home, used to read to the family from various interesting books, and one night chose for their entertainment a volume of Burns's poems. As the lines of the much-loved Scotch poet fell from the reader's lips, the young boy listened as he had never before listened in his life. His own power awakened and responded warmly to that of the older poet. From that hour, whether he was at home or at school, he found great pleasure in writing verses, which he often showed to his young friends.",-0.037241954,0.488941884
b9c1ffa01,,,"Though he was thoughtful beyond his years and had shown unusual poetic power, young Bryant was in other ways quite an ordinary boy. He was quiet and studious in the school room, but was active enough in the games played outside. Of the sports enjoyed by himself and the other boys of the district school, he writes: ""We amused ourselves with building dams across the rivulet, and launching rafts made of old boards on the collected water; and in winter, with sliding on the ice and building snow barricades, which we called forts, and, dividing the boys into two armies, and using snowballs for ammunition, we contended for the possession of these strongholds. I was one of their swiftest runners in the race, and not inexpert at playing ball, but, being of a slight frame, I did not distinguish myself in these sieges."" Sometimes, on long evenings, Cullen and his elder brother Austin would play that they were the heroes of whom they had read in the Iliad, and, fitted out with swords and spears and homemade armor, they would enact in the barn the great battles of the Trojan War.",-0.960598135,0.463352406
0a06bcbc4,,,"After graduating from Harvard, Holmes entered the Dane Law School at Cambridge. He did not feel at all sure, however, that he wished to be a lawyer, and at the end of a year he had so far lost interest in his studies that he gave them up. As the physician's calling seemed much more to his liking, he took two courses of study in a private school of medicine. This preparation was not, of course, sufficient to fit him for a larger practice, so a trip to Europe where he could study under the great professors of the School of Medicine at Paris became necessary. Accordingly, his parents, at some sacrifice to themselves, provided him with the required means, and he set sail from New York in the spring of 1833.
During the two years spent abroad, Holmes gave himself up wholly to his chosen study. ""I am more and more attached every day to the study of my profession.... I am occupied from morning to night, and as every one is happy when he is occupied, I enjoy myself as much as I could wish,"" he wrote home.",-0.517560783,0.485746244
c14989fd8,,,"When we are as yet small children, long before the time when those two grown ladies offer us the choice of Hercules, there comes up to us a youthful angel, holding in his right hand cubes like dice, and in his left spheres like marbles. The cubes are of stainless ivory, and on each is written in letters of gold—Truth. The spheres are veined and streaked and spotted beneath, with a dark crimson flush above where the light falls on them and in a certain aspect you can make out upon every one of them the three letters, L, I, E.
The child to whom they are offered very probably clutches at both. The spheres are the most convenient things in the world; they roll with the least possible impulse just where the child would have them. The cubes will not roll at all; they have a great talent for standing still, and always keep right side up.",-1.463607868,0.444637045
50e9e3fcd,,,"Lowell was a man of wide learning, and has a prominent place in American literature for his exceptional critical ability and delightful wit, and for the artistic excellence of both his prose and poetry; but the secret of his power lies not so much in these things as in the sincerity and vigor of thought that rise above all bookishness, and in the warm human feeling that reached out for the love of his fellow-men rather than for fame and distinction. Probably that which most endears him to his countrymen is the quality he attributes to others in these words of admiration: ""I am sure that both the President (Hayes) and his wife have in them that excellent new thing we call Americanism, which, I suppose, is that ‘dignity of human nature' which the philosophers of the last century were always seeking and never finding, and which, after all, consists, perhaps, in not thinking yourself either better or worse than your neighbors by reason of any artificial distinction.",-1.465672751,0.463842036
72d4c2ff5,,,"Although Miss Mitford was nineteen years older than Miss Barrett, the friendship which sprang up between them was most close, and lasted until Miss Mitford's death in 1855. Their correspondence was constant and voluminous, as was that, in fact, of Miss Barrett with all of her intimate friends. These letters of hers from her sick room are no more remarkable for number than for brightness and vivacity. Little mention is made of her ailments, except when her friends have specifically demanded news of her health, and the letters deal rather with literary than with other subjects. This was, of course, most natural; the invalid could have little news to communicate from her couch to her friends in the outer world. Her literary activity, too, increased, and she began to contribute to magazines poems of various kinds, which attracted much attention. Not all comment on them was favorable; the people declared that some of them were Sphinx-like—too difficult, if not impossible, of interpretation. But every one realized that here was a real poet, one of striking individuality, and, for a woman, most remarkable learning.",-1.038890428,0.476846532
4b3ebe537,,,"It was my misfortune to have a canoe which was very heavy and consequently sluggish. Because of this we were left behind the rest a little way, there being only four men beside myself in the boat. As the tide fell it left several shoals of sand naked, and hence we, not knowing the location of the channel amongst such a variety of streams, steered for over two miles into a shoal where we were forced to lie by until high water came. As soon as the tide began to turn, we rowed away, but in spite of all our endeavors, we could neither find nor overtake our companions. At ten o'clock, when the tide became low, we stuck an oar in the sands and by turns slept in our canoe, where we were pierced to the skin by the showers that fell in the night.",-0.727449806,0.44957747
88fd6ec35,,,"After his return from the Creek War, he was elected to Congress in 1826 and in 1828. He was defeated in 1830 and re-elected in 1832. When he was first elected he knew very little about the government, and was totally ignorant of his duties as a member of Congress, but here again his good common sense and bright mind came to his aid; and although he worked under great disadvantages, yet he won respect and admiration from the other law-makers. He was always a curious and noticeable figure in Washington, both on account of his dress, which was similar to that of his backwoods companions, and because of his manner, which was as strange as his clothes. Such a man could not help being noticed, and on a trip which he made to Philadelphia, New York and Boston, he was received everywhere kindly and added not a little to his fame.",0.06258012,0.514085345
a25af22ce,,,"There was some difference of opinion in respect to the hour of departure. The daytime, it was argued by some, would be preferable, since it would enable them to see the nature and extent of their danger, and to provide against it. Darkness would be much more likely to embarrass their own movements than those of the enemy, who were familiar with the ground. A thousand impediments would occur in the night, which might prevent them acting in concert, or obeying, or even ascertaining, the orders of the commander. But, on the other hand, it was urged that the night presented many obvious advantages in dealing with a foe who rarely carried his hostilities beyond the day. The late active operations of the Spaniards had thrown the Mexicans off their guard, and it was improbable they would anticipate so speedy a departure of their enemies. With celerity and caution, they might succeed, therefore, in making their escape from the town, possibly over the causeway, before their retreat should be discovered; and, could they once get beyond that pass of peril, they felt little apprehension for the rest.",-1.880072943,0.49884475
801e7775f,,,"All of the Greeks knew that they were setting out on a dangerous enterprise, but to the Spartans it meant more than that. Leonidas himself felt that he was going to his death, for the oracle at Delphi had foretold that Sparta should be saved if one of her kings should perish, and Leonidas was more than willing to make this sacrifice for his state. His three hundred followers, trained from childhood to look upon death as infinitely preferable to defeat, had, with that courage which has made their name an epithet indicating the highest sort of bravery, celebrated their funeral games before setting out. When they came to the pass of Thermopylae, they found a new cause for fear. This was the path which led over the mountains, and which made possible a descent of the enemy to the rear of those stationed in the pass. However, Leonidas was assured that this mountain track was practically unknown, and that the entrance to it was very difficult to find; so when he had sent a band of Phocians to guard it, he thought little more about it.",-0.795230717,0.471816966
27e1db8fc,,,"They set out for the king's palace. When they were come thither, Aylmer entrusted them to his steward, Athelbrus, whom he charged to bring them up in knightly ways. They were added to Aylmer's household, and taught all that squires of kings should know. But Horn was to come to greater things than this. He learnt quickly, and became beloved by every one; and most of all, Rimenhild, the king's daughter, loved him from the day when she first set eyes on him. Her love for him grew daily stronger and stronger, though she dared speak no word of it to him, for she was a princess, and he only a squire rescued by chance from the sea.
At length Rimenhild could hide her love no longer.
She sent for Athelbrus the steward, and bade him bring Horn to her bower.",-1.617710055,0.501321503
84badb218,,,"Horn, flushed with rage, went to the stable, and set saddle on his steed, and took his arms; so fierce was his mien that none dared withstand him. When all was ready for his going, he sought out Rimenhild. ""Your dream was true, dear love,"" he said. ""The fish has torn your net, and I go from you. But I will put a new ending to the dream; fear not. Now fare you well; the king your father has cast me out of his realm, and I must needs seek adventure in other lands. Seven years will I wander, and it may be that I shall win such fortune as shall bring me back to sue honorably for you. But if at the end of seven years I have not come again to Westerness, nor sent word to you, then do you, if you so will, take another man for husband in my stead, and put me out of your heart. Now for the last time hold me in your arms and kiss me good-bye.""
So Horn took his leave.",-1.681722432,0.523599699
c1f093311,,,"Horn drained the beaker, and as he put it down dropped into it the ring that Rimenhild had given him so long ago. When Rimenhild saw the ring she knew it at once. She made an excuse, and left the feast, and went to her bower. In a little time she sent for the palmer secretly, and asked him where he got the ring.
""Queen,"" said Horn, ""in my travels I met one named Horn. He gave me this ring to bring to you; it was on shipboard I met him, and he lay dying.""
He said this to prove if her love were still constant to him. But Rimenhild believed him, and when she heard him say that Horn was dead, became as one mad with grief. Then Horn, seeing how strong was her love, threw off his palmer's cloak, and showed her the false stain on his face, and told her that he was in very truth Horn, her lover.",-1.07873501,0.441905244
902dc6da5,,,"Thus Horn came into his kingdom again; but he had yet to punish Fikenhild the traitor, who first separated him from Rimenhild (for this Aylmer had told him), and King Modi, who had sought to wed her against her will.
Fikenhild, when Horn came back to Westerness in time to save Rimenhild from Modi, had fled; but he still plotted deep treachery in his heart. By bribes and favours he won many knights to follow him; and he built himself a great castle of stone, set on a rock, surrounded on all sides with water, so that none could come at it easily. Then by stealth one night he and Rimenhild carried off and married in this castle, holding a great feast at sunrise to celebrate the marriage.
Horn knew nought of this by word of mouth or letter. But in a dream he beheld Rimenhild: she seemed to him as though shipwrecked, calling upon his name; but when she tried to swim to him, Fikenhild appeared and prevented her.",-2.934846302,0.520873334
51cd672ae,,,"Their voyage prospered, and they landed safely in Denmark, in the dominions of one Ubbe, a rich earl, who had been a friend of King Birkabeyn, Havelok's father.
When Havelok heard who was lord of that part of Denmark, he was glad, and set out to go to Ubbe's castle in good hope. He dared not say yet that he was Birkabeyn's son, for if Earl Godard heard of it, he would come against him and slay him before he could win any followers. But he went to Ubbe and spoke him fair and courteously, and gave him a gold ring, and asked leave to settle in that land to be a merchant; and Ubbe, seeing how strong and comely Havelok was, gladly gave him leave, and thereafter bade him to a great feast. Havelok went to the feast, and Goldborough with him, and Grim's sons also; and Ubbe grew to love him so well that when the feast was ended, he sent him with ten knights and sixty men-at-arms to the magistrate of those parts, Bernard Brun, a man of might and substance.",-2.415774514,0.561061627
f2f4c3e8c,,,"Near the great palace of the marquis there stood a small village, where a number of poor folk dwelt. Among them lived a man called Janicola, the poorest of them all. Janicola had a daughter named Griselda, the fairest maiden under the sun. She had been brought up simply, knowing more of labour than of ease, and she worked hard to keep her father's old age in comfort. All day long she sat spinning and watching sheep in the fields; when she came home to their poor cottage in the evening she would bring with her a few herbs, which she would cut up and cook, to make herself a meal before she lay down to rest on her hard bed; and she had not a moment idle till she was asleep.
Walter had often seen this maiden as he rode out a-hunting, and he was filled with pleasure at the sight of her loveliness and her gentle, kindly life. In his heart he had vowed to marry none other than her, if ever he did marry.",-1.115211471,0.483577083
33c8209b0,,,"They met on an island in the river Rhone, and the warriors of both camps were ranged on either shore, spectators of the battle. At the first encounter both lances were shivered, but both riders kept their seats, immovable. They dismounted, and drew their swords. Then ensued a combat which seemed so equal, that the spectators could not form an opinion as to the probable result. Two hours and more the knights continued to strike and parry, to thrust and ward, neither showing any sign of weariness, nor ever being taken at unawares. At length Roland struck furiously upon Oliver's shield, burying Durindana in its edge so deeply that he could not draw it back, and Oliver, almost at the same moment, thrust so vigorously upon Roland's breastplate that his sword snapped off at the handle. Thus were the two warriors left weaponless. Scarcely pausing a moment, they rushed upon one another, each striving to throw his adversary to the ground, and failing in that, each snatched at the other's helmet to tear it away. Both succeeded, and at the same moment they stood bareheaded face to face, and Roland recognized Oliver, and Oliver, Roland.",-1.258497662,0.473374328
d2bc997b6,,,"Then said the king to Ganelon, ""Whom shall I make captain of the rear-guard which I leave behind?"" Ganelon answered, ""Roland; for there is none like him in all the host."" So Charles made Roland captain of the rear-guard. With Roland there remained behind, Oliver, his dear comrade, and the twelve peers, and Turpin the archbishop, who for love of Roland would fain go with him, and twenty thousand proven warriors. Then said the king to his nephew, ""Good Roland, behold, the half of my army have I given thee in charge. See thou keep them safely."" Roland answered, ""Fear nothing. I shall render good account of them.""
So they took leave of one another, and the king and his host marched forward till they reached the borders of Spain. And ever as the king thought upon his nephew whom he left behind, his heart grew heavy with an ill foreboding. So they came into Gascoigny and saw their own lands again. But Charles would not be comforted, for being come into France he would sit with his face wrapped in his mantle, and he often spake to Duke Naymes, saying he feared that Ganelon had wrought some treason.",-2.048224387,0.49880105
21ea485fb,,,"A little within the wood there was a fair castle, with a double moat, and surrounded by stout walls. Here dwelt that noble knight, Sir Richard Lee, to whom Robin Hood had lent the four hundred pounds to redeem his land.
He saw the little company of outlaws fighting their way along, so he hastened to call them to come and take shelter in his castle.
""Welcome art thou, Robin Hood! Welcome!"" he cried, as he led them in. ""Much I thank thee for thy comfort and courtesy and great kindness to me in the forest. There is no man in the world I love so much as thee. For all the proud Sheriff of Nottingham, here thou shalt be safe!—Shut the gates, and draw the bridge, and let no man come in!"" he shouted to his retainers. ""Arm you well; make ready; guard the walls! One thing, Robin, I promise thee: here shalt thou stay for twelve days as my guest, to sup, and eat, and dine.""
Swiftly and readily tables were laid and cloths spread, and Robin Hood and his merry men sat down to a good meal.",-1.302687606,0.450398936
a04741371,,,"The king dwelt for many months in Nottingham, but no man came to claim the knight's lands, nor could he ever hear of Robin Hood in what part of the country he might be. But always Robin went freely here and there, roving wherever he chose over hill and valley, slaying the king's deer, and disposing of it at his will.
Then a head forester, who was in close attendance on the king, spoke up, and said:
""If you would see good Robin you must do as I tell you. Take five of the best knights that are in your train, and go down to yonder abbey, and get you monks' habits. I will be your guide to show you the way, and before you get back to Nottingham I dare wager my head that you will meet with Robin if he be still alive. Before you come to Nottingham you shall see him with your own eyes.""
The king hastened to follow the forester's counsel; he and his five monks went to the abbey, and speedily disguised themselves in the garb of monks, and then blithely returned home through the greenwood.",-0.714008756,0.506864163
5cb5ab998,,,"When they drew near Nottingham, all the people stood to behold them. They saw nothing but mantles of green covering all the field; then every man began saying to another: ""I dread our king is slain; if Robin Hood comes to the town, he will never leave one of us alive. ""They all hastened to make their escape, both men and lads, yeomen and peasants; the ploughman left the plough in the fields, the smith left his shop, and old wives who could scarcely walk hobbled along on their staves.
The king laughed loud and long to see the townsfolk scurry off in this fashion, and he commanded them to come back. He soon let them understand that he had been in the forest, and that from that day for evermore he had pardoned Robin Hood. When they found out the tall outlaw in the Lincoln green was really the king, they were overjoyed; they danced and sang, and made great feasting and revelry for gladness at his safe return.",-1.541347178,0.478166324
622f6215e,,,"About this time there was living in Nottingham a jolly tanner whose name was Arthur-a-Bland. Never a squire in Nottingham could beat Arthur, or bid him stand if he chose to go on. With a long pike-staff on his shoulder he could clear his way so well he made every one fly before him.
One summer's morning Arthur-a-Bland went forth into Sherwood Forest to see the deer, and there he met Robin Hood. As soon as Robin saw him he thought he would have some sport, so he called to him to stand.
""Why, who art thou, fellow, who rangest here so boldly?"" he said. ""In sooth, to be brief, thou lookst like a thief who comes to steal the king's venison. I am a keeper in the forest; the king puts me in trust to look after the deer. Therefore I must bid thee stand.""",-2.054283749,0.538083962
141c0439d,,,"For a time Kitty gazed wonderingly on the swiftly passing scenes, but by and by the little head drooped, the eyelids closed, and Maggie took the sleeping child into her lap, and let her sleep there until they reached the railroad station at Cairo and stepped out into the din and confusion of the motley crowd. With a bewildered look Kitty leaned back in the carriage which conveyed them to the New Hotel, opposite the Esbekiyah Gardens; then, as they approached the entrance, she looked up at the great building with its many balconies and columns, and exclaimed: ""It looks just like a big church organ, Mamma.""
Many exciting days followed before they left for their trip up the Nile. The bright sunshine of that cloudless sky appeared to revive the invalid. It seemed, she said, as if she could feel it warm in her lungs and heart, and she brightened so in the change that they all gathered hope and courage, and went about on merry little trips to the many objects of interest around Cairo, before their floating home was ready for their departure.",-0.852108946,0.46793507
4d58c662c,,,"I take drawing. There is a nice lady to teach it. She wears a white sack with red pockets, and a blue bow. She pulls her hair down over her head. She says we must draw things, when we look at them. I drew a dog, but it came out a lamb. I can make a very nice bird. Jim put the feathers on to the tail.
Mr. Wiseman has got some snakes in some bottles, and a frog and a toad. He has got some grasshoppers with a pin stuck through them, and a spider and some potato-bugs. It is the museum. He thinks a great deal of them.
There is a football, and we play it. It is as big as a pumpkin, but you kick it. Then you get kicked and knocked down and your leg hurt; but you don't cry. You never cry except when Jim's asleep in the night, and your throat aches pretty bad.
There is twenty-four more days on the peace of paper.
Give my love to Tooty. How is the baby?",-0.390542046,0.465276535
2aa6a6a85,,,"The American horses, in time, met the wild horses, and then men noticed that they were very different animals. The wild horse is smaller and more muscular, he has stronger and stouter limbs, a larger head, and a more bushy mane and tail. His ears are longer and more inclined to lie back on his head, his feet are smaller and more pointed in front, and his hair is rougher and thicker. His color is often curiously mixed in black and white dots and flecks, like some circus horses that you may have seen; and, if his color is uniform, it is generally dark red or deep gray or mouse color. These mustangs are quite wild, and have no fixed feeding-ground. They scamper in droves over the rolling prairies and pampas, and sleep at night in such dry places as they can find. They keep in companies for protection against bears or other wild animals, and if they are attacked, they put their noses together and form a circle with their heels out, as if they had been told of the old Spanish fighting days, and of the soldiers forming with their pikes solid squares to resist attacks of cavalry.",-0.68799695,0.459371543
1bc431649,,,"When Catherine, that cold morning, inspected the woeful emptiness of the cupboard, she wrung her cold blue hands in despair; but, wring her poor little hands ever so much, she could not squeeze good bread and meat out of them; something must be done, and that immediately, if she would save the children from starving. At length she bethought herself that many rich people of Kaboutermannekensburg were fond of burning pine-cones instead of rough logs, not only on account of the bright, warm and crackling fire they produced, but also because of the sweet resinous odor that they threw out, filling the house with a perfume like that which arose from the censers in the cathedral.
It was woeful weather for Catherine to go hunting for pine-cones. The snow lay a good foot deep over the glossy brown treasures, and she herself was but thinly clad; yet the children must have bread. Not having eaten any breakfast that morning, she slipped the remnant of the loaf into the basket to serve as lunch, and then started to face the wind toward the forest.",-0.963075801,0.453296524
24e274809,,,"It was a lovely summer evening, toward the end of July, that the party of friends were all together upon the lawn; they had drawn the garden chairs up, and, after the game of croquet in which Madeleine and Howard had succeeded in beating Ethel and Martin, were prepared to devote the remainder of the evening to chat. Seeing this, Mr. Morton had put away his book, and drawn up his chair beside them, while Mrs. Morton, regardless of falling dews and rising damp, had followed the example of her husband.
""Now,"" said Mr. Morton, ""short holidays, like this Saturday afternoon, are good; but are not long holidays better? And now that everybody is thinking of taking a trip somewhere or other, should not we ‘do as Rome does,' and think of the same thing?""
""I suppose, sir, we all have been thinking of it, more or less, for the past year,"" said Martin; ""and I for one must think of it seriously, for my holidays are fixed by official rules, and begin very soon.""",-0.114236961,0.474851549
5258eed6d,,,"Supper was ready and waiting. Our guest had not arrived, but there was another train an hour later. Should the family wait for my friend, or should I alone, who was the personage especially to be visited? My father paced the floor nervously, as was his wont when he felt disturbed. He had the evening papers to read, and he never opened them until after tea. This was a habit of his. He was very fixed—or, as some express it, ""set""—in his little ways. It was Bridget's evening out, and she had begun to show a darkened visage. Bridget was no friend to ""company,"" and it was policy to conciliate her. So the family seated themselves at the table, and I sat near, waiting until brother John should be ready to accompany me a second time to the station.
""What about this young lady friend of yours, Nelly?"" asked my father. ""Is she one of the unreliable sort — a little addicted to tardiness, that is?""
""I am obliged to confess, Papa, that at boarding-school, where I longest knew Jeannette, she was inclined to be dilatory; but that was years ago. It is to be hoped that she has changed since then.""",-0.978116657,0.498627129
7344729b8,,,"Now, at that time there was always a war going on somewhere or other, and the French armies were fighting in every part of Europe; and the king cared very little who his officers were, or where they came from, if they were only brave men and clever fighters, and ready to go wherever he liked to send them. So, as you may think, it was not long before our friend Maurice, who was quite as brave as any of them, and a good deal cleverer than most, began to make his way. First, he got to be a lieutenant, then a captain, then a major, then a colonel, and at last, while he was still quite a young man, he came out as Count de Saxe, and Field-Marshal of the Army of Flanders, with fifty thousand men under him! That was pretty good promotion, wasn't it?
But, although he had got on so fast, no one could say that it was more than he deserved; for he was by far the best general that France had had for many a day.",-1.258051132,0.465344628
ab4947fd2,,,"So Mandy on the door-step, and Bub on the floor, with his back against the door, which he gently tilted as he munched his cake, were very silent and comfortable for a minute or two.
The hens crawed and cackled, with cozy, gossipy noises, in the sun before the door; the baby blinked and cooed contentedly.
""Ready for another bite?"" said Bub, holding out Mandy's cake close to her left ear.
""In a minute,"" said Mandy, with her mouth full. ""Bub Lewis, aint you ashamed of yourself? You've been eatin' off my piece! I saw you just now!""
""Aint, either! You can see great things with the back of your head! Here's your piece 'n' here's mine. Yours is ever so much bigger!""
""Well, you've been gobbling yours's fast's you could, and I only had two little bites off mine.""
""Little bites! I sh'd think so! Don't know what you call big ones, then! So chuck full you couldn't speak half a minute ago. Here, hold your own cake, and let baby grab it!""
""Well, I'd rather give it all to him, than have you eat it up on the sly!""",-0.994652967,0.478931746
680ff0495,,,"Elizabeth Eliza wanted to have some system in the moving, and spent the evening in drawing up a plan. It would be easy to arrange everything beforehand, so that there should not be the confusion that her mother dreaded, and the discomfort they had in their last move. Mrs. Peterkin shook her head, she did not think it possible to move with any comfort. Agamemnon said a great deal could be done with a list and a program.
Elizabeth Eliza declared if all were well arranged a program would make it perfectly easy. They were to have new parlor carpets, which could be put down in the new house the first thing. Then the parlor furniture could be moved in, and there would be two comfortable rooms, in which Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin could sit, while the rest of the move went on. Then the old parlor carpets could be taken up for the new dining-room and the down-stairs bedroom, and the family could meanwhile dine at the old house. Mr. Peterkin did not object to this, though the distance was considerable, as he felt exercise would be good for them all.",-1.076623524,0.458265351
a99532546,,,"When Soupramany perceived what a fine fish he had caught, he uttered one of those long, low gurgling notes of satisfaction by which an elephant expresses joy; and he waited patiently, expecting Jim to take his prize off the hook and put on some more bait for him. But Jim, the little rascal, sometimes liked to plague Old Soup. He nodded at us, as much as to say, ""Look out, and you'll see fun, now!"" Then he took off the fish, which he threw into a water-jar placed there for the purpose, and went back to his place without putting any bait on Old Soup's hook. The intelligent animal did not attempt to throw his line into the water. He tried to move Jim by low, pleading cries. It was curious to see what tender tones he seemed to try to give his voice.
Seeing that Jim paid no attention to his calls, but sat and laughed as he handled his own line, Old Soup went up to him, and with his trunk tried to turn his head in the direction of the bait-box.",-2.058022647,0.50402287
b7120e247,,,"Now, one final washing in acid, then in water, and these much-enduring bits of metal are admitted to the coining-room, there to receive the stamp which testifies to their worth. In the coining-room the planchets are first given to the milling-machine. They are laid down flat between two steel rings, and as the rings move one draws nearer to the other, and the planchets are squeezed and crowded on every side, and finding no escape they turn up about the edges and come out at the end of the sorry little journey with a rim raised around the edges. Beyond the milling-machines stand the ten coining-presses. These presses are attended by women. Watch this one near us. At her right hand is a box containing silver planchets, which are to be coined into fifty-cent pieces. On that round ""die,"" which you see in the center of the machine, are engraved the letters and figures which are to appear on the back of the half-dollar. Directly above the die, on the end of a rod, which works up and down with the most exquisite accuracy, is the sunken impression of the face.",-2.641977952,0.515031809
45aac7fda,,,"It seemed to Sam that the whole country around, as far as one could see, was transformed into one great field, in a perfect state of cultivation. But the growing ""crop"" was not one of cotton, or corn, or cow-peas, or sorghum, or anything else that he had ever before seen in such a place. Coming up out of the ground were long rows of very singular bushes, whereof the stalks were sticks of candy, and the leaves were blackberry pies, and over the whole field was falling a drenching rain of molasses. Sam, however, was most astonished at the curious fruit that the bushes bore. The twigs of some of them supported jew's-harps and tin trumpets; others bent beneath a wealth of fire-crackers and Roman candles; others, again, were weighted with his favorite sardines; and so on in endless variety. It is not at all surprising that the idea occurred to him that this crop ought to be ""picked.""",-0.888960128,0.46286824
f85f5ef42,,,"Mayday festivals were not confined to the British islands. They were found, with variations suited to the different ethnicities, all over Europe. In France, the day was consecrated to the Mary Virgin, and young girls celebrated it by dressing the prettiest one in white, crowning, and decorating her with flowers, and throning her under a canopy of flowers and greens, built beside the road. There she sat in state, while her attendants begged of passers-by, for the ""Lady of the May,"" money, which was used in a feast later in the day.
In Toulouse, there was an ancient custom of giving a prize of a golden violet for the best poem. This custom held its place for more than four centuries. May-poles also flourished in France, and had gilt pendants.
The Dutch Maypole was still different, being surrounded by trees stuck into flower-pots, and ornamented with colored flags, and hoops with garlands and gilt balls hanging. Another sort had wooden dolls made to represent the figures of peasants, nailed against the pole by their hands and knees, as though climbing it.",-0.56108449,0.468405042
bf1f402ca,,,"""When you want a thing done well, do it yourself,"" is an old saying, and a very good one; but it is not always possible or desirable to carry out this advice. Therefore it is sometimes better to adopt an amendment to this proverb, and make it read thus: ""When you want a thing done well, do it yourself, or see it done.""
So thought Louis IX. of France, sometimes called St. Louis, because he was considered to be rather better than most people.
Among his good qualities was kindness to the lower classes of his nation. He would go about, very plainly dressed, and attended by two or three courtiers, and visit people in their houses. He took an interest in their personal affairs, and when they were very needy, he would order bread and other food to be supplied to them. Of course, this made him a great favorite with these classes of his subjects, and they were glad not only to receive his bounty, but also to talk with him and tell him about their many troubles.",-0.426813005,0.478219957
09c41e31e,,,"There was once a young man who spent all his time in traveling. One day, as he was walking along, he picked up a snuffbox. He opened it, and the snuffbox said to him in the Spanish language: ""What do you want?"" He was very much frightened, but, luckily, instead of throwing the box away he only shut it tight and put it in his pocket. Then he went on, away, away, away, and as he went he said to himself, ""if it says to me again, 'What do you want?' I shall know better what to say this time."" So he took out the snuffbox and opened it, and again it asked: ""What do you want?"" ""My hat full of gold,"" answered the youth, and immediately it was full.
Our young man was enchanted. Henceforth he should never be in need of anything. So on he traveled, away, away, away, through thick forests, till at last he came to a beautiful castle.",1.465592368,0.639017564
8a229dc14,,,"Once upon a time there lived a huntsman. He would go every day in search of game, but it often happened that he killed nothing, and so was obliged to return home with his bag empty. On that account he was nicknamed ""Huntsman the Unlucky."" At last he was reduced by his ill fortune to such extremities that he had not a piece of bread nor a kopek left. The wretched man wandered about the forest, cold and hungry; he had eaten nothing for three days, and was nearly dying of starvation. He lay down on the grass determined to put an end to his existence; happily better thoughts came into his mind; he crossed himself, and threw away the gun. Suddenly he heard a rustling noise near him. It seemed to issue from some thick grass close at hand. The hunter got up and approached the spot. He then observed that the grass partly hid a gloomy abyss, from the bottom of which there rose a stone, and on it lay a small jar.",-0.06499875,0.491347668
5d4c76dc2,,,"The poor old man felt sorry for the fish if they had to be under her rule, for prosperity had quite spoiled her. However, he dared not disobey, and once more summoned his powerful friend.
""Make your wife the Queen of the Waters?"" exclaimed the Gold Fish. ""That is the last thing I should do. She is unfit to reign, for she cannot rule herself or her desires. I shall make her once more a poor old woman. Adieu! You will see me no more.""
The old man returned sorrowfully with this unpleasant message, to find the palace transformed into a humble cabin, and his wife in a skirt of threadbare stuff in place of the rich brocade which she had worn of late. She was sad and humble, and much more easy to live with than she had been before. Her husband therefore had occasion many times to think gratefully of the Gold Fish, and sometimes when drawing up his net the glint of the sun upon the scales of his captives would give him a moment's hope-which, alas! was as often disappointed-that once again he was to see his benefactor.",-1.101862676,0.455044208
659e6b1af,,,"A certain man had a shepherd who had served him faithfully and honestly for many years. One day, as the Shepherd was tending his sheep, he heard a hissing noise in the forest, and wondered what it could he. He went, therefore, into the wood in the direction of the sound, to learn what it was. There he saw that the dry grass and leaves had caught fire, and in the middle of a burning circle a Snake was hissing. The Shepherd stopped to see what the Snake would do, for the fire was burning all around it, and the flames approached it nearer and nearer every moment. Then the Snake cried from amid the fire.
""Oh, Shepherd! for heaven's sake save me from this fire!""
The Shepherd stretched out his crook over the flames to the Snake, and the Snake passed along it on to his hand, and from his hand it crawled to his neck, where it twisted itself round.",-0.095749985,0.464405593
4549ad3c0,,,"There once lived an emperor whose name was Trojan. This emperor had goat's ears, and he used to call in barber after barber to shave him. But whoever went in never came out again; for while the barber was shaving him, the emperor would ask what he observed uncommon in him, and when the barber would answer that he observed his goat's ears, the Emperor would immediately be mad at him.
At last it came to the turn of a certain barber to go who feigned illness, and sent his apprentice instead. When the apprentice appeared before the emperor he was asked why his master did not come, and he answered, ""Because he is ill."" Then the emperor sat down, and allowed the youth to shave him.
As he shaved him the apprentice noticed the emperor's goat's ears, but when Trojan asked him what he had observed, he answered, ""I have observed nothing.""
Then the emperor gave him twelve ducats, and said to him, ""From this time forth you shall always come and shave me.""",-0.374500006,0.541114961
acd3f0207,,,"There was a king long ago in Ireland. He had three sons, and one of them was something silly. There came a sickness on the king, and he called his three sons. He said to them that he had knowledge the only thing would cure him was the apples from Burnett's orchard. So he bade them to go look for them, for that orchard was in some far-away place, and no one could tell where it was.
The three sons went then, and they caught their horses, put on their bridles, set out, and went on till they came to three crossroads. They went on till they came to three crossroads. There they stopped, and they settled among themselves that each one of them would take one of the roads and go searching for the apples, and they would meet at the same place at the end of a year and a day.",0.624751002,0.490944687
f449a79ae,,,"There once lived in a small town in China a man named Hok Lee. He was a steady, industrious man, who not only worked hard at his trade, but did all his own housework as well, for he lived alone. ""What an excellent, industrious man is this Hok Lee!"" said his neighbors. ""How hard he works! He never leaves his house to amuse himself or to take a holiday as others do!""
But Hok Lee was by no means the virtuous person his neighbors thought him. True, he worked hard enough by day, but at night, when all respectable folk were fast asleep, he used to steal out and join a dangerous band of robbers, who broke into rich people's houses and carried off all they could lay hands on.
This state of things went on for some time, and though a thief was caught now and then and punished, no suspicion ever fell on Hok Lee, he was such a very respectable, hard-working man.",0.687905293,0.54093534
a276c10e3,,,"When the Old Woman reached her cabin she sat down by the door and wailed, for she knew that she had no means of defending herself against the Boar. While she sat crying a vender of needles came along and asked her what was the matter. She told him, but all that he could do for her was to give her a box of needles. The Old Woman stuck the needles thickly over the lower half of the door, on its outer side, and then went on crying.
Just then a Man came along with a basket of crabs, heard her lamentations, and stopped to inquire what was the matter. She told him, but he said he knew no help for her, but he would do the best he could for her by giving her half his crabs. The woman put the crabs in her water jar, behind her door, and again sat down and cried.",-0.406253077,0.487510701
d1fa0d1f4,,,"Nagari was much troubled at this saying, and marveled greatly. Then one woman made bold to rise up, and saying, ""I shall return,"" she went to seek the sweet music. Now this woman never returned. After a time, another woman arose and said, ""Stay here, my friends; I shall return.""
Then she went in like manner to look for the music. And she returned not. And so with each woman, until Nagari was left sitting alone as he had been at the beginning.
Now Webubu was still playing his flute on the platform he had built in the corkwood tree, when the women came in sight. He was alarmed for the safety of his frail platform, when he saw these many people advancing, and he cried, ""Come not up into the tree. Remain below, I beseech you, O women!""
But the women were consumed with eagerness to be close to the music which had taken their hearts, and they climbed, all of them, until they were upon the platform of Webubu.",-1.669863846,0.465473277
07de53e3c,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Battle of Britain was an attack by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) on Great Britain during the summer and autumn of 1940.
The first objective of the campaign was to gain control of the air space above Britain from the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command.
The name comes from a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of Commons: ""The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin..."" 
The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was also the largest and longest aerial bombing campaign to that date.
From July 1940 coastal shipping convoys and shipping centres, such as Portsmouth, were the main targets. A month later the Luftwaffe shifted its attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure (other useful war targets). As the battle progressed the Luftwaffe also targeted aircraft factories and ground infrastructure.",-0.156618699,0.492982768
a26e55bea,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saratoga,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Battle of Saratoga is considered the turning point of the American Revolution. The battle was fought in late 1777. I. It was actually two engagements: the Battle of Freeman's Farm (September 19) and the Battle of Bemis Heights (October 7). The Americans were led by General Horatio Gates. The British were led by General John Burgoyne. On October 17 Burgoyne surrendered his army of nearly 6,000 British soldiers. The American victory helped convince France to come to the aid the Continental Army. It also helped them recognize the United States.
In early 1777, General William Howe asked London to approve his plan to attack Philadelphia. This would destroy the rebel American government. In Canada, General John Burgoyne submitted a plan to move down through New York and meet General Howe at Albany. This would divide the colonies. London approved both plans. Burgoyne began moving down the Hudson River valley from Canada. He split his force into two columns. One, under Colonel Barry St. Leger moved east from Lake Ontario down the Mohawk Valley. They attacked the Americans at Fort Stanwix. The Americans sent two parties to relieve the fort.",-0.814380276,0.447234412
5127fb10f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Battle of Waterloo was a battle that was fought mostly between French and British forces. Napoleon was crowned as Emperor of France in 1804. Then he launched many successful attacks on other countries in Europe. France soon had an empire that stretched from Spain to the Russian border. The only country that was still not captured was Great Britain. The Royal Navy had many ships, so invasion by France was not possible. However, Great Britain was not strong enough to stop Napoleon and his army from taking over most of mainland Europe.
Napoleon seemed unstoppable until two separate campaigns caused his empire to fall apart. He gathered a huge army to invade and conquer Russia once and for all in 1812. However, he did not think that he would have very many difficulties and it turned out he did. His army was caught by the Russian winter and destroyed by the weather and lack of food.",-0.338547583,0.475986483
a6045da7b,,,"Many people like to learn about their family histories: what their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents were like and where they came from, or if they are related to an important historical person. Or, they might like to know if a physical feature or behavior they share with an aunt or cousin was passed down from a common relative. Scientists called paleoanthropologists, are interested in the family history of Homo sapiens, the species to which all people living today belong. Unlike paleontologists who study the remains of dinosaurs, paleoanthropologists scientists who study ancient humans and their relatives, study the remains of hominins, a group of primates that includes humans and all of their extinct ancestors and relatives.. Hominins are a group of primates that includes humans and all our extinct ancestors and relatives, most of whom lived in the last 6–7 million years. Like someone trying to trace a family tree, paleoanthropologists try to figure out which of the extinct hominins might be our direct ancestors and which are just distant cousins. These scientists also try to understand what the hominins ate, where they lived, how they died, and other things about the lives of these ancient relatives.",-0.820523406,0.475767097
0d3a8f33b,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate. Challenges include analysis, capture, data curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, visualization, querying, updating and information privacy. The term often refers simply to the use of predictive analytics, user behavior analytics, or certain other advanced data analytics methods that extract value from data, and seldom to a particular size of data set. Accuracy in big data may lead to more confident decision making, and better decisions can result in greater operational efficiency, cost reduction and reduced risk.
Analysis of data sets can find new correlations to ""spot business trends, prevent diseases, combat crime and so on."" Scientists, business executives, practitioners of medicine, advertising and governments alike regularly meet difficulties with large data sets in areas including Internet search, finance, urban informatics, and business informatics.",-1.634185368,0.517197142
7073d1ef3,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Biodiesel can also be used as a heating fuel in domestic and commercial boilers, a mix of heating oil and biofuel which is standardized and taxed slightly differently from diesel fuel used for transportation. Bioheat fuel is a proprietary blend of biodiesel and traditional heating oil. Bioheat is a registered trademark of the National Biodiesel Board [NBB] and the National Oilheat Research Alliance [NORA] in the U.S., and Columbia Fuels in Canada. Heating biodiesel is available in various blends. ASTM 396 recognizes blends of up to 5 percent biodiesel as equivalent to pure petroleum heating oil. Blends of higher levels of up to 20% biofuel are used by many consumers. Research is underway to determine whether such blends affect performance.
Older furnaces may contain rubber parts that would be affected by biodiesel's solvent properties, but can otherwise burn biodiesel without any conversion required. Care must be taken, however, given that varnishes left behind by Petro diesel will be released and can clog pipes- fuel filtering and prompt filter replacement is required.",-2.492674043,0.521319637
e83e2cc69,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiversity,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Biodiversity, a contraction of ""biological diversity,"" generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. One of the most widely used definitions defines it in terms of the variability within species, between species and between ecosystems. It is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation (number of species) within an area, biome, or planet. Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth. It is richest in the tropics. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, but will be likely to slow in the future.",-1.719895591,0.47356963
e4d810c98,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotechnology,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Although not normally what first comes to mind, many forms of human-derived agriculture clearly fit the broad definition of ""utilizing a biotechnological system to make products"". Indeed, the cultivation of plants may be viewed as the earliest biotechnological enterprise.
Agriculture has been theorized to have become the dominant way of producing food since the Neolithic Revolution. Through early biotechnology, the earliest farmers selected and bred the best suited crops, having the highest yields, to produce enough food to support a growing population. As crops and fields became increasingly large and difficult to maintain, it was discovered that specific organisms and their by-products could effectively fertilize, restore nitrogen, and control pests. Throughout the history of agriculture, farmers have inadvertently altered the genetics of their crops through introducing them to new environments and breeding them with other plants — one of the first forms of biotechnology.
These processes also were included in early fermentation of beer. These processes were introduced in early Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and India, and still use the same basic biological methods. In brewing, malted grains (containing enzymes) convert starch from grains into sugar and then adding specific yeasts to produce beer.",-2.11226356,0.504812854
c46e26fb6,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00090,CC BY 4.0,"Learning about the Arctic and the organisms that live there is extremely difficult because this ocean is largely inaccessible. For much of the year, thick ice prevents any ships from entering and the weather is too rough to carry out experiments. Because of this, we only see snapshots of the processes that happen in the Arctic, mostly in the summer months. Conditions in the Arctic Ocean are hostile, with long, freezing winters and short, cool summers. Average air temperatures in winter can fall to -34°C and rise up to 10°C in the summer, although the ocean temperature remains steady at around -1.5 to -3°C. Much of the water is locked up as ice. Depending on how far north you are, there can be up to almost half a year of complete darkness during the winter, or 24-h of daylight during the summer.
A lot of microbes live in or attached underneath sea ice. The ice that forms on the Arctic Ocean is not as solid as you might think. Numerous tiny water channels permeate the ice. These channels carry very salty water and are called brines. Lots of microbes, including algae",-0.38658731,0.443004772
688e3c808,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Bitcoin is a digital asset and a payment system invented by Satoshi Nakamoto. Nakamoto introduced the idea on 31 October 2008 to a cryptography mailing list, and released it as open-source software in 2009. There have been several high profile claims to the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto; however, none of them have provided proof beyond doubt that back up their claims.
The system is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the blockchain, which uses bitcoin as its unit of account. Since the system works without a central repository or single administrator, the U.S. Treasury categorizes bitcoin as a decentralized virtual currency. Bitcoin is often called the first cryptocurrency, although prior systems existed and it is more correctly described as the first decentralized digital currency. Bitcoin is the largest of its kind in terms of total market value.",-1.561800561,0.468539735
6ee4f1df3,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing—including particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from inside it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole. The boundary of the region from which no escape is possible is called the event horizon. Although crossing the event horizon has enormous effect on the fate of the object crossing it, it appears to have no locally detectable features. In many ways a black hole acts like an ideal black body, as it reflects no light. Moreover, quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit Hawking radiation, with the same spectrum as a black body of a temperature inversely proportional to its mass. This temperature is on the order of billionths of a kelvin for black holes of stellar mass, making it essentially impossible to observe.",-0.751847364,0.491939394
bba96ae90,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A blockade is an effort to cut off supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade. It is also distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually directed at an entire country or region, rather than a fortress or city. While most blockades historically took place at sea, blockade is still used on land to prevent someone coming into a certain area.
A blockading power can seek to cut off all maritime transport from and to the blockaded country; although stopping all land transport to and from an area may also be considered a blockade. Blockades restrict the trading rights of neutrals, who must submit for inspection for contraband, which the blockading power may define narrowly or broadly, sometimes including food and medicine. In the 20th century air power has also been used to enhance the effectiveness of the blockade by halting air traffic within the blockaded airspace.",-0.863299895,0.485218297
6849b506d,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Blood is a liquid in humans and many animals except insects. Blood is pushed through the organism by the heart, and brings nutrients and oxygen to our tissues. It also takes away waste and carbon dioxide from tissues. 
Blood of vertebrates is made up of blood plasma and various cells — red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Platelets help blood to clot. Hemoglobin is in red blood cells. White blood cells help fight infections and heal wounds.
Blood plasma is the yellow liquid in which blood cells float. Plasma is made up of nutrients, electrolytes (salts), gases, non-protein hormones, waste, lipids, and proteins. These proteins are albumin, antibodies (also called immunoglobulins), clotting factors, and protein hormones. Plasma that does not have the protein fibrinogen is called serum and cannot clot. Adults have about 3 liters of plasma. Plasma is a liquid, mostly water (90%). Plasma takes up 55% of volume.",-0.576698794,0.50903614
9ebae047b,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Bluetooth is a protocol for wireless communication over short distances. It was developed in the 1990s, to reduce the number of cables. Devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras and video game consoles can connect to each other, and exchange information. This is done using radio waves. It can be done securely. Bluetooth is only used for relatively short distances, like a few metres.
There are different standards. Data rates vary. Currently, they are at 1-3 MBit per second. Typical Bluetooth applications are to connect a headset to a mobile phone, or to connect a computer mouse, keyboard or printer.
Bluetooth devices use the ISM Band around 2.4 GHz. This can be used worldwide, without the need to pay license fees, but many other devices, like DECT telephones (wireless phones), smart tags with RFID, baby phones use it too. Bluetooth uses the same bands as some WLANs, but the modulation technique is different. Bluetooth uses Frequency-hopping spread spectrum.",-1.157269036,0.456851329
2b2fdfc8c,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_point,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The boiling point of a substance is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the pressure surrounding the liquid and the liquid changes into a vapor.
The boiling point of a liquid varies depending upon the surrounding environmental pressure. A liquid in a partial vacuum has a lower boiling point than when that liquid is at atmospheric pressure. A liquid at high pressure has a higher boiling point than when that liquid is at atmospheric pressure. For a given pressure, different liquids boil at different temperatures.
The normal boiling point (also called the atmospheric boiling point or the atmospheric pressure boiling point) of a liquid is the special case in which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the defined atmospheric pressure at sea level, 1 atmosphere. At that temperature, the vapor pressure of the liquid becomes sufficient to overcome atmospheric pressure and allow bubbles of vapor to form inside the bulk of the liquid. The standard boiling point has been defined by IUPAC since 1982 as the temperature at which boiling occurs under a pressure of 1 bar.",-1.589571686,0.479262689
95e0a7b8d,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Boston Tea Party (initially referred to by John Adams as ""the Destruction of the Tea in Boston"") was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. The demonstrators, some appropriating Native American dress, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution. The Tea Party became an iconic event of American history, and other political protests such as the Tea Party movement after 2010 explicitly refer to it.
The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they believed that it violated their rights as Englishmen to ""No taxation without representation,"" that is, be taxed only by their own elected representatives and not by a British parliament in which they were not represented.",-0.652421112,0.445915659
14365d003,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_implant,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Brain implants, often referred to as neural implants, are technological devices that connect directly to a biological subject's brain – usually placed on the surface of the brain, or attached to the brain's cortex. A common purpose of modern brain implants and the focus of much current research is establishing a biomedical prosthesis circumventing areas in the brain that have become dysfunctional after a stroke or other head injuries. This includes sensory substitution, e.g., in vision. Other brain implants are used in animal experiments simply to record brain activity for scientific reasons. Some brain implants involve creating interfaces between neural systems and computer chips. This work is part of a wider research field called brain-computer interfaces. (Brain-computer interface research also includes technology such as EEG arrays that allow interface between mind and machine but do not require direct implantation of a device.)
Neural implants such as deep brain stimulation and Vagus nerve stimulation are increasingly becoming routine for patients with Parkinson's disease and clinical depression respectively, proving themselves a boon for people with diseases which were previously regarded as incurable.",-1.370115991,0.472947134
92a8d63d2,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband,CC BY-SA 3.0,"In telecommunications, broadband is a wide bandwidth data transmission with an ability to simultaneously transport multiple signals and traffic types. The medium can be coaxial cable, optical fiber, radio or twisted pair.
In the context of Internet access, broadband is used to mean any high-speed Internet access that is always on and faster than traditional dial-up access.
Different criteria for ""broad"" have been applied in different contexts and at different times. Its origin is in physics, acoustics, and radio systems engineering, where it had been used with a meaning similar to ""wideband"". Later, with the advent of digital telecommunications, the term was mainly used for transmission over multiple channels. Whereas a passband signal is also modulated so that it occupies higher frequencies (compared to a baseband signal which is bound to the lowest end of the spectrum, see line coding), it is still occupying a single channel. The key difference is that what is typically considered a broadband signal in this sense is a signal that occupies multiple (non-masking, orthogonal) passbands, thus allowing for much higher throughput over a single medium but with additional complexity in the transmitter/receiver circuitry.",-2.192688353,0.502313942
b12cb6e0d,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcasting,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The first regular television broadcasts started in 1937. Broadcasts can be classified as ""recorded"" or ""live"". The former allows correcting errors, and removing superfluous or undesired material, rearranging it, applying slow-motion and repetitions, and other techniques to enhance the program. However, some live events like sports television can include some of the aspects including slow-motion clips of important goals/hits, etc., in between the live television telecast. American radio-network broadcasters habitually forbade prerecorded broadcasts in the 1930s and 1940s requiring radio programs played for the Eastern and Central time zones to be repeated three hours later for the Pacific time zone. This restriction was dropped for special occasions, as in the case of the German dirigible airship Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in 1937. During World War II, prerecorded broadcasts from war correspondents were allowed on U.S. radio. In addition, American radio programs were recorded for playback by Armed Forces Radio radio stations around the world.",-0.841114385,0.462811602
49cae2321,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Bronze Age is a time period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, for classifying and studying ancient societies.
An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition. Although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic from outside the region.",-0.87494669,0.442156494
e6063b77d,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00015,CC BY 4.0,"The first step toward determining if something is helpful or harmful to human health is to design a study. Basically, if you want to assess the link between a risk factor and a particular disease, you have two possibilities: you can start from the risk factor and try to connect it to the disease, or start from the disease and try to work back to the risk factor that caused it.
Let us first discuss starting from the disease and trying to identify the risk factor. We will continue with our example of tobacco. If you think that tobacco causes lung cancer, you can go to the hospital and ask patients with lung cancer if they smoke or used to smoke. This information by itself is not very useful, because we need to compare it to the same information obtained from healthy people without lung cancer. To do this, we need to find healthy people who have other characteristics (like age, gender, profession, hobbies, etc.) that are as similar as possible to the group of lung cancer patients.",-0.541982061,0.438398433
bc748d8e3,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy,CC BY-SA 3.0,"In science, buoyancy (also known as upthrust) is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of an immersed object. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus the pressure at the bottom of a column of fluid is greater than at the top of the column. Similarly, the pressure at the bottom of an object submerged in a fluid is greater than at the top of the object. This pressure difference results in a net upwards force on the object. The magnitude of that force exerted is proportional to that pressure difference, and (as explained by Archimedes' principle) is equivalent to the weight of the fluid that would otherwise occupy the volume of the object, i.e. the displaced fluid.
For this reason, an object whose density is greater than that of the fluid in which it is submerged tends to sink.",-1.238431716,0.47608787
cef7dd81c,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"When going to the beach, find out which ones have lifeguards. Always try to visit beaches that have lifeguards watching the swimmers. The lifeguards on duty will put red and yellow flags on the beach to show you where it is safe to swim. 
Many people find it hard to see a rip current in the sea. Rip currents are like fast-flowing rivers that can pull even strong swimmers away from the beach. 
This is why it is better to swim between the lifeguard flags. 
If you get pulled out by a rip current, try not to panic. Try to swim to the left or to the right of the current's flow. Don't try to fight the current or to swim against the current. That will make you tired and more scared. 
To be safe when you visit the beach, you should always listen to the lifeguards. And make sure that you stay between the red and yellow flags on the beach. The flags show you where the currents are safe.",1.023516839,0.591004918
1e497b6bc,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, originally founded as Byzantium). It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Both ""Byzantine Empire"" and ""Eastern Roman Empire"" are historiographical terms created after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, or Romania, and to themselves as ""Romans"". Several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empire's Greek East and Latin West diverged. ",-1.154753922,0.492434367
201eff52d,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_(government),CC BY-SA 3.0,"A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the top leaders of the executive branch. They are usually called ministers, but in some jurisdictions are sometimes called secretaries.
The functions of a cabinet are varied: in some countries it is a collegial decision-making body with collective responsibility, while in others it may function either as a purely advisory body or an assisting institution to a decision making head of state or head of government. In some countries, the cabinet is called ""Council of Ministers"" or ""Government Council"" or lesser known names such as ""Federal Council"" (in Switzerland), ""Inner Council"" or ""High Council"". These countries may differ in the way that the cabinet is used or established. In some countries, particularly those that use a parliamentary system (e.g., the UK), the Cabinet collectively decides the government's direction, especially in regard to legislation passed by the parliament. In countries with a presidential system, such as the United States, the Cabinet does not function as a collective legislative influence; rather, their primary role is as an official advisory council to the head of government.",-1.672911306,0.47246112
8c3532d5e,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Calcium is a soft white-gray metal. It is a solid and is opaque. It is an alkaline earth metal. Its melting point is hotter than most other reactive metals. It is a little harder than lead. It has two allotropes. It does not conduct electricity as well as copper, but is much lighter in weight.
It reacts with water to produce hydrogen and calcium hydroxide. It reacts with water very fast when it is powdered. When it is in a chunk, it starts reacting slowly because calcium hydroxide makes a coating that does not dissolve on the calcium. If a little acid is added to calcium hydroxide, it dissolves it, making the calcium react very fast. It burns when powdered to make a reddish flame. This makes calcium oxide. It also makes calcium nitride when heated. It can react with halogens to make calcium halides like calcium chloride with chlorine.
Calcium forms chemical compounds in the +2 oxidation state. Calcium compounds are colorless. Most calcium compounds are not toxic. They are needed in the human body, actually. They are unreactive as far as calcium ions go.",-1.330950329,0.443299393
a512494fc,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Carbohydrates are chemical compounds that contain only oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. They are made up of joined-up sugars. Sugars have the general formula Cm(H2O)n, and are also known as saccharides.
Certain carbohydrates are an important storage and transport form of energy in most organisms, including plants and animals.
Carbohydrates are the most common source of energy for the human body. Protein builds tissue and cells in the body. Carbohydrates are very good for energy, but, if a person eats more than needed, the extra is changed into fat.
If necessary, humans can live without eating carbohydrates because the human body can change proteins into carbohydrates. People of some cultures eat food with very little carbohydrates, but they still remain healthy.
Research in the United States and Canada have shown that people get about 40% to 60% of their energy from carbohydrates. However, studies suggest that some people get at least 55% to 75% of energy from carbohydrates. It may depend on the amount of physical work done by people: the harder the work, the more energy they need. ",-1.213193054,0.459605218
62526c010,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Carbon dioxide (chemical formula CO2) is a colorless and odorless gas vital to life on Earth. This naturally occurring chemical compound is composed of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. Carbon dioxide exists in Earth's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent (400 ppm) by volume. Natural sources include volcanoes, hot springs and geysers, and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids. Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water, it occurs naturally in groundwater, rivers and lakes, in ice caps and glaciers and also in seawater. It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary source of carbon in life on Earth and its concentration in Earth's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian was regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena. As part of the carbon cycle, plants, algae, and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water, with oxygen produced as a waste product.",-1.314140009,0.48997656
d74e2a8a3,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Carbon monoxide is produced from the partial oxidation of carbon-containing compounds; it forms when there is not enough oxygen to produce carbon dioxide (CO2), such as when operating a stove or an internal combustion engine in an enclosed space. In the presence of oxygen, including atmospheric concentrations, carbon monoxide burns with a blue flame, producing carbon dioxide. Coal gas, which was widely used before the 1960s for domestic lighting, cooking, and heating, had carbon monoxide as a significant fuel constituent. Some processes in modern technology, such as iron smelting, still produce carbon monoxide as a byproduct. A large quantity of CO byproduct is formed during the oxidative processes for the production of chemicals. For this reason, the process off-gases have to be purified. On the other hand, considerable research efforts are made in order to optimize the process conditions, develop catalyst with improved selectivity and to understand the reaction pathways leading to the target product and side products.",-1.959472481,0.508982778
fec88f35c,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00033,CC BY 4.0,"Cacao originated in the Amazon region of South America. Since its origin, cacao has evolved into different types as it has grown in different geographical populations. Two populations of cacao, with different origins, were initially thought to exist: one from Central America and the other from South America. These two groups were initially recognized as two subspecies, called cacao and sphaerocarpum, which were also recognized as the two cacao types most commonly known as Criollo and Forastero, respectively. These subspecies differed not only in where they grew, but also differed in some of their morphological features. The crossing between Criollo and Forastero trees gave rise to a third type, known as Trinitario. Now we know that Criollo, as well as other cacao types, came from an ancestral population in South America, and only spread into Central America when humans migrated there. We also now know that cacao can be divided not only in two or three groups, but into more than 10 different genetic groups.",-1.058465094,0.458655599
84101eee4,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00041,CC BY 4.0,"Brain functions, like perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, are the result of communication between neurons. To efficiently communicate and process information, neurons form connections with each other. Through these connections, they exchange information via messenger molecules. There are many messenger systems in the brain. They consist of two major players: a set of molecules that act as keys (called ligands) and another set of molecules that act as locks (called receptors). Each receptor has a specific ligand like each lock has a specific key. All messenger systems also have molecules called enzymes to break down excess ligands to keep the messengers always in the right amount. Most of the messenger systems communicate in one direction, where the ligand is released from neuron 1 and binds to receptors on neuron 2. There are also some that communicate in the opposite direction, from neuron 2 back to neuron 1.",-1.782989643,0.472195406
797c77844,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_crop,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A cash crop is an agricultural crop which is grown for sale to return a profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate marketed crops from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family. In earlier times cash crops were usually only a small (but vital) part of a farm's total yield, while today, especially in developed countries, almost all crops are mainly grown for revenue. In the least developed countries, cash crops are usually crops which attract demand in more developed nations, and hence have some export value.
Prices for major cash crops are set in commodity markets with global scope, with some local variation (termed as ""basis"") based on freight costs and local supply and demand balance. A consequence of this is that a nation, region, or individual producer relying on such a crop may suffer low prices should a bumper crop elsewhere lead to excess supply on the global markets. This system has been criticized by traditional farmers.",-0.273238231,0.493130728
069d0da0f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode_ray_tube,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The cathode ray tube or CRT was invented by Karl Ferdinand Braun. It was the most common type of display for many years. It was used in almost all computer monitors and televisions until LCD and plasma screens started being used.
A cathode ray tube is an electron gun. The cathode is an electrode (a metal that can send out electrons when heated). The cathode is inside a glass tube. Also inside the glass tube is an anode that attracts electrons. This is used to pull the electrons toward the front of the glass tube, so the electrons shoot out in one direction, like a ray gun. To better control the direction of the electrons, the air is taken out of the tube, making a vacuum.
The electrons hit the front of the tube, where a phosphor screen is. The electrons make the phosphor light up. The electrons can be aimed by creating a magnetic field.",-1.248513154,0.453528611
674bd8368,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Celts were people in Iron Age and Medieval Europe who spoke Celtic languages and had cultural similarities, although the relationship between ethnic, linguistic and cultural factors in the Celtic world remains uncertain and controversial. The exact geographic spread of the ancient Celts is also disputed; in particular, the ways in which the Iron Age inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland should be regarded as Celts has become a subject of controversy.
The history of pre-Celtic Europe remains very uncertain. According to one theory, the common root of the Celtic languages, a language known as Proto-Celtic, arose in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe, which flourished from around 1200 BC. In addition, according to a theory proposed in the 19th century, the first people to adopt cultural characteristics regarded as Celtic were the people of the Iron Age Hallstatt culture in central Europe (c. 800–450 BC), named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria.",-1.277544064,0.482509895
fed2fbd39,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Powers,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Central Powers were a group of nations fighting against the Allied Powers during World War I; the members included Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria and their territories. They were also supported by Azerbaijan and Finland, as well as Lithuania in 1918 and co-belligerent Jabal Shammar. They lost the war. The Allied Forces include Great Britain, Canada, Newfoundland, Russia, France, later the United States, Greece, Portugal, Brazil, Georgia, Armenia, Australia and even Japan
Italy joined the allies in the midst of World War I, though all they wanted was to get some colonies. This greed lasted till World War II, but Italy did not gain anything they wanted to. In the middle of the war Germany gave up on them and took over Greece, so Italy joined the Alies, falling against their alliance with Germany once more They also wanted to destroy the Allies with tanks which were left on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.",-0.755033551,0.458003847
c524ddc05,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A central processing unit (CPU) is an important part of almost every computer. The CPU sends signals to control the other parts of the computer, almost like how a brain controls a body.
The CPU is an electronic machine that works on a list of things to do, called instructions. It reads the list of instructions and does (executes) each one in order. A list of instructions that a CPU can run is a computer program.
The speed that a CPU works at is measured in hertz (Hz). Modern processors often run so fast that gigahertz (GHz) is used instead. One gigahertz is one billion cycles per second.
Most CPUs used in desktop (home) computers are made by either Intel or Advanced Micro Devices (usually shortened to AMD). Some other companies that make CPUs are ARM, IBM, and Sun Microsystems. Their CPUs are usually used for more specialized things, like in mobile phones, cars, game consoles, or in the military.",-1.109053189,0.454922689
3452290fd,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Chanri and Boipelo are going on an adventure around South Africa. Their journey starts in Kimberley, in the Northern Cape. In Kimberley you will find the Big Hole! Tjoeke puff toot-toot, they travel to Cape Town in the Western Cape. Chanri and Boipelo pick juicy grapes at the farms. Tjoeke puff toot-toot, then they head off to Bhisho, in the Eastern Cape. The two friends have fun at the Elephant Park! Tjoeke puff toot-toot, they pass through the Free State. They admire all the pretty roses blooming in Bloemfontein. On to Mahikeng, in the North West. The train slows down to meet Rina the rhino at the National Park. Then our friends speed on to Polokwane, in Limpopo. Toot-toot toot-toot! They're running late, so the train doesn't stop in Johannesburg, Gauteng. From the train they see many cars and people in this busy city of gold.",-0.988385529,0.457424699
52433aef2,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00042,CC BY 4.0,"Because grammar is so difficult for people that are learning a foreign language, we tried to find ways to help people learn grammar. We first thought about how people can become good at memorizing vocabulary. Do you still remember how to say ""the cat"" in French? Take a second and see if you can come up with it without looking back at the example!
So? Do you remember what ""the cat"" is in French? If you guessed ""le chat,"" you would be right! Unless you already speak French, this was probably a difficult question. The reason it is difficult is because we asked you to come up with the word in a foreign language. For most of you, who are familiar enough with English to be able to read this article, it would have been easier if we had asked it the other way around—asking you what the French words ""le chat"" mean in English or another language you know. This is easier because you do not have to come up with the French words, since they are right in front of you.",-0.113693934,0.466887959
92749fef5,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_bond,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A chemical bond is a lasting attraction between atoms that enables the formation of chemical compounds. The bond may result from the electrostatic force of attraction between atoms with opposite charges, or through the sharing of electrons as in the covalent bonds. The strength of chemical bonds varies considerably; there are ""strong bonds"" such as covalent or ionic bonds and ""weak bonds"" such as Dipole-dipole interaction, the London dispersion force and hydrogen bonding.
Since opposite charges attract via a simple electromagnetic force, the negatively charged electrons that are orbiting the nucleus and the positively charged protons in the nucleus attract each other. An electron positioned between two nuclei will be attracted to both of them, and the nuclei will be attracted toward electrons in this position. This attraction constitutes the chemical bond. Due to the matter wave nature of electrons and their smaller mass, they must occupy a much larger amount of volume compared with the nuclei, and this volume occupied by the electrons keeps the atomic nuclei relatively far apart, as compared with the size of the nuclei themselves.",-2.331189821,0.504865432
09fe55c1c,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"After the fall of the Qing dynasty in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the country was thrown into turmoil. In the ensuing power vacuum, a large number of warlords seized control of different parts of the country. In order to defeat them and unify the country, Sun Yat-sen and the KMT sought help from foreign governments.
Though he made pleas to several Western democratic nations, none offered to help. It was only after turning to the Soviet Union in 1921 that Sun found aid. The communist Soviet Union agreed to help the KMT, under the condition that the smaller Chinese Communist Party be allowed to join. In 1923 the Soviet Union, KMT, and CCP made an agreement, the Sun-Joffe Manifesto, that said the Soviet Union would help China have one government and not many governments. Mikhail Borodin traveled to China in 1923 to help change the KMT to make it similar to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CCP and KMT were joined in the First United Front.",-1.280788834,0.461937135
1eb28e98e,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Many people in Western Europe wanted to find a shorter way to get to Asia. Columbus thought he could get to Asia by sailing west. He did not know about the Western Hemisphere, so he did not realize it would block him from getting to Asia.
However, Columbus did not have enough money to pay for this voyage on his own. After defeating the Emirate of Granada, the rulers of Spain, Ferdinand II and Isabella I of Castile, agreed to pay for the voyage. He promised to bring back gold and spices for them.
In August 1492, Columbus and his sailors left Spain in three ships: the Santa María (the Holy Mary), the Pinta (the Painted), and the Santa Clara (nicknamed the Niña: the Little Girl).
The three ships were very small. Historians think that the largest ship, the Santa María, was only about 60 feet (18 metres) long, and about 16 to 19 feet (4.8 to 5.8 metres) wide.
Columbus's other ships were even smaller. Historians think they were about 50–60 feet (15–18 metres) long",0.411471026,0.496380069
94c1c23fd,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00063,CC BY 4.0,"As mentioned, most nitrogen on Earth is present as nitrogen gas, which is unusable for plants and animals. In the early 1900's, scientists discovered how to transform nitrogen gas from the atmosphere into nitrogen-containing compounds that could be used to fertilize soils. This industrial fixation is called the Haber-Bosch process. Almost all the nitrogen in industrial fertilizers is fixed through the Haber-Bosch process.
This industrial fixation of nitrogen is performed in chemical laboratories and large factories all over the world. The Haber-Bosch process requires that nitrogen gas be mixed with hydrogen gas (H2) and put under enormous pressure (200 times atmospheric pressure). This is the pressure you would feel if you dove 2,000 meters (~6,500 feet) underneath the sea, which is a longer distance than 6 Eiffel Towers stacked on top of one another! This pressurized gas mixture is then heated to very high temperatures (450°C/842°F). Sustaining these high pressures and temperatures requires a huge amount of energy. The Haber-Bosch process is estimated to consume 1–2% of the world's energy supply each year.",-1.431381022,0.496853754
ac50d303b,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_technology,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Civic technology is technology (mainly information technology) that enables engagement or participation of the public for stronger development, enhancing citizen communications, improving government infrastructure, and generally improving the public good. It encompasses civic applications, platforms supporting government bodies, institutions and other software enabling those goals.
The definition of what constitutes civic technology is contested to a certain extent, especially with regards to companies engaged in the sharing or access economy, such as Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb. For example, AirBnb's ability to provide New York residents with housing during the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy could be considered a form of civic technology. However, Nathaniel Heller, Managing Director of the Research for Development Institute's Governance Program contends that for-profit platforms definitively fall outside of the scope of civic technology: Heller has said that ""while citizen-to-citizen sharing is indeed involved, the mission of these companies is focused on maximizing profit for their investors, not any sort of experiment in building social capital.""",-1.653130604,0.467952985
50c339373,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_engineering,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Civil engineering is the application of physical and scientific principles for solving the problems of society, and its history is intricately linked to advances in the understanding of physics and mathematics throughout history. Because civil engineering is a wide-ranging profession, including several specialized sub-disciplines, its history is linked to knowledge of structures, materials science, geography, geology, soils, hydrology, environment, mechanics and other fields.
Throughout ancient and medieval history most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans, such as stonemasons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. Knowledge was retained in guilds and seldom supplanted by advances. Structures, roads, and infrastructure that existed were repetitive, and increases in scale were incremental.
One of the earliest examples of a scientific approach to physical and mathematical problems applicable to civil engineering is the work of Archimedes in the 3rd century BC, including Archimedes Principle, which underpins our understanding of buoyancy, and practical solutions such as Archimedes' screw. Brahmagupta, an Indian mathematician, used arithmetic in the 7th century AD, based on Hindu-Arabic numerals, for excavation (volume) computations.",-1.809957128,0.481847124
fd23df088,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_law_(legal_system),CC BY-SA 3.0,"Civil law, civilian law, or Roman law is a legal system originating in Europe, intellectualized within the framework of late Roman law, and whose most prevalent feature is that its core principles are codified into a referable system which serves as the primary source of law. This can be contrasted with common law systems whose intellectual framework comes from judge-made decisional law which gives precedential authority to prior court decisions on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions (doctrine of judicial precedent, or stare decisis).
Historically, a civil law is the group of legal ideas and systems ultimately derived from the Code of Justinian, but heavily overlaid by Napoleonic, Germanic, canonical, feudal, and local practices, as well as doctrinal strains such as natural law, codification, and legal positivism.
Conceptually, civil law proceeds from abstractions, formulates general principles, and distinguishes substantive rules from procedural rules. It holds case law to be secondary and subordinate to statutory law. When discussing civil law, one should keep in mind the conceptual difference between a statute and a codal article.",-2.085060117,0.525301709
137af2682,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_rights,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Civil rights are rights that all people in a country have. The civil rights of a country apply to all the citizens within its borders. These rights are given by the laws of the country. Civil rights are sometimes thought to be the same as natural rights.
In many countries civil rights include freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom of assembly. Civil rights also include the right to own property and the right to get fair and equal treatment from the government, from other citizens, and from private groups. They may prevent against discrimination based on race, sexual orientation and gender.
Civil rights are protected by law and custom. The constitutions of many democracies have a ""Bill of Rights"" that describes the people's liberties and rights. A well-known example is the United States Bill of Rights.
A court of law decides if a person's civil rights have been violated. The courts also decide the limits of civil rights, so that people do not use their freedoms to take away the rights of other people.",0.838793563,0.507075579
9357b32ff,https://www.ck12.org/book/ck-12-second-grade-science/,CC BY-NC,"Some large features on Earth were caused by water. The Grand Canyon was formed by the Colorado River. There are many rivers as big. There are rivers that are much larger. The Mississippi River is the largest river in the U.S. Only the Colorado has formed such a large canyon. The Grand Canyon is its own league.
In most cases, water is harmless. Over time, water can have a great effect. When water runs over the land it can wash the soil away. With enough time, it can carve through rock. Given enough time, it can create a canyon over a mile wide. It is hard to believe that water created the Grand Canyon.
Scientists have learned that the Grand Canyon took a long time to form. Every time it rained, the water ran across the ground. A little soil and rock were washed away with every rainstorm. Water can cause a lot of change if it has time. Scientists are unsure of the canyon's exact age. What they do know, it is old.
A lot of people visit the Grand Canyon every year. They are amazed at its size. Some people hike to the bottom of the canyon.",-0.007644294,0.497077518
a78c5d564,https://www.ck12.org/book/ck-12-fourth-grade-science/,CC BY-NC,"The epidermis is the outer layer of skin. There are no blood vessels, nerve endings, or glands in this skin layer. Though it may not seem like it, this layer of skin is very active. It is constantly being renewed. How does this happen?
The cells at the bottom of this layer are always being produced. 
The new cells slowly move up to the surface. 
By the time the cells reach the surface, they have died. It's true, the outermost layer of your skin is dead. Don't worry, this is what forms the protective layer. This outer layer is even waterproof. 
Dead cells are gradually falling off. As they are shed, they are replaced by other dead cells. 
The epidermis also contains cells that give skin its color. These cells are what produces the brown pigment in skin. Everyone's skin has about the same number of these cells. However, these cells of people with darker skin produce more pigment. The amount of pigment depends on two things. Some of it depends on what you inherit from your parents. It also depends on how much sunlight strikes your skin. The more light that hits your skin, the more tanned you get.",-0.199032413,0.470783932
2d08e6642,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00082,CC BY 4.0,"Science shows that hearing loss also affects cognitive skills (like thinking, learning, memory, or attention). Babies with hearing loss learn differently than babies who can hear. This is not because they are not smart or cannot do things other babies can do. It is because the world is different for them than it is for someone who can hear.
In our study, we wanted to know if being born deaf affects visual processing. Visual processing is the way our brains understand what we see with our eyes. It is an important cognitive ability. By studying visual processing in deaf babies, we can learn more about how hearing loss affects how these babies learn and grow.
 To study visual processing, we used something called a habituation test. Habituation is a simple form of learning that comes from being exposed to something many times. When babies become habituated to something (like a toy), they lose interest in it. This means that their brains have processed all the information about that toy.",0.025170898,0.479974308
954b463dc,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Climate means the usual condition of the temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, and other meteorological elements in an area of the Earth's surface for a long time. Climate is different from weather. Weather is the condition of these elements right now, for shorter periods of time that are up to two weeks.
The latitude, ground, and height can change the climate of a location. It is also important to note if oceans or other large bodies of water are nearby. Climates are most commonly classified by temperature and precipitation. The most commonly used classification was the Köppen climate classification, first made by Wladimir Köppen. The Thornthwaite system, which was used from 1948, not only uses temperature and precipitation information, but evapotranspiration too. This makes it useful for studying how many different kinds of animal species there are, and about the things that could happen when climates change. The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus more on where the air masses which help make climates come from.",-0.807687264,0.50556621
c228478ac,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"In Computer science, cloud computing describes a type of outsourcing of computer services, similar to the way in which electricity supply is outsourced. Users can simply use it. They do not need to worry where the electricity is from, how it is made, or transported. Every month, they pay for what they consumed.
The idea behind cloud computing is similar: The user can simply use storage, computing power, or specially crafted development environments, without having to worry how these work internally. Cloud computing is usually Internet-based computing. The cloud is a metaphor for the Internet based on how the internet is described in computer network diagrams; which means it is an abstraction hiding the complex infrastructure of the internet. It is a style of computing in which IT-related capabilities are provided ""as a service"", allowing users to access technology-enabled services from the Internet (""in the cloud"") without knowledge of, or control over the technologies behind these servers.",-1.413698838,0.478409263
e83d8c94b,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"In February 1917, Tsar (King) Nicholas II of the Russian Empire was overthrown because people were unhappy with their living conditions, especially during World War I. The new government in Russia was a democratic socialist government. Unfortunately, it was ineffective, and people were still unhappy. In November 1917, a communist group called the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin overthrew the new government. They were supported by groups of workers called Soviets. The Bolsheviks created a new communist government called the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (called simply Soviet Russia or the Russian SFSR).
However, not everyone supported the communists. Many countries that had been a part of the Russian Empire had left, such as Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, and Finland. The Russian Civil War began, with the Russian SFSR's ""Red Army"" fighting against the ""White Army"", the group of all Russians against the communists. The White Army was not very united or organized. The Allied Powers of World War I, such as the United States, United Kingdom, and France, invaded Russia to support the White Army.",-0.856381536,0.451953247
ea67143e5,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collimator,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A collimator is a device that narrows a beam of particles or waves. To narrow can mean either to cause the directions of motion to become more aligned in a specific direction (i.e., make collimated light or parallel rays), or to cause the spatial cross section of the beam to become smaller (beam limiting device).
An English physicist Henry Kater was the inventor of the floating collimator, which rendered a great service to practical astronomy. He reported about his invention in January 1825. In his report, Kater mentioned previous work in this area by Carl Friedrich Gauss and Friedrich Bessel.
In optics, a collimator may consist of a curved mirror or lens with some type of light source and/or an image at its focus. This can be used to replicate a target focused at infinity with little or no parallax.
In lighting, collimators are typically designed using the principles of non-imaging optics.",-2.536904911,0.536401746
68030b769,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Colosseum, originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is a large amphitheatre in the city of Rome. The construction of the Colosseum started around 70–72 AD and was finished in 80 AD. Emperor Vespasian started the works, and Emperor Titus completed them. Emperor Domitian made some changes to the building between 81–96 AD. It had seating for 50,000 people. It was 156 metres wide, 189 metres long and 57 metres tall. It is the biggest amphitheatre built by the Roman Empire.
The Colosseum was first called the Flavian Amphitheatre or in Latin, the Amphitheatrum Flavium. This was after Vespasian and Titus who had the family name of Flavius. It was used for gladiatorial contests, and other shows like animal hunts, in which animals would hunt and eat prisoners; or in which gladiators would fight against animals. There were also executions, plays, and battle scenes; sometimes it was filled with water to fight sea battles. The people of Rome could go into the Colosseum without any costs; it was free.",-0.580746823,0.500407497
cf3f0844b,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A compass is an instrument used for navigation and orientation that shows direction relative to the geographic ""cardinal directions"", or ""points"". Usually, a diagram called a compass rose, shows the directions north, south, east, and west as abbreviated initials marked on the compass. When the compass is used, the rose can be aligned with the corresponding geographic directions, so, for example, the ""N"" mark on the rose really points to the north. Frequently, in addition to the rose or sometimes instead of it, angle markings in degrees are shown on the compass. North corresponds to zero degrees, and the angles increase clockwise, so east is 90 degrees, south is 180, and west is 270. These numbers allow the compass to show azimuths or bearings, which are commonly stated in this notation.
The magnetic compass was first invented as a device for divination as early as the Chinese Han Dynasty (since about 206 BC), and later adopted for navigation by the Song Dynasty Chinese during the 11th century.",-0.585142293,0.452041187
f8c8e64bb,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_hardware,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Computer hardware (or simply hardware in computing contexts) is the collection of physical elements that constitutes a computer system. Computer hardware is the physical parts or components of a computer, such as the monitor, keyboard, computer data storage, hard disk drive (HDD), graphic cards, sound cards, memory (RAM), motherboard, and so on, all of which are tangible physical objects. By contrast, software is instructions that can be stored and run by hardware.
Software is any set of machine-readable instructions that directs a computer's processor to perform specific operations. A combination of hardware and software forms a usable computing system. The template for all modern computers is the Von Neumann architecture, detailed in a 1945 paper by Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann. This describes a design architecture for an electronic digital computer with subdivisions of a processing unit consisting of an arithmetic logic unit and processor registers, a control unit containing an instruction register and program counter, a memory to store both data and instructions, external mass storage, and input and output mechanisms.",-2.027056522,0.486595976
8f11d4954,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_program,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A computer program is a list of instructions that tell a computer what to do. Everything a computer does is done by using a computer program. A computer program is written in a programming language.
Some examples of computer programs:
A web browser like Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari can be used to view web pages on the Internet.
An office suite can be used to write documents or spreadsheets.
Video games are computer programs.
A computer program is stored as a file on the computer's hard drive. When the user runs the program, the file is read by the computer, and the processor reads the data in the file as a list of instructions. Then the computer does what the program tells it to do.
A computer program is written by a programmer. It is very difficult to write in the ones and zeroes of machine code, which is what the computer can read, so computer programmers write in a programming language, such as BASIC, C, or Java. Once it is written, the programmer uses a compiler to turn it into a language that the computer can understand.",-0.515282095,0.477546811
9fefb4259,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing_platform,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A computing platform is, in the most general sense, whatever a pre-existing piece of computer software or code object is designed to run within, obeying its constraints, and making use of its facilities.
The term computing platform can refer to different abstraction levels, including a certain hardware architecture, an operating system (OS), and runtime libraries. In total it can be said to be the stage on which computer programs can run.
Binary executables have to be compiled for a specific hardware platform, since different central processor units have different machine codes. In addition, operating systems and runtime libraries allow re-use of code and provide abstraction layers which allow the same high-level source code to run on differently configured hardware. For example, there are many kinds of data storage device, and any individual computer can have a different configuration of storage devices; but the application is able to call a generic save or write function provided by the OS and runtime libraries, which then handle the details themselves.",-2.176054735,0.479828967
6e39df98c,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_camp,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A concentration camp (or internment camp) is a place where a government forces many people to live. Usually, those people belong to groups that the government does not like. The government may think these people are its enemies. In the past, governments have also put people in concentration camps because they belonged to a certain religion, race, or ethnic group.
Usually, people are sent to concentration camps without having a trial or being found guilty of a crime.
Sometimes, governments send people to concentration camps to do forced labor or to be killed. For example, the best-known concentration camps were run by Nazi Germany during World War II. The Nazis used concentration camps to kill millions of people and force many others to work as slaves. However, many other countries have used concentration camps during wars or times of trouble.",0.906526234,0.503906759
cb472863a,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Conservatism is opposition to rapid changes, and promotes keeping traditions in society. Gradualism is one form.
The first known use of the term in a political context was by François-René de Chateaubriand in 1818. This was during the period of Bourbon restoration that sought to roll back the policies of the French Revolution.
The term is associated with right-wing politics. It has been used to describe a wide range of views. There is no single set of policies that are regarded as conservative, because the meaning of conservatism depends on a given place and time.
Conservatism tends to support the notion of faith, particularly in Abrahamic traditions in countries where those are the main religions. In England, the publication of Edmund Burke's book Reflections on the revolution in France. In his book, he suggested people should be satisfied, and advocated a caring government. The two ideas go together.",-1.403632228,0.498502434
875601dcb,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A constellation is a group of stars, usually in a recognizable shape or pattern. When watched together at the same time, the stars look like a picture. The word constellation comes from Latin: con-, meaning together and stella - meaning stars. Some examples of constellations are Ursa Major, Orion, and Andromeda. There are only 88 constellations discovered so far by astronomers. People used constellations to tell the difference in the colors. Constellations were also used to group stars. Different places in the world may have different constellations, but today astronomy has a fixed set of 88 constellations. This set is based on the Greek set and later some southern constellations were added, for example Antlia - the air pump. Most constellations have names that come from Greek mythology, like Orion or Andromeda.
There are 12 constellations in the Zodiac. The Sun travels through the Zodiac once each year. There is also a thirteenth constellation Ophiuchus - the carrier of a serpent, which the Sun goes through. However, most people do not think that it is in the Zodiac.",-0.240680292,0.466206321
24e16582a,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Copper can be used in many ways but one example is wires. Copper is used in making wires as it is easy to stretch and it is not expensive. So that's why large wire companies will use copper as it is cheaper and takes less time to get
Copper may be the oldest metal in use, as very old copper tools have been found. Copper is used in electrical wiring. It can also be shaped into various parts. It can be used in a heat sink. The Statue of Liberty is made of copper. It is also used in pipes carrying water, because it does not corrode.
When people mix copper with tin, bronze is made. Bronze is much harder, and created the Bronze Age. It became less important when people learned to use iron better. When zinc is mixed with copper, brass is made, which is even harder than bronze. Copper with nickel makes cupronickel.",0.40728624,0.510618662
0ee9ed7d1,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_reef,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Coral reefs are diverse underwater ecosystems held together by calcium carbonate structures secreted by corals. Coral reefs are built by colonies of tiny animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps belong to a group of animals known as Cnidaria, which also includes sea anemones and jellyfish. Unlike sea anemones, corals secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons which support and protect the coral polyps. Most reefs grow best in warm, shallow, clear, sunny and agitated waters.
Often called ""rainforests of the sea"", shallow coral reefs form some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. They occupy less than 0.1% of the world's ocean surface, about half the area of France, yet they provide a home for at least 25% of all marine species, including fish, mollusks, worms, crustaceans, echinoderms, sponges, tunicates and other cnidarians. Paradoxically, coral reefs flourish even though they are surrounded by ocean waters that provide few nutrients.",-0.801706876,0.451768759
e88783670,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covalent_bond,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Covalent bonds are chemical bonds between two non-metal atoms. An example is water, where hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) bond together to make (H2O). As they are both non-metals—which need to gain electrons—they have to share, so their outer shells cross over in order to have a full outer shell. A full outer shell has eight electrons. The electrons in this outer shell are called valence electrons.
The number of valence electrons is decided by the size of the atom. Electrons orbit an atomic nucleus in the same kind of way that planets orbit stars. There are layers of paths around an atomic nucleus. The first layer always contains only two electrons, while the layers after that usually contain up to eight.
That is to say, it wants the number of electrons in the outer-most layer to be as high as they can be.",-1.493984206,0.462217283
5e1c3fc3c,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Creationism is the belief that the universe was created in the way described in religious books. According to Genesis, God directly created life from the nothingness that was before, by fixing the chaos that was. Other religions have different Creation myths. The first approach is known as creatio ex nihilo, which is the Latin name for creation from nothing. The idea that God created the world has been taught for thousands of years by writers such as Augustine of Hippo. Creationism as it is known today started in the 19th century by fundamentalist Protestants who were opposed to the theories that scientists began to put forward about geology and evolution. In the 20th century, creationist movements also started in Islam and Judaism. Creationists do not believe that all of today's living things came about from simple organisms changing or evolving slowly over time. They believe that life was created much as it is today, and that one form of life cannot change into another. While biologists and paleontologists say that fossils are different from the life we see today, and can be put into order to show changes over time.",-0.966047657,0.471917386
4afe4aad8,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between Christians and Muslims over control of the Holy Land. Traditionally, they took place between 1095 and 1291. The Holy Land was and still is a place that is very important for the three major monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. There are many important religious sites in the Holy Land. This is the land now called Israel or Palestine. Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem and other religious sites fell under the control of Muslims during the Caliphate of Omar (634-44).
There were many different crusades. The most important and biggest Crusades took place from the 11th century to the 13th century. There were 9 large Crusades during this time. They are numbered 1 through 9. There were also many smaller Crusades. Some crusades were even within Europe (for example, in Germany, Austria and Scandinavia). The smaller Crusades continued to the 16th century, until the Renaissance and Reformation.",-0.516593446,0.475370435
7f8863c77,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents, such as atoms, molecules or ions, are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macroscopic single crystals are usually identifiable by their geometrical shape, consisting of flat faces with specific, characteristic orientations. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography. The process of crystal formation via mechanisms of crystal growth is called crystallization or solidification. 
The word crystal is derived from the Ancient Greek word krustallos, meaning both ""ice"" and ""rock crystal"", from kruos, ""icy cold, frost"".
Examples of large crystals include snowflakes, diamonds, and table salt. Most inorganic solids are not crystals but polycrystals, i.e. many microscopic crystals fused together into a single solid. Examples of polycrystals include most metals, rocks, ceramics, and ice. A third category of solids is amorphous solids, where the atoms have no periodic structure whatsoever. Examples of amorphous solids include glass, wax, and many plastics.",-2.140450282,0.482121184
0263a173f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known systems of writing. It used wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by a reed stylus. The name cuneiform itself means ""wedge shaped"", from the Latin cuneus ""wedge"" and forma ""shape"". It came into English usage probably from the Old French cunéiforme.
It was first used in Sumer in the late 4th millennium BC (the 'Uruk IV' period). Cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the third millennium, the signs became simplified and more abstract. Fewer characters were used, from about 1,000 in the early Bronze Age to about 400 in late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform). The system used a combination of phonetic, consonantal alphabetic (no vowels) and syllabic signs.
The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire.",-1.549272194,0.501719404
1ad3c0a9c,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00100,CC BY 4.0,"In December 2019, several patients in Wuhan, China were reported to be suffering from unknown viral pneumonia. Soon after, more patients in that city were diagnosed with the same disease. On January 9, scientists identified a new virus as the cause of the mysterious disease. They found that the new virus belongs to a class of viruses called coronavirus, and so they named it SARS-CoV-2. The name comes from the disease it causes: severe acute respiratory syndrome; CoV stands for coronavirus, and the number 2 was added because it is the second coronavirus that causes a serious respiratory disease.
Next, scientists examined the DNA of the virus they recovered from a sick person and the results were surprising. They discovered that the new virus infecting humans is very similar to a coronavirus found in bats (96% similarity). This outcome led them to think that the virus must have jumped from bats to humans. But did SARS-CoV-2 jump directly from bats to humans? Or did it first infect an intermediate animal before it got to humans? So far, these questions remain unanswered, but scientists seem to agree that SARS-CoV-2 jumped from an animal to humans.",-0.004268138,0.470120065
32fc19585,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Dark matter is an unidentified type of matter comprising approximately 27% of the mass and energy in the observable universe that is not accounted for by dark energy, baryonic matter (ordinary matter), and neutrinos. The name refers to the fact that it does not emit or interact with electromagnetic radiation, such as light, and is thus invisible to the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Although dark matter has not been directly observed, its existence and properties are inferred from its gravitational effects such as the motions of visible matter, gravitational lensing, its influence on the universe's large-scale structure, and its effects in the cosmic microwave background. Dark matter is transparent to electromagnetic radiation and/or is so dense and small that it fails to absorb or emit enough radiation to be detectable with current imaging technology.
Estimates of masses for galaxies and larger structures via dynamical and general relativistic means are much greater than those based on the mass of the visible ""luminous"" matter.",-1.839474618,0.467889828
9191df3d4,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Because dark matter does not seem to give off or reflect light, x-rays, or any other radiation, the instruments that are used to find normal matter (like hot gas, stars, planets, and us) can't find dark matter. It seems that dark matter is not made of the same thing as the matter we see every day on Earth. The only way we can tell if dark matter is there, is by how it affects things we can ""see"" by gravity.
In 2006, a group of scientists claimed that they had found a way to find dark matter. Since dark matter is supposedly very different from normal matter, it is expected to act differently. The scientists observed two far-away galaxy clusters that had crashed into each other at high speed: normal matter would have been scattered nearby after the collision, while dark matter would not. By measuring gravity, they were able to detect what looked like two clouds of dark matter, with a cloud of normal matter (hot gas) in between them.",-0.937832595,0.448907606
f43a27b6d,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_visualization,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Data visualization or data visualization is viewed by many disciplines as a modern equivalent of visual communication. It involves the creation and study of the visual representation of data, meaning ""information that has been abstracted in some schematic form, including attributes or variables for the units of information"".
A primary goal of data visualization is to communicate information clearly and efficiently via statistical graphics, plots and information graphics. Numerical data may be encoded using dots, lines, or bars, to visually communicate a quantitative message. Effective visualization helps users analyze and reason about data and evidence. It makes complex data more accessible, understandable and usable. Users may have particular analytical tasks, such as making comparisons or understanding causality, and the design principle of the graphic (i.e., showing comparisons or showing causality) follows the task. Tables are generally used where users will look up a specific measurement, while charts of various types are used to show patterns or relationships in the data for one or more variables.",-2.296675509,0.503168128
701310673,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A database engine can sort, change or serve the information on the database. The information itself can be stored in many different ways - before digital computers, card files, printed books and other methods were used. Now most data is kept on computer files.
A database system is a computer program for managing electronic databases. A very simple example of a database system would be an electronic address book.
The data in a database is organized in some way. Before there were computers, employee data was often kept in file cabinets. There was usually one card for each employee. On the card, information such as the date of birth or the name of the employee could be found. A database also has such ""cards"". To the user, the card will look the same as it did in old times, only this time it will be on the screen. To the computer, the information on the card can be stored in different ways. Each of these ways is known as a database model. The most commonly used database model is called relational database model; it uses relations and sets to store the data.",-0.622842684,0.468446533
f1a527e3b,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Databending,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Databending (or data bending) is the process of manipulating a media file of a certain format, using software designed to edit files of another format. Distortions in the medium typically occur as a result, and the process either falls under a broader category of, or is frequently employed in glitch art.
The term databending is derived from circuit bending, in which objects such as children's toys, effects pedals and electronic keyboards are deliberately short circuited by bending the circuit board to produce erratic and spontaneous sounds. Like circuit bending, databending involves the (often unpredictable) alteration of its target's behavior. Databending achieves this alteration by manipulating the information within a media file of a certain format, using software designed to edit files of a different format; distortions in the medium typically occur as a result. Many techniques exist, including the use of hex editors to manipulate certain components of a compression algorithm, to comparatively simple methods.",-2.524790418,0.473424661
6c1ec61d3,,,"The Earth's warming climate is reducing snow and ice. The warming of the polar seas causes the sea surface to freeze less in winter and glaciers to retreat, generating more open, ice-free water. Less sea ice provides a longer growing season for marine plants called microalgae (phytoplankton) and removes more carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, from the atmosphere. The growth of microalgae provides more food for animals that eat the algae and store this carbon through growth of their bodies. The carbon stored by marine life is called blue carbon. When marine animals die some of the blue carbon is buried in the seabed, and that carbon is removed from the carbon cycle. This trapping of carbon in the seabed or in other places is called sequestration. The amount of polar blue carbon increases with climate warming. This is known as negative feedback on climate change. Any negative feedback on climate change is important to help combat global warming. In this article explains what we have learned from measuring blue carbon.",-0.822943305,0.463207062
dca4328c4,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decomposer,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Decomposers are organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms, and in doing so, they carry out the natural process of decomposition. Like herbivores and predators, decomposers are heterotrophic, meaning that they use organic substrates to get their energy, carbon and nutrients for growth and development. While the terms decomposer and detritivore are often interchangeably used, however, detritivores must digest dead matter via internal processes while decomposers can break down cells of other organisms using biochemical reactions without need for internal digestion. Thus, invertebrates such as earthworms, woodlice, and sea cucumbers are detritivores, not decomposers, in the technical sense, since they must ingest nutrients and are unable to absorb them externally.
The primary decomposers of litter in many ecosystems are fungi. Unlike bacteria, which are unicellular organisms, most saprotrophic fungi grow as a branching network of hyphae. While bacteria are restricted to growing and feeding on the exposed surfaces of organic matter, fungi can use their hyphae to penetrate larger pieces of organic matter.",-1.488918252,0.474856299
b9340b6e4,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defibrillator,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a self-contained defibrillator device designed to be movable, and easy and simple to use. They are often shaped like briefcases so that they can be carried by a handle. An AED contains a battery, a control computer, and electrodes. When the electrodes are stuck onto the patient, the control computer will assess the patient, checking the rhythm of their heart. It will then charge itself to an appropriate power level and tell users that the person needs to be shocked. If the patient does not need to be defibrillated, the automated external defibrillator will not allow a shock to be administered. A button must still be pushed manually to trigger the shock, as the operator beforehand must be certain that nobody is touching the patient. Often, automated external defibrillators will have speakers which give instructions when they are opened.
Current automated external defibrillator devices are designed for emergency medical technicians, home users, police and security officers and other people with minimal medical knowledge. These devices are commonly found in large gathering places, such as airports, casinos, sports stadiums, and college campuses.",-1.150423852,0.447142567
b972ec989,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Density,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Density is a measurement that compares the amount, ratio of matter an object has to its volume. An object with a lot of matter in a certain amount of volume has high density. An object with a little matter in the same amount of volume has a low density.
Temperature has an effect on density. When the temperature of a substance increases, density decreases because the atoms are moving all around the place having less matter in one space. When the temperature of a substance decreases, the density increases because the atoms move slower making the atoms stay in one place. Many substances follow this rule, but there are exceptions. Water is one such exception. When water freezes, it makes ice that is less dense than liquid water.
Fresh water is often used as a standard of relative density. This is called specific gravity.
The most common SI units for density are g/cm3 and kg/m3. When the numerator is much larger than the denominator, that means the substance has a higher density. When the denominator is much larger than the numerator, the substance has a lower density.",-1.162663881,0.485563054
25427adb0,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diarchy,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Diarchy (or dyarchy, meaning ""I rule"") is a form of government in which two individuals (""diarchs"") are joint heads of state. Most diarchs hold their position for life, passing the position to their children or other family members.
Diarchy is one of the oldest forms of government: examples include ancient Sparta, Rome, Carthage as well Germanic and Dacian tribes. Several ancient Polynesian societies also exhibited a diarchic political structure. Ranks in the Inca Empire were structured in moieties, with two occupants of each rank, but with different prestige, one hanan (upper) and one hurin (lower). In modern usage, diarchy means a system of dual rule, whether this be of a government or of an organization. Such 'diarchies' are not hereditary.
Modern examples of diarchies are the Principality of Andorra, whose heads of state are the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell; the Republic of San Marino, led by two collegial Captains Regent; and the Kingdom of Swaziland, where the joint heads of state are the King and his mother.",-1.540397203,0.493963714
51c8c5c23,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A diaspora (from Greek, ""scattering, dispersion"") is a scattered population whose origin lies within a smaller geographic locale. Diaspora can also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland. Diaspora has come to refer particularly to historical mass dispersions of an involuntary nature, such as the expulsion of Jews from Judea, the fleeing of Greeks after the fall of Constantinople, the African Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the southern Chinese or Hindus of South Asia during the coolie trade, the Irish during and after the Irish Famine, the displacement of Palestinians in the 20th century and the exile and deportation of Circassians.
Recently, scholars have distinguished between different kinds of diaspora, based on its causes such as imperialism, trade or labor migrations, or by the kind of social coherence within the diaspora community and its ties to the ancestral lands. Some diaspora communities maintain strong political ties with their homeland. Other qualities that may be typical of many diasporas are thoughts of return, relationships with other communities in the diaspora, and lack of full integration into the host country.",-1.835589363,0.505700861
f8c88833f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A dictatorship is a country where one person or political party has the power to do whatever they want. The ruler is called a dictator. In a dictatorship, people usually do not have many rights or much freedom.
Dictators come to power for a number of reasons or social problems such as massive unemployment, inflation, and unrest among the population. Dictators are normally backed by powerful groups, such as landowners, private company owners, bank owners and in some cases institutions like the Roman Catholic Church to put in place law and order by force. This force is generally directed at the poorer parts of society, such as unemployed workers, ethnic minorities, working class areas and shanty towns.
Dictators normally need to do a number of things to put in place their dictatorships: they need to get rid of their opponents (which may be political or religious) - some are imprisoned, exiled (sent outside their country) or killed. Dictators will then need to prohibit (or not allow) political parties that oppose their rule. They will confiscate the political parties' property or offices and such things.",-0.10236821,0.464680597
5d2930947,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00071,CC BY 4.0,"But what about being ""smart"" or ""talented"" in school? Research has shown that excelling in school has a lot to do with what are called executive functions. Executive functions are a set of abilities that help you do complex tasks, such as planning your schoolwork, completing assignments, and having control over your emotions and frustrations. One of the most important executive functions is called working memory. Working memory allows you to hold information in mind and perform mental operations, for example, adding large numbers in your mind. Another important executive function is inhibition, which helps you to resist distractions and temptations, for example, the temptation to eat the entire jar of cookies. A third executive function is cognitive flexibility, which helps you to quickly shift your attention back and forth between different tasks, like switching back and forth between your homework and your YouTube feed. To measure executive functions, researchers have designed a number of games that can be played on the computer. It turns out that children who do better at these games also do better at school.",0.075708395,0.477571068
a15ef0c1c,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_data,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Digital data, in information theory and information systems, are discrete, discontinuous representations of information or works, as contrasted with continuous, or analog signals which behave in a continuous manner, or represent information using a continuous function.
Although digital representations are the subject matter of discrete mathematics, the information represented can be either discrete, such as numbers and letters, or it can be continuous, such as sounds, images, and other measurements.
The word digital comes from the same source as the words digit and digitus (the Latin word for finger), as fingers are often used for discrete counting. Mathematician George Stibitz of Bell Telephone Laboratories used the word digital in reference to the fast electric pulses emitted by a device designed to aim and fire anti-aircraft guns in 1942. The term is most commonly used in computing and electronics, especially where real-world information is converted to binary numeric form as in digital audio and digital photography.",-2.241482979,0.47894931
00589d631,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Digital Video Interface (DVI) is a video interface standard. It is used to send video between a source (such as a personal computer) and a display (such as a monitor). This interface cannot be used to transmit audio unless it is connected to a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) converter. Both HDMI and DVI use the same protocol for signaling, named Transition-minimized differential signaling.
The DVI standard has is widely used in the personal computer industry. Many desktop personal computers and monitors can use it. Most desktop personal computers and liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors sold in stores today have a DVI interface. Many other devices (such as projectors and televisions) can use DVI as part of HDMI. HDMI is another video interface standard. Many laptops still have legacy VGA ports. Many newer models have HDMI ports. Fewer laptops have DVI.
DVI was created by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). It was created to replace the ""legacy analog technology"" VGA connector standard. DVI is designed to carry uncompressed digital video data to a display. It works very well with the HDMI standard in digital mode (DVI-D), and VGA in analog mode (DVI-A).",-2.19510939,0.520239112
522b40c9f,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Diplomacy is the practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of states or groups. It entails influencing the decisions and conduct of foreign governments and officials through dialogue, negotiation, and other nonviolent means. It usually refers to international relations carried out through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to a full range of topical issues.
Diplomacy is the main instrument of foreign policy, which represents the broader goals and strategies that guide a state's interactions with the rest of the world. International treaties, agreements, alliances, and other manifestations of foreign policy are usually the result of diplomatic negotiations and process. Diplomats may also help shape a state's foreign policy in an advisory capacity.
Since the early 20th century, diplomacy has become increasingly professionalized; the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, ratified by most of the world's sovereign states, provides a framework for diplomatic procedures, methods, and conduct. Most diplomacy is now carried out by accredited career diplomats through a dedicated political institution (such as a ministry or department of foreign affairs), usually with the support of staff and diplomatic infrastructure, such as consulates and embassies.",-1.718445752,0.471707049
a4fe184a7,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/have-you-ever-heard-a-whale-sing-Pratham-FKB.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"Whales sing short and long songs. Some songs last just a few minutes. Some songs can go on for half an hour. Whales can also sing the same song for hours on end.
There are many kinds of whales. Blue Whales and Grey Whales are named after colours. Humpback Whales and Bowhead Whales are named after the shapes of their backs and heads. Omura's Whales and Bryde's Whales are named after people.
Each kind of whale has its own song. Just listen and you will be able to tell who is singing! Each species has different communities. They live in different parts of the ocean. Each community has its own songs. A blue whale in the Indian Ocean will sing a different song from his cousin in the Pacific. Just like humans speak several languages based on where they are from.
Humpback whales are excellent composers. They mix and match several notes together. When you listen carefully, you can tell that each humpback whale song is made up of patterns of many notes.
Blue whales sing much simpler songs. Their songs consist of just a note or two.",0.3281442,0.496774149
1b763f5eb,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid, is the molecule that contains the genetic code of organisms. This includes animals, plants, protists, archaea and bacteria.
DNA is in each cell in the organism and tells cells what proteins to make. Mostly, these proteins are enzymes. DNA is inherited by children from their parents. This is why children share traits with their parents, such as skin, hair and eye color. The DNA in a person is a combination of the DNA from each of their parents.
Part of an organism's DNA is ""non-coding DNA"" sequences. They do not code for protein sequences. Some noncoding DNA is transcribed into non-coding RNA molecules, such as transfer RNA, ribosomal RNA, and regulatory RNAs. Other sequences are not transcribed at all, or give rise to RNA of unknown function. The amount of non-coding DNA varies greatly among species. For example, over 98% of the human genome is non-coding DNA, while only about 2% of a typical bacterial genome is non-coding DNA.",-1.641886235,0.511273013
0cd2488aa,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). Any name registered in the DNS is a domain name. Domain names are used in various networking contexts and application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name represents an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, a server computer hosting a web site, or the web site itself or any other service communicated via the Internet. In 2015, 294 million domain names had been registered.
Domain names are organized in subordinate levels (subdomains) of the DNS root domain, which is nameless. The first-level set of domain names are the top-level domains (TLDs), including the generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as the prominent domains com, info, net, edu, and org, and the country code top-level domains (ccTLDs).",-2.376021317,0.581690064
99361e803,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynasty,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Not all feudal states or monarchies were or are ruled by dynasties; modern examples are the Vatican City State, the Principality of Andorra, and the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta. Throughout history, there were monarchs that did not belong to any dynasty; non-dynastic rulers include King Arioald of the Lombards and Emperor Phocas of the Byzantine Empire. Dynasties ruling subnational monarchies do not possess sovereign rights; two modern examples are the monarchies of Malaysia and the royal families of the United Arab Emirates.
The word ""dynasty"" is sometimes used informally for people who are not rulers but are, for example, members of a family with influence and power in other areas, such as a series of successive owners of a major company. It is also extended to unrelated people, such as major poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team.",-1.533970926,0.481169304
0b252057e,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Earth is the planet we live on. It is the third planet from the Sun. It is the only planet known to have life on it. The Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago. It is one of four rocky planets on the inside of the Solar System. The other three are Mercury, Venus and Mars.
The large mass of the Sun makes the Earth move around it, just as the mass of the Earth makes the Moon move around it. The Earth also turns round in space, so different parts face the Sun at different times. The Earth goes around the Sun once (one ""year"") for every 365¼ times it turns all the way around (one ""day"").
The Moon goes around the Earth about every 27 days. As the Earth goes round the Sun at the same time, the changing light of the Moon takes about 29½ days to go from dark to bright to dark again. That is where the idea of ""month"" came from. However, now most months have 30 or 31 days so they fit into one year.",-0.451211686,0.481154984
62e7568a4,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake,CC BY-SA 3.0,"An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the perceptible shaking of the surface of the Earth, resulting from the sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can be violent enough to toss people around and destroy whole cities. The seismicity or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time.
Earthquakes are measured using observations from seismometers. The moment magnitude is the most common scale on which earthquakes larger than approximately 5 are reported for the entire globe. The more numerous earthquakes smaller than magnitude 5 reported by national seismological observatories are measured mostly on the local magnitude scale, also referred to as the Richter magnitude scale. These two scales are numerically similar over their range of validity. Magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes are mostly imperceptible or weak and magnitude 7 and over potentially cause serious damage over larger areas, depending on their depth.",-0.403295095,0.47648645
b5ffa97d5,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem,CC BY-SA 3.0,"An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are regarded as linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. As ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among organisms, and between organisms and their environment, they can be of any size but usually encompass specific, limited spaces (although some scientists say that the entire planet is an ecosystem).
Energy, water, nitrogen and soil minerals are other essential abiotic components of an ecosystem. The energy that flows through ecosystems is obtained primarily from the sun. It generally enters the system through photosynthesis, a process that also captures carbon from the atmosphere. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and energy through the system. They also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. By breaking down dead organic matter, decomposers release carbon back to the atmosphere and facilitate nutrient cycling by converting nutrients stored in dead biomass back to a form that can be readily used by plants and other microbes.",-1.652186861,0.466807246
afc8ff464,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edaphology,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Edaphology (from Greek, edaphos, ""ground"") is one of two main divisions of soil science, the other being pedology. Edaphology is concerned with the influence of soils on living things, particularly plants. The term is also applied to the study of how soil influences humankind's use of land for plant growth as well as man's overall use of the land. General subfields within edaphology are agricultural soil science (known by the term agrology in some regions) and environmental soil science. (Pedology deals with pedogenesis, soil morphology, and soil classification.)
In Russia, edaphology is considered equivalent to pedology, but is recognized to have an applied sense consistent with agrophysics and agrochemistry outside Russia. Xenophon (431–355 BC), and Cato (234–149 BC), were early edaphologists. Xenophon noted the beneficial effect of turning a cover crop into the earth. Cato wrote De Agri Cultura (""On Farming"") which recommended tillage, crop rotation and the use of legumes in the rotation to build soil nitrogen. He also devised the first soil capability classification for specific crops.",-2.989178994,0.534647423
e167bb46b,,,"When you go to buy a pet fish, you will probably get very detailed instructions on how to take care of it. Even before you go home with your new buddy, you will know a lot of useful stuff, like what it eats and how often you need to clean its tank. Now, if you tried to adopt an octopus, things would not be so easy. I mean, does it even have a mouth? Scientists have a similar problem. When we plan experiments using animals, we need to know a lot about them so that we can tell whether or not our experiments are affecting them. Since scientists cannot hope to learn everything about every animal, they decided to study just a handful of them and use those well-studied examples for their research. These well-studied creatures are called model organisms and, in this article, you will learn about the smallest of them.",0.726097322,0.566194262
dc9fc8155,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasticity_(physics),CC BY-SA 3.0,"The physical reasons for elastic behavior can be quite different for different materials. In metals, the atomic lattice changes size and shape when forces are applied (energy is added to the system). When forces are removed, the lattice goes back to the original lower energy state. For rubbers and other polymers, elasticity is caused by the stretching of polymer chains when forces are applied.
Hooke's law states that the force required to deform elastic objects should be directly proportional to the distance of deformation, regardless of how large that distance becomes. This is known as perfect elasticity, in which a given object will return to its original shape no matter how strongly it is deformed. This is an ideal concept only; most materials which possess elasticity in practice remain purely elastic only up to very small deformations, after which plastic (permanent) deformation occurs.",-1.820296934,0.496479711
c56b17080,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_charge,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Charge is the fundamental property of forms of matter that exhibit electrostatic attraction or repulsion in the presence of other matter. Electric charge is a characteristic property of many subatomic particles. The charges of free-standing particles are integer multiples of the elementary charge e; we say that electric charge is quantized. Michael Faraday, in his electrolysis experiments, was the first to note the discrete nature of electric charge. Robert Millikan's oil drop experiment demonstrated this fact directly, and measured the elementary charge. It has been discovered that one type of particle, quarks, have fractional charges of either -1/3 or +2/3, but it is believed they always occur in multiples of integral charge; free-standing quarks have never been observed.
By convention, the charge of an electron is negative, -e, while that of a proton is positive, +e. Charged particles whose charges have the same sign repel one another, and particles whose charges have different signs attract. Coulomb's law quantifies the electrostatic force between two particles by asserting that the force is proportional to the product of their charges, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.",-3.413515853,0.642028453
0d456589c,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_cable,CC BY-SA 3.0,"An electrical cable is made of two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted, or braided together to form a single assembly, the ends of which can be connected to two devices, enabling the transfer of electrical signals from one device to the other. Cables are used for a wide range of purposes, and each must be tailored for that purpose. Cables are used extensively in electronic devices for power and signal circuits. Long-distance communication takes place over undersea cables. Power cables are used for bulk transmission of alternating and direct current power, especially using high-voltage cable. Electrical cables are extensively used in building wiring for lighting, power and control circuits permanently installed in buildings. Since all the circuit conductors required can be installed in a cable at one time, installation labor is saved compared to certain other wiring methods.",-0.36109813,0.478653948
f88faca70,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_nose,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The electronic nose was developed in order to mimic human olfaction that functions as a non-separative mechanism: i.e. an odor / flavor is perceived as a global fingerprint. Essentially the instrument consists of head space sampling, sensor array, and pattern recognition modules, to generate signal pattern that are used for characterizing odors.
Electronic noses include three major parts: a sample delivery system, a detection system, a computing system.
The sample delivery system enables the generation of the headspace (volatile compounds) of a sample, which is the fraction analyzed. The system then injects this headspace into the detection system of the electronic nose. The sample delivery system is essential to guarantee constant operating conditions.
The detection system, which consists of a sensor set, is the ""reactive"" part of the instrument. When in contact with volatile compounds, the sensors react, which means they experience a change of electrical properties.
In most electronic noses, each sensor is sensitive to all volatile molecules but each in their specific way.",-2.160460667,0.488374954
c434b7308,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_generator,CC BY-SA 3.0,"An electrostatic generator, or electrostatic machine, is an electromechanical generator that produces static electricity, or electricity at high voltage and low continuous current. The knowledge of static electricity dates back to the earliest civilizations, but for millennia it remained merely an interesting and mystifying phenomenon, without a theory to explain its behavior and often confused with magnetism. By the end of the 17th Century, researchers had developed practical means of generating electricity by friction, but the development of electrostatic machines did not begin in earnest until the 18th century, when they became fundamental instruments in the studies about the new science of electricity. Electrostatic generators operate by using manual (or other) power to transform mechanical work into electric energy. Electrostatic generators develop electrostatic charges of opposite signs rendered to two conductors, using only electric forces, and work by using moving plates, drums, or belts to carry electric charge to a high potential electrode. The charge is generated by one of two methods: either the triboelectric effect (friction) or electrostatic induction.",-2.378185941,0.545673267
b9e48c16b,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00027,CC BY 4.0,"Fleshy fruits have high water content in the pericarp, and a fleshy mesocarp once they are mature. This means that fleshy fruits are juicier than dry fruits. The group of fleshy fruits includes many of the fruits that you may find in the grocery store, and many sweet fruits, such as peaches and apples. Pomegranates, although we eat the seed and not the fruit, also fall under this category, because their pericarp is soft and fleshy. Avocados, peaches, plums, and other fruits with pits are also fleshy fruits, because they have a thick and fleshy mesocarp. Peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes are also examples of fleshy fruits, even though they are usually referred to as vegetables. In fact, most edible fruits fall into the category of fleshy fruits. These fruits use animals, such as birds or humans, to disperse the seeds.
Dry fruits are hard and dry when they are fully mature. The pericarp of dry fruits still has three layers—exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp—but compared with fleshy fruits, they are thinner and do not have as much water.",-1.361228127,0.504146105
7690c0d22,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00038,CC BY 4.0,"When an animal dies, its body changes in appearance. It will gradually disappear as it is eaten by other animals and bacteria. This process is called decomposition. When a sea turtle dies, the first thing that happens is that the body of the turtle, known as a carcass, sinks to the bottom of the sea floor. However, the bacteria in its intestines continue to live and produce gases, gradually making the body swell. Like a balloon filled with air, the body floats and rises to the sea surface. But, as the bacteria continue to decompose the body, the carcass will eventually develop holes and let out the gases that kept it on the surface. It sinks again and disappears to the bottom of the sea permanently.
The turtles found stranded on Virginia's beaches arrived floating. They had not yet released the gases they contained, otherwise they would have sunk and remained at the bottom of the sea without reaching the beach. Since we ultimately wanted to understand why these sea turtles died, we first needed to figure out where and when they died.",0.14655572,0.51964549
03fccfcee,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Proclamation was issued in two parts. On September 22, 1862, Lincoln said that in 100 days, he would free all slaves in areas not then under Union control. On January 1, 1863, he named the ten states in which the proclamation would then apply: Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana. The five border states where slavery was still legal were exempt, and so not named, because they had remained loyal to the Union and were not in rebellion. Tennessee also was not named because Union forces had already regained control there. Several counties of Virginia that were in the process of separating from that state to form the new state of West Virginia were specifically named as exemptions, as were several parishes around New Orleans in Louisiana. The next paragraph is part of a quote from the Emancipation Proclamation.",-0.35118288,0.488192829
525766d24,"https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00051#:~:text=Scientists%20have%20shown%20that%20the,the%20run%2Dup%20to%20exams",CC BY 4.0,"As a newborn, you spent more time asleep than awake. But the older you get, the less you sleep. It is not just the amount of sleep that changes during development but, importantly, the balance between different sleep stages also changes. Generally, as you grow older, you get less and less slow-wave sleep, while the proportion of light non-REM sleep increases. Scientists believe that these changes in sleep may tell us about the brain's potential to reconstruct itself.
From infancy to adolescence, your brain undergoes major reorganization and optimization to deal with your daily needs and experiences. New connections between brain cells are built, connections you do not need are removed, and the communication of information along important neuron tracks speeds up. Crucially, when a specific part of the brain is under reconstruction, the neurons in that region show more slow rhythmic activity during slow-wave sleep.",-0.200118712,0.448821249
50dc68f2f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulator,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"An emulator is a computer program or hardware that makes one kind of computer behave like a different one, so that it can use the same programs or do the same things as the other one. They are best for using old software and games on newer computers. They can be hardware that you add to the computer, or software that you use on it. Some types of emulators require newer computers that have the right system requirements. For example, you need a processor that is fast enough to meet the demands of the emulator. Memory (both RAM and hard drive space) may be another factor to help it run smoothly and more accurately. With the more advanced emulators, if your computer is too old, the emulator or even the operating system may crash.
The simplest type of emulator is called an interpreter, and it runs the foreign program one step at a time.",-1.411302185,0.471194665
70f07093e,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Environment is living things and what is around them. It includes physical, chemical and other natural forces. Living things do not simply exist in their environment. They constantly interact with it. Organisms change in response to conditions in their environment. In the environment there are interactions between plants, animals, soil, water, temperature, light, and other living and non-living things. 
The word 'environment' is used to talk about many things. People in different fields of knowledge (like history, geography or biology) use the word differently. An electromagnetic environment is the radio waves and other radiation and magnetic fields. The galactic environment refers to conditions between the stars.
In psychology and medicine a person's environment is the people, physical things, places, and events that the person lives with. The environment affects the growth and development of the person. It affects the person's behavior. It affects the person's body, mind and heart.",-0.539375362,0.472557547
7c732b8bb,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_science,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical, biological and information sciences (including ecology, biology, physics, chemistry, zoology, mineralogy, oceanology, limnology, soil science, geology, atmospheric science, and geodesy) to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems. Environmental science emerged from the fields of natural history and medicine during the Enlightenment. Today it provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems.
Related areas of study include environmental studies and environmental engineering. Environmental studies incorporate more of the social sciences for understanding human relationships, perceptions and policies towards the environment. Environmental engineering focuses on design and technology for improving environmental quality in every aspect. Environmental scientists work on subjects like the understanding of earth processes, evaluating alternative energy systems, pollution control and mitigation, natural resource management, and the effects of global climate change. Environmental issues almost always include an interaction of physical, chemical, and biological processes.",-3.137143261,0.555843093
fbcb3dbac,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_technology,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Renewable energy is the energy that can be replenished easily. For years we have been using sources such as wood, sun, water, etc. for means for producing energy. Energy that can be produced by natural objects like sun, wind, etc. is considered to be renewable. Technologies that have been in usage include wind power, hydropower, solar energy, geothermal energy, and biomass/bioenergy.
Water purification: The whole idea/concept of having dirt/germ/pollution free water flowing throughout the environment. Many other phenomena lead from this concept of purification of water. Water pollution is the main enemy of this concept, and various campaigns and activists have been organized around the world to help purify water.
Air purification: Basic and common green plants can be grown indoors to keep the air fresh because all plants remove CO2 and convert it into oxygen. The best examples are: Dypsis lutescens, Sansevieria trifasciata, and Epipremnum aureum. Besides using the plants themselves, some species of bacteria can also be added to the leaves of these plants to help remove toxic gases, such as toluene.",-0.849320333,0.456320673
b52f3696a,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"There are thousands of different enzymes and each one is specific to the reaction which it catalyzes. Enzymes have names which show what they do. Enzyme names usually end in –ase to show that they are enzymes. Examples of this include ATP synthase. It makes a chemical called ATP. Another example is DNA polymerase. It reads an intact DNA strand and uses it as a template to make a new strand.
One example of an enzyme is amylase, found in saliva. It breaks down starch molecules into smaller glucose and maltose molecules. Another kind of enzyme is lipase. It breaks down fats into smaller molecules, fatty acids and glycerol.
The proteases are a whole class of enzymes. They break down other enzymes and proteins back into amino acids. Nucleases are enzymes that cut DNA or RNA, often in specific place in the molecule.
Enzymes are not only for breaking large chemicals into smaller chemicals. Other enzymes take smaller chemicals and build them up into bigger chemicals, and do many other chemical tasks.",-1.684291865,0.470706977
b5a6847a8,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00032,CC BY 4.0,"The first attempts to turn mature cells back into pluripotent stem cells involved a process called cloning. In the cloning process, an egg is fertilized in the lab, and right after fertilization, the DNA is removed from the egg. The empty egg is then injected with DNA from another mature cell, such as a skin or blood cell. Even though the DNA is from a mature cell, the environment of the egg will basically reprogram the genetic material from the mature cell, so that it can create an embryo. If the egg keeps developing, it will develop into a clone of the person or animal from which the mature cell was taken. Human cloning is illegal, but in the early 1960's, English researchers successfully cloned frogs. Frogs have relatively very large eggs, so they are easy to work with. The researchers took a fertilized egg from a frog, removed the DNA, and injected the egg with genetic material from an intestinal cell of another frog. After about 40 days, the egg matured and developed into a tadpole. The tadpole was genetically identical to the frog from which the intestinal cell was taken.",-1.197114606,0.469786777
7a5ff6589,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erosion,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Temperature changes cause pieces of rock to flake away from the surface. Also, the acid in rainwater dissolves rocks containing calcium carbonate. These processes are called weathering.
Water erosion happens when water moves the pieces of rock or soil downhill. Waves also carry away small pieces of material. A wave can wash up onto the surface of rock or soil and then carry away pieces of material as it flows back into the ocean or lake.
The size of earth materials that can be moved by water depends on how fast the water is moving. A fast-flowing stream can carry large rocks while a slow-moving stream might only be able to carry very small things like clay. Canyons are among the most obvious features made by erosion. Where a river meets the sea, it drops the solids, sometimes making a river delta.
Large tropical rivers like the Paraná, Indus, Brahmaputra, Ganges, Zambezi, Mississippi and the Amazon carry huge amounts of sediment down to the sea. The Nile, perhaps the world's longest river, carries much less sediment than the others because, part of the way, it runs through less fertile regions than the other great rivers.",-0.829604039,0.477237808
043049ae7,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The European Union (abbreviation: EU) is a confederation of 28 member countries in Europe, started in 1957 as the European Economic Community (EEC). It has created a common economic area with Europe-wide laws allowing people to move and trade in other EU countries almost the same as they do in their own. Nineteen of these countries also share the same type of money: the euro.
The Treaty of Lisbon is the most recent treaty that says how the Union is run. Every member state signed to say that they each agreed with what it says. Most importantly, it says which jobs ('powers') the Union should do for the members and which jobs they should do themselves. The members decide how the Union should act by voting for or against proposals.
The objective of the EU is to bring its member states closer together with respect of human rights and democracy. It does this with a common style of passport, common rules about fair trading with each other, common agreements about law enforcement, and other agreements.",-1.410773436,0.449550525
c85c04767,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoplanet,CC BY-SA 3.0,"An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet that orbits a star other than the Sun. Starting in 1988, and as of 16 August 2016, there have been 3,501 exoplanets in 2,623 planetary systems and 592 multiple planetary systems confirmed. HARPS (since 2004) has discovered about a hundred exoplanets while the Kepler space telescope (since 2009) has found more than two thousand. Kepler has also detected a few thousand candidate planets, of which about 11% may be false positives. On average, there is at least one planet per star, with a percentage having multiple planets. About 1 in 5 Sun-like stars have an ""Earth-sized"" planet in the habitable zone, with the nearest expected to be within 12 light-years distance from Earth. Assuming 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, that would be 11 billion potentially habitable Earth-sized planets in the Milky Way, rising to 40 billion if planets orbiting the numerous red dwarfs are included.",-1.666049491,0.457869352
dbfa3780f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Extinction is one of the major features of evolution. A species is extinct when no members of the species are still alive.
All species become extinct sooner or later. The end of a species may happen for many reasons. It may be caused by habitat loss or by being overhunted, or by a major extinction event. An example of an animal that is now extinct is the Dodo, from over-hunting. Another quite different way for a species to end is by species-splitting, known as cladogenesis. Probably, none of the species living today was living in the Cambrian period, but their ancestors were.
endangered species are those which may become extinct. A report from Kew Gardens suggests that one fifth of plant species may be at risk of extinction. Fossil species sometimes reappear millions of years after they were thought to be extinct. These cases are called Lazarus taxa.",-0.515114516,0.487631979
3e348dce0,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00083,CC BY 4.0,"You probably know of many animals in which the males and females look very different. Male lions, for example, have beautiful manes, while lioness do not. In birds, males tend to be beautifully colored, while the females are not—just think of ducks, chicken, or peacocks. But do you know how to distinguish spider-men and -women? Usually, female spiders are bigger, but only if they are well-fed. Females can also be a different color than the males of their species, but this is not true for all species. You can use another really safe trick to identify a male spider. In front of their four walking legs, both spider males and females have another pair of appendages, the pedipalps. The pedipalps are used for many of the spider skills explained above, like feeding, sensing, catching prey, and mating. And exactly on the tip of these pedipalps only adult male spiders have a specialized organ, which looks like boxing gloves.",0.803875281,0.521060692
a01ff5dc0,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermentation,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Fermentation is a metabolic process that converts sugar to acids, gases, or alcohol. It occurs in yeast and bacteria, and also in oxygen-starved muscle cells, as in the case of lactic acid fermentation. Fermentation is also used more broadly to refer to the bulk growth of microorganisms on a growth medium, often with the goal of producing a specific chemical product. French microbiologist Louis Pasteur is often remembered for his insights into fermentation and its microbial causes. The science of fermentation is known as zymology.
Fermentation takes place when the electron transport chain is unusable (often due to lack of a final electron receptor, such as oxygen), and becomes the cell's primary means of ATP (energy) production. It turns NADH and pyruvate produced in glycolysis into NAD+ and an organic molecule (which varies depending on the type of fermentation; see examples below). In the presence of O2, NADH and pyruvate are used to generate ATP in respiration. This is called oxidative phosphorylation, and it generates much more ATP than glycolysis alone. For that reason, cells generally benefit from avoiding fermentation when oxygen is available, the exception being obligate anaerobes which cannot tolerate oxygen.",-2.085486472,0.480419969
25268f8d2,,,"Have you ever seen a picture of a dinosaur and realized that there is a palm-like plant by its side? Maybe you have walked around your neighborhood and seen the same kind of plant there? Incredibly, those ancient plants, called cycads, have been around for millions of years. A single cycad plant can live up to 2,000 years! We think that the secret to cycads' survival and long life lies inside a very special structure called the coralloid root, which has microbes living inside it. We studied these coralloid roots and found a high diversity of bacterial species living inside of them, more than anyone had ever imagined. When we took a closer look at these bacteria, we found that they can produce many compounds that can help them communicate among themselves and with the plant, transport nutrients, and perform other functions that are still a mystery.",-0.014712066,0.499021827
23e34b043,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Feudalism was a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.
Although derived from the Latin word feodum or feudum (fief), then in use, the term feudalism and the system it describes were not conceived of as a formal political system by the people living in the Middle Ages. In its classic definition, by François-Louis Ganshof (1944), feudalism describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warrior nobility, revolving around the three key concepts of lords, vassals and fiefs.
A broader definition of feudalism, as described by Marc Bloch (1939), includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but those of all three estates of the realm: the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry bound by manorialism; this is sometimes referred to as a ""feudal society"".",-1.380826715,0.481926755
b5164ad5e,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Under feudalism, taxes were not paid with money. They were paid in products and services. Presents and taxes had to be given to the lords by their vassals. At harvest time, the vassals gave shares of their crops to the lords. The vassals would grind their grain at the noble's granaries. They would give part of the grain to their lord. When animals were killed for food, part of the meat was given to the lords. The lords promised to give protection, peace, and safety to their vassals.
Manors were completely owned by the nobles. They were given from one generation to another. The noble's firstborn son took it all when his father died. Each manor had its own pasture lands, mill, wine press, church, and village. A manor had to let many people live there. Lords gave their servants food and a place to sleep, but they did not pay their servants money.",-0.748301687,0.47098824
954d11b73,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_alarm,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A fire alarm is an electronic sounder or a bell. The sounder makes a loud high pitched sound to alert people that there is a fire in the building. The sounders can be programmed to sound different tones. Most fire alarm sounders in Europe sound like a siren. The bell makes a continuous ringing sound. Some companies that make fire alarms are Wheelock and Simplex. There is also Fulleon who are best known for their Roshni electronic sounder. These sounders are often used around Europe and they have 32 user selectable tones. Sometimes, old-fashioned fire alarms are metal bells. Many fire alarm systems also have flashing lights. These are important for deaf people who cannot hear the fire alarm. Fire alarms are often used in schools and other places during fire drills. If somebody sets off a fire alarm without a good reason, it is called a false alarm. Setting off a false alarm is against the law almost everywhere.",-0.518625175,0.453735136
f87925b78,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00036,CC BY 4.0,"T. gondii is a single-celled microbe around 6 µm (micrometers, 1/1,000 of a millimeter) in size, which is ~550 times smaller than an apple seed (3.3 mm)! This organism is so tiny that we can only see it using the powerful lenses of a microscope. T. gondii only survives and multiplies when it infects a living cell, which is why it is classified as a parasite. The animals that parasites infect are called hosts and parasites often have complex life cycles that involve different shapes of the parasite and multiple hosts.
Cats are one of the hosts of T. gondii, and they are the only host in which this parasite produces structures called oocysts. An oocyst is a thick-walled structure in which the parasite can survive for a long time outside a host. When cats are infected, they release the parasites' oocysts into the environment through their feces (poop). When other animals, such as birds, mice, cows, or even humans, ingest water, vegetables, or meat contaminated with oocysts, these animals can become infected.",-1.841355836,0.477128954
e2050ac7a,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms, containing energy originating in ancient photosynthesis. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years. Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include petroleum, coal, and natural gas. Other commonly used derivatives include kerosene and propane. Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon to hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquids like petroleum, to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields either alone, associated with oil, or in the form of methane clathrates.
The theory that fossil fuels formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth's crust over millions of years was first introduced by Georgius Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century.",-2.486377231,0.520571096
70b52f9ec,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00026,CC BY 4.0,"The first known introductions of the red swamp crayfish into new locations took place in the 1920s: 1924 in California and 1927 in the Hawaiian Islands in United States, 1927 in Japan, and 1929 in China. In the mid-1960s, a batch of crayfish was sent to Uganda and Kenya, and soon afterwards, to other African countries. Simultaneously, these animals spread over Mexico and reached Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic in the 1970s, and Brazil in the mid-1980s. The red swamp crayfish was legally introduced into Spain in 1973 and 1974, first from Louisiana and probably later from Africa or south-east Asia. Currently, this species is present in at least 40 countries worldwide. As you can see, the red swamp crayfish has traveled a lot! By using this information and collecting crayfish from different places around the world, we were able to uncover its invasion process, describe its genetic variability, and understand its global invasion patterns.",-0.545255292,0.450618234
67c4ede2f,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Demand for an item (such as goods or services) refers to the economic market pressure from people trying to buy it. Buyers have a maximum price they are willing to pay and sellers have a minimum price they are willing to offer their product. The point at which the supply and demand curves meet is the equilibrium price of the good and quantity demanded. Sellers willing to offer their goods at a lower price than the equilibrium price receive the difference as producer surplus. Buyers willing to pay for goods at a higher price than the equilibrium price receive the difference as consumer surplus.
The model is commonly applied to wages in the market for labor. The typical roles of supplier and consumer are reversed. The suppliers are individuals, who try to sell (supply) their labor for the highest price. The consumers are businesses, which try to buy (demand) the type of labor they need at the lowest price. As more people offer their labor in that market, the equilibrium wage decreases and the equilibrium level of employment increases as the supply curve shifts to the right.",-1.397337222,0.466181568
a8a4d23c3,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The National Assembly of France even used the American Declaration of Independence as a template when drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789. The American success in their revolution may have been the ""single greatest impact"" on the start of the French Revolution.
Following the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt. It attempted to restore its financial status through unpopular taxation schemes, which were heavily regressive. Leading up to the Revolution, years of bad harvests worsened by deregulation of the grain industry and fifty consecutive days of below-freezing temperatures in the winter of 1788/1789 inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the aristocracy and the Catholic clergy of the established church. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals on democracy, and contributed to the convocation of the Estates General in May 1789.",-1.501553351,0.466411674
0c66f669a,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friction,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Friction is a force that acts to stop the movement of two touching things. The energy lost to friction is turned into sound and heat. Two kinds of friction are static and kinetic. Static friction is when the friction is strong enough to stop movement between two objects. Kinetic friction is when the frictional force is not strong enough to stop all motion.
Some facts about friction are:
Friction can be thought to be caused by bumps on two touching surfaces. These bumps are called asperities. As these two rough surfaces move against each other they get stuck and prevent motion until the asperities are broken or slid over. Even the smoothest materials have these asperities.
s the force that is pushing on an object increases, the static friction increases too. However, if the force gets bigger than the maximum static friction, it makes the object accelerate (begin to move). The thing will begin to accelerate as soon as the static friction is less than the force pushing on it. After that point kinetic friction will act on the object.",-1.074987721,0.472367194
04245deb8,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Frogs are amphibians of the order Anura. There is not much difference between frogs and toads, and they are not classified separately. This is because the toad lifestyle, with its dry, rough, skin, is an adaptation to living in drier habitats. The toad form has evolved a number of times independently, an example of convergent evolution.
Frogs can live on land and in fresh water. They cannot survive in salt water. Their development is by metamorphosis. They usually hatch as tadpoles from eggs, which are laid by a female frog. The eggs are called frogspawn. Tadpoles have tails and gills. When they grow up, they lose their tails and gills and grow four long legs.
Adult frogs can jump with their legs. They have long tongues that they use to catch bugs. They make a sound called a croak. Some species live in trees, and some types of frog are protected by being poisonous. Frogs live all over the world.",-0.644070676,0.503932125
273baf218,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulldome,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Fulldome refers to immersive dome-based video projection environments. The dome, horizontal or tilted, is filled with real-time (interactive) or pre-rendered (linear) computer animations, live capture images, or composited environments.
Although the current technology emerged in the early-to-mid 1990s, fulldome environments have evolved from numerous influences, including immersive art and storytelling, with technological roots in domed architecture, planetariums, multi-projector film environments, flight simulation, and virtual reality.
Initial approaches to moving fulldome imagery used wide-angle lenses, both 35 and 70 mm film, but the expense and ungainly nature of the film medium prevented much progress; furthermore, film formats such as Omnimax did not cover the full two pi steradians of the dome surface, leaving a section of the dome blank (though, due to seating arrangements, that part of the dome was not seen by most viewers). Later approaches to fulldome utilized monochromatic vector graphics systems projected through a fisheye lens. Contemporary configurations employ raster video projectors, either singly or grouped together to cover the dome surface with full-color images and animations.",-3.123761608,0.648732745
906fdc3fb,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A fungus (plural: fungi) is a kind of living organism: yeasts, moulds and mushrooms are types of fungi. The fungi are a separate kingdom of living things, different from animals and plants.
Fungi have cells with nuclei. Their cell walls contain chitin, unlike the cell walls of plants, which contain cellulose. These and other differences show that the fungi form a single group of related organisms, called the Eumycota or Eumycetes. They share a common ancestor and are monophyletic group.
Their basic mode of life is saprophytic: a fungus breaks down dead organic matter around it, and uses it as food.
Fungi reproduce both sexually and asexually. Some fungi grow mushrooms: these are fruiting bodies. Under the cap there are gills; the gills bear spores that will disperse, and may develop into new fungi. Otherwise, fungi use a sporangium to bear asexual spores by mitosis, or sexual spores by meiosis. The spores are haploid.",-2.046467916,0.47292584
d275f5dd3,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"The battle-weary king led his tired followers to settle on the sandy dunes of the Cape Flats. 
Majestic Table Mountain tried to protect them from the harsh weather as best she could. 
The king's subjects complained bitterly about their new home. 
They could not bear the scorching summers nor the cold, wet winters. They could not bear the stinging sand and howling wind. 
Fynbos and Rooibos were the king's trusted advisors. One day, they approached their king. 
""Everyone suffers living under these difficult conditions. Can we move to a place where life will be easier?"" they asked. 
King Protea smiled at his advisors and spoke in a gentle voice. 
""You are loyal and I hear your concerns. However, this is our home. Together we can overcome any difficulty,"" said the king. 
The sun beat down on the kingdom of the Cape Flats. The heat was relentless. A wildfire broke out. 
Furious winds fanned the raging fire. The flames crept across King Protea's kingdom, destroying everything. 
When the fire finally died, it left behind a sad sight that stretched from Hoerikwaggo across the Cape Flats. 
The landscape lay bare for months. The seasons changed, as seasons do. Winter rains pelted the earth.",-0.873906811,0.502973055
497e85068,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00081,CC BY 4.0,"At first, some scientists thought that the brain could benefit just by listening to music. They showed that people's scores on IQ tests improved when they listened to classical music by Mozart. This led people to believe that listening to music makes you smarter. But this was an oversimplification and an overstatement of the results. Subsequent studies showed that listening to music does not actually make you smarter, but rather raises your level of enjoyment and decreases your feelings of stress, which sometimes result in better focus and improved test scores. This means that, while music in your home or classroom would not automatically improve your performance, it could be useful to help you to focus on a new task or in situations when increased attention and decreased stress are necessary. Further, just listening to music may have a different, or perhaps smaller, effect than actually playing music. This is much the same as the way that playing sports will improve your physical condition more than simply watching sports. Therefore, the focusing power of music could be amplified by playing along.",-0.06501728,0.46759133
a9c88f6df,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00025,CC BY 4.0,"In order to infect a host, parasites first have to find it in their environment, and for this, they develop what we call transmission strategies, or ways of finding and successfully infecting a host. Sometimes, parasites can be transmitted when an infected host is consumed by a predator that just happens to be the next host for the parasite. Then, the parasite infects this host and the life cycle continues. On other occasions, more than just luck is involved, and parasites actively increase their chances of transmission in various ways. One common strategy is by influencing the host's behavior, to make contact with the next host easier. For example, the parasite Gyrodactylus bullatarudis uses the colorful guppy fish as a host, infecting its gills and changing how the fish swim. Healthy guppies meet with the infected ones because they are attracted to their strange swimming behavior, which is caused by the infection with the parasite. In this way, the parasite infection spreads among the healthy fish.",-0.625072461,0.448526979
ecfffa27f,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A galaxy is a gravitationally bound system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally ""milky"", a reference to the Milky Way. Galaxies range in size from dwarfs with just a few billion stars to giants with one hundred trillion stars, each orbiting its galaxy's center of mass. Galaxies are categorized according to their visual morphology as elliptical, spiral and irregular. Many galaxies are thought to have black holes at their active centers. The Milky Way's central black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, has a mass four million times greater than the Sun. As of March 2016, GN-z11 is the oldest and most distant observed galaxy with a comoving distance of 32 billion light-years from Earth, and observed as it existed just 400 million years after the Big Bang. Previously, as of July 2015, EGSY8p7 was the most distant known galaxy, estimated to have a light travel distance of 13.2 billion light-years away.",-1.15589416,0.449729137
2ec50cadf,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A gene is a locus (or region) of DNA which is made up of nucleotides and is the molecular unit of heredity. The transmission of genes to an organism's offspring is the basis of the inheritance of phenotypic traits. Most biological traits are under the influence of polygenes (many different genes) as well as the gene–environment interactions. Some genetic traits are instantly visible, such as eye colour or number of limbs, and some are not, such as blood type, risk for specific diseases, or the thousands of basic biochemical processes that comprise life. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) of all organisms living on Earth.
Genes can acquire mutations in their sequence, leading to different variants, known as alleles, in the population. These alleles encode slightly different versions of a protein, which cause different phenotype traits. Colloquial usage of the term ""having a gene"" (e.g., ""good genes,"" ""hair colour gene"") typically refers to having a different allele of the gene. Genes evolve due to natural selection or survival of the fittest of the alleles.",-1.929461427,0.453315599
f378386f4,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_model,CC BY-SA 3.0,"In astronomy, the Geocentric model (also known as Geocentrism, or the Ptolemaic system) is a superseded description of the universe, where the Earth is at the center of all the celestial bodies. This model served as the predominant cosmological system in many ancient civilizations such as ancient Greece including the noteworthy systems of Aristotle (see Aristotelian physics) and Ptolemy. As such, they believed that the Sun, Moon, stars, and naked eye planets circled Earth.
Two commonly made observations supported the idea that Earth was the center of the Universe. The stars, the sun, and planets appear to revolve around Earth each day, making Earth the center of that system. The stars were thought to be on a celestial sphere, with the Earth at its center, that rotated each day, using a line through the north and south pole as an axis. The stars closest to the equator appeared to rise and fall the greatest distance, but each star circled back to its rising point each day.",-1.981132405,0.478058932
77f73d19f,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Geology describes the structure of the Earth on and beneath its surface, and the processes that have shaped that structure. It also provides tools to determine the relative and absolute ages of rocks found in a given location, and also to describe the histories of those rocks. By combining these tools, geologists are able to chronicle the geological history of the Earth as a whole, and also to demonstrate the age of the Earth. Geology provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and the Earth's past climates.
Geologists use a wide variety of methods to understand the Earth's structure and evolution, including field work, rock description, geophysical techniques, chemical analysis, physical experiments, and numerical modelling. In practical terms, geology is important for mineral and hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, evaluating water resources, understanding of natural hazards, the remediation of environmental problems, and providing insights into past climate change. Geology is a major academic discipline, and it plays an important role in geotechnical engineering.",-1.342195073,0.462225572
dbef2d020,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomorphology,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Rivers and streams are not only conduits of water, but also of sediment. The water, as it flows over the channel bed, is able to mobilize sediment and transport it downstream, either as bed load, suspended load or dissolved load. The rate of sediment transport depends on the availability of sediment itself and on the river's discharge. Rivers are also capable of eroding into rock and creating new sediment, both from their own beds and also by coupling to the surrounding hillslopes. In this way, rivers are thought of as setting the base level for large-scale landscape evolution in nonglacial environments. Rivers are key links in the connectivity of different landscape elements.
As rivers flow across the landscape, they generally increase in size, merging with other rivers. The network of rivers thus formed is a drainage system. These systems take on four general patterns: dendritic, radial, rectangular, and trellis. Dendritic happens to be the most common, occurring when the underlying stratum is stable (without faulting). Drainage systems have four primary components: drainage basin, alluvial valley, delta plain, and receiving basin. Some geomorphic examples of fluvial landforms are alluvial fans, oxbow lakes, and fluvial terraces.",-1.493906454,0.475296602
c83049ee2,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00029,CC BY 4.0,"So, what exactly happens in the brain that causes faster reaction times for the expected (attended) pictures in the activity we described above? In humans, one powerful method used to examine what is going on inside the brain is to record the electrical activity produced by the brain when it is active. Brain cells (neurons) send information to one another using small electrical signals. These tiny electrical signals can flow up through the tissues and across the skull and scalp, where they can be recorded using electrodes (small metal disks) attached to the scalp. Electrical devices called amplifiers boost the tiny signals so we can observe them more easily. This method is called electroencephalography (EEG) and the recorded signals are called electroencephalograms (EEGs or EEG signals).
The EEG signal is produced by the activity of thousands or millions of neurons in the brain, and contains lots of different electrical signals coming from multiple different brain regions at any particular moment.",-1.503788351,0.491605895
0377a5ba9,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_orbit,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Communications satellites and weather satellites often use these orbits, so that the satellite antennas that communicate with them do not have to move to track them. The ground atennas can be pointed permanently at a fixed position in the sky. This is cheaper and easier than having a satellite dish that is always moving to track a satellite. Each one stays above the equator at a set longitude (distance east or west).
The idea of a geosynchronous satellite for communication was first published in 1928 (but not widely so) by Herman Potocnik. The idea of a geostationary orbit became well known first in a 1945 paper called ""Extra-Terrestrial Relays — Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?"" by the British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, published in Wireless World magazine. The orbit, which Clarke first described as good for broadcast and relay communications satellites, is sometimes called the Clarke Orbit. Named after the author, the Clarke Belt is this part of space above the Earth - about 35,786 km (22,000 mi) above sea level, over the equator, where near-geostationary orbits may be implemented.",-2.113310782,0.496465196
ea57f3753,,,"If you snorkel or dive in the Red Sea, you will see large, colorful rocks surrounded by different types of fish. These amazing structures are actually not rocks—they are animals called corals and they build coral reefs. Yes, they are animals! These animals do not live alone, instead they live with tiny plant cells inside them and many other microbes, such as bacteria and viruses. Coral animals and their friends are in danger, because the water temperature is getting higher and because humans throw their trash into the oceans. Did you know that corals can be ill and have diseases, just like human beings? Many coral diseases have been described. One of these coral diseases is called black band disease (BBD). This article will explain what BBD is, what causes it, and how we can help corals to be healthier.",0.766250821,0.552235319
7a259cdf4,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight; it forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation (melting and sublimation) over many years, often centuries. Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight, creating crevasses, seracs, and other distinguishing features. They also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques and moraines. Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.On Earth, 99% of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets in the polar regions, but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges on every continent except Australia, and on a few high-latitude oceanic islands. Between 35°N and 35°S, glaciers occur only in the Himalayas, Andes, Rocky Mountains, a few high mountains in East Africa, Mexico, New Guinea and on Zard Kuh in Iran.",-1.134245897,0.459392806
8c3bba2b2,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A Global Positioning System, also known as GPS, is a system designed to help navigate on the Earth, in the air, and on water.
A GPS receiver shows where it is. It may also show how fast it is moving, which direction it is going, how high it is, and maybe how fast it is going up or down. Many GPS receivers have information about places. GPSs for automobiles have travel data like road maps, hotels, restaurants, and service stations. GPSs for boats contain nautical charts of harbors, marinas, shallow water, rocks, and waterways. Other GPS receivers are made for air navigation, hiking and backpacking, bicycling, or many other activities. The majority are in smartphones.
Most GPS receivers can record where they have been, and help plan a journey. While traveling a planned journey, it predicts the time to the next destination.",0.325987982,0.497469943
ac715fbdd,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Global warming is a slow steady rise in Earth's surface temperature. Temperatures today are 0.74 °C (1.33 °F) higher than 150 years ago. Many scientists say that in the next 100–200 years, temperatures might be up to 6 degrees Celsius higher than they were before the effects of global warming were discovered.
The basic cause seems to be a rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, as predicted by Svante Arrhenius a hundred years ago. When people use fossil fuels like coal and oil, this adds carbon dioxide to the air. When people cut down many trees (deforestation), this means less carbon dioxide is taken out of the atmosphere by plants.
If the Earth's temperature becomes hotter the sea level will also become higher. This is partly because water expands when it gets warmer. It is also partly because warm temperatures make glaciers melt. The sea level rise may cause coastal areas to flood. Weather patterns, including where and how much rain or snow there is, will change. Deserts will probably increase in size. Colder areas will warm up faster than warm areas.",-0.429918342,0.473128756
5bb09dede,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Globalization is the way that local or national ways of doing things become global, that is, done together around the world. It is about economics or trade, technology, politics, and culture. People feel differently about globalization: some think it helps everyone while others think it hurts some people.
It describes the way countries and people of the world interact and integrate. Globalization has many sides and can be economic, political and/or cultural.
Economic globalization is how countries are coming together as one big global economy, making international trade easier. In the late 20th century, many countries agreed to lower tariffs, or taxes on goods that are imported from other countries. The way Internet and other communication technologies makes it easier for people to buy and sell products from around the world is an example of globalization. Herman E. Daly has said that there is an important difference between internationalization and globalization. Internationalization is about nations working together for the same goals. These are things like treaties, alliances, and other international agreements. Globalization is about international trade being less obstructed by national borders.",-0.938450639,0.45805681
438d0393b,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Glucose is a simple carbohydrate, or sugar. It is one of several kinds of sugars. It is important because cells in an organism use it as a source of energy. Turning glucose into energy is called cellular respiration, which is done inside the cells of a living organism.
Glucose is made by plants in a process called photosynthesis. It can also be made by animals in their liver or kidneys.
Having the right amount of glucose available in a person's body is important. It can be measured with a simple blood test. People that do not have enough glucose have low blood sugar levels. This is a health condition called hypoglycemia. People with too much glucose have hyperglycemia. They might have a health condition called diabetes.
Its chemical formula is C6H12O6. This means it has 6 carbon atoms, 12 hydrogen atoms, and 6 oxygen atoms bonded together.",0.104885081,0.490678157
05c2f2fb0,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grantism,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant in the United States was marred by many scandals, including Black Friday, corruption in the Department of the Interior, and the Whiskey Ring. (The Crédit Mobilier scandal, although exposed during his tenure, is not considered a Grant scandal.) Although Grant was not directly involved with these scandals, his associations with people of questionable character and his reliance on cronyism, nepotism, and political patronage gave rise to accusations of ""Grantism"".
The term ""Grantism"" was originally coined by Senator Charles Sumner in a speech on May 31, 1872, a Presidential election year. It was used by Sumner to differentiate the Republican Party from Grant. The two men had been political enemies ever since Sumner's refusal to annex Santo Domingo to the United States. Sumner accused Grant of political patronage, nepotism, and being an autocrat like Julius Caesar.",-0.732070942,0.47055423
204f4dec4,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Awakening,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The term Great Awakening can refer to several periods of religious revival in American religious history. Historians and theologians identify three or four waves of increased religious enthusiasm occurring between the early 18th century and the late 19th century. Each of these ""Great Awakenings"" was characterized by widespread revivals led by evangelical Protestant ministers, a sharp increase of interest in religion, a profound sense of conviction and redemption on the part of those affected, an increase in evangelical church membership, and the formation of new religious movements and denominations.
The Awakenings all resulted from powerful preaching that gave listeners a sense of personal guilt and of their need of salvation by Christ. Pulling away from ritual and ceremony, the Great Awakening made religion intensely personal to the average person by fostering a deep sense of spiritual guilt and redemption, and by encouraging introspection and a commitment to a new standard of personal morality.",-0.801361989,0.49853242
d8a77aa56,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Great Depression was the great economic crisis that started after the U.S. stock market crash in 1929. The prices on the Wall Street stock market fell a lot from October 24 to October 29, 1929. Many people lost their jobs. By 1932, 25–30% of people lost their jobs. They became homeless and poor. This ended the wealth of the Roaring Twenties. Many people think that the Great Depression started on Tuesday, October 29, but economists think Black Tuesday was just one of the causes.
From 1929-1932, the depression worsened. Many suspect that increased taxes on American citizens and the increased tariffs (taxes on countries which trade with the United States) worsened it. Economist Milton Friedman said that the Great Depression was worsened because the Federal Reserve printed out less money than usual.
When the Great Depression started, Herbert Hoover was the president of the United States, and as a result, he was blamed for it. People voted for a new president in 1932. His name was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt got the government to pass many new laws and programs to help people who were hurt by the Great Depression.",-0.741878369,0.463317988
b54f796ab,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_(African_American),CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million African-Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that occurred between 1910 and 1970. Blacks moved from 14 states of the South, especially Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia. Census figures show that African Americans went from 52.2% of the population in 1920 to 45.3% of the population in 1950 in Mississippi, from 41.7% in 1920 to 30.9% of the population in 1950 in Georgia, from 38.9% in 1920 to 32.9% of the population in 1950 in Louisiana, and from 38.4% in 1920 to 32.0% of the population in 1950 in Alabama. Based on the total populations in each of the four states, only Georgia showed a net decrease (-143,188) in its African American population in 1950 compared to 1920.",-1.008548435,0.472460767
7f1427de9,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Great Wall of China is an ancient wall in China. The wall is made of cement, rocks and powdered dirt. It was built to protect the north of the empire of China from enemy attacks. It is the longest structure humans have ever obuilt. It is about 21,196 kilometres (13,171 miles) long, 9.1 metres (30 feet) wide and 15 metres (50 feet) high. The earlier sections on the wall are made of compacted dirt and stone. Later in the Ming Dynasty they used bricks. There are 7,000 watch towers, block houses for soldiers and beacons to send smoke signals.
Nineteen walls have been built that were called the Great Wall of China. The first was built in the 7th century BC. The most famous wall was built between 226–200 BC by the first Emperor of Imperial China, Qin Shai Hong. Not much of this wall will remain as people have been stealing from it. It was much farther north than the current wall. The current wall was built during the Ming Dynasty.",0.131890683,0.49940507
0febeb424,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_effect,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The greenhouse effect occurs when certain gases in the Earth's atmosphere (the air around the Earth) entraps infrared radiation. This makes the planet become warmer, similar to the way it makes a greenhouse become warmer.
The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases; the most important greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. When there is more greenhouse gas in the air, the air holds more heat. This is why more greenhouse gases cause global warming.
The greenhouse effect is natural. It is important for life on Earth. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth's average temperature would be around -18 or -19 degrees Celsius (0 or 1 degree Fahrenheit). Earth would be locked in an ice age. Because of the greenhouse effect, the Earth's actual average temperature is 14 degrees Celsius (57 degrees Fahrenheit).
The problem is that recently, the greenhouse effect has become stronger. This is because humans have been using large amounts of fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide when they are burned.",-0.281876326,0.501787677
141aae66a,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other type of organism. The term typically refers to the zone in which the organism lives and where it can find food, shelter, protection and mates for reproduction. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population.
A habitat is made up of physical factors such as soil, moisture, range of temperature, and light intensity as well as biotic factors such as the availability of food and the presence or absence of predators. Every organism has certain habitat needs for the conditions in which it will thrive, but some are tolerant of wide variations while others are very specific in their requirements. A habitat is not necessarily a geographical area, it can be the interior of a stem, a rotten log, a rock or a clump of moss, and for a parasitic organism it is the body of its host, part of the host's body such as the digestive tract, or a single cell within the host's body.",-0.616799879,0.449437147
403b0ca76,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00019,CC BY 4.0,"Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is an organic compound made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It is a white solid, made synthetically from sugar dextrose when it is in its purest form. It can also be used as a vitamin supplement or as a food preservative.
Have your parents told you to drink orange juice when you were sick? This is because orange juice has a high level of vitamin C and can keep us healthy or treat a cold. The human body is unable to produce vitamin C and we must therefore get it through our food or by taking a multivitamin.
Vitamin C allows the body to use carbohydrates, fats, and protein. It acts as an antioxidant, meaning it can chemically bind and neutralize the tissue damaging effects of substances called free radicals. It is important for the growth and health of bones, teeth, blood vessels, gums, and ligaments. It is also involved in the forming of collagen, the main structural protein within the body. Collagen is vital for the proper functioning of internal organs.",-0.237531023,0.484589823
645d438fb,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk or hard drive, is a data storage device for computers which uses magnetic storage to store data. The capacity of a hard drive is usually measured in gigabytes (GB), however hard disk capacity can also be measured in terabytes when the capacity is over 1000 gigabytes. A gigabyte is one thousand megabytes and a megabyte is one million bytes, which means that a gigabyte is one billion bytes. Some hard drives are so large that their capacity is measured in terabytes, (TB) where one terabyte is a thousand gigabytes (1 TB = 1024 GB). 
Over the years there have been many disk interface types, though all used the same rotating platter recording technology. Differences were in how the data was encoded to binary, data integrity, data transfer speeds, cabling requirements, and cost. In 2009, it was common to attach a hard disk using a Serial ATA connection. The connection that came before that was called ""IDE"" and is called Parallel ATA today. In large data centers, Fibre Channel is often used.
For servers, the SCSI interface is very popular.",-1.874572871,0.474551373
62834f569,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_transfer,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Heat transfer is the exchange of thermal energy between physical systems. The rate of heat transfer is dependent on the temperatures of the systems and the properties of the intervening medium through which the heat is transferred. The three fundamental modes of heat transfer are conduction, convection and radiation. Heat transfer, the flow of energy in the form of heat, is a process by which a system changes its internal energy, hence is of vital use in applications of the First Law of Thermodynamics. Conduction is also known as diffusion, not to be confused with diffusion related to the mixing of constituents of a fluid.
The direction of heat transfer is from a region of high temperature to another region of lower temperature, and is governed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Heat transfer changes the internal energy of the systems from which and to which the energy is transferred. Heat transfer will occur in a direction that increases the entropy of the collection of systems.",-1.57315016,0.446926246
fff594b50,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieroglyph,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Ancient Egyptians used pictures to make a phonetic alphabet as in a rebus, so that each sound could be written with a picture-word, a phonogram or pictograph. For example, a zig-zag for water came to mean the letter ""n"", because the Egyptian word for water started with n. This same picture became our letter 'M' in the Latin alphabet, because the Semitic word for water started with m, and Semitic workers changed the symbols to fit sounds in their own language. In the same way, our Latin letter 'N' came from the hieroglyph for snake as the word for ""snake"" started with n in Semitic. In Egyptian, this picture had stood for a sound like English ""J"" because of their word for snake. Some pictures came to represent ideas, and these are known as ideograms.
The Egyptians used between 700 or 800 pictures, or glyphs. They were written from right to left and from top to bottom. They did not use punctuation.",-0.705825517,0.462108317
c481b3218,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_camera,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A high-speed camera is a device capable of image exposures in excess of 1/1,000 or frame rates in excess of 250 frames per second. It is used for recording fast-moving objects as a photographic image(s) onto a storage medium. After recording, the images stored on the medium can be played back in slow-motion. Early high-speed cameras used film to record the high-speed events, but today high-speed cameras are entirely electronic using either a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a CMOS active pixel sensor, recording typically over 1,000 frames per second into DRAM and playing images back slowly to study the motion for scientific study of transient phenomena. A high-speed camera can be classified as:
A high-speed film camera which records to film,
A high-speed video camera which records to electronic memory,
A high-speed framing camera which records images on multiple image planes or multiple locations on the same image plane (generally film or a network of CCD cameras),
A high-speed streak camera which records a series of line-sized images to film or electronic memory.",-1.270939427,0.473851193
98b62b4f5,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Hippocrates (c. 460 – c. 370 BC) was a Greek doctor who is called the ""father of medicine"". He was the first person to write that people got sick for scientific reasons. People used to believe disease was caused by angry (mad) gods.
Hippocrates wrote about treating sick people. His writings are still important to doctors today. He said many ideas that doctors still study. An idea he wrote about is ""patient confidentiality"". This means that doctors cannot tell anyone else what their patients tell them. Another idea is that the doctor cannot do anything to kill a patient. These kinds of ideas are part of medical ethics.
The Hippocratic Oath is named after him. This is a promise or oath doctors say. This means they say they will do what is said in the Hippocratic Oath. (People now think that Hippocrates did not write it.)
Most medical schools today use a new version. This means that some things are changed. But the important ideas are the same.",0.154878577,0.461422864
06e556039,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historian,CC BY-SA 3.0,"An undergraduate history degree is often used as a stepping stone to graduate studies in business or law. Many historians are employed at universities and other facilities for post-secondary education. In addition, it is normal for colleges and universities to require the PhD degree for new full-time hires. A scholarly thesis, such as a PhD, is now regarded as the baseline qualification for a professional historian. However, some historians still gain recognition based on published (academic) works and the award of fellowships by academic bodies like the Royal Historical Society. Publication is increasingly required by smaller schools, so graduate papers become journal articles and PhD dissertations become published monographs. The graduate student experience is difficult—those who finish their doctorate in the United States take on average 8 or more years; funding is scarce except at a few very rich universities. Being a teaching assistant in a course is required in some programs; in others it is a paid opportunity awarded a fraction of the students.",-0.605162264,0.480270908
edba35680,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Writing history was popular among Christian monks and clergy in the Middle Ages. They wrote about the history of Jesus Christ, that of the Church and that of their patrons, the dynastic history of the local rulers. In the Early Middle Ages historical writing often took the form of annals or chronicles recording events year by year, but this style tended to hamper the analysis of events and causes. An example of this type of writing is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was the work of several different writers: it was started during the reign of Alfred the Great in the late 9th century, but one copy was still being updated in 1154. Some writers in the period did construct a more narrative form of history. These included Gregory of Tours and more successfully Bede, who wrote both secular and ecclesiastical history and who is known for writing the Ecclesiastical History of the English People.",-0.555356062,0.476863061
146d29c6b,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/History,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"History is the study of past events. People know what happened in the past by looking at things from the past, including records (like books, newspapers and letters) and artifacts (like pottery, tools, and human or animal remains). Libraries, archives and museums collect and keep these things for people to study history. A person who studies history is called a historian. A person who studies pre-history and history through things left behind by ancient cultures is called an archaeologist. A person who studies mankind and society is called an anthropologist. The study of the sources and methods used to study and write history is called historiography.
People can learn about the past by talking to people who remember things that happened in the past. This is called oral history. When people who had been slaves and American Civil War survivors got old, some historians recorded everything that they said, so that history would not be lost.
People in different parts of the world continue to remember events differently, just as in Medieval Europe, Ancient Rome and Ancient China each thought that they ruled the only important parts of the world and that other parts were ""barbarian"".",0.121154248,0.470662112
38d1fb000,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_sapiens,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Homo sapiens (Latin: ""wise man"") is the binomial nomenclature (also known as the scientific name) for the human species.
Homo is the human genus, which also includes Neanderthals and many other extinct species of hominid; H. sapiens is the only surviving species of the genus Homo. Modern humans are sometimes called ""anatomically modern humans"". Homo sapiens considers itself the most influential species on the planet, but many species of life, mostly plants and protists, have had a much greater effect on the outside of Earth and its air.
The recent African origin of modern humans is the mainstream model describing the origin and dispersal of anatomically modern humans. The hypothesis that humans have a single origin was published in Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man (1871). The concept is supported by a study of present-day mitochondrial DNA, and with evidence based on physical anthropology of fossil humans.",-1.795182698,0.486973392
884c4771b,,,"For many people, talking is something that requires little effort. We rarely think about the complicated ways that the brain, jaw, tongue, lips, lungs, and vocal folds work together to produce speech. How might your life be different if it was difficult for you to say your name? For people who stutter, talking is not always easy. In this article, we will discuss what stuttering, a communication disorder or way of speaking that impacts a person's ability to smoothly link sounds and words together, is and why it is an invisible condition. We will also describe ways to support people who stutter.
Stuttering is a communication disorder that affects the fluency, the ability to smoothly link words and sounds together in speech, of a person's speech, which means the ability to smoothly link sounds and words together. No one has perfectly fluent speech. We all produce disfluencies, breaks in fluent speech that are common among all speakers (or breaks in fluent speech), from time to time. For example, it is common to insert words like ""um"" into speech and to repeat words or phrases on occasion.",0.784837524,0.569508809
ca85ccd97,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human–computer_interaction,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Human–computer interaction (commonly referred to as HCI) researches the design and use of computer technology, focused on the interfaces between people (users) and computers. Researchers in the field of HCI both observe the ways in which humans interact with computers and design technologies that let humans interact with computers in novel ways.
As a field of research, human-computer interaction is situated at the intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design, media studies, and several other fields of study. The term was popularized by Stuart K. Card, Allen Newell, and Thomas P. Moran in their seminal 1983 book, The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction, although the authors first used the term in 1980 and the first known use was in 1975. The term connotes that, unlike other tools with only limited uses (such as a hammer, useful for driving nails but not much else), a computer has many uses and this takes place as an open-ended dialog between the user and the computer. The notion of dialog likens human-computer interaction to human-to-human interaction, an analogy which is crucial to theoretical considerations in the field.",-2.119730179,0.478239984
d24612311,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humidity,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air. Water vapor is the gaseous state of water and is invisible. Humidity indicates the likelihood of precipitation, dew, or fog. Higher humidity reduces the effectiveness of sweating in cooling the body by reducing the rate of evaporation of moisture from the skin. This effect is calculated in a heat index table or humidex. The amount of water vapor that is needed to achieve saturation increases as the temperature increases. As temperature decreases, the amount of water vapor needed to reach saturation also decreases. As the temperature of a parcel of air becomes lower it will eventually reach the point of saturation without adding or losing water mass. The differences in the amount of water vapor in a parcel of air can be quite large, for example; A parcel of air that is near saturation may contain 28 grams of water per cubic meter of air at -1 °C, but only 8 grams of water per cubic meter of air at -12 °C.",-1.012693356,0.472530289
0fe7e91a4,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Years%27_War,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Hundred Years' War was fought between France and England during the late Middle Ages. It lasted 116 years from 1337 to 1453. The war started because Charles IV of France died in 1328 without a son. Edward III of England then believed he had the right to become the new king of France through his mother.
The French did not want a foreign king, so Philip VI of France said he ought to be king because by the Salic law women could not rule or transmit the right to rule to their sons. The two countries went to war because of this disagreement.
At the beginning of the war France was the stronger of the two countries. France had about 17 million people while England had only about 4 million people. France had an alliance with Scotland against England, and England tried to ally with parts of the Low Countries. The English won a great victory at sea in the Battle of Sluys in 1340 which prevented France from invading England. After that the war was fought almost totally in France.",-0.742713624,0.509173311
86e14510a,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroelectricity,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Hydroelectricity is electricity that is made by the movement of water. It is usually made with dams that block a river to make a reservoir or collect water that is pumped there. When the water is ""let go"", the huge pressure behind the dam forces the water down pipes that lead to a turbine. This causes the turbine to turn, which turns a generator which makes electricity. This use of renewable energy produces less pollution than steam engines do. Some places such as Norway and Quebec get most of their electricity this way.
The way the electricity is produced does not harm the environment as much as fossil fuels like oil or coal do. Hydroelectricity is very powerful and safe, and produces no waste.
Hydroelectricity can be made very quickly. This makes it useful for times when demand for electricity is high. Water that has been stored in a dam can be released (let go) when needed, so the energy can be made quickly. This controllability also makes hydroelectricity a good match for less controllable intermittent energy sources. When the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining, hydroelectricity can be released.",-0.654438983,0.506409004
15fc88a5f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Hydrogen is a chemical element. Its atomic number is 1, which makes it the simplest, known element in the entire universe. Hydrogen is the true primordial substance, the first atom produced after the big bang. All chemical elements were formed from hydrogen by the processes of nuclear fusion.
Hydrogen glows purple when it is in the plasma state.
In its pure form on Earth, hydrogen is usually a gas. Hydrogen is also one of the parts that make up a water molecule. Hydrogen is important because it is the fuel that powers the Sun and other stars. Hydrogen makes up about 75% of the entire universe. Hydrogen's symbol on the Periodic Table of Elements is H.
Pure hydrogen is normally made of two hydrogen atoms connected together. Scientists call these diatomic molecules. Hydrogen will have a chemical reaction when mixed with most other elements. It has no color or smell.",-0.034310631,0.488141945
159a7ab6c,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlink,CC BY-SA 3.0,"In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow either by clicking, tapping, or hovering. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks. The text that is linked is called anchor text. A software system that is used for viewing and creating hypertext is a hypertext system, and to create a hyperlink is to hyperlink (or simply to link). A user following hyperlinks is said to navigate or browse the hypertext.
The document containing a hyperlink is known as its source document. For example, in an online reference work such as Wikipedia, many words and terms in the text are hyperlinked to definitions of those terms. Hyperlinks are often used to implement reference mechanisms such as tables of contents, footnotes, bibliographies, indexes, letters and glossaries.",-1.266894527,0.49578509
26ee34f6c,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00074,CC BY 4.0,"To protect ourselves and to protect others who may be more vulnerable to severe COVID-19, we can take some simple actions. According to the World Health Organization, it is essential to maintain some distance (1–2 m) when talking to other people. We should also avoid crowded places, wash our hands with soap and water frequently or use hand sanitizers that contain 70% alcohol. It is also very important to avoid touching our faces and to cover our mouths with our arms when we cough or sneeze. We may also be asked to wear face masks in public places. These procedures can help reduce the spread of the virus and help us make sure that hospitals do not get overcrowded, so that everyone who needs medical help can get it. All over the world, different treatments are being tested in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2, but it will take some time to identify which drugs are effective and safe. Many drugs aim to prevent the virus from infecting other cells or from replicating to produce more viruses. Vaccines are also being developed",0.185004067,0.491156329
cd17cf7c7,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implantable_cardioverter-defibrillator,CC BY-SA 3.0,"An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) or automated implantable cardioverter defibrillator (AICD) is a device implantable inside the body, able to perform cardioversion, defibrillation, and (in modern versions) pacing of the heart. The device is therefore capable of correcting most life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias. The ICD is the first-line treatment and prophylactic therapy for patients at risk for sudden cardiac death due to ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia. Current devices can be programmed to detect abnormal heart rhythms and deliver therapy via programmable antitachycardia pacing in addition to low-energy and high-energy shocks.
""AICD"" was trademarked by the Boston Scientific corporation, so the more generic ""ICD"" is preferred terminology.
Current device batteries last about 6–10 years, With advances in the technology (batteries with more capacity or, potentially in the future with rechargeable batteries it may be possible to increase this well past 10 years. The lead (the electrical cable connecting the device to the heart) has a much longer average longevity but can incur various types of malfunction, specifically insulation failure or fracture of the conductor and require replacement.",-2.109452869,0.536309422
8f721c292,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubator_(egg),CC BY-SA 3.0,"The incubator is an apparatus that is used to regulate environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and turning for successful hatching of the fertile eggs placed in an enclosure. It is often used for growing bacterial cultures, hatching eggs artificially, or providing suitable conditions for a chemical or biological reaction. The incubator is recorded being used to hatch bird and reptile eggs. It lets the fetus inside the egg grow without the mother needing to be present to provide the warmth. Chicken eggs are recorded to hatch after about 21 days, but other species of birds can take a longer or shorter amount of time. Incubators are also used to raise birds.
An incubator should be able to set the perfect environment and condition for an egg to incubate because it regulates the factors such as temperature, humidity, and turning the eggs when necessary, so the egg is incubated properly because it plays the role of the hen in its natural state. The incubator also allows the egg to incubate while eliminating the external threats that could possibly harm the eggs.",-0.630143391,0.455193324
19bfac449,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the factory system. Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and capital invested; the textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and most of the important technological innovations were British.
The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists say that the major impact of the Industrial Revolution was that the standard of living for the general population began to increase consistently for the first time in history, although others have said that it did not begin to meaningfully improve until the late 19th and 20th centuries.",-0.262953834,0.492003144
3fbefb41a,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The word ""information"" is used in many different ways. Originally, it comes from a word that meant to give a form to something. Information is something that people can learn, know about, or understand. For example, a newspaper contains information about the world. This article contains information about ""Information"".
People who use computers often use the words information and data in the same way. There are special fields of study called ""information science"" and ""information technology"" (IT).
In the 1970s and 1980s, some people gave a new, specific meaning to ""information"". At that time, the first computer databases were built. In computer science, data often means a kind of information that has not been checked. That means data has not been changed or fixed, and you may not be able to trust it. With the new meaning, information means data that has been checked and passed tests for what it must be. A person can trust that ""information"" is correct.",-0.286442912,0.472695732
1eb302c9c,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_privacy,CC BY-SA 3.0,"People may not wish for their medical records to be revealed to others. This may be because they have concern that it might affect their insurance coverage or employment. Or, it may be because they would not wish for others to know about any medical or psychological conditions or treatments that would bring embarrassment upon themselves. Revealing medical data could also reveal other details about one's personal life. There are three major categories of medical privacy: informational (the degree of control over personal information), physical (the degree of physical inaccessibility to others), and psychological (the extent to which the doctor respects patients' cultural beliefs, inner thoughts, values, feelings, and religious practices and allows them to make personal decisions).Physicians and psychiatrists in many cultures and countries have standards for doctor–patient relationships, which include maintaining confidentiality. In some cases, the physician–patient privilege is legally protected. These practices are in place to protect the dignity of patients, and to ensure that patients feel free to reveal complete and accurate information required for them to receive the correct treatment.",-1.11505142,0.458677801
5d8da7a16,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data or information. IT is typically used within the context of business operations as opposed to personal or entertainment technologies. IT is considered to be a subset of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (IT system) is generally an information system, a communications system or, more specifically speaking, a computer system – including all hardware, software and peripheral equipment – operated by a limited group of users.
Humans have been storing, retrieving, manipulating, and communicating information since the Sumerians in Mesopotamia developed writing in about 3000 BC, but the term information technology in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the Harvard Business Review; authors Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas L. Whisler commented that ""the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology (IT)."" Their definition consists of three categories: techniques for processing, the application of statistical and mathematical methods to decision-making, and the simulation of higher-order thinking through computer programs.",-1.426012358,0.526970143
a3f10d9df,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_replay,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Instant replay is a video reproduction of something that recently occurred which was both shot and broadcast live. The video, having already been shown live, is replayed in order for viewers to see again and analyze what had just taken place. Some sports allow officiating calls to be overturned after the review of a play. Instant replay is most commonly used in sports, but is also used in other fields of live TV. While the first near-instant replay system was developed and used in Canada, the first instant replay was developed and deployed in the United States. During a 1955 Hockey Night in Canada broadcast on CBC Television, producer George Retzlaff used a ""wet-film"" (kinescope) replay, which aired several minutes later. Videotape was introduced in 1956 with the Ampex Quadruplex system. However, it was incapable of displaying slow motion, instant replay, or freeze-frames, and it was difficult to rewind and set index points.",-0.074333762,0.493455732
6c58966f4,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the intellect for which a monopoly is assigned to designated owners by law. Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are the protections granted to the creators of IP, and include trademarks, copyright, patents, industrial design rights, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. Artistic works including music and literature, as well as discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols, and designs can all be protected as intellectual property.
While intellectual property law has evolved over centuries, it was not until the 19th century that the term intellectual property began to be used, and not until the late 20th century that it became commonplace in the majority of the world.
The Statute of Monopolies (1624) and the British Statute of Anne (1710) are seen as the origins of patent law and copyright respectively, firmly establishing the concept of intellectual property.",-1.164143627,0.474573701
9fb92d9b4,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Internet Protocol (IP) is the principal communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet.
IP has the task of delivering packets from the source host to the destination host solely based on the IP addresses in the packet headers. For this purpose, IP defines packet structures that encapsulate the data to be delivered. It also defines addressing methods that are used to label the datagram with source and destination information.
Historically, IP was the connectionless datagram service in the original Transmission Control Program introduced by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in 1974; the other being the connection-oriented Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The Internet protocol suite is therefore often referred to as TCP/IP.
The first major version of IP, Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4), is the dominant protocol of the Internet. Its successor is Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6).",-2.273766532,0.526854296
933e78b0c,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_dust_cloud,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The main physical processes ""affecting"" (destruction or expulsion mechanisms) interplanetary dust particles are: expulsion by radiation pressure, inward Poynting-Robertson (PR) radiation drag, solar wind pressure (with significant electromagnetic effects), sublimation, mutual collisions, and the dynamical effects of planets (Backman, D., 1997).
The lifetimes of these dust particles are very short compared to the lifetime of the Solar System. If one finds grains around a star that is older than about 10,000,000 years, then the grains must have been from recently released fragments of larger objects, i.e. they cannot be leftover grains from the protoplanetary disk (Backman, private communication). Therefore, the grains would be ""later-generation"" dust. The zodiacal dust in the Solar System is 99.9% later-generation dust and 0.1% intruding interstellar medium dust. All primordial grains from the Solar System's formation were removed long ago.
Particles which are affected primarily by radiation pressure are known as ""beta meteoroids"". They are generally less than 1.4 × 10-12 g and are pushed outward from the Sun into interstellar space.",-2.793684169,0.490635402
9d2d55759,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intolerable_Acts,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Intolerable Acts or the Coercive Acts were names given by the American colonists to laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774.
The British Parliament passed these laws to punish the Massachusetts colony for the Boston Tea Party. One of the laws closed Boston Harbor until the colonists paid for the destroyed tea. Another law banned the Committees of Correspondence. Still another law allowed Britain to house troops whereever it wanted to, this was called the Quartering Act. The Quebec Act gave the Ohio country to Canada. These Laws were so harsh that the colonist called them the Intolerable Acts.
Other colonies offered Massachusetts their support. They sent supplies to Boston. The Committees of Correspondence also called for a meeting of all colonies. This meeting would decide what to do about their problems with Britain, and led to the Continental Congress.",-0.483763357,0.487140995
8057d0e72,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Intranets can help users to locate and view information faster and use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities. With the help of a web browser interface, users can access data held in any database the organization wants to make available, anytime and — subject to security provisions — from anywhere within the company workstations, increasing the employees ability to perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and with confidence that they have the right information. It also helps to improve the services provided to the users.
Intranets allow organizations to distribute information to employees on an as-needed basis; Employees may link to relevant information at their convenience, rather than being distracted indiscriminately by email.
Intranets can serve as powerful tools for communication within an organization, vertically strategic initiatives that have a global reach throughout the organization. The type of information that can easily be conveyed is the purpose of the initiative and what the initiative is aiming to achieve, who is driving the initiative, results achieved to date, and whom to speak to for more information.",-1.414318496,0.464342876
bf118dacf,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion,CC BY-SA 3.0,"An ion is an atom or a molecule in which the total number of electrons is not equal to the total number of protons, giving the atom or molecule a net positive or negative electrical charge. Ions can be created, by either chemical or physical means, via ionization.
In chemical terms, if a neutral atom loses one or more electrons, it has a net positive charge and is known as a cation.
If an atom gains electrons, it has a net negative charge and is known as an anion.
Ions consisting of only a single atom are atomic or monatomic ions; if they consist of two or more atoms, they are molecular or polyatomic ions. Because of their electric charges, cations and anions attract each other and readily form ionic compounds, such as salts.
In the case of physical ionization of a medium, such as a gas, what are known as ""ion pairs"" are created by ion impact, and each pair consists of a free electron and a positive ion.",-1.913303692,0.488098155
93882c9cf,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Curtain,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Iron Curtain formed the imaginary boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolized efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union. On either side of the Iron Curtain, states developed their own international economic and military alliances:
Member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact, with the Soviet Union as the leading state.
Member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (commonly abbreviated to NATO) and with the United States as the pre-eminent power.
Physically, the Iron Curtain took the form of border defenses between the countries of Europe in the middle of the continent. The most notable border was marked by the Berlin Wall and its Checkpoint Charlie, which served as a symbol of the Curtain as a whole.",-0.550844284,0.441495228
5d139e7ab,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The atoms of a chemical element can exist in different types. These are called isotopes. They have the same number of protons (and electrons), but different numbers of neutrons. Different isotopes of the same element have different masses. Mass is the word for how much substance (or matter) something has. Things with different masses have different weights. Because different isotopes have different numbers of neutrons, they do not all weigh the same or have the same mass.
Different isotopes of the same element have the same atomic number. They have the same number of protons. The atomic number is decided by the number of protons. Isotopes have different mass numbers, though, because they have different numbers of neutrons.
The word isotope, meaning at the same place, comes from the fact that isotopes are at the same place on the periodic table.",-1.176277587,0.448208036
26678560c,,,"Bats use sound to map their environment. They emit sounds and their brains process the received echoes. Using this sense, which is called echolocation, bats succeed at one of the hardest problems in robotics—the need to move in an unfamiliar environment and map it. Many studies have tried explaining how bats do this, and we decided to build the Robat—a robot that navigates the world and builds a map using sound. The Robat has a speaker that produces sounds, and it has two ear-like microphones, to receive echoes. The ""brain"" of the Robat is a computer that processes the echoes, estimates the locations of objects in the environment, and stores a constantly updated map. The Robat can avoid obstacles and even identify some objects. The Robat moves on the ground using wheels and, in the future, we aspire to make it a tiny, flying, bat-like robot.",0.043057874,0.440382497
c01d99818,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00028,CC BY 4.0,"In addition to costing money, each building also has an impact on the environment around it. These impacts are often negative. For example, the land your house was built on was cleared of plants and trees. Removing plants forces the animals that lived there to move, which is bad for the environment. The wood used to construct the walls was collected with equipment that runs on fossil fuels and pollutes the air. When the roof gets replaced, the old material is taken to a landfill. And if we do not take care of the air conditioning system properly, the fluids needed to run it can be harmful to the air we breathe.
Let us think even bigger than a single component. As you may imagine, larger buildings, like factories, require more maintenance than your house because they have more components. If a factory has five air conditioning units instead of one, how can the owners possibly track when each air conditioning unit needs to be replaced? The components that make up a building cannot last forever.",-0.090667761,0.498832543
c33c1cbc6,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00044,CC BY 4.0,"Zooplankton are bite-sized, energy-rich snacks for many predators, such as fish, whales, and seabirds. These predators are fast and use their eyes to detect their food, which means that they are most effective at hunting during the day and in the sunlit surface water. However, the zooplankton's food source, tiny plants known as phytoplankton, are also only found in the surface water.
So, the zooplankton face a dilemma: if they stay in the surface waters to feed, they risk being eaten. If they hide in the deep, they will be safer, but soon starve. This is what we call a tradeoff: each option (to feed or to hide) brings with it a gain, but also a cost. DVM is the zooplankton's clever solution to balance this tradeoff and have the best of both.
Much like a game of hide-and-seek, the zooplankton remain in the deep, dark waters during daylight hours, out of sight of their predators. Under the cover of nightfall, they migrate upwards from the mesopelagic layer to the epipelagic layer, where they can graze in the relative safety of darkness at night.",-1.073497469,0.495303587
5736648a1,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00009,CC BY 4.0,"To understand how each sensory input contributes to the experience of self-motion, it is helpful to remove individual sensory inputs to see what happens. For example, how does removing vision, using a blindfold for example, affect our ability to judge the distance we have traveled, our movement speed, or our movement direction? It turns out that we can actually still perform pretty well when one sense is missing! But if we want to know how each sensory input contributes when all inputs are available, as is the case during most everyday interactions, it becomes difficult to manipulate each input independently. Modern virtual reality (VR) technologies have made this challenge easier (to the experience of self-motion).
Using VR, the authors studied the contributions of visual and vestibular information for judging heading direction, which means knowing which way you are going. Participants were seated on a moving platform that moved them forward to the left or forward to the right, at very precise angles. Participants also watched a projection screen that made it look like they were in space, flying through a cloud of stars. The task for participants was simply to judge whether they moved to the left or to the right.",-1.732891849,0.458181681
456ee9f81,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Jet pack, rocket belt, rocket pack and similar names are used for various types of devices, usually worn on the back, that are propelled by jets of escaping gases (or in some cases water) to let a single user propel him or herself into the air or fly.
The concept emerged from science fiction in the 1960s and became popular as the technology became a reality. The most common use of the jet pack has been in extra-vehicular activities for astronauts. Despite decades of advancement in the technology, many obstacles remain in the way of use of the jetpack in the military or as a means of personal transport, including the challenges of Earth's atmosphere, Earth's gravity, low energy density of available fuels, and the human body not being naturally adapted to fly. To compensate for the limitations of the human body, the jet pack must accommodate for all factors of flight such as lift and stabilization.",-0.183396499,0.484649867
543d435b4,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00064,CC BY 4.0,"Despite the many benefits of using Agrobacterium to improve crop plants, some groups seek to prevent the use of genetic engineering, and even try to misinform the public about the approach. One of the most common misunderstandings about genetic engineering is the belief that changing the DNA of an organism is unnatural and therefore wrong. However, Agrobacterium has been modifying the DNA of plants long before humans learned how to do it. This shows us that changing DNA sequences is a natural process and part of the world around us. By using Agrobacterium to modify plant DNA, we are harnessing a natural process to develop crop plants that need fewer pesticides, are more nutritious, and that yield more food using less land. Using less land is a really important consideration because, if we want to avoid the destruction of natural ecosystems, we need to make sure that our farms are as productive as possible. Genetically engineered crop plants can definitely help us to grow more food from less land, meaning that more ecosystems will be protected.",-1.939365278,0.491110818
2a32c5eeb,,,"We all experience the weather. It changes with the seasons but there are other changes happening over longer periods. This change to the average weather (and to other things too) is called climate change.
The air is made of different gases. One of them is carbon dioxide, or CO2. CO2 is found naturally in the air but is also put there by things that humans do every day. For example, CO2 is put into the air by the engines of buses. It can also be put there by power stations that produce electricity by burning things like coal. When CO2 goes into the air, it makes the air warm up. This is called global warming.
Have you been in a greenhouse? Greenhouses are glass buildings that are used to grow plants. When the sun shines on a greenhouse, the sunlight makes it warmer inside than it is on the outside. Putting CO2 into the air has a similar effect to putting the world in a greenhouse. For this reason, we call gases like CO2 greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are ones which act to warm the air, causing global warming. The most well-known one is carbon dioxide. (GHGs).",-0.279002052,0.502333996
83987c412,,,"When people think about the Amazon rainforest, they often consider it to be the lungs of the planet, removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and releasing oxygen for animals, including humans, to breathe. People also think about snakes, monkeys, spiders, orchids, and the incredible diversity of life hosted by the rainforest. All of this is important, but there's more than that.
The rainforest interacts with the atmosphere in several ways, which affect the local and world-wide climate. The winds near the ocean surface bring moisture from the tropical Atlantic Ocean into the Amazon. Some of this moisture falls as rain, some can quickly be returned to the atmosphere by the tropical forest through the processes of evaporation and release from leaves and soil. Some of this water vapor will come back as rain right over the rainforest and some will travel on to neighboring regions. Between 30 and 70% of the rainfall within the Amazon basin consists of water that evaporated from the rainforest.",-0.106657168,0.515034931
a9d3d8260,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00084,CC BY 4.0,"Scientists found out that learning maths and dealing with multi-digit numbers is easier for children who speak a language with clear number words. However, the problem is that not all languages have clear number words. What do unclear number words look like? Have a look at some of the words for 97. In Basque (a language mostly spoken in a region in the north of Spain), they say ""laurogeita hamazazpi,"" which means ""eighty-ten-seven"" (80 + 17). In French, they say ""quatre-vingt-dix-sept,"" which means ""four-twenty-ten-seven"" (4 × 20 + 10 + 7). The way these number words are constructed is really complicated. In Hindi (one of the most popular languages in India), there are a few numbers for which people use subtraction rather than addition to build the number word. For example, for the number 29 they say ""unatis,"" which means ""one before thirty"" (30-1).",-0.567544706,0.459100197
1be0e5fbf,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/the-mighty-tethys-sea-pratham-FKB.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of a living organism, plant or animal. They tell us what life on Earth was like hundreds, thousands or even millions of years ago! 
This is the fossil of a creature called an ammonite. Ammonites were squid-like creatures that lived in the sea 400 million to 65 million years ago. 
Paleontologists and archaeologists are scientists who dig up the ground to find fossils. When they dug in the Himalayas, they found lots of ammonites. But how did the fossils of sea creatures end up on the tallest mountains in the world? 
To answer this question, we have to go back a hundred million years, when the Earth was quite different. Back then, Earth had only two enormous continents: Gondwanaland and Laurasia. Between them was the gigantic Tethys Sea.
Just beneath the surface of the continents and the sea sits a layer of Earth called the outer crust. This outer crust is made of very large moving pieces called plates. Earth's plates are almost 100 kilometres thick and made of solid rock. But underneath is a layer of molten rock that allows the plates on top to move really slowly.",-1.052453379,0.465720489
d3aef0bba,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00075,CC BY 4.0,"Researchers can also use MRI to see how the brain is organized, in terms of how different parts of the brain are connected. Because the brain is changing so much in adolescence, its organization can be influenced by what we do, our experiences, and the environments we live in. The brain is a large network—different regions of the brain communicate with each other as a person performs different functions or behaviors, such as thinking about other people or moving around in the world. These brain communication patterns can be studied using a slightly different technique, called functional MRI (fMRI). This technique examines the amount of oxygen in the blood flowing throughout the brain as a measure of brain activity. When different regions of the brain show similar patterns of brain activity, they are said to be functionally connected.
Typical behaviors that we see during adolescence, such as thinking about other people and making decisions, have been seen to relate to certain patterns of brain activity between functionally connected regions in the brain. Not every adolescent has the same brain organization, and not every adolescent engages in typical adolescent behaviors.",-0.870117303,0.492937044
d48328468,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00050,CC BY 4.0,"Beyond its obvious importance in everyday life, it turns out that spatial thinking is also important for how well you do in school, particularly for mathematics lessons. People who are good at spatial thinking tasks also get high scores in mathematics tests. The link between good spatial thinking and good mathematics performance exists in people of different ages. For example, research has shown that infants who are better at constructing building blocks do better in counting and number tests. For children in primary school, many researchers have shown that different types of spatial thinking are important for different mathematics tasks. Children who are good at spatial scaling are also good at positioning numbers on a number line, and children who are good at mental rotation are better at doing calculation tasks with missing numbers like 3 + = 5. For adults, having good spatial skills is very important for certain jobs.",0.00942841,0.463474688
8d55ccfa3,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Prussia,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Kingdom of Prussia (German: Königreich Preußen) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918 and included parts of present-day Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium and the Czech Republic. It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, where its capital was Berlin.
The kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a great power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia, which became a military power under Frederick William, known as ""The Great Elector"". Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more commonly known as Frederick the Great, the third son of Frederick William I. Frederick the Great was instrumental in starting the Seven Years' War, holding his own against Austria, Russia, France and Sweden and establishing Prussia's role in the German states, as well as establishing the country as a European great power.",-1.314832607,0.445441882
00e2e0148,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00086,CC BY 4.0,"Unfortunately, like many other big crops, growing a lot of oil palms causes some problems! Historically, oil palm was often grown in areas with lots of different species. Malaysian rainforests have more than 2,000 species of trees, Asian and pygmy elephants, and Malayan tapirs. Indonesian rainforests contain endangered animals like Sumatran tigers and rhinos. Large areas of rainforests have been converted into oil palm plantations. Planting of oil palms accounts for 0.5% of deforestation globally. In areas where oil palm is grown, these crops can be responsible for up to 50% of the deforestation.
Laws have been set to limit the amount of forested areas that can be removed. For example, Malaysia has laws, such as the ""Protection of Wildlife Act 1972"" and the ""Land Conservation Act 1960"" to protect species and reduce impacts on the environment. 
Also, growers who are members of an organization called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) or Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) are not allowed to clear forests or areas that contain high amounts of biodiversity or fragile ecosystems.",-1.369311733,0.485271834
5e96ed266,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00080,CC BY 4.0,"Many scientific studies have found that, after making a mistake, we respond more slowly in the next round. This might be because the brain is trying to give itself more time, to avoid making the same mistake again. The stronger the ERN is after an error, the slower the response in the next round tends to be.
Some people have a larger ERN than others. Does this mean that these people are more sensitive to making errors and learn more from their mistakes? Some studies seem to support this idea. For instance, Hirsh and Inzlicht found that a stronger ERN was associated with better school performance. In their study, the researchers measured the brain activity of university students and found that the students who had a larger ERN also tended to have better grades.
Having a strong ERN is not necessarily always a good thing, however. People who are more anxious tend to have stronger ERNs, and very strong brain responses to errors are associated with increased distractibility rather than improved focus.",-0.670190986,0.496188313
1df3f8354,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Korean War was a war fought in Korea between armies from North Korea and from South Korea. The war began at 4:30 AM on June 25, 1950. Fighting stopped July 27, 1953. More than two million Koreans died, most of them in the north.
Both sides blame each other for starting the war. The north, led by communist Kim Il-Sung, was helped mostly by People's Republic of China, and the USSR. There was medical support from Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Poland. Other support came from Mongolia and India. The south, led by nationalist Syngman Rhee, was helped by many countries in the United Nations, and especially by the United States.
The war did not end but a ceasefire was put in place. South Korea and North Korea are still officially at war, and the United States still keeps troops in South Korea, in case North Korea ever invades again. North and South Korea are divided by the Korean Demilitarized Zone that crosses the 38th parallel.",0.15532111,0.488308416
adf04a8f4,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00004,CC BY 4.0,"On Monday morning, your friend Jordan walks up to you and says, ""I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100."" Being a good sport, you play along and guess 43. ""Nope, too low!"" Jordan declares. ""Fine, how about 82?"" you ask. ""Too high!"" Jordan answers. You keep guessing. 60 is too low. 76 is too high. 70 is too low. Feeling pleased that you are getting closer, you ask, ""How about 75?"" ""You got it!"" Jordan replies, and you march triumphantly off to your first class of the day.
But after class, you again run into Jordan, who has apparently been thinking about ways to stump you: why stick to positive numbers? What if you also allow negative numbers? ""Now I am thinking of a number between negative 100 and 100,"" Jordan says gleefully. You decide to take the bait, and you quickly discover that this does not change the game much. You guess, and by going higher and lower you get closer and closer to the target. If Jordan's number is -32, and you have already figured out that -33 is too low and -31 is too high, then you know the answer is -32.",0.238440727,0.50378119
35a56340d,,,"A hard bump to the head can cause traumatic brain injury (TBI). Doctors treat more than 2 million Americans with TBI every year. Common causes of TBI are car crashes or hitting your head. Some TBIs are severe and some are milder. All TBIs can have serious effects, which include bleeding, brain swelling, or tearing of the brain's connections. It is important for researchers to study TBI, so that they can find ways to help those with a brain injury to get better. With this common goal in mind, scientists around the world are researching TBI. People with TBI often come to hospitals or clinics and some become part of research studies. TBI researchers follow athletes and military service members, too, because their activities increase the risk of TBI. In this paper, we review different types of TBI studies. We also discuss the groups helping scientists. We will also tell you how you could become a future TBI researcher!",-0.133798219,0.488950612
85a975cc1,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00052,CC BY 4.0,"The short-term effects of cannabis on the brain include a variety of negative consequences that can impact grades and success at school in teenagers. Researchers have found that adolescents who use cannabis did not do as well as their peers who were not using cannabis on tasks requiring attention, learning, memory, and reaction time. This held true even if the cannabis users stopped using for 1 month before the experiment. Teenagers who start using cannabis at a younger age (under 15) perform even more poorly on these tasks than those who start using at an older age. So, what is happening in the brain to cause this decreased performance?
As mentioned above, the endocannabinoid system in the brain is still developing throughout adolescence. While its role in the brain is not yet entirely understood, we know that the endocannabinoid system strengthens important connections and weakens unimportant ones in areas of the brain that are critical for learning and memory. Using cannabis while this system is still developing may explain the problems with thinking, paying attention, and learning that are seen in teenagers who use cannabis.",-1.046527731,0.473311635
e50f1c437,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Lasers have found many uses in everyday life as well as in industry. Lasers are found in CD and DVD players, where they read the code from the disk that stores a song or movie. A laser is often used to read the bar codes or SQR codes on things sold in a store, to identify a product and give its price. Lasers are used in medicine, particularly in LASIK eye surgery, where the laser is used to repair the shape of the cornea. It is used in chemistry with spectroscopy to identify materials, to find out what kind of gases, solids or liquids something is made of. Stronger lasers can be used to cut metal.
Lasers are used to measure the distance of the Moon from Earth by reflecting off reflectors left by the Apollo missions. By measuring the time it takes for the light to travel to the Moon and back again we can find out exactly how far away the moon is.",-0.426176432,0.485920443
27b3fb150,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00091,CC BY 4.0,"Polar cod is one of the most numerous fish species in the northern Barents Sea. The Barents Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean, which is the sea area north of Europe, Asia, and America, with the North Pole at its center. Sea ice covers the central parts of the Arctic Ocean all year-round. In areas farther south, the sea ice melts in summer and freezes again in fall. Even farther south, there is no sea ice at all. In recent decades, the temperatures on earth have risen due to human activities. As a result, much of the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has melted. Many areas that were previously ice-covered year-round are now ice-free in summer, and many areas that were previously ice-covered in winter and ice-free in summer are now ice-free year-round. One area where these changes are taking place is the Barents Sea.",0.348012868,0.505420037
86d76609e,,,"We constantly link different things together: new kids and their names, faces and voices, green eggs and ham. How does our brain achieve this? The purpose of this study was to understand how the brain creates these links. What happens in brain cells when we learn that two things (e.g., a new kid and her name) go together? In an experiment we asked human participants to learn to link different items together. As the participants learned these links, we found that nerve cells in their brains also linked these items together. These nerve cells were found in a region of the brain called the hippocampus. In this article, we will first explain how it is possible to listen to nerve cells in the human brain. Then we will show some examples of the responses of these nerve cells, and finally, how the cells can link different items together.",0.516561198,0.594068233
339ee734d,,,"Scientists estimate that we share this planet with millions of other species! But how do we know which species are out there and how can we keep track of them? Unfortunately, humans are driving lots of species to extinction and disrupting important natural ecosystems. It is now more important than ever that we understand which species are present in different places and the roles they play in their ecosystems. With this knowledge, we can figure out how to protect important organisms and their habitats. Exciting new technology has made it possible to identify species using DNA that they have released into the environment—this is known as environmental DNA (eDNA). Scientists are now using eDNA to identify species in all kinds of ecosystems across the world. In this article, we explain how eDNA is used to detect species and describe the advantages and disadvantages of this method.",-0.376403238,0.474111046
7a0641567,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that produces light from electricity. LEDs last a long time and do not break easily (compared to incandescent lightbulbs). They can produce many different colors. They are efficient - most of the energy makes light, not heat.
An LED is a type of diode that makes one color of light when electricity is sent through it in the expected direction (electrically biased in the forward direction). This effect is a kind of electroluminescence.
The color of the light depends on the chemical composition of the semiconducting material used, and can be near-ultraviolet, visible or infrared. The color affects how much electricity is used by the LED. A white LED has either two or three LEDs inside, of different colors. Some white LEDs have one single-color LED inside, combined with a phosphor that converts that single color to white.",-1.201607893,0.447030868
29cd28197,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-year,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The light-year is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and measures about 9.46 trillion kilometres (9.46 x 1012 km) or 5.88 trillion miles (5.88 x 1012 mi). As defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a light-year is the distance that light travels in vacuum in one Julian year (365.25 days).Because it includes the word ""year"", the term light-year may be misinterpreted as a unit of time.
The light-year is most often used when expressing distances to stars and other distances on a galactic scale, especially in non-specialist and popular science publications. The unit most commonly used in professional astrometry is the parsec (symbol: pc, about 3.26 light-years; the distance at which one astronomical unit subtends an angle of one second of arc).
 As defined by the IAU, the light-year is the product of the Julian year (365.25 days as opposed to the 365.2425-day Gregorian year) and the speed of light (299792458 m/s). Both of these values are included in the IAU (1976) System of Astronomical Constants, used since 1984.",-3.25631229,0.58126422
03fed49a4,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00039,CC BY 4.0,"While we contemplate on these glooming prospects, let us look at the bright side—up toward the sky. Every day, the sun sends out an enormous amount of energy. The amount of solar energy reaching the surface of our planet is so vast that in 1 year it is about twice as much as will ever be obtained from all of the Earth's non-renewable resources of coal, oil, natural gas, and mined uranium (for nuclear energy) combined. The sun provides more energy in about an hour than the world uses in one year! Furthermore, the sun is free and does not belong to any one country. It is a local, inexhaustible resource that is clean and sustainable.
Tremendous effort is going into the development of means to capture the sun's energy, with focus on various types of solar cells. The disadvantage of solar cells is that they provide energy in the form of electricity, which cannot satisfy all of our society's energy needs.",-0.53217563,0.456604557
c85b48fe7,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"In the 1980s, many people liked to use an operating system called Unix. But because it restricted the user from sharing and improving the system, some people made a new operating system that would work like Unix but which anybody could share or improve. MINIX, similar to Unix, was used as a teaching tool for university students to learn how operating systems worked. MINIX also restricted its sharing and improvement by its users.
A group of people called the GNU Project wrote different parts of a new operating system called G.N.U., but it did not have all the parts an operating system needs to work. In 1991 Linus Torvalds began to work on a replacement for MINIX that would be free to use, and which would not cost anything. Linus started the project when he was attending the University of Helsinki. This eventually became the Linux kernel.
Linus Torvalds shared the Linux kernel on some internet groups for MINIX users. Linus first called the operating system ""Freax"".",-1.639359581,0.465921455
25418ac78,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The LCD uses technology called electro-optical modulation. This means it uses electricity to change how much light passes through it.
Each pixel (block) of an LCD is made of a thin layer of molecules between two electrodes and two polarizing filters. The electrodes provide electric power to the liquid crystal layer, and don't block the light. Light travels with 'polarity' or direction, and a polarizing filter only lets light with one kind of polarity to go through it, like trying to slide a ruler through a narrow opening. Only when the ruler is lined up right, will it fit. These two filters are perpendicular to one another, so the narrow openings are in different directions. This means that without the liquid crystals between them, they would block all light from passing through – whatever light gets through the first filter will not fit through the second filter",-2.049657104,0.48257371
ebac871b7,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithosphere,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"There are two types of lithosphere:
Oceanic lithosphere, which is associated with oceanic crust and exists in the ocean basins. Oceanic lithosphere is typically about 50–100 km thick
Continental lithosphere, which is associated with continental crust. Continental lithosphere has a range in thickness from about 40 km to perhaps 200 km, of which about 40 km is crust.
The lithosphere is divided into tectonic plates, which move gradually relative to one another.
Oceanic lithosphere thickens as it ages and moves away from the mid-ocean ridge. This thickening occurs by conductive cooling, which converts hot asthenosphere into lithospheric mantle, and causes the oceanic lithosphere to become increasingly dense with age. Oceanic lithosphere is less dense than asthenosphere for a few tens of millions of years, but after this becomes increasingly denser than asthenosphere.
When a continental plate comes together with an oceanic plate, at a subduction zones, the oceanic lithosphere always sinks beneath the continental.
New oceanic lithosphere is constantly being produced at mid-ocean ridges and is recycled back to the mantle at subduction zones.",-2.366802097,0.498877479
22ebf369e,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00076,CC BY 4.0,"Teenagers have very important socio-emotional developmental goals —like discovering who they are and developing relationships with others—which might be influenced by social media. Teenagers are prone to pay a lot of attention to the number of likes or follows on social media because it feels especially important to be liked by peers and to feel popular and admired during this time. This need to get extrinsic rewards, specifically positive feedback from friends, might be one of the reasons why the majority of adolescents use social media constantly. Social media can be a great tool to connect with friends when used in a positive way (like learning more about what a friend likes or giving them encouragement). Another key positive aspect of social media is that it creates opportunities to develop many identities: who you are as a student, friend, sibling, or fan of your favorite band. This exploration will help you understand who you are, what and who you like.",0.526813057,0.509578922
83f77fa83,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00077,CC BY 4.0,"The National Sleep Foundation recommends that school-aged kids (6–13 years) sleep between 9 and 11 h a night. Teens are recommended to get 8–10 h a night and adults about 7–9 h. If you are a student, particularly in the United States, you may find it difficult to get this amount of sleep on school nights. As you go through puberty, your body wants to go to bed later and sleep later. But school (particularly in the U.S.) often starts too early! This makes it hard for teenagers to get enough sleep on school nights. By the weekend, you probably have missed so much sleep that you feel particularly sleepy, and you may dramatically oversleep as your sleep homeostat works hard to recover the sleep you need. If you oversleep all weekend, however, this can make waking up on Monday morning a miserable experience.",0.347466115,0.526323738
35099250c,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00014,CC BY 4.0,"We discovered that whether kids were from an island or continent was the most important factor for predicting the groups of species they cared about most. Being from an island or a continent predicted 26% of the species kids listed. Being a girl or boy also mattered, but was much less important and only predicted 3% of the species kids cared about. As you might guess, kids cared a lot about big, exciting animals, including sharks, birds, and mammals. Differences between the island and continental kids were huge. Kids from Andros Island cared about fish, crabs, insects, flamingos, cats, dogs, and pigs more than kids from North Carolina did. On the other hand, kids from North Carolina cared more about deer, bears, foxes, wolves, and rabbits than kids from Andros Island did. Some of these differences make sense, because fish and crabs are more important on an island than on a continent, and Andros has wild flamingos, but North Carolina does not.",-0.400134082,0.518633327
c4709a131,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00016,CC BY 4.0,"Two patients (also musicians) who needed brain surgery wanted to make sure that the parts of their brains that allowed them to play music would not be affected by their surgeries.
The patients were tested for language and music. Using ESM, we were able to investigate whether the same brain areas play a role in both speaking and playing music, or whether there were separate brain areas for each. To test language, both patients were asked to count slowly from 1 to 30, or until told to stop. They were also asked to repeat words. While they were speaking, the surgeon used ESM to stimulate small areas within the colored regions of the brain to see if the patients would make any mistakes. Each of these stimulation sites was tested between 1 and 18 times. For the music portion, the first patient was asked to play musical scales and a piano piece that he knew. The second patient strummed chords on a guitar. While the patients were performing these music tasks, the surgeons stimulated the same brain areas as tested in the language task.",-0.621404507,0.511893215
bf3ea5462,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_learning,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Machine learning is a subfield of computer science that evolved from the study of pattern recognition and computational learning theory in artificial intelligence. In 1959, Arthur Samuel defined machine learning as a ""Field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed"". Machine learning explores the study and construction of algorithms that can learn from and make predictions on data. Such algorithms operate by building a model from example inputs in order to make data-driven predictions or decisions,:2 rather than following strictly static program instructions.
Machine learning is closely related to (and often overlaps with) computational statistics; a discipline which also focuses in prediction-making through the use of computers. It has strong ties to mathematical optimization, which delivers methods, theory and application domains to the field. Machine learning is employed in a range of computing tasks where designing and programming explicit algorithms is unfeasible. Example applications include spam filtering, optical character recognition (OCR), search engines and computer vision.",-3.295576101,0.614204148
7ba209d4b,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, and attracts or repels other magnets. A permanent magnet is an object made from a material that is magnetized and creates its own persistent magnetic field. An everyday example is a refrigerator magnet used to hold notes on a refrigerator door. Materials that can be magnetized, which are also the ones that are strongly attracted to a magnet, are called ferromagnetic (or ferrimagnetic). These include iron, nickel, cobalt, some alloys of rare earth metals, and some naturally occurring minerals such as lodestone. Although ferromagnetic (and ferrimagnetic) materials are the only ones attracted to a magnet strongly enough to be commonly considered magnetic, all other substances respond weakly to a magnetic field, by one of several other types of magnetism.",-0.73102331,0.53353869
3034df752,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_resonance_imaging,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI), or magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to image the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body in both health and disease. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, radio waves, and field gradients to form images of the body.
MRI is based upon the science of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). Certain atomic nuclei can absorb and emit radio frequency energy when placed in an external magnetic field. In clinical and research MRI, hydrogen atoms are most-often used to generate a detectable radio-frequency signal that is received by antennas in close proximity to the anatomy being examined. Hydrogen atoms exist naturally in people and other biological organisms in abundance, particularly in water and fat. For this reason, most MRI scans essentially map the location of water and fat in the body. Pulses of radio waves excite the nuclear spin energy transition, and magnetic field gradients localize the signal in space.",-2.451063403,0.48032844
ebb2713b9,,,"Blood vessels transport blood around the entire body. Blood is made up of red blood cells (carrying oxygen and nutrients to feed the body), water, hormones, proteins, salts, platelets, and white blood cells (to defend against germs and disease). Early doctors and scientists knew about blood vessels. An ancient Egyptian document called the Ebers Papyrus written 3,400 years ago talked about them. The blood system is much older than that though. It probably evolved over 600 million years ago.
The heart pumps blood into blood vessels, which spread throughout the body. Blood travels to every part of your body to drop off oxygen, nutrients, and white blood cells where they are needed and to pick up carbon dioxide and other waste so they can be disposed of. The heart even has its own blood vessels.",0.449735898,0.49241246
3bd96fa79,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00017,CC BY 4.0,"When you go to the doctor, you tell the doctor your symptoms and expect the doctor to come up with a diagnosis and prescribe you a treatment so that you get better. In 1845, two doctors, Drs. John Bennett in Edinburgh and Drs. Rudolph Virchow in Berlin, had patients whose blood was sick. They did not know what the disease was—it was not in their books. They were the first to describe the symptoms of this new disease. It was a blood cancer that is now known as chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).
In the blood, there are three type of cells: red blood cells (erythrocytes) carry oxygen toward the tissues and waste products, such as carbon dioxide, to the lungs; white blood cells (leucocytes) help defend us from infections; platelets (thrombocytes) build a natural plaster to seal up wounds. In CML patients, the blood is full of cancer cells that occupy all the space normally taken up by the useful types of blood cells. This is pretty much all that was known about this disease until 1956.",-0.014684677,0.520585663
478a77c74,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00053,CC BY 4.0,"Hormones like testosterone and estradiol can attach to your brain cells. A brain cell looks different from cells in other parts of the body: it has a cell body, but also has parts that look like wires sticking out. A brain cell often has many shorter ""wires,"" called dendrites for receiving signals from other cells. These cells also have one longer ""wire"" called an axon, which sends signals to other cells.
There are two main ways that hormones can influence your brain cells.
First, hormones can influence how the brain is organized, and these are changes that take some time to occur. Changes in brain organization can include changes in the number of cells, or changes in the size and shape of dendrites or axons. Testosterone, for example, influences the development of new cells in a brain region called the medial amygdala. Because boys make more testosterone during puberty, this region becomes bigger in boys than girls. This was found in animal research, but studies on humans that looked at hormone levels and the size of the amygdala suggest it works the same in humans.",-0.531309028,0.49385562
e9eb2f1aa,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00047,CC BY 4.0,"Especially at school, it can be very helpful to actively use your schema knowledge when you learn new information. You can do this in different ways. Before starting a lesson, you can revisit what you have learned before about a certain topic (for example, that fish lay eggs). Or, while studying, you can pause often and think about what you just learned and how the new knowledge links to what you already know. This will help you to use your medial prefrontal cortex to integrate new information and remember it better for tests. In addition, such integration helps you to build better schemas so you can remember new, related information even better in the future.
Sometimes, we can use memory ""tricks"" to link new knowledge to our schema knowledge. For example, when learning a list of words, you can link these words to places in your room or another familiar environment. This is called the method of loci (loci means ""places"" in Latin). It is used by many people to remember arbitrary information that is hard to connect to schema knowledge, like a long grocery list.",-0.977261889,0.462962595
5b63df3ed,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System and the second-smallest solid planet. Mars is rocky and cold, with polar ice caps of frozen water and carbon dioxide. It has the largest volcano in the Solar System, and some very large impact craters. Mars is named after the mythological Roman god of war because it is a red planet, the colour of blood. Mars has two small moons, called Phobos and Deimos. The planet Mars is made of rock. The ground there is red because of iron oxide (rust) in the rocks and dust. The planet's atmosphere is very thin and contains a lot of carbon dioxide and a very tiny amount of oxygen. The temperatures on Mars are colder than on Earth, because it is farther away from the Sun and has less air to keep warmth in. There is water ice and frozen carbon dioxide at the north and south poles. Mars does not have any liquid water on the surface now, but signs of run-off on the surface were probably caused by water.",0.543572822,0.53018382
190892047,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Marshall Plan (officially called the European Recovery Program ) was a plan of the United States for rebuilding the allied countries of Europe after World War II. One of the main reasons this was done was to stop communism. The plan was named after Secretary of State George Marshall, but the plan was worked out by other people in the State Department. The plan ran for four years beginning in April 1948. During that period US $13 billion in economic and technical help were given to help the recovery of the European countries that had joined in the Organization for European Economic Co-operation. By the time the plan ended, the economy of every member state had grown well past pre-war levels. In recent years some historians have said that another reason for the plan was to make the United States stronger, and to make the countries of western Europe need the United States.",-0.398495737,0.458293967
d55d97ab3,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00058,CC BY 4.0,"There is, however, a big problem these herbivorous fishes face when they eat algae. It is not easy to digest! Algae, like all living things, are made up of cells, with each specialized for a certain role. The cells of algae hold complex, large chains of sugars, called polysaccharides (pronounced, ""pol-ee-sack-ah-ride""). Different algae have their own, unique composition of these large sugar chains within their cells. To get energy from algae, herbivorous fishes need to break down these large chains. Inside the guts of fish are molecules known as enzymes (think of them as molecular or chemical scissors) that can break these sugar chains into smaller parts fish can absorb into their bodies. There are many different types of these enzymes, functioning like different workers on a construction team. Each enzyme has a specific job in breaking down different parts of algae. However, not all fish have the right kinds of enzymes to break down algae. So, how are they able to get nutrients from algae that are hard to digest?",-0.686426975,0.47358109
23fa02682,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00020,CC BY 4.0,"It can be tricky to know when it is ok to return to normal activities after a concussion. You may want to return to school quickly so you do not fall behind or miss important assignments. You may want to get right back to your favorite sports and time with friends. The problem is that it takes most people a few weeks to a month to fully recover from a concussion. Research has shown that gradually returning to usual activities like school and sports is important for recovery. Doing too much too soon can make your recovery take longer. Taking it slow allows you, teachers, and parents to learn more about what you need for a successful recovery. Remember, every brain injury is different.
If your symptoms after concussion are manageable, you might just need to take it easy for a few weeks as you return to school. Taking it easy means staying on a regular schedule, going to bed at a reasonable time, and limiting time spent on anything intense, like video games. Just give yourself a mental break while your brain heals. In other words, being bored is a good way to recover from concussion!",0.443100663,0.531263827
5adc8037f,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet),CC BY-SA 3.0,"Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System. Its orbital period (about 88 Earth days) is less than any other planet in the Solar System. Seen from Earth, it appears to move around its orbit in about 116 days. It has no known natural satellites. It is named after the Roman deity Mercury, the messenger to the gods.
Partly because it has almost no atmosphere to retain heat, Mercury's surface temperature varies diurnally more than any other planet in the Solar System, ranging from 100 K (-173 °C; -280 °F) at night to 700 K (427 °C; 800 °F) during the day in some equatorial regions. The poles are constantly below 180 K (-93 °C; -136 °F). Mercury's axis has the smallest tilt of any of the Solar System's planets (about 1/30 of a degree), and its orbital eccentricity is the largest of all known planets in the Solar System.",-1.255921325,0.454080577
9a1ff68f0,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Mesopotamia is a name for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in modern days roughly corresponding to most of Iraq plus Kuwait, the eastern parts of Syria, and regions along the Turkish-Syrian and Iran–Iraq borders. Widely considered to be one of the cradles of civilization by the Western world, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires, all native to the territory of modern-day Iraq. In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The indigenous Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians and Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, when it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, it became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire.",-1.162651542,0.495245543
66c40304c,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolism,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Metabolism is the set of life-sustaining chemical transformations within the cells of living organisms. The three main purposes of metabolism are the conversion of food/fuel to energy to run cellular processes, the conversion of food/fuel to building blocks for proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and some carbohydrates, and the elimination of nitrogenous wastes. These enzyme-catalyzed reactions allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. The word metabolism can also refer to the sum of all chemical reactions that occur in living organisms, including digestion and the transport of substances into and between different cells, in which case the set of reactions within the cells is called intermediary metabolism or intermediate metabolism.
Metabolism is usually divided into two categories: catabolism, the breaking down of organic matter, for example, by cellular respiration, and anabolism, the building up of components of cells such as proteins and nucleic acids. Usually, breaking down releases energy and building up consumes energy.",-1.681361062,0.504443628
4be5d5b1b,,,"HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system and weakens a person's ability to fight infections. There are around 37 million people living with HIV, mostly in Africa. Nearly two million people with HIV are under 15 years of age. Most of these children and some older adolescents/young adults were born with HIV. Medication can help people with HIV to lead normal lives, but many young people find it difficult to tell others that they have HIV. Telling others about having HIV can help people get more support, reduce their chances of passing HIV to others, and help them take medication as prescribed. Telling people about having HIV can also feel risky, though, because there is a chance that those people may not react positively. This article presents research focusing on ways to help young people with HIV think about sharing that information, and how we can support children to make the decision to share.",0.472264158,0.515369533
bd4d3fd35,,,"In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming observed the bacterial-killing effects of penicillin in his laboratory in London. This was the first step in the discovery of one of the most important pillars of today's medicine: the antibiotics. It took many years to find a way to produce penicillin in large amounts, and large-scale production did not start until 1945. However, to this day, Fleming is considered the father of the antibiotics, and without his discovery we could not treat many infections caused by bacteria. This means that, without antibiotics, even a small infected wound could become fatal. In addition, surgery is much safer with antibiotics, and people with weak immune systems (like children or elderly) can now easily recover from bacterial infections. However, bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, which was also predicted by Fleming in 1945, during his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize.",0.254812169,0.504506307
feb6c61dd,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcontroller,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A microcontroller (abbreviated MCU or µC) is a computer system on a chip that does a job. It contains an integrated processor, memory (a small amount of RAM, program memory, or both), and programmable input/output peripherals, which are used to interact with things connected to the chip A microcontroller is different than a microprocessor which only contains a CPU (the kind used in a Personal Computer ). 
First released in 1971 by the Intel company, microcontrollers began to become popular in their first few years. The extremely useful Intel 8008 microprocessor was then released, but it was still impractical because of high cost for each chip. These first microcontrollers combined different types of computer memory on one unit. After people began to see how useful they were, micro controllers were constantly being upgraded, with people trying to find new ways to make them better. Cost was reduced over time and by the early 2000s, micro controllers were widely used across the world.",-2.425235133,0.470617359
e21a8d1fb,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphone,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or mic (both IPA pronunciation), converts sound into an electrical signal.
Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, tape recorders, hearing aids, motion picture production, live and recorded audio engineering, in radio and television broadcasting and in computers for recording voice.
Sound passes through the air in waves, and as was said above, the microphone turns the sound wave into an electrical wave. Different kinds of microphones will turn the sound waves into electricity in different ways.
Carbon button - This is the first kind to become commonplace, being used in most 20th century telephones. Sound waves, by compressing and decompressing a piece of carbon, change the amount of electric current flowing in the wire, thus creating electrical waves. This kind became rarer late in the century, due in part to lack of high fidelity.",-0.455608931,0.487495643
6ab432eb0,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-ocean_ridge,CC BY-SA 3.0,"At the spreading center on a mid-ocean ridge the depth of the seafloor is approximately 2,600 meters (8,500 ft). On the ridge flanks the depth of the seafloor (or the height of a location on a mid-ocean ridge above a base-level) is correlated with its age (age of the lithosphere where depth is measured). The depth-age relation can be modeled by the cooling of a lithosphere plate or mantle half-space. A good approximation is that the depth of the seafloor at a location on a spreading mid-ocean ridge proportional to the square root of the age of the seafloor. The overall shape of ridges results from Pratt isostacy: close to the ridge axis there is hot, low-density mantle supporting the oceanic crust. As the oceanic plate cools, away from the ridge axis, the oceanic mantle lithosphere (the colder, denser part of the mantle that, together with the crust, comprises the oceanic plates) thickens and the density increases. Thus older seafloor is underlain by denser material and is deeper.",-1.981244288,0.493942288
7bcdf0b70,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Middle Ages are a time period in European history. They started around the year 476 CE when the Western Roman Empire ended, and continued until around the time Christopher Columbus discovered the New World in 1492. The 'Middle Ages' are called this because it is the time between the fall of Imperial Rome and the beginning of the Early modern Europe. This period of time is also known as the Medieval Age, the Dark Ages, or the Age of Faith (because of the rise of Christianity and Islam). When used narrowly, the term ""Dark Ages"" refer only to very early period, from 476 to 800 (when Charlemagne became king).
Across Europe, the fall of the Roman Empire, and the invasions of barbarian tribes, devastated towns and cities and their inhabitants. The Dark Ages are given this name because during this period of time Europe was in disarray, and it was not fun to live there and since few could write, little is known about it. Much of the knowledge that the Romans used (science, technology, medicine, and literature) was lost. The Dark Ages period was marked by mass migrations, wars and plagues.",-0.929454538,0.464224748
a24031f43,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00023,CC BY 4.0,"To study TBI, scientists often look at specific brain proteins called biomarkers. Biomarkers are a measure of a disease process, usually measured after focal injury. A typical biomarker would be the level of your blood glucose as a way to monitor diabetes. In TBI, the biomarkers we are interested in including tau proteins, glial fibrillary acidic protein, ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1, neuron-specific enolase. All of these proteins are part of the molecular structures that make up brain cells in both humans and the animal models, like the wood that holds up the framework of a house. When someone goes through a trauma or injury, these brain proteins break apart, resulting in brain cell deterioration, breaking down the framework of the brain. Let us focus on the example of tau proteins. In brain cells called neurons, tau proteins help make up the structure of the long, thin arms of the cells, called axons, which communicate with other neurons. The deposition of tau disrupts communication between brain cells, which leads to disordered thoughts and behaviors. The buildup of tau leads to memory loss, slow movement, loss of intellect, and other devastating behavioral changes.",-3.031543857,0.648174341
f97204802,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Milky Way is our home galaxy. It contains over 200 billion stars, including our Sun. The Milky Way has a diameter of 100,000 light years, and is a barred spiral galaxy. The discovery of the Milky Way goes back to the Ancient Greek philosopher Democritus. The Milky Way has three main parts: a disk, in which the Solar System resides, a bulge at the core, and an all encompassing halo. This galaxy belongs to the Local Group of three large galaxies and over 50 smaller galaxies. The Milky Way is one of the largest galaxies in the group, second to the Andromeda Galaxy. Milky Way's closest neighbour is Canis Major Dwarf, which is about 25,000 light years away from the Earth. The Andromeda Galaxy moves towards the Milky Way Galaxy, and will meet it in about 3.75 billion years. Andromeda Galaxy moves with a speed of about 1,800 kilometres per minute.",-0.343245761,0.461970012
9a3b4c21f,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A mineral is a naturally occurring chemical compound. Most often, they are crystalline and abiogenic in origin. A mineral is different from a rock, which can be an aggregate of minerals or non-minerals and does not have one specific chemical composition, as a mineral does. The exact definition of a mineral is under debate, especially with respect to the requirement that a valid species be abiogenic, and to a lesser extent with regard to it having an ordered atomic structure.
The study of minerals is called mineralogy. There are over 5,300 known mineral species; over 5,070 of these have been approved by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA). The silicate minerals compose over 90% of the Earth's crust. The diversity and abundance of mineral species is controlled by the Earth's chemistry. Silicon and oxygen constitute approximately 75% of the Earth's crust, which translates directly into the predominance of silicate minerals.",-1.804048773,0.523701277
14112c6ee,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_warning,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Miranda warning, which can also be referred to as the Miranda rights, is a right to silence warning given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial interrogation) before they are interrogated to preserve the admissibility of their statements against them in criminal proceedings.
The Miranda warning is part of a preventive criminal procedure rule that law enforcement are required to administer to protect an individual who is in custody and subject to direct questioning or its functional equivalent from a violation of his or her Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination. In Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the Supreme Court held that the admission of an elicited incriminating statement by a suspect not informed of these rights violates the Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, through the incorporation of these rights into state law.",-0.376544514,0.482948375
94a7d89ea,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitosis,CC BY-SA 3.0,"In cell biology, Mitosis is a part of the cell cycle in which chromosomes in a cell nucleus are separated into two identical sets of chromosomes, and each set ends up in its own nucleus. In general, mitosis (division of the nucleus) is preceded by the S stage of interphase (during which the DNA is replicated) and is often accompanied or followed by cytokinesis, which divides the cytoplasm, organelles and cell membrane into two new cells containing roughly equal shares of these cellular components. Mitosis and cytokinesis together define the mitotic (M) phase of an animal cell cycle—the division of the mother cell into two daughter cells, genetically identical to each other and to their parent cell.
The process of mitosis is divided into stages corresponding to the completion of one set of activities and the start of the next. These stages are prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase. During mitosis, the chromosomes, which have already duplicated, condense and attach to spindle fibers that pull one copy of each chromosome to opposite sides of the cell.",-2.11469151,0.543441451
6664a7bcc,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The first digital networks are also known as second generation, or 2G, technologies. The most used digital network is GSM (Global System for Mobile communication). It is used mainly in Europe and Asia, while CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) networks are mainly used in North America. The difference is in communication protocol. Other countries like Japan have different 2G protocols. A few 2G networks are still used. 3G are more common, and many places have 4G.
The radio waves that the mobile phone networks use are split into different frequencies. The frequency is measured in Hz. Low frequencies can send the signal farther. Higher frequencies provide better connections and the voice communications are generally clearer. Four main frequencies are used around the world: 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz. Europe uses 900 and 1800 MHz and North America uses 850 and 1900 MHz.
Today there are mobile phones that work on two, three or four frequencies. The most advanced phones work on all frequencies. They are called 'world' phones and can be used everywhere.",-1.56499948,0.497212711
014b0c117,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00088,CC BY 4.0,"Therefore, we can conclude that only those parts of the brain that showed a huge difference between calculation and rest are important for calculation. 
fNIRS is a technique that allows the measurement of brain function, even in special groups, such as babies and children , and in real-life situations, such as the classroom. These capabilities make fNIRS very good for 
research. Educational Neuroscience uses techniques, such as fNIRS to study the brain and uses the results of brain studies to make education better in schools. While most of the commonly used brain techniques are great for studies in adults, they have several limitations when used in children, which is why we still do not know much about how the brain changes as we grow from babies to adults. Fortunately, fNIRS allows us to monitor brain changes and learning in children. We believe that using fNIRS in Educational Neuroscience will eventually help us to understand how children learn to read, write and calculate.",-1.814723766,0.498009782
f18969199,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_nanotechnology,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Molecular nanotechnology (MNT) is a technology based on the ability to build structures to complex, atomic specifications by means of mechanosynthesis. This is distinct from nanoscale materials. Based on Richard Feynman's vision of miniature factories using nanomachines to build complex products (including additional nanomachines), this advanced form of nanotechnology (or molecular manufacturing) would make use of positionally-controlled mechanosynthesis guided by molecular machine systems. MNT would involve combining physical principles demonstrated by biophysics, chemistry, other nanotechnologies, and the molecular machinery of life with the systems engineering principles found in modern macroscale factories. While conventional chemistry uses inexact processes obtaining inexact results, and biology exploits inexact processes to obtain definitive results, molecular nanotechnology would employ original definitive processes to obtain definitive results. The desire in molecular nanotechnology would be to balance molecular reactions in positionally-controlled locations and orientations to obtain desired chemical reactions, and then to build systems by further assembling the products of these reactions.",-3.549190203,0.643308828
7891283c8,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecule,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A molecule is an electrically neutral group of two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds. Molecules are distinguished from ions by their lack of electrical charge. However, in quantum physics, organic chemistry, and biochemistry, the term molecule is often used less strictly, also being applied to polyatomic ions.
In the kinetic theory of gases, the term molecule is often used for any gaseous particle regardless of its composition. According to this definition, noble gas atoms are considered molecules as they are in fact monoatomic molecules. A molecule may be homonuclear, that is, it consists of atoms of a single chemical element, as with oxygen (O2); or it may be heteronuclear, a chemical compound composed of more than one element, as with water (H2O). Atoms and complexes connected by non-covalent bonds such as hydrogen bonds or ionic bonds are generally not considered single molecules.",-1.719842477,0.483998563
6d7a84402,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoon,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea. Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is sometimes incorrectly used for locally heavy but short-term rains, although these rains meet the dictionary definition of monsoon. The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the West African and Asia-Australian monsoons. The inclusion of the North and South American monsoons with incomplete wind reversal has been debated. The term was first used in English in British India (now India, Bangladesh and Pakistan) and neighbouring countries to refer to the big seasonal winds blowing from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the area. The south-west monsoon winds are called 'Nairutya Maarut' in India. Extremely wet or dry events within the monsoon period have increased since 1980.",-0.558616846,0.502252984
84fba32e2,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Moon is Earth's only permanent natural satellite. It is one of the largest natural satellites in the Solar System, and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits (its primary). It is the second-densest satellite among those whose densities are known (after Jupiter's satellite Io).
The average distance of the Moon from the Earth is 384,400 km (238,900 mi), or 1.28 light-seconds.
The Moon is thought to have formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago, not long after Earth. There are several hypotheses for its origin; the most widely accepted explanation is that the Moon formed from the debris left over after a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia.
The Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the same face, with its near side marked by dark volcanic maria that fill the spaces between the bright ancient crustal highlands and the prominent impact craters. It is the second-brightest regularly visible celestial object in Earth's sky after the Sun, as measured by illuminance on Earth's surface.",-0.518584635,0.494256132
ae2a39de9,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_(physics),CC BY-SA 3.0,"In physics, motion is a change in position of an object with respect to time. Motion is typically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, time and speed. Motion of a body is observed by attaching a frame of reference to an observer and measuring the change in position of the body relative to that frame.
If the position of a body is not changing with respect to a given frame of reference, the body is said to be at rest, motionless, immobile, stationary, or to have constant (time-invariant) position. An object's motion cannot change unless it is acted upon by a force, as described. Momentum is a quantity which is used for measuring motion of an object. An object's momentum is directly related to the object's mass and velocity, and the total momentum of all objects in an isolated system (one not affected by external forces) does not change with time, as described by the law of conservation of momentum.",-1.453047993,0.460988426
f14d4ff94,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia,CC BY-SA 3.0,"With the spread and development of the English language around the world, it has become an important way of communicating between different people and cultures. Multimedia Technology creates a platform where language can be taught. The traditional form of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in classrooms have drastically changed with the prevalence of technology, making easier for students to obtain language learning skills. Multimedia motivates students to learn more languages through audio, visual and animation support. It also helps create English contexts since an important aspect of learning a language is developing their grammar, vocabulary and knowledge of pragmatics and genres. In addition, cultural connections in terms of forms, contexts, meanings and ideologies have to be constructed. By improving thought patterns, multimedia develops students' communicative competence by improving their capacity to understand the language. One of the studies, carried out by Izquierdo, Simard and Pulido, presented the correlation between ""Multimedia Instruction (MI) and learners' second language (L2)"" and its effects on learning behavior.",-0.655552098,0.498017943
40923b7c1,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanomedicine,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Nanotechnology has provided the possibility of delivering drugs to specific cells using nanoparticles. The overall drug consumption and side-effects may be lowered significantly by depositing the active agent in the morbid region only and in no higher dose than needed. Targeted drug delivery is intended to reduce the side effects of drugs with concomitant decreases in consumption and treatment expenses. Drug delivery focuses on maximizing bioavailability both at specific places in the body and over a period of time. This can potentially be achieved by molecular targeting by nanoengineered devices. A benefit of using nanoscale for medical technologies is that smaller devices are less invasive and can possibly be implanted inside the body, plus biochemical reaction times are much shorter. These devices are faster and more sensitive than typical drug delivery. The efficacy of drug delivery through nanomedicine is largely based upon: a) efficient encapsulation of the drugs, b) successful delivery of drug to the targeted region of the body, and c) successful release of the drug.",-1.6251413,0.459253942
ec07a54cf,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Nanotechnology is a part of science and technology about the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale - this means things that are about 100 nanometres or smaller.
Nanotechnology includes making products that use parts this small, such as electronic devices, catalysts, sensors, etc. To give you an idea of how small that is, there are more nanometres in an inch than there are inches in 400 miles. To give a international idea of how small that is, there are as many nanometres in a centimetre, as there are centimetres in 100 kilometres.
Nanotechnology brings together scientists and engineers from many different subjects, such as applied physics, materials science, interface and colloid science, device physics, chemistry, supramolecular chemistry (which refers to the area of chemistry that focuses on the non-covalent bonding interactions of molecules), self-replicating machines and robotics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, biological engineering, and electrical engineering.",-2.098193776,0.498766021
f51462541,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Napoléon Bonaparte (French: Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and again in 1815. Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, building a large empire that ruled over continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815. One of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. He also remains one of the most celebrated and controversial political figures in human history.",-0.68030937,0.440034904
9c48938f2,,,"Do you believe in time travel? Every time we remember something from the past or imagine something that will happen in the future, we engage in mental time travel. Scientists discovered that, whether we mentally travel back into the past or forward into the future, some of the same brain regions are activated. One of those regions is the hippocampus, a brain structure famous for its role in building long-term memories. Damage to the hippocampus causes memory problems, but it also impairs the ability to imagine future experiences. This brain connection between remembering the past and thinking about the future suggests that memory, planning, and decision-making may be deeply related. The ability to form memories allows us to reminisce about the past. But maybe the ability to form memories also evolved to allow us to think about and plan for the future.",0.533262425,0.516746379
c6c5c7b1d,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A nation is a group of people who share the same culture, history, language or ethnicity. It can also be described as people living in the same country and government.
The word nation comes from a word meaning ""birth"" or ""place of birth."" The adjective is national .
Some nations are people with a particular belief, such as the Vatican City, or ethnic group, such as Armenia. Others share an idea, such as Democracy in the United States or Communism in China.
Some nations are controlled by a small minority who have all the power, such as Saudi Arabia, who hold the nation together with the use of this power.
Some of these may also be combined. The highest lawful authority of most nations is a constitution, which is a document which states clearly what kinds of power the rulers have and how new laws must be made. Many others are ruled by a single person who holds an ""office"" (position), such as a King or Pope, or from a long legal tradition without an official Constitution, such as the United Kingdom.",-0.049815443,0.482688618
6ef035530,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula,CC BY-SA 3.0,"There are a variety of formation mechanisms for the different types of nebulae. Some nebulae form from gas that is already in the interstellar medium while others are produced by stars. Examples of the former case are giant molecular clouds, the coldest, densest phase of interstellar gas, which can form by the cooling and condensation of more diffuse gas. Examples of the latter case are planetary nebulae formed from material shed by a star in late stages of its stellar evolution.
Star-forming regions are a class of emission nebula associated with giant molecular clouds. These form as a molecular cloud collapses under its own weight, producing stars. Massive stars may form in the center, and their ultraviolet radiation ionizes the surrounding gas, making it visible at optical wavelengths. The region of ionized hydrogen surrounding the massive stars is known as an H II region while the shells of neutral hydrogen surrounding the H II region are known as photodissociation region. Examples of star-forming regions are the Orion Nebula, the Rosette Nebula and the Omega Nebula.",-2.119294409,0.512626169
58c58d344,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00048,CC BY 4.0,"Have you and your friends ever worked on a challenging puzzle together? If so, you probably worked together to solve it. Your brain works in a similar way. Different brain regions work together when solving a problem. The last piece in our puzzle is understanding how these brain areas work together when you calculate. As you now know, the way you solve arithmetic problems changes as you get older. Instead of mostly using procedural strategies to solve arithmetic problems, you start using fact retrieval more often. But this is not the only thing that changes. Scientists found that during this process the way the different brain areas work together changes as well. For example, while you are young, the frontal cortex has a very important role. It manages your working memory and attention, because the way you solve arithmetic problems involves multiple steps (procedural strategies). As you get older and start to use fact retrieval, the role of your frontal cortex changes. When you look at the frontal cortex using fMRI or EEG, you can see that it becomes less active as you get older.",-0.086804588,0.47671793
4871563c3,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00034,CC BY 4.0,"After decades of research, language scientists have found that people's brains respond differently to different kinds of errors in a sentence. One way to study the brain's response to semantic errors is to use electroencephalogram (EEG). EEG measures the electrical activity that is always happening in every part of the brain. To measure this activity, scientists ask people to wear special caps that are covered with sensors called electrodes. The electrodes sit on the scalp and measure the electrical activity coming from the neurons (brain cells) that are right underneath the electrodes. Scientists can then study how the electrical activity changes based on what volunteers are doing.
Scientists have recorded EEG's while volunteers read sentences with semantic anomalies. In their experiments, scientists asked volunteers to read many sentences that contain semantic mistakes. The scientists then and take the average of the brain's activity when as the volunteers read the sentences. The averaged brain activity is called an event-related potential (ERP) waveform, which that is like a wave that contains several high and low points.",-0.559842818,0.440472291
c8a491c6f,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/the-one-and-only-human-body_Pratham-FKB.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"Teeth are protected by the hardest material in the body—enamel. It's harder than bones! Every person has tongue prints and fingerprints that are one of a kind!
The liver has the power to grow back! Just a quarter of this organ is enough for it to grow back to its original size. The liver filters the blood that goes from our digestive system to the rest of our body. The small intestine helps digest the food we eat. If it was stretched out, it would be 20 feet long. That is the size of an adult giraffe!
KHARRRRR! KHARRRRR! That's the sound we hear if we can't breathe easily while sleeping. Snores are a sign that the path from the nose to the lungs is not clear. 
LUB DUB! LUB DUB! That's the heart as it pumps blood. Tiny waves of electricity in the heart make it beat. 
GRAAUP! URRP! That's the sound of the stomach sending back the extra air that was swallowed. It's also called a burp.
There are some organs in our body that aren't very important. The appendix looks like a sac and is attached to the large intestine.",-0.171100842,0.485347583
7364963a0,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"As they were leaving the shop, Zethu saw an exquisite necklace. She wanted that necklace so much! But her mother could not afford the necklace. ""It is lovely, my angel. I wish I had money to buy it for you,"" said her mother. Zethu was disappointed. She decided to save and buy the necklace herself. She put all her money in a piggy bank under her bed. ""I will wear that necklace to my next graduation,"" thought Zethu. Eventually, she had saved enough money to buy the necklace. Then, Zethu remembered that very soon it was her mother's birthday. ""I have spent all my money, what will I give her?"" she wondered to herself. Zethu was very excited on the morning of her mother's birthday. ""Happy birthday, mommy!"" she said, giving a gift to her mother. Her mother opened the gift and found the necklace that Zethu liked so much.",1.062151104,0.548124362
6f8affb27,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomad,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A nomad (Greek: nomades; meaning one roaming about for pasture, pastoral tribe) is a member of a community of people who live in different locations, moving from one place to another. Among the various ways nomads relate to their environment, one can distinguish the hunter-gatherer, the pastoral nomad owning livestock, or the ""modern"" peripatetic nomad. As of 1995, there were an estimated 30–40 million nomads in the world. Nomadic hunting and gathering, following seasonally available wild plants and game, is by far the oldest human subsistence method. Pastoralists raise herds, driving them, and/or moving with them, in patterns that normally avoid depleting pastures beyond their ability to recover. Nomadism is also a lifestyle adapted to infertile regions such as steppe, tundra, or ice and sand, where mobility is the most efficient strategy for exploiting scarce resources.",-0.735349427,0.461049347
11dc56882,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00072,CC BY 4.0,"When the brain grows and learns, connections between different parts of the brain are created. Over time, these connections build networks. Networks are different parts of the brain that work together. Like a well-trained musical group, brain networks help us learn skills like reading. While we learn, the cells of the brain (called neurons) connect to each other by reaching out their tiny arms (called axons) or even by growing new arms. Over time, many axons connect to each other and build long highways, called white matter tracts. These highways allow information to travel from one part of the brain to another. Using MRI, scientists have learned that we can read because different parts of the brain become more active and communicate with each other as we learn. These brain areas have funny-sounding names: occipitotemporal area, or the ""letter box"" of the brain (where we process letters and words); temporoparietal area (helps us to play with the sounds of our language, such as figuring out that ""banana"" without the sound /b/ is ""anana""); and inferior frontal region (the ""captain"" that directs us). When brain areas talk with each other often, the highways can become stronger.",-1.456422672,0.487906923
0194295f1,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"There was a boy who was named John. He lived with his grandparents in a village called Daveyton Village in Free State. John grew up. He took a walk around the village and he saw a crying baby. He rushed there called for help. The community of the village rushed to him and asked him what happened. John replied ""I was taking a walk and I saw a crying baby."" The community asked him again and they said ""Do you know this child?"" John replied ""No I don't."" Then the community leader took a baby to his home. The next day John was called to a community meeting of the unknown baby. John was asked to go to Faith the farmer and the settlers who lived nearby the river where the unknown baby was found. John agreed on that brilliant and clever idea.",0.17980864,0.513993181
27221e5a2,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"An ocean is a large area of salt water between continents. Oceans are very big and they join smaller seas together. Together, the oceans are like one ""ocean"", because all the ""oceans"" are joined. Oceans (or marine biomes) cover 72% of our planet. The largest ocean is the Pacific Ocean. It covers 1/3 (one third) of the Earth's surface.
The smallest ocean is the Arctic Ocean. Different water movements separate the Southern Ocean from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. The Southern ocean is also called the Antarctic Ocean, because it covers the area around Antarctica. Older maps may not use the names Arctic Ocean and Southern Ocean. The deepest ocean is the Pacific ocean. The deepest point is the Mariana Trench, being about 11,000 metres (36,200 feet) deep. The deep ocean is characterized by cold temperatures, high pressure, and complete darkness. Some very unusual organisms live in this part of the ocean. They do not require energy from the sun to survive, because they use chemicals from deep inside the Earth.",0.3513912,0.481549205
329cd9805,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_refinery,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Chinese were among the first civilizations to refine oil. As early as the first century, the Chinese were refining crude oil for use as an energy source. Between 512 and 518, in the late Northern Wei Dynasty, the Chinese geographer, writer and politician Li Daoyuan introduced the process of refining oil into various lubricants in his famous work Commentary on the Water Classic. Crude oil was often distilled by Arab chemists, with clear descriptions given in Arabic handbooks such as those of Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi (854–925). The streets of Baghdad were paved with tar, derived from petroleum that became accessible from natural fields in the region. In the 9th century, oil fields were exploited in the area around modern Baku, Azerbaijan. These fields were described by the Arab geographer Abu al-Hasan 'Ali al-Mas'udi in the 10th century, and by Marco Polo in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds of shiploads. Arab and Persian chemists also distilled crude oil in order to produce flammable products for military purposes. Through Islamic Spain, distillation became available in Western Europe by the 12th century.",-1.725807334,0.471877803
b64e1c1e7,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00068,CC BY 4.0,"All objects on earth give out energy as microwaves. Microwaves are a type of low-energy radiation that is not related to the temperature of the object. Since all objects naturally radiate this energy they can be passively detected by sensors on satellites, hence the term: ""passive microwaves."" The low-energy microwaves can give us some information about the composition of the object they come from. The types of atoms in an object and how these atoms are arranged affects the energy they give out. For example, solid sea ice gives out more microwave energy compared with the ocean water around it. When the satellite data detects this higher energy area, it tells us that there is sea ice on the ocean. Clouds in the sky do not give out much microwave energy, and this makes it easy to ""see through"" the clouds to find sea ice using satellite equipment that can detect passive microwaves. This is an improvement over using satellites to take ""regular"" pictures of the earth in the visible light range, because when clouds cover the sky, visible light, which is the energy we can see with the naked eye, is blocked.",-0.574590947,0.463176399
0301013cf,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Open-source software is usually easier to obtain than proprietary software, often resulting in increased use. Additionally, the availability of an open-source implementation of a standard can increase adoption of that standard. It has also helped to build developer loyalty as developers feel empowered and have a sense of ownership of the end product.
Moreover, lower costs of marketing and logistical services are needed for OSS. It is a good tool to promote a company's image, including its commercial products.The OSS development approach has helped produce reliable, high quality software quickly and inexpensively. Open-source development offers the potential for a more flexible technology and quicker innovation. It is said to be more reliable since it typically has thousands of independent programmers testing and fixing bugs of the software. Open source is not dependent on the company or author that originally created it. Even if the company fails, the code continues to exist and be developed by its users. Also, it uses open standards accessible to everyone; thus, it does not have the problem of incompatible formats that may exist in proprietary software.",-2.209590083,0.524648908
947e2b67c,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"An operating system (or OS) is the name for a group of computer programs, device drivers, kernel, and other things that let a user work with a computer. It can be small (like MenuetOS), or big (like Microsoft Windows). Different operating systems can be used for different reasons. Some are used for every day things like on a personal computer. Others are used for specialized work. An operating system has many jobs. It is responsible for making sure that all the programs can use the CPU, system memory, displays, input devices, and other hardware. It also lets the user have a fast, clean, and safe interface so they can do work on the computer. It also talks to other computers or devices on a network. 
Some examples of commonly used operating systems are macOS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows. 
The first operating system was used with the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer).It was very hard to make ENIAC do work. How the operating system worked was based on how the switches and cables were put together and depending on this factor punch cards would make a result.",-1.433352744,0.490091855
8cbfb01cf,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone_script,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Oracle bone script was the form of Chinese characters used on oracle bones—animal bones or turtle plastrons used in pyromantic divination—in the late 2nd millennium BCE, and is the earliest known form of Chinese writing. The vast majority record the pyromantic divinations of the royal house of the late Shang dynasty at the capital of Yin (modern Anyang, Henan Province); dating of the Anyang examples of oracle bone script varies from c. 14th–11th centuries BCE to c. 1200–1050 BCE. Very few oracle bone writings date to the beginning of the subsequent Zhou dynasty, because pyromancy fell from favor and divining with milfoil became more common. The late Shang oracle bone writings, along with a few contemporary characters in a different style cast in bronzes, constitute the earliest significant corpus of Chinese writing, which is essential for the study of Chinese etymology, as Shang writing is directly ancestral to the modern Chinese script. It is also the oldest known member and ancestor of the Chinese family of scripts.",-2.550370827,0.589698177
dee9eca74,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"An orbit is the path that an object takes in space when it goes around a star, a planet, or a moon. It can also be used as a verb. For instance: ""The earth orbits around the Sun."" The word ‘revolves' has the same meaning, but 'rotates' is the spin of the object. Many years ago, people thought that the Sun orbits in a circle around the earth. Every morning the Sun came up in the east and went down in the west. It just seemed to make sense that it was going around the earth. But now, thanks to people like Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, we know that the Sun is the center of the Solar System, and the earth orbits around it. Isaac Newton discovered that gravity controls the orbit of the planets and moons. Since a satellite is an object in space that revolves around another object, the earth is a satellite of the sun, just like the moon is a satellite of the Earth! The sun has lots of satellites orbiting around it, like the planets, and thousands of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids.",-0.49434772,0.462341763
38aa1ead8,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organism,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"An organism is any living thing. It is easy to recognise a living thing, but not so easy to define it. Animals and plants are organisms, obviously. Organisms are a biotic, or living, part of the environment. Rocks and sunshine are parts of the non-living environment. Organisms usually have five basic needs. They need air, water, nutrients (food), energy and a place to live. However, not all living things need all these at the same time. Many organisms do not need access to air at all. A little thought is needed about viruses. There is no agreement as to whether they should be regarded as living. They are made of protein and nucleic acid, and they evolve, which is a really important fact. However, they exist in two quite different phases. One phase is dormant, not active. The other is inside a living cell of some other organism. Then the virus is very active reproducing itself.",0.049662064,0.516352479
5b2fe7764,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracism,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Ostracism (Greek: ostrakismos) was a procedure under the Athenian democracy in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the citizen, ostracism was often used preemptively. It was used as a way of neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state or potential tyrant. It has been called an ""honorable exile"" by scholar P.J. Rhodes. The word ""ostracism"" continues to be used for various cases of social shunning. The name is derived from the ostraka (singular ostrakon), referring to the pottery shards that were used as voting tokens. Broken pottery, abundant and virtually free, served as a kind of scrap paper (in contrast to papyrus, which was imported from Egypt as a high-quality writing surface, and was thus too costly to be disposable).",-2.272952473,0.51880519
9bc557816,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire, Ottoman Turkey, or simply Turkey, was an empire founded in 1299 by Oghuz Turks under Osman I in northwestern Anatolia. After conquests in the Balkans by Murad I between 1362 and 1389, the Ottoman sultanate was transformed into a transcontinental empire and claimant to the caliphate. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror. During the 16th and 17th centuries, at the height of its power under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire was a multinational, multilingual empire controlling much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, the Caucasus, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. At the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries.",-1.060679063,0.4383281
a9e5ef5e5,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_layer,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The ozone layer is a layer of ozone high up in the Earth's atmosphere stratosphere, between approximately 10 kilometres and 50 kilometres above Earth's surface. The exact amount of ozone varies, depending on the seasons and the location. This layer absorbs between 93 and 99 per cent of the ultraviolet radiation from the sun. This radiation is dangerous to living organisms on Earth.
Over the last hundred years, the ozone layer has been damaged by man-made chemicals, especially CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), which were used mainly in aerosol sprays and refrigerants. CFCs are broken down in the upper atmosphere when they react with the ozone, causing ozone depletion. International leaders recognized this and united in banning the use of CFCs. As a result, the hole in the ozone layer has been shrinking and the ozone layer has been recovering. 
The ozone layer was discovered in 1913 by French physicists Charles Fabry and Henri Buisson. Its properties were explored in detail by the British meteorologist G. M. B. Dobson, who developed a simple spectrophotometer, the Dobsonmeter.",-1.516844735,0.473144527
a1531d627,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-wave,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A P-wave is one of the two main types of elastic body waves, called seismic waves in seismology. P-waves travel faster than other seismic waves and hence are the first signal from an earthquake to arrive at any affected location or at a seismograph. P-waves may be transmitted through gases, liquids, or solids. 
The name P-wave can stand for either pressure wave (as it is formed from alternating compressions and rarefactions) or primary wave (as it has high velocity and is therefore the first wave to be recorded by a seismograph). 
Primary and secondary waves are body waves that travel within the Earth. The motion and behavior of both P-type and S-type in the Earth are monitored to probe the interior structure of the Earth. Discontinuities in velocity as a function of depth are indicative of changes in phase or composition. Differences in arrival times of waves originating in a seismic event like an earthquake as a result of waves taking different paths allow mapping of the Earth's inner structure.",-1.869676686,0.527168584
861539d4c,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Paleolithic (American spelling; British spelling: Palaeolithic) Age, Era or Period is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered (Grahame Clark's Modes I and II), and covers roughly 95% of human technological prehistory. It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools, probably by Homo habilis initially, 2.6 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene around 10,000 BP.
The Paleolithic era is followed by the Mesolithic. The date of the Paleolithic–Mesolithic boundary may vary by locality as much as several thousand years. During the Paleolithic period, humans grouped together in small societies such as bands, and subsisted by gathering plants and fishing, hunting or scavenging wild animals. The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers; however, due to their nature, these have not been preserved to any great degree. Surviving artifacts of the Paleolithic era are known as paleoliths.",-2.670400661,0.557627268
2a56edd5a,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The word papyrus refers to a thick type of paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus. Papyrus can also refer to a document written on sheets of papyrus joined together side by side and rolled up into a scroll, an early form of a book. The plural for such documents is papyri. Papyrus is first known to have been used in ancient Egypt (at least as far back as the First Dynasty), as the Cyperus papyrus plant was a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Sudd of Southern Sudan along with the Nile Delta of Egypt. Papyrus was also used throughout the Mediterranean region and in Kingdom of Kush. The Ancient Egyptians used papyrus as a writing material, as well as employing it commonly in the construction of other artifacts such as reed boats, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets.",-0.236141283,0.487411189
2a84fbd08,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Time-travelling-river_Pratham-FKB.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"Some rivers are peaceful in the winter. Some rivers are small and shy in the summer. Some rivers roar angrily in the monsoons. A river may be brown, grey, black, blue, green or several other shades. They change their colour based on what's inside them or what's around them. Sometimes they are the colour of the rocks at the bottom of the river. Sometimes they match the colour of the sky. Rivers also change their course. If a river is in one spot in the past, it may be somewhere else in the future. Many rivers like the Ganga are thousands of years old. They have seen humankind grow up. People have always loved living and working near rivers. Rivers know how to take care of people. Some of our food comes from rivers and river water is used to grow most food. When the food has made its way through the body, rivers to the rescue again! If rivers could speak, they might demand people dump their poop somewhere else. Humans aren't the only creatures rivers look after. Many birds and plants, animals and fishes, insects and flowers rely on rivers.",0.586342197,0.502871139
c9eea4fc6,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotism,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Patriotism means loyalty of person to his/her own nation or the leaders of nation. A patriot is a person who is on the side of his/her own nation or its leaders. Patriotism is different from nationalism. Nationalist thinks that every ethnic group should have its own nation, so nations are to serve the people. In other words in nationalism the nation is just a tool to have freedom for an ethnic group, while in patriotism the nation itself is the highest value. A patriot may also be loyal to imperialist or colonialist nations, while nationalism is opposed to imperialism or colonialism. The English term ""patriot"" is first known from the Elizabethan era, via Middle French from Late Latin (6th century) patriota ""countryman"", ultimately from Greek (patriotes) ""countryman"", from (patris), ""fatherland"". The abstract noun patriotism appears in the early 18th century.",-0.641551836,0.467046663
0eb66e27e,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Penicillin is a common antibiotic, used to treat bacterial infections. It was one of the first to be discovered, and worked well against staphylococci and streptococci. Many strains of bacteria are now resistant. Chemists keep changing part of its structure in the effort to keep it working against the bacteria.
Penicillin was discovered by Scottish scientist Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928, but it was not mass-produced until 1940. The antibiotic is naturally produced by fungi of the genus Penicillium. There is now a whole group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium including penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V.
Penicillin is sometimes used to treat syphilis, tonsillitis, meningitis, and pneumonia as well as other diseases. It was first used widely during World War II
Penicillin was discovered when Fleming noticed a mold that was stopping bacteria from growing in a petri dish. Australian scientist Howard Walter Florey made the penicillin mold into a medicine. Together with another scientist Ernst Boris Chain, Fleming and Florey were given the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945.",0.057474516,0.490917651
0f9838e7e,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"One day, as Kunle and his father were going to the market, his father thought, "" Shouldn't I take Kunle to school? "" As his father was thinking about going to school, he saw a school and asked Kunle if he would like to go to school. ""Yes!"" Kunle answered. Afterwards, Kunle and his father went to buy the school uniforms. After buying the school uniforms, Kunle and his father went back home to prepare his school materials for the next day. The next day he got prepared, ate his food and packed his bag. When Kunle got to school, he liked the teachings and he learnt things like: reading, sports, mathematics, science, civic education and verbal reasoning. At break time, Kunle played football with his new friends. As they continued playing ball, Kunle scored for the first time which made it 1- 0. After playing for some time, they rang the bell to go inside the class. After school ended, Kunle told his father all that had happened and his father was proud at his performance. Kunle also told his father that his teacher liked him and she was proud of him.",-0.250598231,0.463593436
92d5b6fcc,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Many free operating systems are available. They are called Linux operating systems. There are over 300 different Linux ""distributions"". Each one has a different purpose. Ubuntu-Linux is the most-used Linux because it is the easiest to use.
A modern PC has a minimum set of parts to be useful. The ""Base unit"" or ""Tower"" is the main part of the computer. A mouse and keyboard are used for input. A monitor is needed to view output. In a laptop computer these parts are all together.
Inside the base unit or tower there are many electronic parts. The main parts are the motherboard, CPU, the hard disk and memory.
The CPU (Central Processing unit) follows the instructions in the operating system and application programs. The memory, or RAM (random access memory), is for moving information (or data) quickly to and from the processor. The hard drive holds programs and data while the computer is powered off. Floppy drives, CD-ROM drives are used for storing information on removable disks.
Computers often have a modem to send and receive data over a phone line, or more recently, over cable television lines. Computers can also be connected to a computer network.",-1.204063046,0.465468323
da2d9831a,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Long, long, time ago, all the animals could talk. Mother Mosquito and Baby Mosquito lived in a house. Mother Mosquito always left Baby Mosquito at home when she went to search for food. One day, after Mother left the house, Baby Mosquito decided to see what was happening outside. Later that day, Mother Mosquito came back and found that Baby Mosquito was gone. Mother Mosquito started to panic! She was worried and was going to search for Baby Mosquito. Just then, Baby Mosquito arrived, very excited. ""Mummy, the humans were so happy to see me. They clapped their hands every time I flew past!"" Mother Mosquito was alarmed. ""You say that people were happy and clapping their hands for you?"" ""No, those people were not happy to see you. They were trying to kill you!"" explained Mother. ""Humans are never friends with mosquitoes,"" she warned.",0.866329801,0.563348518
5f964e1e7,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00065,CC BY 4.0,"One of the big threats to coral is the rising temperature of the oceans. Although corals have been around for millions of years, they are fragile animals in some ways, particularly when it comes to changes in temperature. Here is what happens: there are organisms called zooxanthellae (pronounced zoo-uh-zan-thel-ee), which are very small and live inside most of the shallow-water corals. These zooxanthellae can carry out photosynthesis; in other words, they can turn sunlight into food. They are so efficient at producing food from sunlight that they can feed themselves and feed the coral as well. Therefore, the main source of food and energy for these corals to grow comes from the zooxanthellae that live inside them. In return, corals protect the zooxanthellae and provide some nutrients to help them grow. This very friendly relationship between coral and zooxanthellae is known as mutualism.",-0.049885402,0.472517899
959951b2b,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Photons (from Greek, meaning light), in many atomic models in physics, are particles which transmit light. In other words, light is carried over space by photons. Photon is an elementary particle that is its own antiparticle. In quantum mechanics each photon has a characteristic quantum of energy.
Photons have a rest mass of 0 (zero). However, Einstein's theory of relativity says that they do have a certain amount of momentum. Before the photon got its name, Einstein revived the proposal that light consists of separate pieces of energy (particles). These particles came to be known as photons.
A photon is usually given the symbol C (gamma).
Photons are fundamental particles. Although they can be created and destroyed, their lifetime is infinite.
In a vacuum, all photons move at the speed of light, c, which is equal to 299,792,458 meters (approximately 300,000 kilometers) per second.",-2.176638474,0.505721505
8a2b83b06,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Physics became a separate field of study after the scientific revolution. Galileo's experiments helped to create classical physics. Although he did not invent the telescope, he used it when he looked into the night sky. He supported Copernicus' idea that the Earth moved around the Sun (heliocentrism). He also investigated gravity. Isaac Newton used Galileo's ideas to create his three laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation. Together these laws explained the motion of falling bodies near the earth and the motion of earth and planets around the sun.
In a couple centuries, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing and many more discoveries were made in many fields of science. The laws of classical physics are good enough to study objects that move much slower than the speed of light, and are not microscopic. When scientists first studied quantum mechanics, they had to create a new set of laws, which was the start of modern physics.",-0.708483727,0.504103934
067b97b3e,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrim,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A pilgrim (from the Latin peregrinus) is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system. In the spiritual literature of Christianity, the concept of pilgrim and pilgrimage may refer to the experience of life in the world (considered as a period of exile) or to the inner path of the spiritual aspirant from a state of wretchedness to a state of beatitude. Pilgrims and the making of pilgrimages are common in many religions, including the faiths of ancient Egypt, Persia in the Mithraic period, India, China, and Japan. The Greek and Roman customs of consulting the gods at local oracles, such as those at Dodona or Delphi, both in Greece, are widely known. In Greece, pilgrimages could either be personal or state-sponsored.",-1.480922784,0.49096916
5724967c7,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Athens,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Plague of Athens was an epidemic which devastated the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 BCE) when an Athenian victory still seemed within reach. It is believed to have entered Athens through Piraeus, the city's port and sole source of food and supplies. Much of the eastern Mediterranean also saw outbreak of the disease, albeit with less impact. The plague returned twice more, in 429 BC and in the winter of 427/426 BC. Some 30 pathogens have been suggested as causing the plague.
Sparta and its allies, with the exception of Corinth, were almost exclusively land based powers, able to summon large land armies which were very nearly unbeatable. Under the direction of Pericles, the Athenians pursued a policy of retreat within the city walls of Athens, relying on Athenian maritime supremacy for supply while the superior Athenian navy harassed Spartan troop movements.",-1.348816209,0.474541814
1749d6ad0,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankton,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Plankton are drifting organisms that live in the surface layers of the ocean. They live in the top layer of the ocean, called the epipelagic zone. They are not strong enough to swim against ocean currents. The term is in contrast to nekton, who can control their movements. There are three groups:
Phytoplankton: which live at the surface of the ocean and photosynthesise (use light to make sugars and other molecules).
Eukaryote algae: diatoms, coccolithophores, some dinoflagellates.
Bacteria: cyanobacteria.
Zooplankton: small protozoans or metazoans: Ctenophores; jellyfish; rotifers; foraminifera; tiny crustacea and other animals. Some eggs and larvae of larger animals such as fish, crustaceans, and annelids. Apart from the eggs, they all feed on other plankton. Some groups fall into both categories. Dinoflagellates can be either photosynthetic producers or heterotroph consumers; many species are mixotrophic depending upon their circumstances. It is also hard to fit viruses into this scheme; yet they are present in great numbers.",-2.276119978,0.493585444
663a28944,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics),CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Plasma is a state of matter. The three other common states of matter are solids, liquids and gases, so plasma is sometimes called the fourth state of matter.
Plasma is created by adding energy to a gas so that some of its electrons leave its atoms. This is called ionization. It results in negatively charged electrons, and positively charged ions. Unlike the other states of matter, the charged particles in a plasma will react strongly to electric and magnetic fields (i.e. electromagnetic fields). If a plasma loses heat, the ions will re-form into a gas, emitting the energy which had caused them to ionize.
Over 99% of the matter in the visible universe is believed to be plasma. When the atoms in a gas are broken up, the pieces are called electrons and ions. Because they have an electric charge, they are pulled together or pushed apart by electric fields and magnetic fields. This makes a plasma act different from a gas. For example, magnetic fields can be used to hold a plasma, but not to hold a gas. Plasma is a better conductor of electricity than copper.",-0.918446463,0.483728089
d54fc5196,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plebs,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Childhood for plebeians was very different compared to their patrician counterparts since they were expected to enter the workforce at a much earlier age. Plebeians typically belonged to a lower socio-economic class than their patrician counterparts, and therefore did not have as many household servants. As a result, plebeian children were responsible for maintaining the household and caring for their aging parents.
Education was limited to what their parent would teach them, which consisted of only learning the very basics of writing, reading and mathematics. Wealthier Plebeians were able to send their children to schools or hire a private tutor.
Plebeians in ancient Rome lived in buildings called insula, apartment buildings that housed many families. These apartments usually lacked running water and heat. Not all plebeians lived in these run-down conditions, as some wealthier plebs were able to live in single-family homes, called a domus.
Plebeian men wore a tunic with a belt at the waist and women wore a long dress called a stola.",-0.537256206,0.504959139
99b938c1b,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluton,CC BY-SA 3.0,"In geology, a pluton is a body of intrusive igneous rock (called a plutonic rock) that is crystallized from magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Plutons include batholiths, stocks, dikes, sills, laccoliths, lopoliths, and other igneous bodies. In practice, ""pluton"" usually refers to a distinctive mass of igneous rock, typically several kilometers in dimension, without a tabular shape like those of dikes and sills. Batholiths commonly are aggregations of plutons. Examples of plutons include Denali, Cuillin, Cardinal Peak, Mount Kinabalu and Stone Mountain.
The most common rock types in plutons are granite, granodiorite, tonalite, monzonite, and quartz diorite. Generally light colored, coarse-grained plutons of these compositions are referred to as granitoids. The term originated from Pluto, the classical god of the underworld. The use of the name and concept goes back to the beginnings of the science of geology in the late 18th century and the then hotly debated theories of plutonism (or vulcanism), and neptunism regarding the origin of basalt.",-2.516032203,0.462375277
ec888c025,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"It was on a Saturday evening while watching our family's favourite programme, that we saw breaking news of presidential briefing, that we all became courious and attentive. The President announced that there has been reported one case of a Kenyan who tested positive of Covid-19, a respiratory disease which was first discovered in Wuhan in China. It is rapidly spreading all over the world. He announced the closure of schools, churches and mosques, and all public gathering put on halt with immediate effect. I became very sad with the news and decided to visit the library on Monday, little did I know that it was a public place where the disease can spread rapidly and therefore it was also closed. I decided to go back home and study there. The ministry of health said that there is no vaccine had been found yet and scientists all over the world are working round the clock to get the cure for Covid-19. The disease is affecting all ages, colours, and races. Anyone tested positive for coronavirus is isolated in hospital for treatment and observation. All his contacts are traced and isolated for 14 days and later tested.",0.02739912,0.506761469
188449e7e,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateer,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The commission was the proof the privateer was not a pirate. It usually limited activity to one particular ship, and specified officers, for a specified period of time. Typically, the owners or captain would be required to post a performance bond. The commission also dictated the expected nationality of potential prize ships under the terms of the war. At sea, the privateer captain was obliged to produce the commission to a potential prize ship's captain as evidence of the legitimacy of their prize claim. If the nationality of a prize was not the enemy of the commissioning sovereign, the privateer could not claim the ship as a prize. Doing so would be an act of piracy.
In British law, under the Offences at Sea Act 1536, piracy was an act of treason, or raiding a ship without a valid commission. By the late 17th century, the prosecution of privateers loyal to the usurped King James II for piracy began to shift the legal framework of piracy away from treason towards crime against property. As a result, privateering commissions became a matter of national discretion.",-1.218451365,0.469895545
e24391c0c,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_language,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Functional programming looks at programming like a function in mathematics. The program receives input, together with some information, and uses this information to create output. It will not have a state in between, and it will also not change things that are not related to the computation.
Procedural programs specify or describe sets of steps or state changes.
Stack based languages look at some of the program's memory like a stack of cards. There are very few things that can be done with a stack. A data item can be put on the top of the stack. This operation is generally called ""push"". A data item can be removed from the top of the stack. This is called a ""pop"". You can look at the item at the top of the stack without removing it. This is called a ""peek"". If a program is written as ""push 5; push 3; add; pop;"" it will put 5 on the top of the stack, put 3 on top of the 5, add the top two values (3 + 5 = 8), replace the 3 and 5 with the 8, and print the top.",-2.337027798,0.50782756
90ba26317,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protective_tariff,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Protective tariffs are tariffs that are enacted with the aim of protecting a domestic industry. Tariffs are also imposed in order to raise government revenue, or to reduce an undesirable activity (sin tax). Although a tariff can simultaneously protect domestic industry and earn government revenue, the goals of protection and revenue maximization suggest different tariff rates, entailing a tradeoff between the two aims. 
A tariff is a tax added onto goods imported into a country; protective tariffs are taxes that render the cost of a foreign import higher than the cost of the initially costlier domestic good. For example, if a piece of cloth cost $4 in Britain and $4 in the United States, the American government would have to impose a tariff to make the price of British cloth higher for Americans. The underlying goal for a protective tariff is to protect domestic industry from foreign competition.",-0.384449836,0.507338494
7eacd1edc,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Proteins have different functions depending on their shape. They can be found in meat or muscle. They are used for growth and repair, as well as for strengthening the bones. They help to make tissue and cells. They are in animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and also in the human body.
Muscles contain a lot of protein. When protein is digested, it is broken down into amino acids. These amino acids can then be used to build new protein. Proteins form an important part in foods like milk, eggs, meat, fish, beans, spinach, and nuts. There are four factors that determine what a protein will do. The first is the order of the amino acids. There are 20 different types of amino acids. The second is the little twists in the chain. The third is how the entire structure is folded up. The fourth is whether it is made up of different sub-units. Haemoglobin molecules, for example, are made of four sub-units.",-0.163070217,0.472455974
bc1fb901e,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Works in the public domain are those whose exclusive intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable. For example, the works of Shakespeare and Beethoven, and most of the early silent films, are all now in the public domain by either being created before copyrights existed or leaving the copyright term. Examples for works not covered by copyright which are therefore in the public domain, are the formulae of Newtonian physics, cooking recipes and all software before 1974. Examples for works actively dedicated into public domain by their authors are reference implementations of cryptographic algorithms, NIH's ImageJ, and the CIA's The World Factbook. The term is not normally applied to situations where the creator of a work retains residual rights, in which case use of the work is referred to as ""under license"" or ""with permission"".
As rights are country-based and vary, a work may be subject to rights in one country and be in the public domain in another.",-1.410070747,0.455345321
4b9e40924,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"In Egypt, kings and queens, called Pharaohs, were buried in huge square-bottomed pyramids built of stone. They were usually built to be used as tombs for Pharaohs. The ancient Egyptian pyramids are very well built. Some of the pyramids still stand today.
The oldest man-made pyramid found is called the Step pyramid. It is in the Giza Necropolis in Saqqara, near Cairo, Egypt. It was built for King Djoser thousands of years ago. Later pyramids were built much larger. The largest one was the Great Pyramid of Giza. It is near Cairo. It was the tallest building in the world until the Eiffel Tower was built in Paris, in 1889. The Great Pyramid was built by the pharaoh Khufu (= Cheops) from the Ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom. Herodotus was told by his Egyptian guides that it took twenty years for a force of 100,000 workers to build the pyramid (with another ten years to build a stone causeway that connected to a temple in the valley below).
People once thought pyramids were built by slaves. More recent evidence suggests that the workers who built the pyramids were paid and well-cared for.",-0.432077259,0.474115623
29c7b573f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The word ""radio"" is sometimes used to mean only voiceband broadcasting. Most voiceband broadcasting uses lower frequency and longer wavelength than most television broadcasting.
Microwaves have even higher frequency; shorter wavelength. They also are used to transmit television and radio programs, and for other purposes. Communications satellites relay microwaves around the world.
A radio receiver does not need to be directly in view of the transmitter to receive programme signals. Low frequency radio waves can bend around hills by diffraction, although repeater stations are often used to improve the quality of the signals.
Shortwave radio frequencies are also reflected from an electrically charged layer of the upper atmosphere, called the Ionosphere. The waves can bounce between the ionosphere and the earth to reach receivers that are not in the line of sight because of the curvature of the Earth's surface. They can reach very far, sometimes around the world.",-0.641332203,0.464968998
f7c205371,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiosurgery,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Radiosurgery is surgery using radiation, that is, the destruction of precisely selected areas of tissue using ionizing radiation rather than excision with a blade. Like other forms of radiation therapy, it is usually used to treat cancer. Radiosurgery was originally defined by the Swedish neurosurgeon Lars Leksell as ""a single high dose fraction of radiation, stereotactically directed to an intracranial region of interest"". In stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), the word stereotactic refers to a three-dimensional coordinate system that enables accurate correlation of a virtual target seen in the patient's diagnostic images with the actual target position in the patient.
Technological improvements in medical imaging and computing have led to increased clinical adoption of stereotactic radiosurgery and have broadened its scope in recent years. Notwithstanding these improvements, the localization accuracy and precision that are implicit in the word ""stereotactic"" remain of utmost importance for radiosurgical interventions today.",-1.961218774,0.473895748
fcc566f86,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The canopy is like a huge green roof over the forest. The trees grow up thin and straight, like pillars seeking the sun. They do not put out branches until they are very tall. Then, they spread out like an umbrella in the sunlight. The trees are so close together that very little light penetrates through to the lower layers. Many kinds of monkeys, birds, and insects live in the layer. The animals that call this layer home often never touch the ground throughout their entire lives. They find everything they need existing within the canopy. Water can be accessed from the boles of trees, if not, the leaves and epiphytes that grow in the canopy can supply that need. The animals eat the leaves and fruit of the trees, insects, or other animals. The tall canopy trees must be able to reach the sunlight high in the air and still get nutrients from the thin soil on the forest floor. Their roots do not go deep into the soil because there is nothing there for the plants to reach.",0.036622032,0.4744699
b7ff3f935,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Realism is a word that can be used in many different ways. It is used mainly in the arts to describe the way that writers, musicians, painters etc. thought in the late 19th century. These artists were trying to show the world as it really is, instead of trying to escape to a world of fantasy, which is what the Romantics had been doing. The Realists wanted to give an accurate description of Nature and of the way people lived in society. Realism in literature was a movement which started in Germany. The poet and writer Heinrich Heine tried in his books to accept the world as it is instead of trying to escape from it. Realistic writers tried to find good things about society.
The interest in Realism led to a movement called Naturalism. This meant describing scenes in nature accurately. The novelist Emile Zola was a Naturalist.",-0.152209653,0.475323239
475a53f12,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellion,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. The term comes from the Latin verb rebellõ, ""I renew war"" (from re- (""again"") + bellõ (""I wage war/I revolt""). The rebel is the individual that partakes in rebellion or rebellious activities, particularly when armed. Thus, the term rebellion also refers to the ensemble of rebels in a state of revolt.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and then manifests itself by the refusal to submit or to obey the authority responsible for this situation. Rebellion can be individual or collective, peaceful (civil disobedience, civil resistance, and nonviolent resistance) or violent (Terrorism, sabotage and guerrilla warfare.)
In political terms, rebellion and revolt are often distinguished by their different aims. If rebellion generally seeks to evade an oppressive power, a revolt seeks to overthrow and destroy that power, as well as its accompanying laws. The goal of rebellion is resistance while a revolt seeks a revolution.",-1.478113115,0.479693551
46577b58d,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The city of Florence is really where the Renaissance began. In those days, Italy was not one single country. It was lots of little states, all governed in different ways and all fighting or making allies with each other all the time.
Rome was politically powerful because Rome had the Pope, the person in control of the Roman Catholic Church. Because of his very great importance as a spiritual leader, most people and most cities did not want to argue with the Pope, whichever Pope he might be. Because a new pope was elected when the old one died, everyone who was rich and powerful was always hoping it might be a member of their family. It was always a good idea to have several young men in the family trained as priests, just in case. It was also a good idea to be good friends with other rich families. One way to do this was to have lots of daughters and get them to marry rich powerful men from different cities. This was the way that politics worked.",0.844974076,0.57491378
d7064ad71,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A republic is a type of government that has no king, queen, or other monarch and where the people are sovereign. This means that people can choose leaders to represent them and make the laws. The word republic comes from the Latin language words res publica, which means ""public thing"". However, in practice some nominal republics are actually dictatorships, such as the Russian Soviet Republic and the other republics of the USSR from 1922 before it was dissolved in 1991.
Countries with a king or other monarch and free elections is called a constitutional monarchy. This includes the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. What makes a republic different, is that the people do not need the permission of a king, or other higher power, to choose leaders and the type of government they want. Laws are made and enforced in the name of the people. The best known republic in the world is the United States of America.",-0.173404195,0.472371684
916faaa6b,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_system,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The respiratory system (called also respiratory apparatus, ventilatory system) is a biological system consisting of specific organs and structures used for the process of respiration in an organism. The respiratory system is involved in the intake and exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between an organism and the environment.
In air-breathing vertebrates like human beings, respiration takes place in the respiratory organs called lungs. The passage of air into the lungs to supply the body with oxygen is known as inhalation, and the passage of air out of the lungs to expel carbon dioxide is known as exhalation; this process is collectively called breathing or ventilation. In humans and other mammals, the anatomical features of the respiratory system include trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, lungs, and diaphragm. Molecules of oxygen and carbon dioxide are passively exchanged, by diffusion, between the gaseous external environment and the blood. This exchange process occurs in the alveoli (air sacs) in the lungs.",-1.474937356,0.492069405
0e3ee0b16,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00055,CC BY 4.0,"The first thing we need to know to help save whales from extinction is how many of each type of whale there are, and where they are located. You might think it would be easy to count very large whales, but they can be hard to find in the deep offshore waters. Scientists also want to know where whales might get together to be social, feed, and breed, as these actions are very important for whales' survival. Scientists also want to know other things, like whether the whales have enough food, and whether people are changing the oceans in ways that make it harder for whales to live.
Sometimes scientists cannot look for the whales in person—it might be hard, dangerous, or just too far. Instead, we use underwater microphones, called hydrophones to listen for them. We will describe how hydrophones were used to listen for whale calls in the Canadian Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Vancouver Island. These hydrophones were located both on the ocean floor and on ocean gliders, which are small submarines.",0.337897772,0.475644145
acb53f607,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"RNA is an acronym for ribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid. Many different kinds are now known.
RNA is physically different from DNA: DNA contains two intercoiled strands, but RNA only contains one single strand. RNA also contains different bases from DNA. These bases are the following:
(A) Adenine
(G) Guanine
(C) Cytosine
(U) Uracil
Adenine often forms bonds with uracil, and guanine often forms bonds with cytosine. In this way, we say that adenine is complementary to uracil and that guanine is complementary to cytosine. The first three bases are also found in DNA, but uracil replaces thymine as a complement to adenine.
RNA also contains ribose as opposed to deoxyribose found in DNA. These differences result in RNA being chemically more reactive than DNA. This makes it the more suitable molecule to take part in cell reactions.
RNA is the carrier of genetic information in certain viruses, especially the retroviruses like the HIV virus. This is the only exception to the general rule that DNA is the hereditary substance.",-2.312680565,0.523192736
f9fb02afe,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockslide,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A rockslide is a type of landslide caused by rock failure in which part of the bedding plane of failure passes through intact rock and material collapses en masse and not in individual blocks. While a landslide occurs when loose dirt or sediment falls down a slope, a rockslide occurs only when solid rocks are transported down slope. The rocks tumble downhill, loosening other rocks on their way and smashing everything in their path. Fast-flowing rock slides or debris slides behave similarly to snow avalanches, and are often referred to as rock avalanches or debris avalanches. The term landslide refers to a variety of mass wasting events (geologic slope failures) that include slumps, slides, falls, and flows. The two major types of slides are rotational slides and translational slides. Rockslides are a type of translational event since the rock mass moves along a roughly planar surface with little rotation or backward tilting. Rock slides are the most dangerous form of mass-wasting due to the fact that they incorporate a sudden, incredibly fast-paced release of bedrock along a uniform plane of weakness.",-0.668905761,0.474929324
1ec0dccc1,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Rosetta Stone is a stone with writing carved into it. French soldiers found it in Egypt in 1799. It helped people get a better understanding of the Ancient Egyptian writing system called hieroglyphics. Its discovery led to the translation of Ancient Egyptian writing. The stone is named after the city where it was found, Rosetta. Today, that city is called ""Rashid"". The stone is now in the British Museum in London.
It had three pieces of writing on it that said the same thing in three different languages. One was in an Ancient Egyptian script called demotic, the local language of the people in Egypt at that time. The other two languages were hieroglyphics and Ancient Greek.
The historians could already read the Greek. Using this knowledge they were able to work out how to read the Egyptian scripts.",0.582586066,0.497316394
e0c5e988c,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Afeefah is a baby white rhinoceros. Rangers rescued her from the bush. Her mum was killed by poachers. The rangers took Afeefah to a place of safety. Afeefah's heart was broken. And, she was afraid that the poachers would return to take her horn. Slowly, Afeefah made friends. She felt safe and played in the mud. She drank nutritious milk at the sanctuary. One day Afeefah asked her friend Aaminah, ""Why do they want our horns?"" Aaminah snorted, ""They believe that our horns are magical!"" ""But our horns are not magical!"" cried Afeefah. ""No, of course not. Horns are the same as hair and nails,"" said Aaminah. Afeefah and Aaminah are the last of their kind. The white rhinoceros is nearly extinct. They are almost all gone from our world. We can save the rhino and other animals that are almost extinct. What can you do? Find out more!",-0.142303129,0.491887255
e11b8183b,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00043,CC BY 4.0,"To be sure that a person is allergic to something, a medical doctor can perform some simple tests. The most popular ones are called the skin-prick test and the IgE test.
In the skin-prick test, the doctor or nurse puts tiny amounts of different allergens just under your skin. If you are allergic, you will develop a red bump where the allergen was placed. The doctor can tell how allergic you are by the size of the red bump. In the IgE test, the doctor will do some blood tests to see whether you have a high amount of IgE in your bloodstream, or IgE specific to some common allergens.
If you have a positive allergy test, and you know which allergen(s) you are allergic to, the best treatment is to avoid contact with those allergens. However, it is easier to avoid contact with some allergens, like peanuts or milk, than it is to avoid airborne allergens, like dust or pollen. Can you imagine not being exposed to any pollen during spring? Since it is very hard to avoid some allergens completely, particularly the airborne ones, medicines have been developed to reduce inflammation and stop the allergic reaction from occurring.",-0.394116031,0.467487374
b949b1ef7,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_electron_microscope,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a type of electron microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning it with a focused beam of electrons. The electrons interact with atoms in the sample, producing various signals that contain information about the sample's surface topography and composition. The electron beam is generally scanned in a raster scan pattern, and the beam's position is combined with the detected signal to produce an image. SEM can achieve resolution better than 1 nanometer. Specimens can be observed in high vacuum, in low vacuum, in wet conditions (in environmental SEM), and at a wide range of cryogenic or elevated temperatures.
The most common SEM mode is detection of secondary electrons emitted by atoms excited by the electron beam. The number of secondary electrons that can be detected depends, among other things, on the angle at which beam meets surface of specimen, i.e. on specimen topography. By scanning the sample and collecting the secondary electrons that are emitted using a special detector, an image displaying the topography of the surface is created.",-2.241481592,0.502264702
994cc6091,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"If someone is in water, you can use a stick to pull the person to safety. Never get into the water to try and rescue someone. If you get into the water, you could also drown. If the person who needs help is too far away from you to reach with a stick, you can throw something that floats. Throw something they can hold on to and use to stay above the water. You could throw a soccer ball or an empty five-litre plastic container. If someone needs rescuing from water, ask a lifeguard or adult for help. Never go into the water to try and rescue someone yourself. You can also call the free national emergency number, 112, from a cell phone or a landline. If someone is rescued from the water and they are not breathing, you should call 112 for help. You can then start Hands-on CPR by pushing hard and fast in the centre of their chest. Do not practice this on a friend! You can find out more from the National Sea Rescue Institute.",0.992717695,0.578445878
bae209b89,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"After a night of heavy rain, a group of friends were on their way to school. 
They came to the river they had to cross every day. ""Yoh! It's stopped raining, but look how full and fast the river is,"" said Siya. 
""Oh no,"" groaned Linda. ""Do you think teacher will be angry if we miss our classes today?"" 
Linda remembered what the Sea Rescue instructor had taught them in water safety lessons. 
""Never cross a flooded river. Even if you can't get to school,"" the instructor had said. 
Meanwhile, Lungi stepped straight into the river! ""I know where the stepping stones are!"" he yelled. 
But he soon fell into the water and the strong river began pulling him away. 
""Run and get help!"" shouted Linda. ""Tell them to call the free emergency number, like the Sea Rescue lady told us."" 
""Help, help!"" shouted Lungi as he struggled to keep his head above the water. 
""Hold on, Lungi!"" shouted Phelelani, as he grabbed a branch that he could use to help his friend. 
Phelelani's class had been taught that they should never go into the water to help someone as they might also be washed away.",1.432603719,0.615058457
747e04d46,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Johnny is late to meet his friends to go fishing. 
When he arrives at the beach, he realises that he's forgotten to bring his lifejacket. ""Don't worry,"" says Ben, the boat owner. ""Here's a spare one I always keep on board."" 
Because he's been fishing for years, Johnny knows the right way to put on a lifejacket. He fastens the two straps across his chest and the two straps between his legs. 
""Right!"" he says, ""it's on firmly and I'm ready to go!"" 
On the ocean, they find a good spot to fish and put down the anchor. Out of nowhere, a huge wave suddenly rises above them. ""Look! The wave's going to hit us!"" shouts one of the fishermen. 
The boat is turned upside down and the men are flung into the water. 
""Eeeeeehhh!"" they yell as they are plunged into the icy water. 
Not all of them can swim but, luckily, they are all wearing lifejackets. The men cling to the side of the upturned boat. Ben always carries a cellphone in a plastic pouch tied to his lifejacket. He calls the free emergency number 112. ""Help! We're in trouble out at sea,"" he says to the operator.",0.650396086,0.502542213
3a7c0e5c0,,,"You probably like bees: they are cute and furry, and they pollinate our crops and wildflowers. In a world without bees we would go hungry, and our countryside would be very dull. But what about wasps? Wasps sting. They ruin your summer picnics. They nest in your house and make your parents angry. There is no reason to like wasps. At least, this is what most people think. Perhaps this is what you were taught in school, or by your family: see a wasp: swat a wasp! Scientists are challenging what people think about wasps and this article explains why we need to think differently about these insects. We will explain why most people do not like wasps and why we should care about them. We will also explain how scientists are asking for the public's help to learn more about why wasps are important, and ultimately how to stop people from swatting the wasps.",0.922598578,0.527523953
5f1e73614,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Years%27_War,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Seven Years' War was a world war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. It involved every European great power of the time except the Ottoman Empire, spanning five continents, and affected Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. The conflict split Europe into two coalitions, led by Great Britain on one side and France on the other. For the first time, aiming to curtail Britain and Prussia's ever-growing might, France formed a grand coalition of its own, which ended with failure as Britain rose as the world's predominant power, altering the European balance of power. In the historiography of some countries, the war is named after combatants in its respective theatres, e.g. the French and Indian War in the United States. In French-speaking Canada, it is known as the War of the Conquest, while it is called the Seven Years' War in English-speaking Canada (North America, 1754–1763), Pomeranian War (with Sweden and Prussia, 1757–1762), Third Carnatic War (on the Indian subcontinent, 1757–1763), and Third Silesian War (with Prussia and Austria, 1756–1763).",-2.098625275,0.479826747
f80bf00cd,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00069,CC BY 4.0,"Why do animals put their energy into making light? One reason to emit light is that, in the ocean, the sunlight barely penetrates deeper than a few hundred meters. Below that, it is completely dark. During the night, even the ocean surface is dark, except for the faint glow from the moonlight, so light is a great way for animals to communicate. But who are they communicating with and who else is seeing these signals? For marine species, emitting light or looking for light in the darkness helps them to find partners or even something to eat. For example, the angler fish uses its glowing lure to attract small prey that will undoubtedly end up in its stomach. Of course, since the prey do not want to be eaten, they can use bioluminescence too, but as a defense. Many different strategies can be used. Shooting a cloud of luminescent mucus is a way to leave predators dazzled for a few seconds. Indeed, imagine that you have been in a dark room for a few minutes.",-0.424981939,0.496220659
8fa893ad4,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative silk, first developed in China and a major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive transcontinental network. It derives from the German term Seidenstraße (literally ""Silk Road"") and was first popularized by in 1877 by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872. However, the term itself has been in use in decades prior. The alternative translation ""Silk Route"" is also used occasionally. Although the term was coined in the 19th century, it did not gain widespread acceptance in academia or popularity among the public until the 20th century. The first book entitled The Silk Road was by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin in 1938.
Use of the term 'Silk Road' is not without its detractors. For instance, Warwick Ball contends that the maritime spice trade with India and Arabia was far more consequential for the economy of the Roman Empire than the silk trade with China, which at sea was conducted mostly through India and on land was handled by numerous intermediaries such as the Sogdians.",-0.344269809,0.462796572
3c1674b21,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00031,CC BY 4.0,"To practice their knowledge and skills, doctors and nurses attend classes, read textbooks, or participate in simulated neonatal resuscitations. During a simulation doctors and nurses use equipment and supplies to perform neonatal resuscitation on a doll that looks like a real baby, in a classroom that looks like a real delivery room. An instructor, like a coach, leads the simulation and lets everyone know what they are doing well, and how they can improve. Training together during simulation is the best way to prepare for real-life neonatal resuscitation.
It is important that doctors and nurses train often, so that they do not make mistakes. However, doctors and nurses are very busy taking care of many patients, so they often do not have time to train as frequently as they should. When training is infrequent, they can forget how to perform neonatal resuscitation, which can be harmful for the baby. While simulation is a great way to train, it can also be expensive to use simulation to train doctors and nurses as often as they should be trained.",-0.878020998,0.446454169
a4fa3021c,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartwatch,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A smartwatch is a computerized wristwatch with functionality that goes beyond timekeeping. While early models can perform basic tasks, such as calculations, translations, and game-playing, 2010s smartwatches are effectively wearable computers. Many run mobile apps, using a mobile operating system. Some smartwatches function as portable media players, with FM radio and playback of digital audio and video files via a Bluetooth or USB headset. Some models, also called 'watch phones', feature full mobile phone capability, and can make or answer phone calls or text messages.
While internal hardware varies, most have an electronic visual display, either backlit LCD or OLED. Some use transflective or electronic paper, to consume less power. Most have a rechargeable battery and many have a touchscreen. Peripheral devices may include digital cameras, thermometers, accelerometers, altimeters, barometers, compasses, GPS receivers, tiny speakers, and SD card (that are recognized as a storage device by a computer).",-1.277949957,0.462814431
df86b1ee8,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smelting,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Iron is smelted from iron ore in large reactors called blast furnaces. A blast furnace is a tall vertical structure which is fed with coke, iron ore and limestone. When hot air is blown in the blast furnace, the coke will burn and reduce the oxygen off the ore, producing bare iron and carbon dioxide. The limestone will bind off any remaining bedrock. The iron melts in the hot temperature and is tapped off in liquid phase at the bottom. It is then worked into steel. The limestone and bedrock form a compound called slag. It can be used for making bricks, concrete or road topping. Earlier methods include Bloomery.
Aluminum is smelted in electric ovens called electric arc furnaces. The aluminum ore is poured on the bottom of the furnace and electric current is led through the ore. The temperature rises so high that the oxygen separates, leaving metallic aluminum.
Copper is poured on naked flame which burns off sulfur and other impurities, leaving raw copper. Electrolysis uses electric current to separate the copper in big pools, which contain water solution called electrolyte",-1.457473562,0.482924251
4df967e22,,,"We have all experienced a wound, a local injury to the skin, at some point in our lives. Most often, wounds heal completely and a scab is the only sign of the injury. Except for the initial pain and bleeding, we might not pay much attention to the process by which the wound repairs or the possible complications that could arise. The process of wound healing involves a well-coordinated series of steps involving many cells, tissues, and chemicals in the body. Interruptions to the wound healing process, often caused by the presence of bacteria, lead to major disturbances and delays in wound repair. Further, some forms of bacteria can be resistant to antibiotics, making it difficult to treat infected wounds. In this article, we discuss the stages of wound healing, explain how bacteria can delay this process, and describe simple steps that you can adopt to prevent wound infections.",0.20725867,0.564733378
26395cae9,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A social networking service (also social networking site, SNS or social media) is an online platform that is used by people to build social networks or social relations with other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections. The variety of stand-alone and built-in social networking services available online in the 2010s introduces challenges of definition, but there are some common features: (1) social networking services are Web 2.0 Internet-based applications, (2) user-generated content (UGC) such as text posts, digital photos and videos, is the lifeblood of SNS organisms, (3) users create service-specific user profiles for the site or ""app"" that are designed and maintained by the SNS organization, and (4) social networking services facilitate the development of online social networks by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals and/or groups. Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as by e-mail and instant messaging and online forums.",-1.441185956,0.45712807
25e6b2031,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Society is the term to describe human beings together (collective, the sum of their social networks and power networks). It does not refer to everything everybody thinks or does, but only to those things that everybody acts upon – or refuses to do – quite reliably.
Because it must keep even the poorest and weakest members of a society willing to help even the richest and strongest, a society is very concerned with its citizenship, rights, ethics and time limits. These are basic ways to achieve fairness. If they break down badly, people will think the society is unfair and start taking things from each other, refusing to help each other, or seeing those who have more as cheats.
While every society is different, the way it breaks down and fails is very often the same: fraud, theft, violence, war and sometimes even genocide if people stop identifying with the society and thus identify with what they think of as a ""race"" of people. A new society may be formed out of only those who still agree, or who just survive the collapse of an old failed one.",-0.698003989,0.477324751
3a4b56999,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates,CC BY-SA 3.0,"As Socrates did not write down any of his teachings, secondary sources provide the only information on his life and thought. The sometimes contradictory nature of these sources is known as the Socratic problem, or the Socratic question.
Plato and Xenophon's dialogues provide the main source of information on Socrates's life and thought. These writings are the Sokratikoi logoi, or Socratic dialogues, which consist of reports of conversations apparently involving Socrates.
As for discovering the real-life Socrates, the difficulty is that ancient sources are mostly philosophical or dramatic texts, apart from Xenophon. There are no straightforward histories, contemporary with Socrates, that dealt with his own time and place. A corollary of this is that sources that do mention Socrates do not necessarily claim to be historically accurate, and are often partisan. For instance, those who prosecuted and convicted Socrates have left no testament. Historians, therefore, face the challenge of reconciling the various evidence from the extant texts in order to attempt an accurate and consistent account of Socrates's life and work. The result of such an effort is not necessarily realistic, even if consistent.",-2.215148883,0.49893817
82f92f8a5,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Computer software (often called just software) is a set of instructions and associated documentation that tells a computer what to do or how to perform a task or it can mean all the software on a computer, including the applications and the operating system. Applications are programs that do a specific thing, such as a game or a word processor. The operating system (Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, Linux, etc.) is software that helps the applications run, and controls the display and the keyboard.
The word software was first used in the late 1960s to show the difference from computer hardware, which are the parts of a machine that can be seen and touched. Software is the instructions that the computer follows. Before compact discs (CDs) or Internet downloads, software came on various computer data storage media like paper punch cards, magnetic discs or magnetic tape.",-0.297259587,0.465326411
a9397ddc1,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Software as a Service (SaaS; pronounced /sæs/) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as ""on-demand software"". SaaS is typically accessed by users using a thin client via a web browser. SaaS has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office and messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), management information systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, content management (CM), antivirus software, and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.
According to a Gartner Group estimate, SaaS sales in 2010 reached $10 billion, and were projected to increase to $12.1bn in 2011, up 20.7% from 2010.",-3.263499847,0.545408737
b1182ff9a,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_development,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Software development is the process of computer programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications and frameworks resulting in a software product. Software development is a process of writing and maintaining the source code, but in a broader sense it includes all that is involved between the conception of the desired software through to the final manifestation of the software, sometimes in a planned and structured process. Therefore, software development may include research, new development, prototyping, modification, reuse, re-engineering, maintenance, or any other activities that result in software products.
Software can be developed for a variety of purposes, the three most common being to meet specific needs of a specific client/business (the case with custom software), to meet a perceived need of some set of potential users (the case with commercial and open source software), or for personal use (e.g. a scientist may write software to automate a mundane task).",-1.479471819,0.465186813
7099e038d,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Solar sails (also called light sails or photon sails) are a form of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large mirrors. A useful analogy may be a sailing boat; the light exerting a force on the mirrors is akin to a sail being blown by the wind. High-energy laser beams could be used as an alternative light source to exert much greater force than would be possible using sunlight, a concept known as beam sailing.
Solar sail craft offer the possibility of low-cost operations combined with long operating lifetimes. Since they have few moving parts and use no propellant, they can potentially be used numerous times for delivery of payloads.
Solar sails use a phenomenon that has a proven, measured effect on spacecraft. Solar pressure affects all spacecraft, whether in interplanetary space or in orbit around a planet or small body. A typical spacecraft going to Mars, for example, will be displaced by thousands of kilometres by solar pressure, so the effects must be accounted for in trajectory planning, which has been done since the time of the earliest interplanetary spacecraft of the 1960s.",-1.884297622,0.474001713
ea39d6014,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Solar System is the Sun and all the objects in orbit around it. The Sun is orbited by planets, asteroids, comets and other things.
The Sun is a star. It contains 99.9 percent of the Solar System's mass. This means that it has strong gravity. The other objects are pulled into orbit around the Sun. The sun is mostly made out of hydrogen and helium.
There are eight planets in the Solar System. From closest to farthest from the Sun, they are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The first four planets are called terrestrial planets. They are mostly made of rock and metal, and they are mostly solid. The last four planets are called gas giants. This is because they are large planets that are mostly made of gas. Even though they are made of gas, they have much more mass than the terrestrial planets.",0.488056427,0.53797934
33a5087e7,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_wind,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. This plasma consists of mostly electrons, protons and alpha particles with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV; embedded in the solar-wind plasma is the interplanetary magnetic field. The solar wind varies in density, temperature and speed over time and over solar longitude. Its particles can escape the Sun's gravity because of their high energy, from the high temperature of the corona and magnetic, electrical and electromagnetic phenomena in it.
The solar winds flow outward supersonically at varying speeds depending on their origin reaching up to around one million miles per hour to great distances, filling a region known as the heliosphere, an enormous bubble-like volume surrounded by the interstellar medium. Other related phenomena include the aurora (northern and southern lights), the plasma tails of comets that always point away from the Sun, and geomagnetic storms that can change the direction of magnetic field lines.",-1.683761536,0.482679831
a20087e7c,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Soviet Union (short for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR) was a single-party Marxist-Leninist state. It existed from 1922 until 1991, and was the first country to declare itself socialist and build towards a communist society. It was a union of fourteen Soviet Socialist Republics and one Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (Russia).
The Soviet Union was created after Vladimir Lenin led the overthrow of Alexander Kerensky. The communist government developed industry and over time became a major, powerful union. The largest country in the Union was Russia, and Kazakhstan was the second. The capital city of the Soviet Union was Moscow. Although technically countries could become independent if they wanted, in practice it was a completely centralized government, with no states' rights for the member countries. Many believe that the Soviet Union was the final stage of the Russian Empire; since the USSR covered most of the land of the former Empire.",-0.757607153,0.470077836
663afa987,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_effect,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Special effects is a term for the things used in movies to create images that do not exist. There are many different types of special effects, for example, making little models or using computer animation.
Action movies often use special effects to create images that would be dangerous or cost a lot of money to create in real life. For example, if an action movie shows a very big battleship blowing up in flames, it would be expensive to buy a battleship and dangerous to blow it up. For this reason, most action movies use special effects if they want to show something blowing up in flames. A movie maker could make a little model of a battleship that is only a few yards or meters long, and then blow it up while filming with the motion picture camera. This would be cheaper and safer.
Science fiction movies also often use special effects. They usually tell imaginary stories that take place in the future, on other planets. It would be impossible to actually make a science fiction movie on another planet. For this reason, filmmakers use special effects to create images that look like other planets.",1.268987149,0.55414403
d2f71c57b,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A species is a kind of organism. It is a basic unit of biological classification, and a formal rank in taxonomy. Originally, the word was used informally in a rather vague way, but now there are at least 26 different ways it is used.
All animals or plants that are the same kind belong to the same species. Wolves (Canis lupus) are one species. Humans are another species. Broadly, the idea is that (say) cats breed with cats and produce more cats. This is the basis for deciding to have a species named Felis catus. However, giving a simple definition of 'species' is rather difficult, and many people have tried.
Species is a word for a special kind of living thing, like a crow. r such as the songbirds, (which has many families in it, such as the crow, thrush and swallow families).",-0.095004266,0.492757096
7cc35371e,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_recognition,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Speech recognition applications include voice user interfaces such as voice dialing (e.g. ""call home""), call routing (e.g. ""I would like to make a collect call""), domotic appliance control, search key words (e.g. find a podcast where particular words were spoken), simple data entry (e.g., entering a credit card number), preparation of structured documents (e.g. a radiology report), determining speaker characteristics, speech-to-text processing (e.g., word processors or emails), and aircraft (usually termed direct voice input).
The term voice recognition or speaker identification refers to identifying the speaker, rather than what they are saying. Recognizing the speaker can simplify the task of translating speech in systems that have been trained on a specific person's voice or it can be used to authenticate or verify the identity of a speaker as part of a security process.
From the technology perspective, speech recognition has a long history with several waves of major innovations. Most recently, the field has benefited from advances in deep learning and big data. The advances are evidenced not only by the surge of academic papers published in the field, but more importantly by the worldwide industry adoption of a variety of deep learning methods in designing and deploying speech recognition systems.",-1.540198331,0.493216031
26fd0c675,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_engine,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A steam engine is an engine which uses steam from boiling water to make it move. The steam pushes on the engine parts to make them move. Steam engines can power many kinds of machines including vehicles and electric generators.
Steam engines were used in mine pumps starting in the early 18th century and were much improved by James Watt in the 1770s. They were very important during the industrial revolution where they replaced horses, windmills and watermills to work machines.
The first steam engines were piston engines. The steam pressure pushed on a piston which made it move along a cylinder and so they had a reciprocal (back-and-forth) motion. This could move a pump directly or work a crank to turn a wheel and work a machine. They operated at low pressure and had to be very big to make much power.
Steam engines were used in factories to work machines and in mines to move pumps. Later smaller engines were built that could move railway locomotives and steam boats.",0.082800778,0.497405618
708324262,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00056,CC BY 4.0,"Scientists who study memory have described different processes, or types, of memory. One type is called long-term memory, which lasts basically forever and can store an unlimited amount of information. Long-term memory stores the information we are not currently using, kind of like a library full of books that hold the stories of our lives. Another type of memory, working memory, does not last very long and cannot hold much information. Working memory is the one we use for completing tasks and getting information into and out of long-term memory. For example, we use working memory to do things like mental math or to piece a story together after listening to a sequence of events. Working memory plays a big role in learning and doing well on tests in school. People differ in how much information they can hold in working memory, which is called a person's individual working memory capacity.
Stressful situations can affect even the smartest students, by lowering the amount of space in their working memory. Remember that working memory already cannot hold much information.",-0.109845936,0.495838433
e882f463d,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00067,CC BY 4.0,"A recent scientific study looked at the impact of different kinds of foods on both human health and the environment's health. To do this study, the scientists used statistics (calculations) to investigate the links between 15 different kinds of foods and five diet-related health conditions and five environmental impacts of producing these foods. For example, the scientists looked at if eating vegetables will prevent us from getting heart disease and how much greenhouse gases come from growing vegetables. They used big data sets from other studies, which they combined using a statistical method called a metanalysis. The scientists found that foods that were good for our health, like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and legumes, were also good for the health of our planet. That is, these foods had a low environmental impact on things like greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, and two types of nutrient pollution.",-0.195364959,0.484095735
073875f13,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Age,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Stone Age was an ancient time when people made tools from stone. Wood, bones and other materials were also used for tools, but those things don't last as long, so more stone tools are found. Stone (especially a kind of stone called flint) was used to cut things.
The period began with the first stone tools, about 2.7 million years ago. Some groups of people were still in the stone age into the 20th century. They also killed animals for food and clothing.
The time after the Stone Age is the Bronze Age, named after the metal bronze. The Stone Age ended when people discovered the art of smelting (making metals). The first metal used was copper, followed by bronze. People probably began using bronze instead of just stone in the Middle East sometime between 3000 and 2000 BC.
The Stone Age is divided by archaeologists (people who study relics) into three sections: Paleolithic (""old stone""), Mesolithic (""middle stone"") and Neolithic (""new stone""). Pottery was invented during the Neolithic Stone Age.",0.011813763,0.488878205
0d90e92a3,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A supernova is when a huge star explodes. It usually happens when its nuclear fusion cannot hold the core against its own gravity. The core collapses, and explodes.
The biggest supernovae are called hypergiants and smaller ones are called supergiants. They are massive: because of gravity they use up their energy very quickly. Normally they only live for a few million years.
During the explosion, the total energy radiated by supernovae may briefly outshine the entire output of a galaxy. They emit energy equal to that of the whole lifetime of a solar-like star. The explosion blows of its stellar material away from the star, at velocities up to 30,000 km/s or 10% of the speed of light. This drives a shock wave into the surrounding interstellar medium. This sweeps up an expanding shell of gas and dust, which we see as a supernova remnant. After exploding, what is left becomes a black hole or a neutron star.
Most stars are small and do not explode. They become colder and smaller, and they become white dwarf stars.",-0.327796134,0.466388719
ab24f949c,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweat,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"We are constantly sweating, even though we may not notice it. Sweating is your body's major way of getting rid of excess body heat, which is produced by metabolism or working muscles. The amount of sweat produced depends upon our states of emotion and physical activity. Sweat can be made in response to nerve stimulation, hot air temperature, and/or exercise. First, let's concentrate on how sweat is made in an eccrine sweat gland.
When the sweat gland is stimulated, the cells secrete a fluid (primary secretion) that is similar to plasma -- that is, it is mostly water and it has high concentrations of sodium and chloride and a low concentration of potassium -- but without the proteins and fatty acids that are normally found in plasma. The source of this fluid is the spaces between the cells (interstitial spaces), which get the fluid from the blood vessels (capillaries) in the dermis. This fluid travels from the coiled portion up through the straight duct.",-0.432472085,0.466206473
f805c380d,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The technological singularity is the idea that a machine or computer, or a group of machines and computers, will one day be smarter than humans.
Because it has not happened yet, nobody really knows what the technological singularity will do, or if it will even happen. Nonetheless, the technological singularity has been a subject in many science fiction works, such as The Terminator, The Matrix, and the Borg in Star Trek. In most depictions of the singularity, machines have consciousness and humans are considered to be useless. The futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil believes the Singularity will happen about the year 2045. The major impetus driving toward the singularity, according to Kurzweil, is that according to Moore's Law, computers are doubling in memory capacity every 18 months. According to Kurzweil, by 2025, computers will be as intelligent as human beings.",-1.417432918,0.475079894
39ddf1d39,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A television (also TV, telly or tube) is a machine with a screen. Televisions receive broadcast signals and turn them into pictures and sound. The word ""television"" comes from the words tele (Greek for far away) and vision (sight).
Sometimes a TV can look like a box. Older TVs had a large cathode ray tube in a large wooden frame and sat on the floor like furniture. Newer TVs are much lighter and flatter.
A television can show pictures from many television networks. Computers and mobile devices also can be used for watching television programs. At first, all televisions used an antenna (or aerial). This would pick up television programmes from broadcasting stations. A TV station could be many miles or kilometers away, and still be received. TVs can also show movies from VCD and DVD players or VCRs. Cable TV and Satellite television can provide more programs at once than broadcast can. Video game consoles connect to most modern TVs. Some computers can also use a TV as a computer monitor.",0.323425373,0.492033604
c6ac6a81e,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature-programmed_reduction,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) is a technique for the characterization of solid materials and is often used in the field of heterogeneous catalysis to find the most efficient reduction conditions, an oxidized catalyst precursor is submitted to a programmed temperature rise while a reducing gas mixture is flowed over it. It was developed by John Ward Jenkins whilst developing heterogeneous catalysts for Shell Oil company, but was never patented. A simple container (U-tube) is filled with a solid or catalyst. This sample vessel is positioned in a furnace with temperature control equipment. A thermocouple is placed in the solid for temperature measurement. The air originally present in the container is flushed out with an inert gas (nitrogen, argon). Flow controllers are used to add hydrogen (for example, 10 Vol -% hydrogen in nitrogen). The composition of the gaseous mixture is measured at the exit of the sample container with appropriate detectors (thermal conductivity detector, mass spectrometer).",-2.768247946,0.524443396
3bc279c79,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00035,CC BY 4.0,"New medicines and other life-saving products must be made rapidly available to the people who need them, wherever they live. Most medicines are made by pharmaceutical companies in China, India, and the United States. However, regardless of where they are made, pharmaceutical companies should make sure that patients living in other countries have access to medicines. In order to do this, pharmaceutical companies need to register their products and ship them to countries where there is a need. If a medicine is not registered in a country, the product cannot be sold there. While this sounds like an easy procedure, less than one-quarter of recently launched medical products have been filed for registration in most countries that are in need of them.
The reason that many medicines are not registered is because customizing the registration to meet the strict requirements of every country can be a hard task for a company, especially since the criteria may vary from one country to another. Furthermore, the registration process can take a long time in some countries with poor healthcare systems. While registration in some countries can take a few months, in others it can take many years!",-0.701958848,0.468163251
1d3b50f9d,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/coming-of-age-ceremonies-across-different-cultures,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"In the Jewish faith, after years of Hebrew and Torah1 study, 12 to 13-year-old boys and girls participate in a celebration. The ceremony for boys is called a bar mitzvah, and the ceremony for girls is called a bat mitzvah. This literally translates from Hebrew as ""son"" or ""daughter of the commandments.""
Jewish historians and scholars offer many different theories on the origin of the ceremony. However, the ceremony rose in importance throughout the Jewish diaspora during the 18th and 19th centuries.
While the Jewish faith has many different sects, boys usually become a bar mitzvah at the age of 13, and girls typically become a bat mitzvah at the age of 12 or 13, depending on the sect. For both boys and girls, the ceremony usually includes a service in a temple or synagogue. The bar or bat mitzvah (the boy or girl) then reads from the Torah, followed by a celebration with friends and family, as well as fellow congregants. The way a bar or bat mitzvah is celebrated varies within each congregation, community, or family.",-0.827983792,0.460210431
36a340cb8,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/a-sense-of-wonder-an-introduction-to-science-fiction,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"When the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki a new age of science fiction dawned. The world knew, for the first time, of a technology that could truly destroy the world. Japan, reeling from the devastation of the two nuclear bombings, gave the world its most apt sci-fi metaphor for the mayhem and destruction of the bombings: Godzilla. A new Atomic Era subgenre of giant mutant creature attacks was born. Primarily told on film, these stories helped navigate the anxiety that at any moment some unstoppable force could end the world. This trope can still be seen today in the Cloverfield series and modern remakes of Godzilla. It can also be found in the enduringly popular movies in which superheroes do battle with a threatening outside force in possession of a new, devastating technology or a large, unstoppable monster.
As the Space Race heated up, humanity looked towards the stars with a mix of hope and fear. We dreamed of a better future with Star Trek, which brought attention to issues of racial disparities happening on our own planet during the Civil Rights Era and the duties a just society has to all its citizens.",-1.067677743,0.50550191
95c133a73,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tissue_(biology),CC BY-SA 3.0,"Animal tissues are grouped into four basic types: connective, muscle, nervous, and epithelial. Collections of tissues joined in units to serve a common function compose organs. While all animals can generally be considered to contain the four tissue types, the manifestation of these tissues can differ depending on the type of organism. For example, the origin of the cells comprising a particular tissue type may differ developmentally for different classifications of animals.
The epithelium in all animals is derived from the ectoderm and endoderm, with a small contribution from the mesoderm, forming the endothelium, a specialized type of epithelium that composes the vasculature. By contrast, a true epithelial tissue is present only in a single layer of cells held together via occluding junctions called tight junctions, to create a selectively permeable barrier. This tissue covers all organismal surfaces that come in contact with the external environment such as the skin, the airways, and the digestive tract. It serves functions of protection, secretion, and absorption, and is separated from other tissues below by a basal lamina.",-2.601398503,0.500680018
3bd492e5f,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible. Totalitarian regimes stay in political power through an all-encompassing propaganda campaign, which is disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single party that is often marked by political repression, personality cultism, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of speech, mass surveillance, and widespread use of terror. A distinctive feature of totalitarian governments is an ""elaborate ideology, a set of ideas that gives meaning and direction to the whole society.""
The concept of totalitarianism was first developed in the 1920s by the Weimar German jurist, and later Nazi academic, Carl Schmitt, and Italian fascists. Schmitt used the term, Totalstaat, in his influential work on the legal basis of an all-powerful state, The Concept of the Political (1927). The concept became prominent in Western political discourse as a concept that highlights similarities between Fascist states and the Soviet Union.",-1.979797604,0.499964556
e427c1a62,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Transistors have three terminals: the gate, the drain, and the source (on a bipolar transistor, the wires can be called the emitter, the collector, and the base). When the source (or emitter) is connected to the negative terminal of the battery, and the drain (or collector) to the positive terminal, no electricity will flow in the circuit (if you have only a lamp in series with the transistor). But when you touch the gate and the drain together, the transistor will let electricity through. This is because when the gate is positively charged, the positive electrons will push other positive electrons in the transistor letting the negative electrons flow through. The transistor can also work when the gate is just positively charged, so it doesn't need to be touching the drain. 
An easy way to think of how a transistor works is as a hose with a sharp bend that stops the water from going through. The water is the electrons, and when you positively charge the gate, it unbends the hose, letting water flow.",-1.721582233,0.516170055
6c21d9b1e,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Ghent,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Treaty of Ghent (8 Stat. 218), signed on December 24, 1814, in the city of Ghent, was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom. The treaty restored relations between the two nations to status quo ante bellum, restoring the borders of the two countries to the lines before the war started in June 1812. The Treaty was approved by the UK parliament and signed into law by the Prince Regent (the future King George IV) on December 30, 1814. It took a month for news of the peace treaty to reach the United States, and in the meantime American forces under Andrew Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. The Treaty of Ghent was not fully in effect until it was ratified by the U.S. Senate unanimously on February 18, 1815. It began two centuries of peaceful relations between the U.S. and Britain, although there were a few tense moments such as the Trent Affair.",-1.136051502,0.460500613
fe6620086,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Doctrine,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Truman Doctrine underpinned American Cold War policy in Europe and around the world. In the words of historian James T. Patterson, ""The Truman Doctrine was a highly publicized commitment of a sort the administration had not previously undertaken. Its sweeping rhetoric, promising that the United States should aid all 'free people' being subjugated, set the stage for innumerable later ventures that led to globalisation commitments. It was in these ways a major step.""
The doctrine endured, historian Dennis Merill argues, because it addressed broader cultural insecurity regarding modern life in a globalized world. It dealt with Washington's concern over communism's domino effect, it enabled a media-sensitive presentation of the doctrine that won bipartisan support, and it mobilized American economic power to modernize and stabilize unstable regions without direct military intervention. It brought nation-building activities and modernization programs to the forefront of foreign policy.",-1.776309711,0.463512485
2491eebf3,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasound,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Ultrasounds are sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is no different from 'normal' (audible) sound in its physical properties, except in that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies from person to person and is approximately 20 kilohertz (20,000 hertz) in healthy, young adults. Ultrasound devices operate with frequencies from 20 kHz up to several gigahertz.
Ultrasound is used in many different fields. Ultrasonic devices are used to detect objects and measure distances. Ultrasound imaging or sonography is often used in medicine. In the nondestructive testing of products and structures, ultrasound is used to detect invisible flaws. Industrially, ultrasound is used for cleaning, mixing, and to accelerate chemical processes. Animals such as bats and porpoises use ultrasound for locating prey and obstacles. Scientist are also studying ultrasound using graphene diaphragms as a method of communication.",-0.913326537,0.446072822
31aba067d,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"After World War I, the nations of the world formed the League of Nations. This organization was a place where nations could talk through their differences calmly. However, some countries like Germany, Italy and Japan ignored the League and tried to solve their problems through war. Members of the League of Nations did not want to go to war to protect other members and the League failed. A Second World War soon started.
The Allies of World War II often called themselves ""the United Nations"" (united against the Axis Powers). After the War, the winners formed a new organization for world peace. On 25th April 1945 in San Francisco, they decided on the name '""United Nations"". In June they signed the United Nations Charter saying how the organization would work. The UN was created on 24 October 1945 and its first meeting was held in January 1946. Since 1947 the 24th of October has been called ""United Nations Day"".",-0.124659253,0.47183999
8a23a4ba3,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_data,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Unstructured data (or unstructured information) refers to information that either does not have a pre-defined data model or is not organized in a pre-defined manner. Unstructured information is typically text-heavy, but may contain data such as dates, numbers, and facts as well. This results in irregularities and ambiguities that make it difficult to understand using traditional programs as compared to data stored in fielded form in databases or annotated (semantically tagged) in documents.
In 1998, Merrill Lynch cited a rule of thumb that somewhere around 80-90% of all potentially usable business information may originate in unstructured form. This rule of thumb is not based on primary or any quantitative research, but nonetheless is accepted by some.
IDC and EMC project that data will grow to 40 zettabytes by 2020, resulting in a 50-fold growth from the beginning of 2010. Computer World states that unstructured information might account for more than 70%–80% of all data in organizations.",-2.123086698,0.494318576
b1aafcfd0,https://emedia.uen.org/courses/utah-oer-textbooks-3rd-grade-seed/view,CC BY-NC 3.0,"Weather describes the day to day changes in the atmosphere around us. The atmosphere is the air that surrounds Earth. The air that is around you right now is part of the atmosphere. Each day the weather changes. Sometimes it is hot. Other times we have snow storms. Weather keeps you guessing. It makes every day an adventure. Whatever the weather is doing now, it could be doing something else in a matter of hours. Weather also can vary from place to place. Sometimes the places are very close together. It could be raining at your house, but dry at school a few blocks away. Weather is very tough to predict. Will it rain tomorrow? Maybe it will be sunny. What about the wind? How cold will it be? Those are all questions we want to know. Meteorologists are scientists who study weather and weather prediction. Meteorologists measure many different weather conditions to describe and predict the weather. Temperature measures how hot or cold the air is around us. To describe the wind, we measure wind speed and wind direction. The wind direction tells us where the wind is coming from. We also measure precipitation.",0.498429902,0.520880392
fb2d4c9d6,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A vaccine gives immunity to an infectious disease caused by a particular bacterium or virus. This means the vaccine makes a person less likely to get that disease. For example, the flu vaccine makes it less likely that a person will get the flu.
Vaccines are usually made from something that is alive, or was alive.
The word ""vaccine"" comes from the Latin words vaccin-us (from the word vacca, meaning ""cow""). In 1796, Edward Jenner used cows infected with cowpox (variolae vaccinae) to protect people against smallpox. The use of vaccines is called vaccination.
Edward Jenner created the first vaccine in the 1770s. At this time, smallpox was a deadly disease. Jenner noticed that people who had already had cowpox (a disease that is related to smallpox) usually did not get smallpox. He thought that getting cowpox protected people against smallpox.
To test this idea, Jenner gave a boy cowpox. Then he infected the boy with smallpox. The boy did not get sick because he had already had cowpox. Jenner was right: having cowpox protected people against smallpox.",0.259730278,0.476855963
88d52f8e2,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Outer space has very low density and pressure, and is the closest physical approximation of a perfect vacuum. But no vacuum is truly perfect, not even in interstellar space, where there are still a few hydrogen atoms per cubic meter.
Stars, planets, and moons keep their atmospheres by gravitational attraction, and as such, atmospheres have no clearly delineated boundary: the density of atmospheric gas simply decreases with distance from the object. The Earth's atmospheric pressure drops to about 3.2×10-2 Pa at 100 kilometres (62 mi) of altitude, the Kármán line, which is a common definition of the boundary with outer space. Beyond this line, isotropic gas pressure rapidly becomes insignificant when compared to radiation pressure from the Sun and the dynamic pressure of the solar winds, so the definition of pressure becomes difficult to interpret. The thermosphere in this range has large gradients of pressure, temperature and composition, and varies greatly due to space weather. Astrophysicists prefer to use number density to describe these environments, in units of particles per cubic centimetre.",-3.051524528,0.584037606
33511af2b,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetation,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Vegetation is assemblages of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader than the term flora which refers to species composition. Perhaps the closest synonym is plant community, but vegetation can, and often does, refer to a wider range of spatial scales than that term does, including scales as large as the global. Primeval redwood forests, coastal mangrove stands, sphagnum bogs, desert soil crusts, roadside weed patches, wheat fields, cultivated gardens and lawns; all are encompassed by the term vegetation.
The vegetation type is defined by characteristic dominant species, or a common aspect of the assemblage, such as an elevation range or environmental commonality. Earth cover is the expression used by ecologist Frederic Clements that has its closest modern equivalent being vegetation. The expression continues to be used by the Bureau of Land Management. Natural vegetation refers to plant life that extremely growing in naturally and which is controlled by the climatic condition of that region.",-2.652384117,0.528027654
10426d8a6,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The velocity of an object is the rate of change of its position with respect to a frame of reference, and is a function of time. Velocity is equivalent to a specification of its speed and direction of motion (e.g. 60 km/h to the north). Velocity is an important concept in kinematics, the branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of bodies.
Velocity is a physical vector quantity; both magnitude and direction are needed to define it. The scalar absolute value (magnitude) of velocity is called ""speed"", being a coherent derived unit whose quantity is measured in the SI (metric) system as metres per second (m/s) or as the SI base unit of (m·s-1). For example, ""5 metres per second"" is a scalar (not a vector), whereas ""5 metres per second east"" is a vector.
If there is a change in speed, direction, or both, then the object has a changing velocity and is said to be undergoing an acceleration.",-2.864956753,0.515562965
200001c2d,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00049,CC BY 4.0,"Neuro-myths matter because they affect people's thoughts and behavior: they can change how we see ourselves and how we see each other. Let us take the example of gender again. At age 8 to 9, there is no difference in how well girls and boys do at math, yet girls (and their parents) rate their math ability to be lower than boys. This suggests that what people believe (in this case, that girls are not as strong at math) may have a real impact on how children see themselves, which may in turn affect their actual performance. In one study, when a group of college students was given a math test, men did better than women when they were told that the test usually shows gender differences, but when they were told it was a gender-fair test, women did just as well as men. This is important because, by the end of education, differences that were once small become massive: 94% of maths professors in the UK are men . This is a good example of why we should be careful about neuro-myths—what you believe about your brain and the brains of those around you may just come true.",-0.909141193,0.449174809
69c52df11,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality,CC BY-SA 3.0,"One method by which virtual reality can be realized is simulation-based virtual reality. Driving simulators, for example, give the driver on board the impression of actually driving an actual vehicle by predicting vehicular motion caused by driver input and feeding back corresponding visual, motion and audio cues to the driver.
With avatar image-based virtual reality, people can join the virtual environment in the form of real video as well as an avatar. One can participate in the 3D distributed virtual environment as form of either a conventional avatar or a real video. A user can select own type of participation based on the system capability.
In projector-based virtual reality, modeling of the real environment plays a vital role in various virtual reality applications, such as robot navigation, construction modeling, and airplane simulation. Image-based virtual reality systems have been gaining popularity in computer graphics and computer vision communities. In generating realistic models, it is essential to accurately register acquired 3D data; usually, a camera is used for modeling small objects at a short distance.",-1.357038378,0.472830645
ec437fd25,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The body's first line of defense against viruses is the innate immune system. This has cells and other mechanisms which defend the host from any infection. The cells of the innate system recognize, and respond to, pathogens in a general way.
RNA interference is an important innate defense against viruses. Many viruses have a replication strategy that involves double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). When such a virus infects a cell, it releases its RNA molecule. A protein complex called dicer sticks to it and chops the RNA into pieces. Then a biochemical pathway, called the RISC complex, starts up. This attacks the viral mRNA, and the cell survives the infection.
Rotaviruses avoid this by not uncoating fully inside the cell and by releasing newly produced mRNA through pores in the particle's inner capsid. The genomic dsRNA remains protected inside the core of the virion.",-1.451768512,0.452706311
195bb7384,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Voltage is a force that makes electricity move through a wire. It is measured in volts. Voltage is also called electric tension or electromotive force (EMF). It was named after Alessandro Volta.
Technically, the voltage is the difference in electric potential between two points. Voltage is always measured between two points, for example between the positive and negative ends of a battery, or between a wire and ground.
As seen in volt Hydraulic analogy, voltage can be seen as the pressure on the electrons to move out of the source. It is directly proportional to the pressure exerted on the electrons. In other words, the higher the voltage, the higher the pressure. For example, a battery of 3 volts will exert pressure on the electrons twice as hard as a battery of 1.5 volts.
The voltage can push the electrons into a component, like a resistor, creating a current. Usually, the voltage and the current are related by a formula.",-1.134821962,0.48065921
7a1723dd0,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Voltage is always measured between two points, and one of them is often called the ""ground"", or the zero volt (0V) point. In most AC electrical installations there is a connection to the earth. A connection is made to the real ground through a water pipe, a ground rod buried or driven into the earth, or a convenient metallic conductor (not a gas pipe) buried underground. This connection is made at the point of entry of the electric system into a building, at every pole where there is a transformer at the street (often on an electric pole), and other places in the system. The whole planet Earth is used as a reference point for measuring voltage. In a building this ground is carried to each electrical device on two wires. One is the 'grounding conductor' (the green or bare wire) and is used as a safety ground to connect metal parts of equipment to the earth. The other is used as one of the electric conductors in the circuits of the system and is called the 'neutral conductor'.",-1.612461057,0.469307404
6c04954f0,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A wrist watch has the advantage of being portable in comparison to traditional watches.
Watches evolved in the 17th century from spring-powered clocks, which appeared as early as the 14th century. In 1524, Peter Henlein created the first pocket watch. The first watches were strictly mechanical, driven by clockwork.
As technology developed, mechanical watches were largely replaced by vibrating quartz crystals, producing accurately timed electronic pulses. Some watches use radio technology to correct the time and date. The first digital electronic watch was developed in 1970.
Electronic movements, also known as quartz movements, have few or no moving parts, except a quartz crystal which is made to vibrate by the piezoelectric effect. A varying electric voltage is applied to the crystal, which responds by changing its shape so it works as an oscillator. It resonates at a stable frequency, which paces a timekeeping mechanism. Most quartz movements are primarily electronic but are geared to drive mechanical hands on the face of the watch to give a traditional analog display of the time. Most consumers prefer this.",-0.302916244,0.500909042
a4758360d,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_clock,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A water clock, or clepsydra, is any timepiece in which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel where the amount is then measured.
Water clocks, along with sundials and hourglasses, are likely to be the oldest time-measuring instruments, with the only exceptions being the vertical gnomon and the day-counting tally stick. Where and when they were first invented is not known, and given their great antiquity it may never be. The bowl-shaped outflow is the simplest form of a water clock and is known to have existed in Babylon and in Egypt around the 16th century BC. Other regions of the world, including India and China, also have early evidence of water clocks, but the earliest dates are less certain. Some authors, however, claim that water clocks appeared in China as early as 4000 BC.",-1.717329784,0.476935268
74dcefd0b,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_vapor,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Water vapor, water vapour or aqueous vapor, is the gaseous phase of water. It is one state of water within the hydrosphere. Water vapor can be produced from the evaporation or boiling of liquid water or from the sublimation of ice. Unlike other forms of water, water vapor is invisible. Under typical atmospheric conditions, water vapor is continuously generated by evaporation and removed by condensation. It is lighter than air and triggers convection currents that can lead to clouds.
Being a component of Earth's hydrosphere and hydrologic cycle, it is particularly abundant in Earth's atmosphere where it is also a potent greenhouse gas along with other gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. Use of water vapor, as steam, has been important to humans for cooking and as a major component in energy production and transport systems since the industrial revolution.
Water vapor is a relatively common atmospheric constituent, present even in the solar atmosphere as well as every planet in the Solar System and many astronomical objects including natural satellites, comets and even large asteroids.",-2.088891083,0.470604418
bac396931,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Watergate was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the early 1970s, following a June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. and President Richard Nixon's administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. When the conspiracy was discovered and investigated by the U.S. Congress, the Nixon administration's resistance to its probes led to a constitutional crisis.
The term Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included such ""dirty tricks"" as bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious. Nixon and his close aides ordered harassment of activist groups and political figures, using the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).",-0.202360343,0.497729955
0b2b28516,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a stellar remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to that of the Sun, while its volume is comparable to that of Earth. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored thermal energy; no fusion takes place in a white dwarf wherein mass is converted to energy. The nearest known white dwarf is Sirius B, at 8.6 light years, the smaller component of the Sirius binary star. There are currently thought to be eight white dwarfs among the hundred star systems nearest the Sun. The unusual faintness of white dwarfs was first recognized in 1910. The name white dwarf was coined by Willem Luyten in 1922. The universe has not existed long enough to experience a white dwarf releasing all of its energy as it will take close to a trillion years.",-1.533553613,0.51662611
2d91125e2,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Wi-Fi stations communicate by sending each other data packets: blocks of data individually sent and delivered over radio. As with all radio, this is done by the modulating and demodulation of carrier waves. Different versions of Wi-Fi use different techniques, 802.11b uses DSSS on a single carrier, whereas 802.11a, Wi-Fi 4, 5 and 6 use multiple carriers on slightly different frequencies within the channel (OFDM).
As with other IEEE 802 LANs, stations come programmed with a globally unique 48-bit MAC address (often printed on the equipment) so that each Wi-Fi station has a unique address.
The MAC addresses are used to specify both the destination and the source of each data packet. Wi-Fi establishes link-level connections, which can be defined using both the destination and source addresses. On the reception of a transmission, the receiver uses the destination address to determine whether the transmission is relevant to the station or should be ignored. A network interface normally does not accept packets addressed to other Wi-Fi stations.",-2.082496583,0.506600907
5c22a3c42,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Zimmermann Telegram (also called the Zimmermann Note) was a telegram sent to Mexico from Germany on January 16, 1917. It was what made America enter World War I. It is named for the German man who sent it, Arthur Zimmermann. Zimmerman was the German Foreign Secretary (took care of things with other countries). Zimmermann sent it to the German ambassador in the United States, Johann von Bernstorff. Bernstorff then sent it to the German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt. The telegram told the ambassador to ask the Mexicans to join the war on the German side by attacking America. Germany promised to help Mexico take back land the United States had taken from Mexico in the Mexican–American War. These places were Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Germany wanted Mexico to enter the war so America would be too busy to help the enemies of Germany. Mexico was already busy with the Mexican Revolution and did not like the idea.",-0.800673356,0.488466609
0e54e5176,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00097,CC BY 4.0,"In the Mediterranean Sea, new species are frequently arriving through various introduction pathways. Because of the large number of new alien species and the large size of the Mediterranean Sea, it is very difficult to detect new alien species. Scientists from many countries work hard to find, observe, and monitor the alien species here, and collect as much information as possible. However, not only scientists can spot alien species. Many people visit the Mediterranean Sea for swimming, diving, or fishing. These citizens are also invited to report alien species to the blogs and authorities responsible for dealing with this threat. We call this citizen science—the contribution of citizens to the collection of data, which helps scientists. To bring together all the alien species data from various sources so that it is easy to find, the European Commission created the European Alien Species Information Network (EASIN), where people can share information about alien species across Europe, including the Mediterranean Sea. ",-0.933473096,0.487489194
daa697f3e,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00106,CC BY 4.0,"There are many types of particles that could enter the lungs and cause damage. Some of these particles are pollutants, such as emissions from gas-powered vehicles, carbon monoxide from fireplaces, toxins from vaping or smoking, and aerosols like hairspray. Particles can get trapped in various areas of the lung. Short hairs, like the kind on top of your head, line the insides of the nostrils and are covered with mucus. These mucus-covered hairs help trap larger particles as they enter the nose. Particles that enter the conducting zone can hurt the airway cells, which may reduce the movement of their cilia and lead to a buildup of mucus that cannot be cleared from the airways. Mucus-clogged airways may not allow air to travel as effectively, like the way leaves in a gutter interfere with water flow. Smaller particles can sometimes get all the way to the alveoli. Damage to the alveoli makes breathing considerably more difficult, because oxygen will not diffuse as well into the blood. This reduced efficiency of gas exchange may cause the rest of the body to be hypoxic, which means low in oxygen.",-0.366843066,0.471736163
d1e534d7e,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"3D (or 3-D) means three-dimensional, or having three dimensions. For example, a box is three-dimensional; it is solid, and not thin like a piece of paper. It has volume, a top and bottom, left and right (sides), as well as a front and back. You can turn the box around to view it from another side (called a face, surface or simply side).
A dimension is measurable in inches, microns, miles, kilometers, or any other unit of length.
The three dimensions are often called length (or depth), width (or breadth), and height. Some purposes use other words.
3D graphics are used to make video games or animated movies. Many calculations are needed to make pictures seem three-dimensional on a screen. Modern computers usually have a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) to handle these calculations.
Binocular vision helps people to see the third dimension easily.
In the Cartesian coordinate system, length, width, and height are given in letters (variables) to make them easier to write, or if a value is not known. Often X is width, Y is height, and Z is length. Other 3D coordinate systems such as spherical coordinates include both linear and angular measurements.",-0.838837134,0.463235347
d0e0b8a07,,,"First, doctors must determine what kind of stroke has occurred. This is important because each type of stroke requires a different treatment. Using brain scanning devices, doctors must determine whether a bleed or a blockage is causing the patients symptoms.
If a blockage (ischemic stroke) is identified, the goal of treatment is to remove the blood clot. (That is why these treatments are called clot-busters!) Clot-busting medications are given to the patient to break down and dissolve the clot that is causing the blockage. Alternatively, surgery can be performed and a wire can be sent up into the blood vessel to pull the clot out.
If a bleed (hemorrhagic stroke) is identified, the goal for treatment is to stop the bleeding and reduce pressure building up within the skull. A bleed is most commonly treated using medications to reduce blood pressure and bleeding in the brain. In some cases, surgery may be required to drill a hole in the skull and release the pressure on the brain. Another surgery option is to place a clasp around the broken part of the blood vessel to clamp it shut and stop the bleeding.",0.098693207,0.476403671
65c3fc984,,,"Around 20,000 years ago, the last cooling phase ended, starting a warming period until around 8,000 years ago, during which Earth's average temperature rose between 5.6 and 8.5°F (3.1–4.7°C) . This means a change of around 0.06°F (0.03°C) every century. Between 8,000 years ago and the Industrial Revolution (around 200 years ago), temperatures were relatively constant. Since then, temperatures have been increasing again, and very quickly. By 2100, scientists believe that the mean temperature on the planet will have raised an additional 3.6–8.8°F (2.0–4.9°C) compared with the temperatures at the time of the Industrial Revolution . This means that the planet's temperature rise in the next century will be about 100 times faster than what happened during the last 20,000 years. While past changes in climate were the result of several factors, like the amount of energy coming from the sun and the concentration of different atmospheric gases, this time humans are mainly responsible. And that is why we call the current warming the anthropogenic (or human-induced) climate change.",-1.893606415,0.47012804
a26d6d550,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00069,CC BY 4.0,"Flu is a very common, global disease. Each year there is a period of time (a flu season), during which most of the flu cases happen, usually during the winter, but this can vary depending on where you live. For example, in the tropics, the flu season tends to reach its highest point in the rainy season. Influenza viruses also change (or mutate) from 1 year to the next, so that your immune system does not recognize them anymore, and is less able to protect you against infection and disease. This means that, every year, scientists need to check which flu viruses are infecting people and design new vaccines to protect against these current virus strains . Each year, flu vaccines are usually made up of a mixture 3 or 4 strains that match the main circulating strains.
Sometimes, new strains of virus emerge that are completely different from the circulating virus strains. Scientists are really worried about the threat the new influenza viruses could pose to human health. Some new flu virus strains could affect more people than seasonal flu and cause a global outbreak. We call such strains pandemic strains.",0.053523571,0.455900787
c19430bb5,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00004,CC BY 4.0,"Reaction times are quite different when the target shares some, but not all, of the features of some of the distractors. In this case, the target does not pop out (""non-pop-out target""), and the reaction times go up according to the number of objects in the visual scene.
Why does this happen? What is the simplest explanation for both types of reaction time patterns? A critical insight came when Treisman and colleagues closely examined the errors made by the observers. When the observers misperceived what the target was (for instance, when they reported that the odd-man-out was a red vertical bar, when it actually was a red horizontal bar, they were also likely to misperceive where the target was. This means that, in order to find a target correctly, one also has to perceive the target correctly. Additional experiments showed that mental ability to focus on a particular location in the visual scene—say, the bar at the top left corner of the image—is needed when the target does not pop out, and not needed when it does.",-1.777244323,0.444114487
aa628d18b,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00064,CC BY 4.0,"As an animal grows, maintaining the interactions between epidermal cells and touch-sensing neurons is critical to the animal's ability to sense touch.
Animals can sense touch as soon as they are born, even though the skin of a newborn is very simple. The epidermis of a newborn consists of only one or two sheets of epidermal cells, and a small number of touch-sensing neurons send axons to the epidermis. As newborn animals mature into adults, the skin grows to cover the much larger animal, the epidermis thickens by adding more layers of cells, and new touch-sensing neurons are born. In addition to growth and thickening, during this time special structures—like hair in mammals, feathers in birds, or scales in fish—form within the skin. We refer to this maturation as a ""metamorphosis,"" a process between birth and adulthood when multiple tissues change at once. For example, the transformation of tadpoles into frogs is a metamorphosis. People undergo a similar metamorphosis as teenagers: as we develop from children into adults, many of our tissues grow and change. Our study aimed to understand how epidermal cells and touch-sensing neurons change as the skin undergoes metamorphosis.",-1.284712849,0.47626595
e48f075f9,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00055,CC BY 4.0,"The brain goes through a lot of changes during adolescence. In regard to mental health in young people, these changes can make the brain quite sensitive to injuries. Let us start by talking about how the various areas of the brain are connected to each other. Regions of the brain need to communicate with each other so that we can think, plan, and carry out tasks in everyday life. The brain is made up of gray matter and white matter. Gray matter contains the cell bodies of neurons (which are the building blocks of the brain that process information). White matter consists of parts of neurons called axons, which are the connections that link different regions of gray matter together. During adolescence, the white matter begins to decide which brain areas need to be connected the most. Think of this like a road map. Big cities get visited by more people more often, so highways are built to make sure that people can access these places quickly and easily. On the other hand, little country towns might only have dirt tracks connecting them, because they do not get visited as often.",-0.451736248,0.469099515
e6fd2bc8a,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestor,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"An ancestor is a person from whom one is descended. Usually it refers to a remote person, rather than the immediate parents or grandparents. A very similar word is forebear. A female ancestor may be called an ancestress. The line of people from whom a person descends is referred to as their ancestry.
A second meaning relates to evolution. There, it is used of an animal or plant from which others have evolved. In a similar way, it can be used for an early prototype or forerunner of a later device.
In law an ancestor can mean the person from whom an estate is lawfully obtained. No blood relationship is necessarily implied. More commonly, however, it is the person from whom an estate is obtained based on law and blood.
Two people have a genetic relationship if one is the ancestor of the other, or if they share a common ancestor. Each of someone's ancestors will have contributed to their DNA. In evolution, species that have evolved from the same ancestor are said to be of common descent.",-0.204233477,0.47757785
e7dc3df1d,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Ancient Egypt, or the Egyptian Empire, was a society that began about 3150 BC, and lasted until 20 BC when it was invaded by the Roman Empire.
It grew along the River Nile and was at its most powerful in the second millennium BC. Its land went from the Nile delta to Nubia, a kingdom which today is mostly in the Sudan.
For most of its history, Egypt was prosperous, since the water from the Nile made sure that the Egyptians would have good crops. Crops were grown after the Nile flood water went down.
The Egyptians created a way of writing using hieroglyphs, built huge temples and tombs, traded with other areas, and had a powerful army. Their religion had many gods, and its priests were powerful and rich. Their rulers, called Pharaohs, were thought to be close to the gods.",0.843423217,0.517151805
6dc285550,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00077,CC BY 4.0,"There are places underground that can store large volumes of CO2 gas. These places are the nearly infinite number of tiny holes inside of rocks. The underground rocks form layers that go on for many kilometers in all directions and can be many meters thick. These layers are called aquifers. Aquifers contain water that can move around freely through the rocks, through the tiny holes. When the CO2 gas is injected into one of these aquifers, it can be stabilized so that it does not ""leak"" back into the atmosphere. The CO2 is stabilized when it becomes trapped inside the tiny holes of the rocks. Big outdoor experiments have shown that these aquifers can remain stable over long periods of time.
However, very little is known about how the CO2 affects the microbes that live underground. Microbes are microscopic organisms, including bacteria, which are the type of microbe we investigated in our experiments. It is important to understand how bacteria respond to underground CO2, because, through their metabolism, the bacteria can change the CO2 into a more harmful greenhouse gas called methane.",-0.654633352,0.463504041
49476203e,,,"You have probably heard the word ""values"". Maybe it was mentioned by your teacher in school who spoke about what is important in class. For example, if your teacher spoke about the importance of achieving good marks, they were referring to achievement values. If your teacher said it is good to be curious and explore new ideas, they were referring to self-direction values. Maybe you have read about values in a newspaper or heard about them on TV. Politicians often talk about values in their countries, for example, about how important it is that everybody is safe (security values) and that everybody should follow rules (conformity values). Values are also part of many fairy tales, stories, and movies. Do you remember how Cinderella chose to be kind and good-hearted (benevolence values)? And did you notice how WALL-E, the last robot left on earth, worked hard to collect all the litter humans had left behind, trying to make earth a more beautiful place (universalism values)?",0.390333674,0.491776709
7a0474321,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/laura-s-key,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Rubbing sleep from her eyes, Laura stumbled out of bed. She pulled on shorts and a t-shirt, her pursed lips and flared nostrils broadcasting her mood. But once she'd finished a plate of her father's famous scrambled eggs with jalapeños and warm tortillas, she rushed to the closet to dig out her cleats. Could I really become a better soccer player? she wondered.
Laura ran to get a soccer ball from the garage, but her mother said, ""We won't be needing that.""
""Why not?"" Laura asked.
""You'll see. Come on!"" Her mother strode down the street with a tote bag over shoulder and a jumbo box of trash bags under her arm.
Frowning, Laura followed her mother to a vacant lot a few blocks from their house. Though the lot was certainly big enough to practice dribbling, it was also full of weeds, old tires, rusty beer cans, and take-out cartons. Laura raised her eyebrows. ""You want me to practice here?""
Her mother handed her a big black trash bag and a pair of thick gardening gloves. ""You do too much sitting around watching YouTube, mija,"" she said, pulling on her own gloves.",1.410419892,0.565719818
4fe36299f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Archaeology is the study of the past by looking for the remains and artifacts (historical things) left by the people who lived long ago. These remains can include old coins, tools, buildings, and inscriptions. Archaeologists, the people who study archaeology, use these remains to understand how people lived.
Archaeologists think it is important to understand the past, because so many people use the past to know where they come from.
When archaeologists do fieldwork, they look for remains, often by digging deep in the ground. When things are found, or even when nothing is found, the results of the fieldwork are taken back to the place where the archaeologist's base is, maybe a university or museum. They record everything they found by writing down on paper or entering the information into a computer, so that they can build a picture of everything that is found. As settlements (places where people lived in groups) change and grow, old buildings are often buried to make space for new buildings. Ancient Rome, for example, is now up to 40 feet (12 meters) below the present city. This is why archaeological fieldwork is expensive and why it takes a long time.",0.619312344,0.508064063
195133a2c,,,"Imagine a person who has fallen into a coma. A coma can occur from many causes, such as a traumatic brain injury, a stroke, or maybe loss of oxygen from a near drowning. The comatose person is lying still on the bed, with eyes closed. The person does not show any sign of communication with the environment. We speak to the comatose person, but he or she does not respond and seems indifferent to everything that is happening. When a person is in a coma, this person is in what we call an unconscious state. But is the brain of a coma patient still working?
There is a good chance that the brain of a person in a coma continues to process events from the environment, for example the footsteps of someone approaching or the sound of your voice when you speak to them. To measure the brain activity of a person in a coma, we use a tool called electroencephalography (EEG)",0.40496417,0.495582612
9ca3de311,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00043,CC BY 4.0,"Our cells have an alarm system that triggers when they become sick and harmful to the body. These sick cells send emergency signals, like an S.O.S., telling the body to set up its defense. This phenomenon is called ""apoptosis,"" which is a process of self-destruction, or programmed suicide, of cells. Most of the time this alarm system works perfectly, but there are exceptions, like in the brain cancer known as glioblastoma. Glioblastoma is a rare cancer with ""only"" 250,000 new cases worldwide each year. Unfortunately, it is also an aggressive cancer and to date we do not know how to cure patients suffering from glioblastoma. However, remember that every day, research makes advances in cancer treatments. Today, we know how to treat many types of cancer, such as breast cancer, so that patients can go on to live long lives.
Glioblastoma cells develop ingenious mechanisms to escape apoptosis, including the production of molecules called IAPs, which we will call ""the BLOCKERS."" The BLOCKERS are present in all cells to help them survive, but they are more numerous in cancer cells! In glioblastoma, the BLOCKERS intercept the S.O.S signals from the cancer cells, so that these cells cannot self-destruct.",-1.040992343,0.467910489
7dadc99f7,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Babylon threw off the Assyrian rule in 612 BCE and became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Chaldean Empire.
With the recovery of Babylonian independence, a new era of building followed, and Nebuchadnezzar II (604–561 BCE) made Babylon into one of the wonders of the ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar ordered the complete reconstruction of the imperial grounds, including rebuilding the Etemenanki ziggurat and the construction of the Ishtar Gate — the most spectacular of eight gates that ringed the perimeter of Babylon. All that was ever found of the Original Ishtar gate was the foundation and scattered bricks.
Nebuchadnezzar is also credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world), said to have been built for his homesick wife Amyitis. Whether the gardens did exist is a matter of dispute. Historians disagree about the location, and some believe it may have been confused with gardens in Nineveh.",-2.232322583,0.522392655
0ca04f879,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00111,CC BY 4.0,"So, humans co-exist and continuously interact with the gut microbiota, which consists of over one trillion bacteria. If you think about your body as a super-organism composed of both human cells and bacterial cells, your gut microbiota makes up 90% of the total cells in this super-organism! The gut microbiota consists of heroes and villains. Gut heroes are the beneficial microorganisms that have critical roles in the human intestines: they help with digestion, provide essential nutrients, help to the immune system, and fight off food poisoning and sickness. These heroes are in an on-going truce with villains who are also known as pathobionts, which is any potentially disease-causing microorganism that lives without causing any disease. The interaction between the beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms in the gut is extremely critical to human health and the balance is quite fragile. Unfortunately, under certain conditions when the truce is violated, pathobionts can harm us and cause sickness.",-1.016749845,0.454473893
8c42df10f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Blu-ray Disc is a high-density optical disc format similar to DVD. Blu-ray is the type of disc used for PlayStation 3 games and for playing high-definition (HD) movies. In the past, there were other standards for such movies, such as the HD DVD format. Blu-ray won what is called the format war.
A dual-layer Blu-ray disc can store up to 50GB (gigabytes) of data. This is over five times the capacity of a DVD, and over 70 times more than a CD or VCD.
The disc was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). a group of consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data.
While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead. This is where the name is from.",-0.790763483,0.450021321
56771fd66,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00074,CC BY 4.0,"Now we know how to discover one planet—we measure the brightness of a star very carefully for a while, and if it dips in brightness for a few hours during a transit, we may have discovered a planet! But since the year 2000, thousands of planets have been discovered. How did astronomers find so many?
Most of the planets discovered so far have been found by the Kepler space telescope, which stared at 150,000 stars for 4 years, taking precise brightness measurements every half hour. More than 2,000 stars showed transits in the brightness measurements, revealing the presence of a whole zoo of planets that range in size from as small as Mercury to larger than Jupiter, and everything in between.
 One of the biggest surprises that the Kepler space telescope discovered was that the most common size for a planet is in between the size of Earth and Neptune. Earth is the largest rocky planet in the solar system, and Neptune is the smallest gas planet in the solar system. There are no planets in our solar system between the size of Earth and Neptune, yet most of the planets found by Kepler fall in this size range.",-0.547254201,0.459650857
9c11fddcc,,,"Biomaterials can take on many different forms and be made from many different materials. Ideally, biomaterials should have a porous structure, which means they have small holes which lets gasses, liquids, and even cells move through them, similar to the organ or tissue they aim to heal. Cells that help in healing can also be loaded into the small pores in the biomaterial. In this way, a porous biomaterial can be used to deliver cells to a damaged tissue. The biomaterial helps keep the new cells in the tissue where they are needed to promote healing. Additionally, the porous structure of the biomaterial is a lot like the ""extracellular matrix,"" which is like the scaffolding that cells ""hold on to"" in the body. Biomaterials can either be used by themselves as a treatment, or, like the example above, they can be modified to contain medicine or cells to help repair damaged tissues.",-1.758081302,0.472374566
22cb49f55,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00075,CC BY 4.0,"Deep convection in the Ocean depends on the water temperature, but also on the salinity (the ""saltiness"") of the water. The colder and the saltier the water is, the more oxygen it can take up. Now that the Earth is warming up, snow, glaciers, and the polar ice caps may melt. This is particularly bad in the Polar regions, because the fresh water from this melting ice flows into the sea and forms a layer of water that is far less salty than the seawater. This may lead to less oxygen being taken up by the ocean, which means there will be less oxygen for life in the oceans.
Another reason that the Ocean is losing its breath is that, if the surface layer of water becomes warmer, it does not mix that well with deeper water layers. When the layers stop mixing, the oxygen that is produced by photosynthesis and by exchange with the air cannot get into deeper waters anymore.",-0.260867944,0.471956197
11c3536a9,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_painting,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Cave paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings. Usually these paintings were made in prehistoric times. Most cave paintings date from 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. The oldest are from about 32,000 years ago, but scientists still disagree if this dating is correct.
It is not known why these paintings were made. Most people think they may have had a function for rituals. They may also have been a way to transit information; to tell other people about something. Most paintings are in caves that are difficult to access. These caves usually also do not show signs that people lived there all year round.
Today, there are about 350 caves known which have paintings in them. Many are in France and Spain. The best known are probably the caves of Altamira (in Spain), Lascaux (in France), or Creswell Crags in England. Sometimes, paintings were also done on cliff faces. Fewer of those have survived though, because of erosion. One such example are the rock paintings of Astuvansalmi (in Finland).
Most often, animals or hunting scenes were painted. Sometimes hands are there too. Rarely, there are also more abstract patterns.",-0.140723418,0.476759858
b32813296,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00075,CC BY 4.0,"A big question that originated from Darwin's theory was how the changes he observed came to be. Today, we know that these changes are ultimately caused by mutations. Mutations are changes in an organism's genes. Genes are instructions that all living organisms possess. Every gene is composed of a unique combination of four molecules called nucleotides: adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. The order of these nucleotides, which is called the genetic sequence, determines the function of each gene. The total of all the genes in an organism is called the genome. The genome contains the information coding for all the characteristics of an organism, so a change in one or more nucleotides of a gene (called a genetic change) can disturb a feature of the organism, like the color of the eyes, its height or the way it processes food. This genetic information is inherited, meaning it is passed on from one generation to another.
Mutations in genes can happen spontaneously or in response to stress factors in the environment, but regardless of the cause, all mutations are random. This means that the genetic changes can occur anywhere in the genome of the organism.",-1.848063696,0.531850791
5e818791b,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00091,CC BY 4.0,"The brain is not a rigid network of neurons set in a given arrangement for life, like an old electrical board. The brain is constantly trying to find better ways to deliver and deal with information by creating or removing connections between neurons. This phenomenon of neural changes is called neuroplasticity. When babies are discovering the world around them with their five senses, their brains undergo intense development and remodeling. Later, when children learn to ride a bike, catch a ball, or play a musical instrument, more remodeling occurs, allowing the child to perform complicated actions without actually thinking about each and every step involved. When catching a ball that is flying toward you, you do not consciously think of using specific muscles at specific times, you just catch the ball, because your brain already knows which muscles must be activated and when. Neuroplasticity continues to take place during a person's entire life and can have lasting effects depending on your experience in a given activity: this is why, for example, the more you train in mental calculation, the more competent and faster you become.",-0.681241428,0.468861748
858c1c937,,,"The human brain is responsible for many functions, and certain brain regions are responsible for specific tasks. For example, the part of the brain called the motor cortex controls movements of the fingers, hands, legs, arms, and other body areas. The motor cortex has a lot of brain tissue for hand and finger movement, which we need for writing, holding a screwdriver, or threading a needle. On the other hand, we do not have very precise control of our leg muscles, and so the motor cortex can control leg movement without quite so much brain tissue. Another important brain region is the somatosensory cortex, which is responsible for the sense of touch. Without touch, it would be very difficult to know how much to tighten a screw, or to hold fragile items like grapes or a bottle of Coke. People might accidentally crush the grapes or the Coke bottle without feedback from the brain about how much force their hands produce.",0.234910408,0.49027645
466d31b75,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00109,CC BY 4.0,"Habitat fragmentation is currently recognized as one of the greatest threats to the survival of many of Earth's species, birds included. What is even more worrying is that humans benefit from the many vital services, called ecosystem services that birds provide. For example, many birds are important predators of ""pest"" species, such as mosquitos and rodents, and birds can also be pollinators of many plant species. In fact, one study found 33% of birds to be involved in spreading the seeds of plants that are medically and economically importance to humans. There are even some birds that are so critical to the functioning of the ecosystems they live in that, without them, these ecosystems fall apart. We call these critical species that hold ecosystems together keystone species.
Unfortunately, as the human population continues to grow, so too does our demand for more houses and better roads. This has resulted in the widespread destruction and fragmentation of forests, which in turn threatens the survival of birds and the ecosystem services the birds provide us.",-1.02345278,0.485855192
067254eba,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerization,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Containerization has its origins in coal mining regions in England from the late 18th century onwards. ""Loose boxes"" were used to containerize coal from the late 1780s, at places like the Bridgewater Canal. They were used for moving coal on and off barges.
By the 1830s, railroads on several continents were carrying containers that could be transferred to other modes of transport. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the United Kingdom was one such. ""Simple timber boxes, four to a wagon, they were used to convey coal from the Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, where they were transferred to horse drawn carts by crane"". By the 1840s, iron boxes were in use as well as wooden ones. The early 1900s saw closed container boxes designed for movement between road and rail.
In the United Kingdom, several railway companies were using similar containers by the beginning of the 20th century and in the 1920s the Railway Clearing House standardized the RCH container. Five- or ten-foot-long, wooden and non-stackable, these early standard containers were a great success.",-1.097923263,0.470150101
3506c7729,,,"Depression is a mental illness that impacts millions of people. It affects the way a person thinks, feels, and behaves. Depression is more intense than the experience of sadness. Important symptoms of depression include low mood, loss of pleasure, weight loss or gain, low energy, and feelings of hopelessness. These symptoms last over 2 weeks and interfere with a person's daily activities. Depression affects the depressed person, the person's family, and the community. In the United States, over 80 billion dollars a year is spent on depression. Most important, depression can be fatal, so it requires as much care as a serious physical illness.
We need to understand the causes of depression. This need has prompted decades of study. Research now shows that many factors contribute to depression. Of the known factors, stress is very important. Stress can cause depression over time.",1.079362146,0.596570705
7c5e4c544,,,"By filtering out any unimportant background information, attention helps you focus on different tasks like drawing a complex scene, playing video games, or reading this article. Attention can also help direct you to especially important information, like a siren or your name, so attention is a very necessary skill for humans. Imagine how difficult it would be if you wanted to focus your attention on something important but could not, or if your attention could not alert you to important changes in the environment. You would not be able to do your homework, learn a new skill, or even cross a busy street!
Because attention is so important, researchers are curious about how the brain knows what to pay attention to, especially when there are so many things happening around us. Some research shows that attention differs from person to person and changes depending on what people are paying attention to. For example, while some individuals pay more attention to social information (this is called social attention), not everyone has the same bias for social attention, which makes researchers interested in the root of these differences.",-0.268542759,0.450271679
4bda63175,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00101,CC BY 4.0,"Usually, only one person at a time can fit inside an MRI scanner. Thus, it might seem impossible to scan someone's brain during social interaction. But neuroscientists have figured out creative ways around this problem. For example, in one experiment, participants in the scanner were connected to someone in another room through a live video feed, and they played a simple game together. This social interaction led to activation in similar brain regions as those activated in mentalizing studies.
This result could mean that we automatically mentalize whenever we interact with others. However, because the game did not require the players to think about mental states, we cannot be sure that the regions activated during the game were exactly the same regions that the participants use when they mentalize. To clarify this, we designed a new game, in which the players interacted with another person and had to think about mental states.",0.614928616,0.490642068
8ad831af1,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"These types of cars do not have any kind of internal combustion engine, but are driven entirely using electric motors, which gets its power in different ways other than an engine.
A fuel cell makes electricity from hydrogen. Hydrogen is very common, but hard to store. It can be made from water but is usually made from natural gas. These cars are very rare, because there are not many places where one can fill up with hydrogen, and so not many are made. One of the few companies who makes fuel cell cars is Toyota, which has the Mirai.
A solar cell stores energy from the sun as electricity to make the car go. But the sunlight that lands on a solar car is not enough to make a full-sized car move very fast, and cannot work at night unless it stores energy somewhere. There is a competition every year to see who can make a car that goes the farthest on only solar power.",-0.067277264,0.476121488
75a659e45,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnet,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Electromagnets can be made stronger by adding more coils to the copper wire or adding an iron core through the coils (for example a nail). The current can also be increased to make the magnetism stronger. British electrician William Sturgeon invented the electromagnet in 1825.
An electromagnet is useful because it can be turned on and off easily (using an electric current), whereas a permanent magnet cannot be turned off and will continue to affect its immediate environment.
Different alloys act differently. Iron stops being an electromagnet very quickly, but steel takes time to wear off. To make an electromagnet, copper wire is wound around an iron rod. The two ends of the wire are connected to the + (positive) and - (negative) side of the battery.
Electromagnets are used in everyday items such as burglar alarms, electric relays and fire bells. Electric motors are basically electromagnets. Their ability to change from the state of non-magnetic to magnetic just by passing an electric current through it allows it to be used in many different items. This ability is used in relays.",-1.009732977,0.464927706
60305c619,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Electromagnetic waves are waves that contain an electric field and a magnetic field and carry energy. They travel at the speed of light.
Quantum mechanics developed from the study of electromagnetic waves, which include visible light seen in the colors of the rainbow, but also other waves including the more energetic and higher frequency waves like ultraviolet light, x-rays, and gamma rays plus the waves with longer wavelengths including infrared waves, microwaves and radio waves.
Some types of electromagnetic radiation, such as X-rays, are ionizing radiation and can be harmful to your body. Ultraviolet rays are near the violet end of the light spectrum and infrared are near the red end. Infrared rays are heat rays and ultraviolet rays cause sunburn.
The various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum differ in wavelength, frequency and quantum energy.
Sound waves are not electromagnetic waves but waves of pressure in air, water or any other substance.",-1.078237593,0.508086047
e48d82d90,,,"Sometimes, the parts of the brain necessary for using language are affected by serious health problems. Our brains need a lot of oxygen and nutrients to function. Oxygen and nutrients are brought to the brain by the blood, which runs through our arteries. Unfortunately, sometimes these arteries get clogged or break during strokes.
The areas of the brain that no longer get blood flow after a stroke experience a lack of oxygen and nutrients, so the brain tissue ends up damaged and does not work as well as it used to. After enough time without oxygen and nutrients, these brain regions will die. In 2015, there were 613,148 stroke events in the EU, and that number is projected to increase to 819,771 in 2035. This is a huge number of people! You might even know someone who had a stroke, maybe a grandparent or older relative.",0.169356066,0.511167165
b822dd87a,,,"You may know that a nutritious diet full of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy, nuts, seeds, and protein is good for your health. This type of diet is not only delicious, but it also makes people grow strong and healthy. In contrast, eating processed foods and beverages high in saturated animal fat and sugar, like processed meats, cookies, candy, sugary drinks, and potato chips, can be very harmful to your health. Did you know that eating these types of foods regularly can cause diseases, such as obesity, the condition of being excessively overweight. In most cases, obesity is due to eating an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise. Type 2 diabetes is a disease with elevated levels of glucose in the blood, due to the body's inability to produce the hormone insulin (type 1), or to respond to insulin (type 2). Because processed foods, sugary drinks, and candy are very easy to find and can be tasty (who does not like a candy bar, or a slice of pepperoni pizza?) it is no surprise that obesity and diabetes are two of the most common diseases in the world.",0.228542017,0.50429004
82a6d3579,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00121,CC BY 4.0,"Counting rhinos is hard work! Think of what would happen if you went into the woods and tried to count all of the birds around you. Some birds would be flying all over the place, and some would hide as soon as they saw you. Other birds would be up in trees and you would never even know they were there. So, if you went into the rainforest and tried to count all the Javan rhinos, you would most likely count zero!
Obviously, rhinos cannot fly, but you get the picture—rhinos can be very secretive and do not like to be around humans. What is more, the rainforest is thick with thousands of trees and plants bunched together. So, we needed to come up with creative ways to use science to count the rhinos, similar to the way a detective uses clues and logic to solve a mystery!
In the past, scientist-detectives have used clues like rhino footprints (and even rhino poop!) to estimate how many Javan rhinos live in the park. But those things cannot give a very accurate estimate.",1.367284376,0.648473916
7406f3ec9,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"The animals all agreed and immediately grabbed hoes, shovels and picks. They started digging a well. Hare had not come, but the other animals continued without him. They dug. And they dug. And they dug some more. And finally they hit water. When they struck water, Lion said, ""Why did Hare not come to help? He will not drink from this water!"" Later Hare came and saw the well. He said, ""Hello?"" But he heard nothing. So he went in and splashed around in the water for a while. The next day, when the animals came, they saw that their well was a big mess. The water was nothing but mud. They asked, ""Who would do such a thing?"" Someone said, ""I bet it was Hare, because when we were digging the well he was nowhere to be found."" The animals decided to leave a guard at the well. They chose Baboon to keep an eye on things. Hare came to the well that night, and said, ""Hello?"" And Baboon replied, ""Hello!"" So Hare came over to Baboon, saying ""Try this!"" Hare gave Baboon some honey. And Baboon let him take some water.",-0.305702974,0.492358891
8aa8eb87a,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanometer,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A tangent galvanometer is an early measuring instrument used for the measurement of electric current. It works by using a compass needle to compare a magnetic field generated by the unknown current to the magnetic field of the Earth. It gets its name from its operating principle, the tangent law of magnetism, which states that the tangent of the angle a compass needle makes is proportional to the ratio of the strengths of the two perpendicular magnetic fields. It was first described by Claude Servais Mathias Pouillet in 1837.
A tangent galvanometer consists of a coil of insulated copper wire wound on a circular non-magnetic frame. The frame is mounted vertically on a horizontal base provided with levelling screws. The coil can be rotated on a vertical axis passing through its center. A compass box is mounted horizontally at the center of a circular scale. It consists of a tiny, powerful magnetic needle pivoted at the center of the coil. The magnetic needle is free to rotate in the horizontal plane. The circular scale is divided into four quadrants.",-2.64763109,0.520014898
80a6e054b,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_therapy,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Gene therapy means putting in a working gene to a person who has a damaged gene. The European Commission has approved this method for one particular treatment. The treatment by the product Glybera uses a virus to infect muscle cells with a working copy of the gene. The European Commission has given Glybera marketing authorization, which means it can be sold throughout the EU.
One in a million people have damaged copies of the lipase gene needed to break down fats. Fat builds up in their blood; this leads to pain and inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis). It is life-threatening. Up to now, the only way to manage the condition is to have a very low-fat diet.
When used in this way, a virus is a vector. That means it is a carrier; the gene has been inserted into the viral genome, and the virus sticks it into the human cells. The technique is called transfection. This technique is different from the gene knockout technique, which does not use a viral vector.",-1.833088289,0.454611495
ecec71bf5,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometry,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Geometry is a kind of mathematics that studies the size, shapes, and positions of things. There are flat (2D) shapes and solid (3D) shapes in geometry. Squares, circles and triangles are some of the simplest shapes in flat geometry. Cubes, cylinders, cones and spheres are simple shapes in solid geometry.
Geometry can be used to measure the area and perimeter of a flat shape. It can also be used to measure a solid shape's volume and surface area.
Geometry can be used to calculate the size and shape of many things. For example, geometry can help people find:
the surface area of a house, so they can buy the right amount of paint
the volume of a box, to see if it is big enough to hold a liter of food
the area of a farm, so it can be divided into equal parts
the distance around the edge of a pond, to know how much fencing to buy.",-0.652194196,0.468328697
169427af9,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Geothermal energy (from the Greek roots geo, meaning earth, and thermos, meaning heat) is energy made by heat inside the Earth's crust. It's clean and sustainable.
Although the Sun does heat the surface of the Earth, heat from inside the Earth is not caused by the Sun. The geothermal energy of the Earth's crust comes 20% from the original formation of the planet, and 80% from the radioactive decay of minerals. The Earth is hottest at its core and, from the core to the surface, the temperature gets gradually cooler.
Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth's surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called magma. It has been used for bathing from Paleolithic times, but is now better known for making electricity.
All over the world, geothermal energy has been used to make about 10 gigawatts of electricity in 2007, and give 0.3% of the electricity needed around the world. When used to generate electricity, geothermal power plants typically offer constant output.",-0.569842532,0.487233627
5571f838d,,,"We now know that exercise can be a really important part of care for people living with short- and long-term mental illness. Exercise can improve mood and reduce symptoms of mental illness, including depression and anxiety. Exercise can also improve sleep quality, increase energy levels and reduce stress. Exercise has also been shown to increase self-confidence and improve both memory and concentration. Plus, exercise offers all these benefits without the risk of serious side-effects. It has been said that, if exercise were a pill, it would be prescribed to every patient by every doctor.
The benefits of exercise are ""transdiagnostic,"" meaning that regardless of which mental illness someone may be experiencing, everyone can still gain some benefits from exercise. The benefits may differ a little depending on the symptoms experienced. For example, for someone with depression, exercise may help to improve sleep quality or help provide motivation to get out of bed, while for someone experiencing anxiety symptoms, exercise may act as a distraction from constant worry.",-0.120578597,0.508062665
190b37c5d,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramophone_record,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Thomas Edison made early phonographs in the 1870s. He originally used tin foil to record the sound. Soon wax cylinders were used in place of the tin foil. The cylinders could be taken off the machine and put back on without destroying the recording. Although discs were made as early as 1888, it was not until 1902 that discs became more popular than cylinder records. Discs were first made of a shellac mixture, and later of polyvinyl chloride, often abbreviated as ""vinyl"". Singles usually carried only one or two songs or recordings. EPs (extended play records) carried from three to five songs. Albums carried many more recordings; a dozen was normal, or from 30 to 45 minutes of playing time. These formats are still used today, with digital recordings, and playing time for singles and albums has grown considerably.
Vinyl records lost popularity but never went out of production. Now, in recent years vinyl is gaining popularity, while CD record shops have gone out of business, more and more vinyl only record shops are opening. Many argue the higher sound quality of vinyl compared to newer formats.",-0.792071644,0.473764658
ff05c5c21,,,"It is very common for people to think that the brain controls all of the movements that we make. When we think about moving, signals travel from the brain travel down to the spinal cord through nerves (almost like telephone wires). The spinal cord acts like a freeway with many exits in both directions. In one direction, information from the senses travels to the brain, and in the other direction, signals are carried from the brain to control the muscles. The actions of these muscles are what cause the arms and legs to move. However, the brain is not always required to cause movement. By examining animals, scientists discovered that complex groups of cells within the spinal cord can control walking. It turns out that the main job of controlling walking is done by the spinal cord, and not the brain.",0.555299059,0.498300416
70889932b,,,"Corals in the Red Sea have to handle higher temperatures, yet they seem to grow and do just fine. The Red Sea is a very warm sea compared to other places. There, summer temperatures can reach up to 34°C, while other ocean waters may reach around 29–32°C. Interestingly, corals in the Red Sea are not only living in higher temperatures but also in higher salinity, or the amount of salt in water, for example, in seawater. You can find a range of different salinities in the ocean, depending on the region. The Red Sea has some of the highest levels of salt. Salinity is a measure of the amount of salt in the water, and the Red Sea has some of the world's highest salt levels. That is why we started wondering whether salinity could be a piece of the puzzle and the ability to live in high salinity one of the secrets of the strong Red Sea corals?
To answer this and other questions related to coral bleaching, scientists often use a coral model organism, which means an animal that is easier to study than corals but at the same time is very similar to corals. ",-0.650477293,0.475983275
edf40f465,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00060,CC BY 4.0,"During World War II, soldiers wounded on the battlefield were in a great amount of pain. The medical staff gave them morphine, a painkiller that is still used today. At some point the morphine began to run out, and soldiers were left writhing in pain. There seemed to be no way of helping them—but then one of the nurses had a brilliant idea: she collected the empty morphine syringes, filled them with water, and injected the wounded soldiers. Amazingly, they soon felt less pain!
After the war, one of the doctors who had seen what the brilliant nurse did began to study the subject of placebos. He made some spectacular discoveries. It turns out that patients suffering from some diseases actually get better after receiving a placebo. Pain is one problem that responds very well to placebos. Like a Band-Aid on a child's injury, placebos can really ease pain, even pain after surgery. Parkinson's disease patients, who suffer from uncontrollable movements, improve greatly when they get placebo pills. Asthmatic and allergic people often respond very well to sugar pills or to inhalers that do not contain any active medicine.",0.900302169,0.507781576
041370a06,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00093,CC BY 4.0,"The human brain needs healthy proteins for the brain cells to work and function properly. There are some proteins that we get from our diets and other proteins that are produced inside our bodies, such as the tau protein. Tau proteins are the connecting pieces that hold brain cells together. Imagine the brain is a Lego city, with thousands of tall buildings, each one representing a brain cell. If a head injury occurs while playing sports, it disrupts the brain cell structures, like an earthquake causing the Lego buildings to fall apart. Continuous hits shake the brain cells, breaking them into smaller pieces and creating a mess that we call protein aggregates. When these aggregates collect within cells, it is difficult for the tau protein to function properly. Think of a traffic jam on the streets between the Lego buildings, caused by all the fallen debris. Over time, larger protein aggregates collect through the breakdown of other brain cells. As people age, these messes become so severe that the Lego city of brain cells in the brain can no longer function in a healthy way.",-0.699882514,0.473675489
a64a9ee5e,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"I live in a house. It shelters us from the rain, wind and sun. We have cups in our house. We use them to drink water, tea, juice and smoothies. We have flowers in our garden. They are pretty and smell nice too. My brother and I ride our bicycles. We have fun doing this. If I had a horse, I would ride it to my castle. I love my cat! I feed it cat food. If I had a tortoise, I would feed it lettuce. I see trucks on the road near my house. Trucks carry different things around. I am a super hero. I have rainbow powers! I love bright rainbow colours! I can enter a submarine. I can see water animals. I can change shape. I can move easily. I can enter a mouse's home to visit. Superheroes like to eat cake at parties. Cakes are sweet!",0.624396241,0.51965615
586e63886,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00065,CC BY 4.0,"Calcium is present in most foods, notably dairy products, such as milk and cheese, and is often found in small fish and some vegetables. It has been known for a long time that calcium is beneficial for the strength of our bones. In addition, scientists have discovered that calcium also plays an important role in the heart. The heart beats more than 2 billion times during an average person's lifetime to circulate the blood, which is needed to provide energy to every part of the body. The heart consists, among many other things, of 3 billion heart muscle cells that squeeze together (""contract"") during each heartbeat and together are responsible for the pumping function of the heart. To make sure that each cell contracts at the right moment, the heart uses an electrical signal that moves from cell to cell, much like a wave in a stadium, where the activity of one person activates their neighbor. Research during the last decades has revealed that calcium particles are responsible for the link between electrical activation and mechanical contraction. Calcium particles, which have an electrical charge, enter the heart muscle cells during each beat and contribute to the electrical signal.",-1.161062744,0.461729845
c3f7b5a72,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00051,CC BY 4.0,"Although sometimes we cannot taste the difference between artificial and real sugars (despite the fact that they are actually very different), our brains and bodies can react to the differences. Our bodies can sometimes even detect very small differences between types of sugars and respond differently to each. Artificial sweeteners are highly concentrated—meaning that for the same physical amount, they can be between 200 to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar! Even though artificial sugars are sweeter than real ones, they are nearly calorie-free. In some studies, scientists have even found that people prefer the taste of artificial sugars over real ones. However, there is also data to suggest that there is greater brain activation in response to real sugar than to saccharin (a common artificial sugar), and this effect is particularly strong when people are hungry .
Our brains and bodies have different responses to artificial sweeteners and sugars because these substances are different from one another at the level of microscopic molecules. Reward pathways are like racetracks for neurons in our brains that when excited result in the release of chemicals (such as dopamine, a common neurotransmitter) that make us feel good.",-0.596257937,0.483249977
551e0fc0b,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/sweet-difficult-sounds,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"""Hey, I'm Ashley,"" said a dark-haired girl at the locker next to hers removing her backpack from her shoulders. ""You new here?""
Yes, Nothukula wanted to say. But not just to Freedman High School, she was also new to the country. She had arrived in the summer from Zimbabwe.
""Can you speak English?"" Ashley asked. Nothukula stared at her. It wasn't that she didn't understand English. They had spoken it at school back home, and then there were the American soap operas that she loved to watch. ""Are you new?"" Ashley spoke loudly and slowly, like Nothukula had trouble hearing. She was still standing there, staring at Nothukula, as if tapping the glass of a fish tank, waiting for any reaction. It made Nothukula nervous, stiffening her tongue. With each wordless second that passed, she felt more pressure to make up for the awkwardness, say the right thing to Ashley and ensure it came out perfectly. She opened her mouth, but not a single thing came out.
Rolling her eyes, Ashley looked away, checking her face in a compact mirror and calling after one of her friends. Nothukula just stood there, like a deer in headlights.",1.070987536,0.553791447
0542ab29a,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Intel Core is the name of a family of 32-bit dual-core microprocessors. It was made by the technology company Intel. Intel Core processors are based on Pentium M technology. Those processors are more advanced than Intel P6 processors. This architecture, or way to build a processor, is now replaced by Core 2 microarchitecture. In the Core family, there are two groups: the Duo (with two cores) and Solo (Duo with one disabled core). The Solo line replaced the Pentium M one-core processor.
September 2006 and January 4, 2008 were times when many Core CPUs stopped selling.
Yonah is a company name for Intel's first generation of microprocessors for mobile computers. The Core Duo was released on 5 January 2006. It was the first Intel processor to be used in Apple Inc.'s Macintosh computers. Yonah does not have 64-bit function.
The Intel Core Duo has two cores, 2 Mebibytes of L2 cache for both cores, and an arbiter bus that controls the L2 cache and front side bus access.
The Intel Core Solo uses two-cores die as a Core Duo, but one core is turned off.",-2.261028038,0.500290993
ce470932b,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00120,CC BY 4.0,"Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is most commonly caused by a hit to the head due to being tackled while playing sports, being involved in a car accident, or getting hit with a hard object. TBIs can range from mild to severe, with some people quickly returning to school sports and others suffering permanent brain damage. The consequences of TBIs are considered an invisible disability because they can occur in daily life, but the person does not outwardly appear to have a problem, since there is no need for a wheelchair, walker, or crutches. For example, someone who is recovering from a TBI may be dealing with subtle changes in mood, vision, and sensations in the legs.
Since many TBI symptoms are not obvious, this can cause others to underestimate how severe TBI can be. People may think that someone who is blaming bad grades on an injury that occurred months ago is exaggerating. Another misconception is that people can recover from TBIs more quickly if they work harder in school or at physical therapy. This is not true, and if the TBI symptoms are serious enough, participating in therapy may be challenging.",-0.352036526,0.499511402
10112f396,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00127,CC BY 4.0,"Before we dive into talking about brain injury, we want to introduce something scientists call the Monroe-Kellie Doctrine, which is important for understanding how traumatic brain injury (TBI) happens. Think about your skull like a suitcase. If you are packing for a trip, you can only fit in a certain number of items. So, if you pack too many clothes, you would not be able to pack other things, like your favorite book. The Monroe-Kellie Doctrine states that there is a limited amount of space in the skull to hold all of the cells that make up the brain tissue, the blood that supplies oxygen to the tissue, and a special type of fluid that cushions the brain, called cerebrospinal fluid. So, because the space is limited, if there is an increase in any one of these three things, one or both of the other two will have to decrease. That means that if you hit your head and the brain swells, there will be less room for blood, which could mean the brain will become even more injured.",-0.169105333,0.489798625
e18cb726a,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"All living things respire or breathe while turning food into energy. Animals and humans eat food and breathe in oxygen to create energy and breathe out a gas called carbon dioxide. When we run, we breathe in and out much faster. Plants change the energy they get from the carbon dioxide taken in through their leaves from sunlight into oxygen. Living things respond to the outside world. We call this sensitivity. Humans make fires when they are cold. Plants wilt when they do not get water. Elephants swim in rivers when they are hot. Living things have babies to survive. Fish, frogs and birds lay eggs. Plants and trees produce seeds to make new plants and trees. Humans have babies. All living things eat food. Some animals eat grass, others eat meat. Vegetables need to be planted in soil and need sun and water to grow. Food gives us energy.",-0.075289783,0.490395588
400903544,,,"During World War II, new technology was developed that allowed ships to accurately measure water depths as they sailed across the oceans. These were single beam echo-sounders, instruments that could be attached to the hulls of ships. An echo-sounder works by sending out a sound signal, or ""ping,"" into the water. This sound travels through the water until it reaches the seafloor. When it reaches the seafloor, it bounces off and reflects back up to the ship, where the echo-sounder records the reflected signal. So, the name ""echo-sounder"" actually tells you how it works—it sends out a ""sound"" (sounder) and listens for the reflected sound, or ""echo."" This is basically the same thing that happens when you stand in a big empty room and make a noise—the sound bounces off the walls because they are a hard surface, and you hear the echo of the noise that gets reflected back toward you. The time it takes for the signal to reach the seafloor and return to the ship can be used to calculate the water depth.",-0.317061373,0.494677706
fe19cd82d,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00118,CC BY 4.0,"Sometimes scientists want to go beyond describing simple calculations like average heights or age in their populations, to understanding aspects of their populations that are more complex. Let us say we are not only interested in seeing how much sleep students get, but we want to know how much test scores will drop after losing a few hours of sleep. Effect sizes are values that estimate the magnitude of a phenomenon, or the degree to which one variable (like hours of sleep) impacts another variable (like test scores). For example, if getting only 3 hours of sleep lowers your test grade by a few points compared with when you get 9 hours of sleep, you might not ""lose sleep"" about losing sleep. While there is a difference in the score, that is not a large difference. However, if after losing 6 hours of sleep, you drop many points on a test, that could have a major impact on your grade. In this case, you would likely agree that the effect of losing sleep on your grades is an important one.",-0.4603042,0.473691461
ee3057687,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00047,CC BY 4.0,"The immune system is the body's way of protecting itself from bad germs. The immune system uses many different strategies to fight and kill troublesome invaders. If you become immunocompromised, meaning you have a weak immune system, you may not be able to protect yourself from bad microbes. Most fungi only infect people who are immunocompromised. Fungi also love growing on plastics and other materials! These surfaces allow the fungi to form very strong biofilms, which are communities of fungi living under a protective shield that blocks the immune system from attacking it and also prevents antifungals from killing the fungal cells living inside—think of the shield that protects Wakanda in the movies Black Panther and Infinity War. When fungi form these biofilms, the immune system and drugs cannot penetrate the shield! Fungi can also leave the biofilm and travel to other parts of the body to start a new infection. Imagine a fungus living in a biofilm that is growing inside the catheter (IV tube) in someone's vein. This catheter is connected to a highway in the body, the circulatory system.",-0.743435136,0.449431516
0b85114d2,,,"ChAOS scientists are trying to find answers to questions, such as: how will the animals and microorganisms living on the seafloor respond to changes in sea ice and ocean processes? Will a decline in sea ice increase the supply of food to seafloor ecosystems? How will seafloor organisms change the way they recycle nutrients and carbon between the seafloor and the ocean? And, how will the amount of carbon stored in seafloor sediments change as global climate change continues? The Arctic is a very remote and hostile realm, into which only very few people will ever venture. By burning fossil fuels, humans have started a huge environmental change in a region where only a few people permanently live. We can expect that major changes in the Arctic ecosystem, and effects on carbon burial, will intensify as our planet heats up further. Since changes in the polar regions affect every one of us, no matter where we live, it is crucial to answer the fundamental scientific questions, so we can better understand the effects of these immense environmental changes on human civilization.",-1.140224065,0.498470347
9a025b51d,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00074,CC BY 4.0,"As the parasitic seedling gets closer to the host plant, it will experience the shading effect of the host plant's leaves blocking out sunlight. Whilst the parasitic plant does not have eyes, it does have specialized proteins called phytochromes that allow the plant to ""see"" different types of light, and to determine if it is in full sunlight or in shaded conditions. This helps the parasite to prepare for host contact and invasion.
Finally, the parasite will make contact with a host plant and experience ""touch."" Many plants respond to touch. For most plants, however, touch is associated with danger. Touch could indicate to a plant that insects are landing on its leaves and trying to eat them. In this case, plants use touch to stop growth and instead spend their valuable energy resources on defense. These plants make a range of toxic chemicals that will stop insects from feeding on them. Some plants also use touch to trigger a strengthening of the leaf cell walls, making it harder for the insects to eat them. For Cuscuta parasites, touch is a positive stimulus, telling the parasite that it has made contact with a potential host plant.",-0.569249053,0.479292427
6a5350990,,,"You can make out pixels on your screen when it is close because your screen is just made up of a lot of pixels. Similarly, galaxies are just a bunch of stars clumped together. Now a galaxy is not a phone screen, but it does behave in a similar way. When galaxies are close to us, we see bigger bumps coming from that galaxy due to how the galaxies stars are organized. Just like a screen, when galaxies are farther away, all those stars blend together, and the galaxy will look really smooth, similar to the way the pixels on a screen blend together when you sit back from it. When we know the size of the bumps, because of the way stars are organized in a galaxy, it helps astronomers figure out how many stars that galaxy has.",0.083994205,0.476845578
322e67244,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00082,CC BY 4.0,"The increase or the decrease in power is always in comparison to a baseline situation. For instance, when we say that alpha power decreases when someone is awake, this would mean that power is lower than compared to when that person is asleep–asleep would be the baseline. Another example: if alpha power decreases when we see someone in pain, this would mean that alpha power is lower compared with when we see someone who is not in pain. In this example, the brain's response to the person who is not in pain would be the baseline. Previous studies showed that the decrease and the increase in alpha power both have different functions. However, scientists have been working on figuring out the exact meaning of these changes in alpha power. So, looking at the alpha rhythm is informative for better understanding how the brain operates in different contexts. When seeing someone in pain, the brain can respond by alpha power increase (red circle) or by alpha power decrease (blue circle). But when the other is not in pain, the brain does not respond with either of the two activation types.",-2.530227686,0.49874824
88f6fd2e2,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00110,CC BY 4.0,"Just because they cannot speak like humans do, does not mean that fish cannot communicate using sound. Most fish listen to their environment and many fish produce sounds for communication. Fish can use sound to communicate with shoal members, to tell rivals how strong they are, and to tell potential mates that they want to mate.
Unfortunately, a lot of the noise humans make underwater has frequencies similar to the fish songs. To understand how noise affects fish, we studied a sound-producing fish, the painted goby (Pomatoschistus pictus). Painted goby males sing and dance to attract females to their nests, but females usually pay more attention to the males' song than to the males' dance moves when they are choosing a mate. For females, it is especially important to choose a healthy and strong male. Those males will likely have healthy and strong children and will also take good care of their offspring. So, females have to choose a good male that is also going to be a good dad.",0.389075757,0.503273484
9d0141395,,,"In places where the temperature changes across seasons, winter is the coldest part of the year. During winter, many animals greatly reduce their activity, often finding burrows or other retreats to stay in until spring. However, these retreats are not usually the same retreats in which they were born or hatched.
One exception is turtles. Some adult turtles wait out the cold of winter under water in ponds or lakes that may freeze over. Overwintering under water can be a problem for young turtles, because it is hard for them to deal with the very low levels of oxygen (water is <1% oxygen, while air is ~21% oxygen). So, if overwintering underwater would not work, where can hatchlings safely spend the winter? In burrows, underground. But there is one more problem. Turtle embryos are not very resistant to freezing. If it gets too cold, embryos still within eggs could die, while hatchlings have a better chance of surviving. For the best chance of survival, some baby turtles hatch from their eggs (so they would not freeze) and wait in their nests (to get enough oxygen) until spring, when the weather warms and they emerge .",-0.802163794,0.471247536
5cd839366,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00054,CC BY 4.0,"We know these motor representations are stored in the brain. But where in the brain?
One of the best ways to answer that question is to study patients with brain damage. Previous studies have shown that the motor representations for familiar movements, like brushing teeth, are located in an area of the brain called the left parietal lobe. The parietal lobes are located on the sides of our brains. They process sensations from our body, such as touch, movement, pain, and temperature. They are also important for creating and storing motor memories, as well as some other things that we do not discuss in this paper. Motor adaptation is the term we use for learning a new movement skill. Motor adaptation was found to be impaired in two patients with parietal lobe damage. One patient had damage to the parietal lobes on both sides of the brain and the other had damage to only the left parietal lobe. However, because a patient with damage to only the right parietal lobe was not examined, we do not know if the left parietal lobe is more important than the right parietal lobe.",-1.134926912,0.499095365
cd5e78485,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00072,CC BY 4.0,"Our daily internal clocks are controlled by genes, which are small units of DNA passed down from our parents. These genes contain the code to produce proteins—molecules in the body that carry out specific jobs. Some of the genes that control our internal clocks produce proteins called ""activators"" and others produce proteins called ""suppressors."" Activators are proteins that turn a gene on, whereas suppressors are proteins that turn a gene off. In our daily internal clocks, we need two activators to bind together to turn on a gene. This gene is usually turned on in the morning. Once this gene is turned on, lots of different proteins are made, including the two suppressors. When there are lots of these suppressor proteins being made, we typically feel energetic and lively! Throughout the day, the concentration of these suppressor proteins increases in our bodies. By the evening, enough suppressor proteins are made to block the activators and turn off the gene. While you sleep, the suppressors in the bloodstream break down. During this breakdown, which occurs at nighttime, we feel tired and sleepy.",-0.416671497,0.480744336
d6764322c,,,"As an adult, I might learn new actions by taking a dance class or trying out a sport I have never done before. Learning new actions is not unusual, but for most people, their day-to-day actions are not so different from what they have done in the past. On the other hand, babies are constantly learning new things. They are discovering new objects, learning to move in new ways, and playing with new toys. You probably do not remember, but when you were a baby, you started out able to move your hands and arms but did not have much control over how you reached for new toys and played with them. Within the first year of life, babies are learning how to do lots of things themselves, but they are also figuring out how and why other people do things.",1.024258258,0.549119453
952e7545d,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00061,CC BY 4.0,"Humans and the other apes share an ancestor, which means that if you follow the branches of the generations of parents of humans and other apes back far enough, you come to the same animal (our shared ancestor). Humans are more like chimpanzees and bonobos than they are like the other apes, so they are closer on the Tree of Life. The three species–humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos–share an ancestor. Humans became a different species from bonobos and chimpanzees 5–7 million years ago. Bonobos and chimpanzees continued to become what they now are even after humans branched off from them. Chimpanzees and bonobos have also changed over millions of years, but in their own ways.
We can study the behavior of animals that are alive now in order to learn about the likely behavior of their ancestors. If all of the species in a branch of the tree of life can learn a skill, they probably inherited that skill from their shared ancestor. If only one species in a branch can learn a skill, the shared ancestor probably was not able to learn that skill.",-0.024195138,0.473183589
c1b9c0e90,,,"Autistic people have talked about camouflaging for a while, but doctors and researchers still do not know very much about it. No one knows whether camouflaging can help people or if it actually causes autistic people more problems. Researchers started to learn more about camouflaging by asking autistic people about their experiences of camouflaging or masking, or hiding aspects of yourself or pretending to be like someone else. For example, a person might mask their autism by pretending to join in a game even if they do not understand the rules.
Autistic people reported that they camouflage their autism because they want to make friends and form connections with people, and because camouflaging can be helpful to them. Some people might camouflage their autism when they are at school or work, so that people do not treat them differently and they can concentrate on what they have to do. Some people camouflage their autism when they meet new people, so that they can make a good impression and maybe become friends. Some people will stop camouflaging when they get to know someone very well, if they think the person will accept them even when they act more autistic.",-0.514429592,0.481133802
639596b83,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00083,CC BY 4.0,"A passive mechanical hand has fingers that are moveable with the help of the other hand or the environment. This means that a mechanical hand can be used to hold something. The first passive mechanical hand was developed and used by the German knight Gottfried ""Götz"" von Berlichingen in the sixteenth century. 
Active prostheses allow the user to grasp objects, using specific movements of the body without the help of another hand. There are two types of active prostheses: body-powered and externally powered.
Body-powered prostheses, invented in the nineteenth century, are usually attached to the body with a harness. The hands or hooks at the end are opened and closed through body movements, like stretching out the arm. These prostheses are made from plastic, metal, and fabric for the straps of the harness.
Externally powered active prostheses have been widely used since the 1960s. They are called ""externally-powered,"" because they need an external power source, a battery. These types of prostheses are the complex robotic hands and arms that you sometimes see in movies or computer games. These prostheses are made from plastics, metal, and many electrical components, like motors and microprocessors.",-1.342652384,0.485336066
a01200b53,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00113,CC BY 4.0,"When two animals of the same species mate, their offspring get 50% of their genes from each parent. This is what makes you look like a mixture of your parents. Hybrids are crosses between two difference species, so they contain 50% of genes from each parent species. A famous hybrid is the mule, a cross between a donkey and a horse. Fifty percentage of a mule's genes are from a horse and 50% from a donkey. Because of this mixing, mules have features of each parent species and are strong, like donkeys, as well as intelligent, like horses. Farmers breed mules because this combination makes mules excellent for carrying supplies. Using hybridization to combine the desirable aspects of each parent species is very beneficial to humans, and hybrids are often used in farming. Many of the delicious fruits you buy at the grocery store were even created through hybridization! Bananas, grapefruit, carrots, and cucumbers are all hybrid species. There are actually hundreds of banana varieties, but most of us are familiar with a hybrid banana. Farmers kept mixing varieties of bananas to create the perfect combination of soft, tasty fruit without too many seeds.",-0.64364403,0.466217551
22a65768d,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00050,CC BY 4.0,"Plants are exposed to attackers above ground, and they also face difficulties below ground. The zone surrounding the roots of a plant is its own little community called the rhizosphere, and it is not an empty neighborhood! The soil around roots is full of microorganisms. Of these microorganisms, there are some that establish give-and-take relationships with the roots of plants. One such group of soilborne organisms is called arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which we abbreviate as AMF. How could such a community in the rhizosphere be of help to its plant host?
Well, you are free to move about to grab a nutritious snack or go to the doctor for prescriptions when you feel sick. Plants cannot walk, so they depend on their roots to search for water and nutrients. Roots are limited in length, of course, so plants look to other sources for help, including AMF. AMF are fungi (related to mushrooms) that are similar in appearance to roots and they enable the plant's roots to reach more nutrients required for growth. The structure of AMF is much finer than plant roots though, so the fungi are able to absorb minerals more efficiently than the plant.",-0.887465518,0.447087149
f234be2d1,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00063,CC BY 4.0,"Imagine you are walking in a park full of brightly colored flowers and some of their greatest admirers—honeybees. Suddenly, you hear the buzzing of a bee very near your ear. Without even thinking about it, your muscles tense up, and you stop dead in your tracks. You find yourself frozen, hoping the bee ignores you and buzzes on by.
What just happened?
Well, one of your brain's most important jobs is keeping you safe. Somewhere in your past, you learned two things: First, bees can sting! And second, bees buzz. So, when your ears perked up at the sound of bees buzzing, alarm bells went off in your brain. Your brain responded by telling your muscles to freeze so that the bee would hopefully just buzz off. And you did not even have to think about it… Pretty cool!
Now imagine something just a little different. You are taking an afternoon stroll through the very same park, but earlier that morning an angry bee stung you in the arm—and it hurt! So now when you hear bees buzzing in the park, will your brain, whose job is to protect you, simply tell your body to freeze in place? Heck no!",1.263126798,0.560097599
9147713d7,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_area_network,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A local area network (LAN) is a computer network in a small area like a home, office, or school. Many computers can be connected to share information and Internet connections. Most LANs use Ethernet to connect together.
LAN topologies tell you how network devices are organized. Five common LAN topologies exist: bus, ring, star, tree, and mesh. These topologies are logical architectures. This means that they tell you the directions that signals go between devices, but that the actual cables that connect the devices might not be connected the same way. For example, logical bus and ring topologies are commonly organized physically as a star.
A bus topology means that the signal is put onto the medium and every device on the bus receives the signal. If more than one device tries to send a signal at the same time, they can interfere with each other. A long copper wire with other wires tapped into it is an example of a bus topology.",-1.10578373,0.477781731
d2ed034c7,,,"You have probably heard of bacteria and viruses that cause human diseases, and you may know about how humans fight bacteria with antibiotics and how we prevent infections by both bacteria and viruses using vaccines. But bacteria and viruses have also been fighting each other for a very long time, and studying the way they fight has taught us a lot about how organisms change over time and has also led to the discovery of an extremely exciting research tool.
This battle between bacteria and viruses is about the ability to reproduce. Both bacteria and viruses reproduce by making identical copies of themselves, and the instructions for doing this are stored in their DNA.
DNA is a long molecule that is built from a combination of four smaller molecules: adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine (A, T, G, and C for short). The A, T, C, and G molecules can be strung together in many different orders to make a long strand. That specific combination of As, Ts, Gs, and Cs is like a code. One DNA strand on its own will not last very long in a cell, so strands pair up according to specific rules.",-1.063582485,0.47092562
5f6bddf7e,,,"Before corals bleach, they do not show many other signs of feeling stressed. So, if we want to understand a coral's health, we have to study its cells. Inside cells we have a lot of information, including DNA, RNA, and proteins. These molecules can help us find clues about the communication between the coral and the algae. But also, these molecules can teach us how to know when corals are stressed.
When an organism is stressed, every cell in its body will react. Everything will do its best to survive! In response to stress, the cell will use its DNA to make RNA, so that it can then make proteins that will fight off the stress. If an organism has been stressed before, it can respond to the stress faster and better. Think of it like visiting a city: the first time you visit, you will need a map to find your hotel. The more often you visit the city, the less you will need the map because you will remember, and you will get back to the hotel faster.",-0.309605294,0.461890177
6fdc56fc1,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00072,CC BY 4.0,"When rainforests are destroyed, many species cannot survive in these areas and can vanish completely. Every species plays its own specific role within the ecosystem that it lives in. Every species consumes certain resources and is in turn eaten by other organisms higher up in the food chain. All of the organisms in an ecosystem carry out some work that keep ecosystems functioning–for example, by pollinating plants, helping dead organic matter (dead plants and animals) to decay, or by feeding on other animals. Scientists call these processes ""ecosystem functions."" We do not know all of the species on earth and we certainly do not know what all of them do. But we do know that if we lose species, we are in danger of losing the functions that they carry out. We, as ecologists, are interested in how different organisms interact and how these interactions affect the way that ecosystems function.",0.716514663,0.508959993
840ed394e,,,"Depression is the most common mental illness. Four point four percent of the world's population suffers from depression. This is an alarming 322 million people, which is about the total population of the U.S.A! For most people, depression starts when they are young, before 30 years of age, and as depression often lasts a long time, many people suffer from it for a large part of their lives. People with depression experience prolonged periods of feeling very sad and/or lose the ability to feel pleasure. They commonly describe a feeling of emptiness, worthlessness, guilt, loss of hope, or lack of interest in many activities they used to enjoy. These feelings are often accompanied by other symptoms, such as trouble thinking clearly or carrying out day-to-day tasks, difficulty sleeping at night, feeling fatigued during the day, and reduced appetite. Depression is the leading cause of disability world-wide and many people who suffer from it cannot function well-enough to work, study, or maintain their relationships with family and friends.",0.192178063,0.503367723
5c7e474f9,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00114,CC BY 4.0,"All over the world, seagrasses have been estimated to cover between 0.15 and 4.6 million square kilometers, an area ten times bigger than the Red Sea. The Red Sea itself hosts 12 of the 60 species of seagrasses present all over the world, and together these seagrasses form an area that extends for more than 100,000 square kilometers, similar the total size of Portugal. 
 Seagrass meadows, with their leaves extending toward the seawater surface, slow down the marine currents that transport sediment and other particles and allow the settling of this sediment among the roots and leaves of the seagrass. By doing this, seagrasses help to form new layers of sediment on top of the older ones. But how do seagrasses avoid being buried? The trick is in their extraordinary level of adaptation, acquired by living in this constantly changing ecosystem: thanks to rhizomes, each single seagrass plant can adjust its growth and keep pace with sedimentation. By helping sediment to accumulate, seagrasses protect the coastline from erosion and therefore protect houses, roads, and cities built near the shore.",-1.586580457,0.464060091
bc2022607,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00100,CC BY 4.0,"As far back as 1600 B.C., Mesoamerican peoples in Mexico and Central America were using liquid rubber for medicines, in rituals, and to paint. It was not until the conquest of America that the use of rubber reached the western World. Christopher Columbus was responsible for finding rubber in the early 1490s. Natives from Haiti played football with a ball made of rubber, and later, in 1615, Fray Juan de Torquemada wrote about indigenous and Spanish settlers of South America wearing shoes, clothing and hats made by dipping cloth into latex, making these items stronger and waterproof. But rubber had some problems: it became sticky in response to warm weather and it hardened and cracked with cold weather.
One century later, in 1734, Charles Marie de la Condamine went to South America on a trip. There, he found two different trees containing latex: Hevea brasiliensis and Castilla elastica, but only the first became important as a natural rubber source. The reason why the Hevea tree succeeded over the Castilla tree was the way its latex was transported along the trunk.",-1.291231784,0.457869671
6923a71bd,,,"One of the many advantages of using zebrafish to study fear is that, like other similar fish, they produce a special alarm substance in their skin when they are injured. This substance is produced by cells called club cells, and the purpose of the substance is to signal to other members of the school that a fish has been injured. When the skin of a fish is damaged by a predator, for example, the alarm substance is released, and other fish can smell it. The ""smell of danger"" causes the other fish to be more cautious and to behave as if they are afraid. When they sense this alarm substance, the other zebrafish swim in tight groups to increase protection. They also swim more erratically (in a zig–zag pattern), to both decrease the likelihood of being eaten and to stir up the sediments (pieces of leaves, sand, or earth on the ocean floor) to make the water cloudy. Sometimes the zebrafish also freeze in place, decreasing the likelihood that the predator will see them.",1.020308011,0.581428944
b73d34263,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"The Sun kept the Earth warm while the Moon kept it stable during its rotations. Until one fateful day when everything changed. There was a big explosion in the sky, a big bang. The Moon and the Sun were separated from each other. Separated in both distance and time. They could not see each other anymore. They were both devastated and felt incomplete. They were both sad. They longed for each other's love. Their love was so strong that it transcended through time and space. But all was not lost as something was about to happen, something that will change everything. Something that will change their fate. Suddenly there was a force of extraction that caused them to move closer to each other every once in a while. Eventually the sun and the moon would be together during a process called Solar Eclipse. Finally, they were together, and they were very happy. It was not like before but that did not matter. What mattered was the time and space they had.",-0.594404653,0.466241671
55990b441,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00122,CC BY 4.0,"The previous arthropods may seem pretty harmless or, at the worst, we may think they are pests. because they are annoying. But spiders tend to create a lot of fear in people. This is due to the fact that almost all spiders are venomous, and some have large enough fangs to bite humans. However, other than a few species, most spiders are harmless, avoid humans, and are beneficial as predators of pests and parasites This is good news, because in our study we found that two families of spiders, cobweb spiders and cellar spiders, were found in 100 and 84% of homes, respectively. In fact, we found evidence of cobweb spiders in 65% of the rooms we sampled. Spiders are very good at surviving for long periods of time without food and can live in the less-than-ideal environment that houses provide. Spiders are not the only predators to become accustomed to homes. House centipedes, or ""thousand-leggers"" may be even more terrifying to people. These many-legged arthropods can thrive indoors where the humidity is right.",-1.179180106,0.464664869
933bbff95,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00053,CC BY 4.0,"Many interactions between species have winners and losers: one individual benefits, and the other one suffers. These are called negative species interactions. For example, predation is a type of species interaction in which one organism (a predator) eats another organism (the prey)—this is good for the predator but very bad for the prey! Different ant species can eat many different things, and some ants are important predators. Predatory ants often eat other insects like termites and caterpillars, while other ants eat only plants or fungus. Megaponera ants have only one food—termites—and these ants organize huge hunts in which worker ants infiltrate termite colonies, capture as many termites as they can carry, and bring the termites back to the ant nest to feed to their larvae. But even though many ants are predators, they can also be prey for other animals. Lots of animals like to eat ants: birds, ant eaters, even humans in some parts of the world! An animal that eats ants is called a myrmecophagous animal. The authors of this paper have eaten ant larvae that were specially prepared, and we can confirm that they are both delicious and nutritious.",-0.904128538,0.45757932
d5fb5c973,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolism,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Metabolism is the name given to the chemical reactions which keep us alive. It happens in the cells of living organisms.
Reactions catalyzed by enzymes allow organisms to grow, reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. The word ‘metabolism' can also refer to digestion and the transport of substances into and between different cells.
Metabolism is usually divided into two categories. Catabolism breaks down organic matter and harvests energy by way of cellular respiration. Anabolism uses energy to construct molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids.
The chemical reactions of metabolism are organized into metabolic pathways, or cycles, like the Krebs cycle. One chemical is transformed through a series of steps into another chemical by a series of enzymes. The metabolic system of an organism decides which substances it finds nutritious and which poisonous. For example, some prokaryotes use hydrogen sulfide as a nutrient, yet this gas is poisonous to animals. The speed of metabolism, the metabolic rate, influences how much food an organism will need, and how it is able to get that food.",-2.030345161,0.517769984
d77ea07b8,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"My name is Comma. I help you to pause between thoughts, and I also separate items in a list. I love exercising, reading and playing. Would you tell me about the things you love doing? Curiosity is my superpower! My mission is to ask questions and find answers! Please call me Question Mark, would you? I am Semicolon; I am a guard on Sentence Street. I'm a longer pause than a comma, but I'm not a full stop. I sometimes play Cupid by helping lonely clauses connect and become friends instead of strangers. I can also separate items in a long list to avoid confusion. When a letter or two is missing from a word, I'll stand in for the letters. I also show possession or that something belongs to someone. Call me Apostrophe. ""I am Quotation Mark and my superpower is direct speech!"" When you see me wrapped around the words someone says, it means those are the exact words that the person spoke (or thought). I open and close quotations. Sometimes I show sarcasm.",-0.257776264,0.482938477
861faf1f5,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"The sun rises in the morning, by the east side. I hear the cock crow at dawn. The sun moves over Terfa's compound before the morning meal. I smell the aroma of bier and akpupa following the sun to my window. The sun goes behind a tree at school during lunchtime. Then it arrives in a puddle in the middle of the playground. The sun stands above my head. My shadow stands beside me. I play the shadow game with my friends. My shadow grows bigger, then smaller. We run after it. My shadow grows longer, then shorter. We run after it. I stand, my friends stand. We see our shadows sway. We grow tired and return to class. After school, we go home. The sun yawns. I see the sun sink slowly in the west. I see my shadow on a wall. It is time to go to bed. The sun goes down behind the clouds. I lay down in my bed, and dream of the sun traveling afar.",-0.371879498,0.482277524
f0d7b622e,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"We have fun with children who come to the shop with their parents. Sometimes, mother has to serve as referee as well as help customers. I think that she has superpowers! When we become too noisy, mother says, ""Now sit quietly and watch TV."" She always adds, ""But only for 30 minutes, while we take a break!"" If we don't have schoolwork, sometimes mother asks me or my older sister to help her. I am not always ready to help. But I do it because I know she works so hard. As we walk home from the shop with the sun setting, we talk about our day. We have to hurry to keep up with her, but we love walking and talking with mother. She makes sure that we do homework and have time to play. She makes sure that we eat vegetables and fruits, and drink water. When we are sick, she cares for us.",0.850392143,0.559222222
437b00624,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"As she thought about her rainbow quest, Yana saw a green frog jumping in the bushes. She could not resist, she jumped around with the frog for a while. Then, checking the sky, she said goodbye to the frog. Yana went on her way in search for the end of the rainbow. 
She began to think about the rainbow's colors. In a flash, red came first to mind. She recalled the day her family almost had a bad accident because a driver didn't stop at a red light. Yana was thankful because no one was badly hurt, although they all had cuts and bruises. Everyone got a huge fright.
After red, Yana thought of the color orange. She loved sweet oranges. Sweet, sour and bitter were the tastes she experienced while eating oranges. Thinking about a sour orange made Yana's mouth taste sour! Yuck! Do you know that taste?",0.357384606,0.490532932
8fb1cf05f,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Yuadoo is scared of the dark. Everyone feels fear sometimes. But Yuadoo can ask for help. Chidubem is worried about his schoolwork. He can tell his teacher. He can ask for help. Lushan is playing around! It's okay to be silly sometimes. Eruro is feeling sad. It's okay to cry. Emotions come and go. Ayator is bursting with happiness. He is joyful. Emotions come and go. Hadiza is bored. She needs to find something to do. Ayo is angry. He is frustrated. Anger is a difficult feeling. Labake is excited. What's the cause of her excitement? Mother made her favorite food. Zege felt sleepy. He was very tired. ""But wait, is 'sleepy' an emotion?"" asks Efe. Efe is confused! Can you answer his question? Tega is feeling surprise and shock. He heard some gossip. Is it true? Yebo is sick. She feels miserable. She needs some medicine and rest to feel better. Sekyen is feeling content. She has finished her chores. Now she can play. Vandefan does not have chores today. He shows two thumbs up to Sekyen. ""Good job, now let's play!"" he says.",-2.199186303,0.479532032
c946aecc3,,,"Georges Cœdès was in his early 20s when he visited the Near East Collection at the Louvre, the famous museum in Paris near where he lived. He was intrigued an ancient Babylonian inscription in a display. This early experience led him to study ancient languages and to spend his life uncovering ancient mysteries contained in inscriptions from Southeast Asia.
Cœdès had an intriguing theory. He believed that numerals had originated in civilizations throughout Asia that shared a common culture based in the religions of Buddhism or Hinduism. Other scholars at the time assumed that numbers had to have come from Greece or Arabia, but Cœdès felt that this belief failed to value the intellectual developments of the East. At this point, Cœdès had no proof for his theory. Then, in the course of his work, he came across an untranslated inscription found on a stone that he called K-127, from an ancient temple at Sambor on Mekong in Cambodia. Translating the writing, he was stunned to discover that it contained the elusive zero that he had hoped to find!",-1.427664021,0.458458319
ec01b706a,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00079,CC BY 4.0,"If ice is disturbed while growing, it forms irregularities. This means that it will not look as clear, because not all of the molecules were well-organized as they froze. There might be layers going through the ice that are not transparent, and the surface might be less smooth.
In the sea, there are almost always disturbances occurring during ice formation, because there are almost always waves. When ice forms in the sea, it therefore looks different from ice formed in your freezer, and sea ice forms through several different stages.
First, there is a stage when the water is very cold, but still liquid. Then, there is a zone where ice has started to form in tiny needle-shaped crystals that come together to form ice slush. The slush slightly calms the waves coming in from the open water, but there are still enough waves to prevent the needles from freezing together and forming a smooth ice surface.
Sometimes, on a calm day when there are no waves disturbing the process, needles can freeze together and a layer of ice forms.",-0.386552253,0.480751769
d91936b32,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time, there was a family that owned a big farm. They had a lot of peanuts and corn on their farm. All the animals with four legs went to the farm to eat the crops of this family. Now the rabbit was very clever. It would spot the owners as they came to the farm. The rabbit would shout, ""Robbers! Robbers!"" as soon as it saw the farmers, and all the animals would run away. As time passed, the family realized that their crops were being eaten. They put out a large doll to frighten the animals and protect the farm. They put glue all over the doll's body. The next day, the animals went to the farm and saw the doll. They decided not to return because they thought that the doll would catch them. The doll frightened all the animals, except the rabbit. It returned the following day.",0.724553579,0.482407895
476b3492a,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"There was a girl named Ayanda. Ayanda was the only child of her parents. Her mother and father wanted to separate. Ayanda decided to run away from home. She went to the forest because she did not know where else to go. A wolf in the forest chased Ayanda, so she climbed a tree. The wolf tried to bite her, so she climbed higher. At the top of the tree, Ayanda saw the beautiful sun. She fell in love with the sun and decided to stay in the forest. Ayanda climbed the tree every day to talk to the sun. The sun became her family. One day, Ayanda saw a man under the tree. The man was her father. Ayanda came down from the tree and her father explained why he was there. He said, ""Long before you were born, your mother and I would meet here. It is a special place."" ""Now I climb this tree to get peace when your mother and I fight,"" said Ayanda's father. After a while, Ayanda's mother also came to the forest. She came to make peace with Ayanda's father. This was their peace tree.",0.487495265,0.503104584
90a777ef2,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Mythology can refer to the collected myths of a group of people—their body of stories which they tell to explain nature, history, and customs. It can also refer to the study of such myths.
A myth is a story which is not true. The definition of the word myth is still subject to debate. Myths may be very old, or new (for example: urban myths). There may not be records or other proof that they happened, but at least some parts of myths may be true. We know about them from older people telling them to younger people. Some myths may have started as 'true' stories but as people told and re-told them, they may have changed some parts, so they are less 'true'. They may have changed them by mistake, or to make them more interesting. All cultures have myths. Stories about the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses are myths.
Many people once believed in mythological animals and gods. These animals or gods may have control or has power over a part of human or natural life. For example, the Greek god Zeus had powers over lightning and storms.",0.005085636,0.48697007
0de4ec6f5,,,"The tropical ocean contains very little food or nutrients. Like life in a desert, life in the tropical ocean is difficult for all organisms. Yet, coral reefs are colorful oases full of life in the middle of this marine desert. How can millions of species call coral reefs their home? All organisms living there play their roles in recycling the small amounts of food and nutrients that are available. Because nothing is ever truly wasted, coral reefs can flourish in a marine desert that has hardly any food. Although coral reefs existed on this planet long before the dinosaurs, they are facing serious problems today. Warming oceans can harm corals, leading to the loss of coral reefs. However, corals in the northern Red Sea are very resistant to warm temperatures. Some scientists believe that these Red Sea reefs may be able to survive even when reefs are disappearing elsewhere around the world.",0.991114026,0.559079744
d42622eb6,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrition,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Nutrition provides the cells of an organism with food, but in a form they can use. Organisms need food to be able to keep their bodies working properly. They also need food to be able to do certain things. Malnutrition can happen when a person doesn't eat the right amount of nutrients. They can get better by changing their diet to have the right amount of the various nutrients.
Different organisms have different food requirements, and they eat different things in order to meet those requirements. Animals that do not eat meat, for example, will have to get certain nutrients like protein from other foods.
A nutrition expert is called a dietician. Nutritionists are different because they don't need the government to recognize them as experts. Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. The six main types of nutrient are carbohydrates, fats, minerals, protein, vitamins, and water. A macronutrient is a nutrient that needs to be eaten a lot. A micronutrient, such as a vitamin, is needed in smaller amounts but it is still important. Carbohydrates are not needed by the body but most people eat a lot of them.",-0.984640437,0.465314551
8c9a2b4ee,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleontology,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Paleontology is the study of fossils of living things, and their phylogeny (evolutionary relationships). It depends on basic sciences such as zoology, botany and historical geology. The term paleobiology implies that the study will investigate the paleoecology of the groups in question.
In paleozoology, the evolution of those phyla with fossil records are studied: see List of animal phyla. In paleobotany, fossil plants are studied. In historical geology the formation, sequence and dating of rock strata give information about past environments.
A fossil is any kind of life that is more than ten thousand years old and preserved in any form that we can study today. The fossil record is always incomplete, and later discoveries may extend the known survival of a group. See Lazarus taxon.
Some paleontologists study fossils of microorganisms, living things that are too small to see without a microscope, while other paleontologists study fossils of giant dinosaurs.",-1.644198296,0.475692421
be4393b13,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A parliament is a type of legislature.
The most famous parliament is probably the one in the United Kingdom, which is sometimes called the ""Mother of all Parliaments"". The word ""parliament"" comes from the French word parler, which means a talk.
The Althing, the national parliament of Iceland, was founded earlier (930 AD), so it is the oldest legislature in the world still existing. However, the Althing did not function as a legislature for four centuries, and its role as a primary legislature is modern.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is split into three separate parts, the House of Commons (the lower house), the lords (the upper house) and the Monarch. Most legislative power is concentrated in the House of Commons. It is made up of 650 Members of Parliament (MPs). These people are elected by the people of the United Kingdom to represent them in the House of Commons. The leader of the political party who commands a majority of MPs is usually made the Prime Minister, but not the Head of State, a position reserved for the Sovereign.",-1.326654811,0.453352078
5ac6ee76a,,,"Red tide is an event that happens when lots of algae grow in the water. Not just any algae, but a particularly poisonous type of algae. Algae are microscopic plants that live in the water. Every drop of water normally contains hundreds of thousands of these tiny, tiny plants. Algae are natural and important, as they are the vegetables for the food web of the sea. There are many thousands of different types of algae. Algae use sunlight and CO2 to grow and they, in turn, feed the fish, crabs, oysters, and other organisms. But, some species of algae can be harmful or toxic. Just like some plants on land, such as poison ivy, certain algae can make chemicals that harm both fish and people. When algae increase substantially in number, we say that they bloom (like flowers), and the harmful ones create a harmful algal bloom. Some call this type of bloom a red tide, because the algae may be reddish in color, so in large enough numbers they color the sea red. The most common red tide organism of Florida is named Karenia brevis. It is a type of algae called dinoflagellates.",-0.146680092,0.462175965
8be3592cf,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00086,CC BY 4.0,"What actually happens when parts of the brain become active? Nerve cells called neurons in active parts of the brain communicate with each other more. The active parts of the brain require more oxygen to allow neurons to communicate. How do the active parts of the brain get a fresh supply of oxygen? The blood carries oxygen, through the blood vessels, into the brain. There is a protein in the blood called hemoglobin that holds onto oxygen and carries it to places that need more energy. When hemoglobin is holding onto oxygen, it is called oxygenated hemoglobin, and when hemoglobin is not holding oxygen, it is called deoxygenated hemoglobin. When an area of the brain is active, oxygenated hemoglobin starts to displace the deoxygenated hemoglobin.
When a part of the brain is active, there is a hemodynamic response. A hemodynamic response happens when the blood vessels in the active areas of the brain become wider.",-0.556069951,0.525425841
c9849a3ad,,,"The brain works like a computer, with multiple networks connecting brain regions that are responsible for different functions. We have complex systems for every function. For example, one brain network is responsible for acquiring and managing the data that comes in from our senses, another is responsible for creating and managing our emotions, another is responsible for movements, and another is responsible for creating, managing and prioritizing our thoughts.
In OCD, the communication system between parts of the brain, namely the orbitofrontal cortex and the basal ganglia, is disrupted and the brain makes mistakes when processing and prioritizing information.
The orbitofrontal cortex is responsible for using information from the senses to make decisions and anticipating the result of our life choices. In OCD, this region is hyperactivated and detects errors and dangers where there is not anything wrong.",-0.637014302,0.474793932
ba7c965a6,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00099,CC BY 4.0,"Social networks can tell us something about the people in them. When somebody is in a difficult situation, they can use a little help from their friends. Who has the most friends in Frozen? That is difficult to tell just from watching the movie, but we can study another kind of social network—the network of who talks to whom. This network is not exactly the same as a friendship network, but it is much easier to accurately determine who talks to whom in the movie than it is to decide exactly who is friends with each other and how strong those friendships are. In this network of conversations, Anna speaks to nine people, so we will suppose that she has nine friends. Mathematicians say that Anna is a node in this network, that she has a degree of nine, and that those nine friends are her neighbors. Similarly, Elsa has a degree of eight, because she has eight friends; and Kristoff has a degree of six. Calculating somebody's degree is one way to measure their importance, but there are also many other ways.",-0.124636626,0.483249003
347de9ec7,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"There was an old lady with a stomachache. 
A fairy flew by and stopped to ask why the old lady was crying. 
""I have a terrible stomachache,"" she wept. ""Can you help me?"" 
The fairy said ""No, I can't help you. I'm Sibusiso, the evil fairy. I only do bad things."" 
""Then please, go away,"" said the woman. 
With an evil chuckle, Sibusiso disappeared. (He became invisible.) 
The old lady rubbed her stomach. Before long, another fairy came along. 
This fairy, named Khumo, also asked what was wrong. 
""My stomach is sore!"" moaned the old woman. 
Khumo responded, ""I can help! I will make some medicine for you."" 
Invisible Sibusiso was watching. 
He used his magic to send Khumo to the future. 
The old lady was surprised and looked around. 
She couldn't see anyone. She wondered what had happened to Khumo. 
The old lady started moaning again. 
A third fairy flew past and asked her what was wrong. 
""I have pain in my stomach!"" she cried. 
The old lady was losing patience with the fairies. 
Without waiting for the third fairy to reply, Sibusiso sent him to the past. 
Sibusiso started giggling. The old lady heard him.",0.700117443,0.540726656
f1e1e48c9,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The earliest printing known was in 8th century China and Korea. Whole pages carved on flat wooden blocks were used. Covered with a carbon-based ink, they were pressed onto sheets of paper.
The second stage was to use separate characters by wood carving or casting. This was done in 11th century China and Korea. It failed to be really successful, because of the structure of the Chinese written language, shared at the time by Korea, which had thousands of characters. Because of this, the method was not significantly better than copying by scribes.
Printing was reinvented in 15th century Europe. Development was slow until Johannes Gutenberg made several improvements. In the following century print became the main means of communication between people who wished to record knowledge. With an alphabetic system of writing, print was much more economical than copying, and permitted many times as many copies to be available for readers. This revolution in information technology helped all aspects of life in Europe, at a time when Europe was becoming the dominant region of the world.",-0.436351629,0.466835588
695bb0ad0,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Radar is a machine that uses radio waves for echolocation to find objects such as aircraft, ships, and rain.
The basic parts of a radar are:
The transmitter creates the radio waves.
The antenna directs the radio waves.
The receiver measures the waves which are bounced back by the object.
By doing this, the radar can locate the object. Radar is used in many different ways. It can measure the speed and number of cars on a road, the amount of water in the air, and many other things.
Radar was first used in 1904 by Christian Hülsmeyer. He was given a patent for radar (Reichspatent Nr. 165546). It became commonplace during World War II. The word RADAR was created in 1942 as an acronym for Radio Detection and Ranging. This acronym replaced the British initialism RDF (Radio Direction Finding). The word is now thought of by many people as a regular word, no longer as an acronym.",-1.572898292,0.442499426
848f1d906,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptile,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Reptile is the common name for one of the main groups of land vertebrates. It is not used so much by biologists, who use more accurate terms.
The name ""reptile"" comes from Latin and means ""one who creeps"". All living reptile species are cold blooded, have scaly skin, and lay cleidoic eggs. They excrete uric acid (instead of urea) and have a cloaca. A cloaca is a shared opening for the anus, urinary tract and reproductive ducts. Reptiles also share an arrangement of the heart and major blood vessels which is different from that of mammals.
Many important groups of reptiles are now extinct. The great marine reptiles of the Mesozoic era, the ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, are extinct. We used to say the dinosaurs were extinct, but they survive in the form of their feathered descendants (birds). Ancient reptiles that do survive include the turtles, the crocodiles and the Tuatara, the lone survivor of its group. The great majority of present-day reptiles are snakes and lizards.",-0.848235033,0.447792763
01734f6f6,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"If you have an Internet connection, you probably have a router somewhere that your computer sends data to. This is the first router your computer will connect to in order to get to the internet. It is also known as a default gateway (because it is your gateway to the internet). By convention the gateway has the lowest IP address (like a phone number for a computer) in the subnet (a group of addresses). Anytime you make a connection (such as a connection to www.wikipedia.org) your computer looks up the IP address using the look-up service called DNS (Domain Name Service). Once the destination address has been found your computer connects to your gateway router. The gateway then sends data to a router at your ISP (Internet Service Provider), that router can be said to be part of the internet and connects to other routers until the data reaches the destination.
In small networks such as homes, small businesses (including internet cafés) and small schools, the router also performs NAT (network address translation) which makes all outgoing connections look like they come from one address.",-0.976150327,0.492707968
e668530bf,,,"Have you heard about methane gas? Maybe the word methane is not familiar to you, but in fact, this gas is widely found in our daily lives, in our atmosphere, and in the solar system. Methane is a gas that is naturally produced in all kinds of environments, and it comes from the breakdown of organic (formerly living) materials. Methane gas is effective at trapping heat and it also burns very easily. So, methane is one of the most important fuels for humans. Additionally, the methane in the atmosphere helps regulate the climate on Earth. However, the amount of methane in the atmosphere has been steadily increasing for the past 200 years, which concerns the scientific community. Surprisingly, recent studies have indicated that levels of methane are regulated by tiny microbes. In this article, we encourage you to learn about the methane cycle, the microbes that make and eat methane, and why more research is needed on this gas.",-0.062822674,0.470807086
c61350717,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00107,CC BY 4.0,"Wildlife trade, which can be legal, and wildlife trafficking, which is illegal trade, includes thousands of species (and millions of individual organisms) that are traded every year. Wildlife trade is very diverse and includes species of plants, fungi, and all kinds of animals, such as reptiles, birds, mammals, amphibians, fish, and insects. There are many reasons why species are traded. The most common reasons wildlife is traded are that the traded plants and animals are used for food, medicine, pets, or to create luxury items, such as souvenirs, jewelry, clothing, or furniture. In some parts of the world, people depend on wildlife for these reasons. For species that occur in high numbers, the wild populations of animals are not usually affected too much when people use them in these ways. 
Some species of wild animals are relatively easy to breed in captivity. The offspring (meaning the babies) of these captive bred animals can then be traded. This is often the case for some furbearing animals, which are kept and bred in captivity so that their fur and pelts can be made into clothing, such as coats or hats.",-0.6325619,0.464595392
bb3a5dad0,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00095,CC BY 4.0,"Responding to stress in the way described above is a very positive thing. In fact, it is essential. Without a stress response, the T. Rex would probably eat us. But, when you think about it, how many times in most of our lives are we stressed because a T. Rex (or any predator, for that matter) is going to eat us? We are much more likely to be stressed by ongoing non-physical worries. Social relationships, performance in school or at work, the unknown of trying something new; these are the things that are likely to stress us on a daily basis. These are also situations in which an increased heart rate or more blood flow to your muscles are not particularly useful at all. In these cases, known as chronic stress (because it lasts for a long time), the stress response can actually be very bad for you.",-0.0885427,0.482142411
90e340ba0,,,"Many genes can undergo changes, called mutations, which, in some cases, can make a person more likely to get certain diseases. Diseases caused by mutations in genes on the X chromosome are called X-linked diseases. Remember, males do not experience XCI because they only have one X chromosome. So, if males have a disease-causing gene on their X chromosome, it will be active and more likely to cause disease. However, XCI helps protect females from X-linked diseases. Imagine a girl has a healthy copy of a gene on one X chromosome and a mutant copy of the same gene on her other X chromosome. If the X chromosome with the mutant copy is turned off due to XCI, then the X chromosome with the healthy copy will stay active and express the gene properly. This does not mean she would not get sick, but it will increase her chances of not getting the diseases related to the mutant gene.",-1.67757638,0.469794562
50ddd053a,,,"Even in nice weather conditions, rip currents can flow offshore through these channels very quickly, sometimes at speeds of over 2 m (2.2 yards) a second, which is as fast as some Olympic swimmers! This means that even gentle rip currents can take swimmers of all abilities a long way offshore. A rip current can easily move someone the length of a football field in just 1 min. What makes these currents dangerous is that you do not feel anything, you are just going with the flow. It is only when you realize that you are suddenly a long way from the safety of the beach that things get scary, and that is when most people start to panic. When people panic, they often try to swim back to the beach against the current and, in doing that, there is a risk they will use up all their energy.",0.344592562,0.464434453
1fa9123c4,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00076,CC BY 4.0,"Deep-ocean hydrothermal vents occur where there is intense volcanic activity. Seawater permeates rock, heats up and becomes enriched with substances from the rock, like metals, sulfide, dihydrogen, and methane. Mineral-rich chimneys, around which hydrothermal-vent animals live, then form when these heated fluids exit the seafloor. During the 1980s, scientists realized that these habitats supported an unusual type of primary production, fueled not by sunlight and photosynthesis, but by energy from reactions between chemicals found in the hydrothermal fluid, like sulfide, and the oxygen present in seawater. Amazingly, some basic, single-celled microorganisms can use this energy to build the parts of their one cell. Hydrothermal vents provided the first evidence that this process, called chemosynthesis, could sustain so much life in otherwise desert-like surroundings. 
But what about the larger animals that live in these environments? How do they get the energy they need to survive? Well, many of these animals acquire their energy by maintaining close relationships with chemosynthetic bacteria. This type of relationship, where two different organisms live together closely is called symbiosis. In chemosynthetic symbioses, both organisms involved are believed to benefit from the relationship.",-1.905386132,0.469329412
0208ac8d4,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A Secure Digital card (SD card) is a kind of memory card. Such cards are often used to store images or data in digital cameras. As of 2008, different capacities between 4 Megabytes and 32 gigabytes have been made. The card has a rectangular design, but one edge is chipped off. This means that the cards cannot be inserted into the cameras (or other devices) the wrong way.
There are different kinds of cards:
Those labeled SD, with capacities up to 2 GB
Those labeled SDHC, with capacities between 4GB and 32GB
Those labeled SDXC, with capacities of up to 2 TB (largest made is currently 512GB or 200 GB for MicroSD).
SD and SDHC are not compatible, but devices that accept SDHC also accept SD cards. The interface of SDHC and SDXC cards is the same, but SDXC uses a different file system. Some devices (for example the Wii) that originally shipped only with support for SD can be made to support SDHC with a firmware update.",-1.520401466,0.470073664
33030f528,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seismology,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Seismology is the study of what is under the surface of the Earth by measuring vibrations on the Earth's surface. A person who does this is called a seismologist.
It is part of the science of geophysics, which studies the physics of the processes that formed the Earth and other planets.
Seismology is done by seismologists and geophysicists using devices to pick up the vibrations called geophones, hydrophones or seismometers.
Seismology can either be passive, just listening to vibrations caused by earthquakes and volcanic activity, or active, using small explosive charges to send vibrations into the ground.
Seismic detectors come in two types, one which measures up and down vibrations, and one which measures side to side vibrations. Both types use and arrangement of a magnet and a coil of wire which will convert the vibrations into an electrical signal which can be stored in a computer for analysis.
Seismologists can find the location of earthquakes by plotting received vibrations on a map. They can also pick up underground nuclear tests, and this is what many of the seismic recording stations were set up for.",-1.154857171,0.479172825
a9224074c,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00058,CC BY 4.0,"Ivan Pavlov was a physiologist studying the digestive system in dogs, when he noticed that the dogs would begin to drool (or ""salivate"") when ordinary things happened around the time when food was coming. Pavlov found that he could train the dogs to drool following a particular cue, like the sound of a bell, by presenting the cue before giving the dogs their food. Over time, the dogs would begin to drool when they heard the cue rather than when they received their food.
This process is not limited to dogs. For example, if you go to an ice cream shop a lot and it smells like strawberries, eventually you might come to form a mental link between the ice cream and the smell of strawberries. The smell of strawberries becomes a cue that could cause you to start salivating at the thought of ice cream. This process of forming mental links between environmental cues and something that is highly motivating, such as a food you like, is called classical conditioning.
Scientist have found that classical conditioning also happens in drug addiction.",0.861479827,0.571945956
886fb8a49,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Every soil has different amounts of sand and silt and clay. The mix of sand and silt and clay is the ""texture"" of the soil. We can also say the mix has a ""soil texture"". A soil with a lot of sand is called a ""sandy soil texture"". A soil with a lot of silt is called a ""silt soil texture"". A soil with a lot of clay is called a ""clay soil texture"". Farmers like to grow food in the best soil. The best soil is half sand and some silt and a little clay. The organic matter found in the soil is not counted in the soil texture. Only the rocks are counted when we discover the soil texture. Soil texture is very important.
Clay and humus are special parts of the soil. They help keep water and plant food (plant nutrients) in the soil. Water and plant nutrients stick to clay and humus. Water sticks to all of the rock in the soil. But water sticks best to clay. Water is taken into (absorbed) into humus like a sponge absorbs water. Humus holds a lot of water and plant nutrients.",-0.203078529,0.489008117
a9829cf3d,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/State,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"In modern politics, a state is an association which has control over a geographic area or territory. States are seen as having three main pieces:
A territory
A people
Some institutions (which have the power to make rules).
There are different forms of government a state can have, for example a republic or a monarchy. Sometimes states form their own countries. At other times many states work together to form a country (like the United States). Most states also have armed forces, civil service, law and police.
The earliest states were just groups of power. A group of farms working together or a group of factories working together could be 'states' since people can control them and protect them.
More organized states could be the monarchies such as early Egypt under the Pharaoh. Following this were larger more military-based states such as the Roman Empire. The most important early states, however, were the Ancient Greek states which had freedom, writing and a democracy.",-0.881081255,0.464851711
c376446c9,,,"Almost 3.5 billion years ago, before humans, trees, and even dinosaurs, the only living things on Earth were single cells. As the years passed by, these cells reproduced, divided over and over again and filled the planet with lots of single cells. They lived on land and in the sea, but they stayed really small for millions and millions of years.
But then all of a sudden, creatures made up of many cells started to appear. Today we see these ""multicellular"" species all around us. Just look around you—there are cats and dogs, horses, lizards, mushrooms, and trees. You can even see them when you look at your reflection … the world is full of them.
But wait, in the beginning of time there were simply single-celled creatures and then, suddenly, they became multicellular creatures? What? What happened? What makes single cells form a multicellular creature?",0.281809509,0.481925792
56a925239,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00052,CC BY 4.0,"What makes epilepsy and seizures so mysterious? Ancient people did not understand what a seizure was. They saw that some people would have unexplained changes in their behavior, and they did not understand why. Some people thought that the gods or spirits were involved in seizures. The Romans called epilepsy the sacred disease, thinking that gods talked to people during seizures. In the Middle Ages, people believed that seizures were caused by a demon inside the body who invisibly ""seized"" the person. Hence the name seizure. Fear spread quickly and soon people believed that even breathing the same air as an epileptic patient could let the demon travel to other people. Therefore, people with seizures were isolated and restrained. Their ""doctors"" were priests who tried to send the demon away. Not only were these treatments unhelpful, but they could also be dangerous for the patients. To provide the right treatment, doctors needed to know the cause of epilepsy. In the Middle Ages, they did not know what we know now. Today we know that seizures happen in the brain. The brain is responsible for almost every aspect of our behavior. The brain detects scents, creates our feelings, and holds our memories.",0.105748891,0.492565489
0bd33d156,,,"Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most common brain disorders in children. TBI often occurs due to a strong blow to the head from getting hit by an object, running into an object, or falling on one's head. TBI can be very dangerous because it can severely damage the brain, which is critical for controlling the body and the personality, as well as speech, movement, and much more. Depending on what part of the brain is hurt, there can be serious consequences. Because of this, it is important to be able to diagnose a TBI as soon as it happens.
When the brain is damaged, the consequences of the injury can be very serious. However, studying the brain is difficult, because the brain is enclosed in the skull. Therefore, it is hard to tell whether or not there is injury and how severe it is. Currently, the most common way to look inside the brain is through a process called imaging, with several types of images giving us different insights into the brain.",0.071003186,0.482580208
dfefb0086,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Sumerians made their clothing by using the natural resources that were available to them. Clothing was made from wool or flax which Sumerians could raise and harvest. How thick or how coarse the clothing was related to the season in which it was worn. Heavier clothing was worn in the winter, lighter clothing in the summer.
Men were bare-chested and wore skirt-like clothes that tied at the waist. Women usually wore dresses that covered them from their shoulders to their ankles. The right arm and shoulder were left uncovered. Men were either clean shaven or had long hair and beards. Women wore their hair long, but they usually braided it and wrapped it around their heads. When entertaining guests, women placed headdresses in their hair.
Although both rich and poor Sumerians wore the same style of clothing, the richer Sumerians wore clothing that was made out of expensive and luxurious materials. Rich women and princesses also wore clothing that was colorful and bright.",0.294498053,0.537550773
3f2a8972d,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The term supersonic is used to describe a speed that is over the speed of sound (Mach 1). At a normal temperature like 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21.1 °C), the speed needed for something to be traveling at a faster than sound speed is about 344 m/s, 1,129 ft/s, 770 mph or 1,238 km/h. Speeds faster than 5 times the speed of sound are sometimes called hypersonic. Speeds where only some parts of the air around an object (like the propeller) reach supersonic speeds are called transonic (normally somewhere between Mach 0.8 and Mach 1.2).
It can be very hard to reach supersonic speeds, because drag increases a lot near these speeds. This slows a plane, and for years made control difficult. These problems were called the ""sound barrier"". Jet engines and other developments solved the problems in the middle 20th century.",-1.422353167,0.481428153
abd72da8f,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00022,CC BY 4.0,"Primates, like humans, are mammals. Around ten to twelve million years ago, the ancestral primate lineage split through speciation from one common ancestor into two major groups. These two lineages evolved separately to become the variety of species we see today. Members of one group were the early version of what we know today as the great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos in Africa, orangutans in Asia); that is, the modern great apes evolved from this ancestral group. They mostly remained in forest with an arboreal lifestyle, meaning they live in trees. Great apes are also quadrupeds which means they move around with four legs on the ground. The other group evolved in a different way. They became terrestrial, meaning they live on land and not in trees. From being quadrupeds, they evolved to bipeds, meaning they move around on their two back legs. In addition, the size of their brain increased. This is the group that, through evolution, gave rise to the modern current humans. Many fossils found in Africa are from the genus named Australopithecus (which means southern ape).",-1.139722226,0.465884431
a23df5190,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscosity,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Viscosity is a physical property of fluids. It shows resistance to flow. In a simple example, water has a low viscosity, as it is 'thin'. Syrup or tar, on the other hand has a high viscosity, as it is 'thick'. A way to test for viscosity is the speed at which the substance runs down a slope. Syrup would reach the bottom very slowly, whereas water would be a lot quicker.
There are two types of viscosity: dynamic viscosity, measured in pascal seconds, and kinematic viscosity, measured in meters per second squared.
Viscosity is used as a way to predict when volcanoes erupt. When the lava comes out very thickly (viscous), there is more chance that it will erupt violently. This is because the lava has a hard time getting out and may burst out when it can. If the lava is thin (low viscosity), then it just flows out like water.
The word viscous comes from the Latin viscum, meaning sticky.",-0.777089683,0.467880359
eaba56724,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_Internet_Protocol,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Voice over Internet protocol (or VoIP) is a term used for a number of protocols that are used to carry voice data over packet switched networks. Beforehand, telephony used a dedicated line, that was allocated to a call, during the time of that call. This was known as PSTN (or ""public switched telephony network""). Using VOIP will reduce costs, as the ""dedicated line"" for telephony (and fax) is no longer needed.
There are a number of technical problems that must be solved first, though:
Carrying voice data needs a service guarantees (mostly in the form of ""throughput"", and ""response time""). Not having this will result in a loss of signal (or in ""hiccups"")
Most telephony network provide the possibility to operate a phone, even when the power is lost in the area. This is done so that emergency calls can still be made. VOIP usually does not provide this possibility.
The LAN is now used both for voice and data and becomes a single point of failure. If there are problems with the LAN, this can also affect VOIP calls.",-2.599810686,0.560738379
791a3018f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A wind turbine is a rotating machine that transfers kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used directly by machinery, such as for pumping water, cutting lumber or grinding stones, the machine is called a windmill. If the mechanical energy is instead converted to electricity, the machine may be called a wind turbine generator (WTG), wind power unit (WPU), wind energy converter (WEC), or aerogenerator.
The wind turbine's blades are turned by the wind. This turns a shaft turning slowly, at about 10-20 rpm with a high torque. The shaft goes into a reduction gearbox with a ratio of about 1:50, although some wind turbine gearboxes can have a ratio of 1:100 or more. Some wind turbines may have no reduction gearbox at all and have a ratio of 1:1. The gearbox turns the generator more quickly, at around 1000 rpm, at a low torque. The generator creates electricity. This electricity is combined with any other wind turbines that may be in the same wind farm. This combined electricity may be used locally or adjusted to match the electricity in the power grid and sent to the power grid.",-1.374425975,0.501013565
ac2d318cb,,,"Nowadays, all humans on Earth belong to the same group, to which we usually call ""modern humans."" But until about 30,000 years ago, other human groups existed in parallel to us. The most well-known are the Neanderthals. Neanderthals lived for tens of thousands of years in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. At the same time, modern humans evolved in Africa. The two groups met only when modern humans started to exit Africa and spread across other continents. The nature of the encounters between the two human groups is still a mystery, but the final outcome is well-known—we are still around, while Neanderthals went extinct long ago. The Neanderthals were overall very similar to us, but still exhibited some differences. For example, they had a lower and slightly elongated skull, a slightly bigger brain, a protruding face, bigger teeth, and wider bones, indicating that they were more robust than us. All of this can be seen in the many Neanderthal skeletons that were found along the years. In fact, many of what we know about them is related to their skeleton, as skeletal parts survive after death much better than other tissues.",-0.346156966,0.48193468
646c87513,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Wayan lived in a small village by the sea. 
The people there believed that when you died, you returned to the sea. 
The sea is a special place where the ancestors live. 
Wayan's father and grandfather were fishermen. Most men in the village were fishermen, and it was always that way. 
Every morning at sunrise, the men went fishing in jukung boats. Every evening at sunset, they came back with their boats full of fish. 
Wayan learned to fish just as everything was changing for the fishermen. 
There were fewer fish, and they were always small. 
Sometimes, the boats came back empty, even though they had been at sea all day. 
The beaches also changed. They were always polluted, with plastic trash thrown on the sand. 
When the tide went out, it washed plastic into the sea.
Gradually, people in the village began to get sick. They could not get well. 
One day, while Wayan was fishing, a storm blew over. He was swept into the waves. 
A turtle saved him. ""I am Bintang. I will help you, climb onto my back,"" said the turtle. 
""Maybe you can help me. My grandfather is sick and no one knows what to do.""",-0.283326643,0.453467357
bb1550abb,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Abula stole his mother's money to buy sweets. Even when she hid her money, he found it and took it. After eating all his sweets, Abula would play with his friends. After a while, Abula stopped going to school. He stayed out playing the whole day, only returning home in the evening. Abula's mother noticed this and became worried. ""Our son is not behaving well. I do not think he is attending school. He is also stealing money from me,"" said Abula's mother. He said to his wife, ""Next time, hide the money within the pages of a book. He never even opens a book, so the money will be safe there."" The next day, Abula looked for his mother's money. He searched everywhere but he did not find anything. He decided to go to the nearest market to find some money.",1.088497136,0.540923978
e5ed9fe10,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash) is a rich internet application distributed by Adobe Systems. Adobe Flash and Adobe Flash Player are used to create and view animated content that can be placed on web pages. Adobe Flash is used commonly on the Internet by web browsers.
Flash was created by FutureWave (a multimedia company) in 1995. Then it was called ""FutureSplash Animator"" (this was in fact Flash 1.0). FutureWave along with Flash were soon bought by Macromedia around 1997, who in December 2005 was again bought by Adobe Systems. From Flash version 2 to 8 it was called ""Macromedia Flash"", now it is called ""Adobe Flash"". In 2012, Adobe discontinued the Solaris version of Flash Player, and made the Linux version only for Google Chrome. The Linux version for Firefox will continue to receive security updates. The Android version was removed from Google Play, but it can still be downloaded from the Adobe website. The Android version is not officially supported on Android beyond 4.0, but it has been reported to work with versions 4.1 and 4.2.",-2.451886841,0.534898074
f19ad54ad,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00034,CC BY 4.0,"Gaining weight in pregnancy is important for the health of the mother and child. However, after having a baby, if a mother keeps the extra weight she gained during pregnancy, this can be harmful to her long-term health. This study tested whether an Internet weight-loss program could help mothers to lose weight after having a baby. We worked with WIC, which is a program that gives low-income families food and support. Half of the women in the study received regular WIC and half received WIC plus an Internet weight-loss program. We found that the Internet program helped mothers lose five more pounds than regular WIC, and it also helped more mothers get back to the weight that they were before pregnancy. WIC serves half of all US mothers; the Internet weight-loss program in WIC could help many women get closer to the weight they were before pregnancy and avoid weight-related diseases later in life.",0.0214596,0.518809676
dd84feace,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00005,CC BY 4.0,"Importantly, symmetry breaking not only plays a role in the way a group of individuals eats a pizza, but it also determines the patterns of behavior individuals show when they perform all kinds of tasks. For example, when two individuals are walking directly toward each other on a sidewalk, the person who moves to the left or right first defines the direction of movement for the second person. This is something that most of us have experienced in everyday life. Of course, most of us have also experienced what happens if the symmetry is not broken: an awkward back-and-forth dance as you and the approaching walker rapidly move left and right at the same time. In this situation, as in most cases of social (and individual) behavior, symmetry breaking is very important for effective organization of behavior and performance; symmetry breaking defines how individuals move together in harmony. So, understanding how symmetry breaking influences human behavior and social interactions provides deep insights into how groups of individuals share an environmental space together (such as a crosswalk, a workspace or a playground).",-1.090008478,0.455999752
28a8769f2,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00006,CC BY 4.0,"The air we breathe is composed of lots of different chemical components. Some of these components are pollutants that are harmful to human health. Air pollutants come from a variety of different sources, including power plants, factories, agriculture, and transportation. Transportation vehicles are powered by combustion of fossil fuels, such as gasoline or diesel, to move from one place to another, and combustion of these fuels results in the release of gases and very small particles. These substances are known as ""pollution emissions."" Different types of transportation can emit different amounts of air pollutants, which have an impact on local and regional air quality. Both trucks and trains are used to transport freight in the United States. Understanding how freight trucks and trains impact air quality is useful to learn ways to reduce pollution that is harmful to human health.",0.129346895,0.463062701
eaba0ffae,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"In a particular year, the dry season was too long, and a drought hit hard. As a result, all the rivers dried up, except the River of Blessings. 
All the animals were thirsty and called for a meeting. 
Camel was the first to speak, ""As you know, we are very thirsty and all the rivers have dried up, except the River of Blessings. But it is very far away. What do we do?"" 
Horse suggested, ""Some of us can go to the River of Blessings. We can drink and bring water for the others."" 
Cow answered, ""It is too far. By the time we returned from the river those left behind would be dead."" 
Sheep said, ""Maa! Maaa! I will go to the River of Blessings and drink water."" 
Goat jumped up and said, ""Meee, meee! I will also go to the River of Blessings."" 
Chicken said, ""Keer, ker ker ker! I too will go to the River of Blessings. 
All the animals wanted to go. Camel led the way. 
Going there was not easy. Guinea fowl was last in the line. ""My friends, I can no longer go to the River of Blessings,"" he said.",-0.465615248,0.461815974
7627933b2,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00047,CC BY 4.0,"As a result, Amazonia and its big rivers act like water vapor bombs, which put water into the atmosphere and form a dense layer of clouds that contain large amounts of water. These clouds flow with the winds, forming incredible flying rivers. Because of the high temperatures in Amazonia and the large amount of rain that falls around the equator, Amazonia has this massive power to exchange water between the forest and the atmosphere. The 4,000-m high Andean cordillera at the west of the South American continent acts as a barrier to winds and clouds coming across the continent and from the Atlantic Ocean. The result is a massive amount of rainfall on the areas of central, eastern, and southern Brazil and its neighboring countries. This river of clouds transports billions of liters of water in vapor form each year, which is almost equal to the amount of water flowing from the Amazon River itself into the ocean each year. So, these rivers in the sky change the climate of the continent and, eventually, that of the whole world.",-1.527416846,0.462870498
ca8926fe5,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00039,CC BY 4.0,"When we go to an art gallery, there are usually details about the artworks written on labels on the walls. These labels have been specially prepared by experts to give us their opinions about the art objects. We thought that most people believe what is written on those labels, and we wanted to understand how powerful these opinions could be. So, we put people into a brain scanner to measure their brain responses while they received different opinions about the same pictures. For this research, we used portrait paintings by the famous Dutch artist Rembrandt. Sometimes, we told our viewers that the portrait was a genuine Rembrandt and sometimes we told them the portrait was a fake. When we analyzed the brain responses, the most interesting responses were found when people were told that the paintings were fake. Two parts of the brain, one involved in strategic planning (called the frontopolar cortex) and one involved in vision (called the occipital cortex), seemed to work together when people thought the paintings were fake.",-0.610551119,0.478933652
e4c6bc97a,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00037,CC BY 4.0,"Inside every cell of our bodies is a long, thin molecule called DNA. DNA is your own personal instruction manual and it tells your body everything it needs to know! DNA determines your eye color, skin tone, how tall you are, and even whether your muscles are better at sprinting or running a marathon. Just like a real instruction manual, the instructions in DNA are written in a series of letters. In DNA, there are just four letters–A, T, G, and C. These letters are combined to spell out the instruction for proteins. Proteins are the building blocks of cells. Your brain, heart, and all other organs are made of lots of different proteins. The DNA letters needed to make one protein are referred to as a ""gene."" Can you guess how many genes a human being has?
Over 20,000!",0.523230157,0.48500551
b6a8c1b6d,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antenna,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"An antenna or aerial is a metal device made to send or receive radio waves. Many electronic devices like radio, television, radar, wireless LAN, cell phone, and GPS need antennas to do their job. Antennas work both in air and outer space.
The word 'antenna' is from Guglielmo Marconi's test with wireless equipment in 1895. For the test, He used a 2.5 meters long pole antenna with a tent pole called ' l'antenna centrale ' in Italian. So, his antenna was simply called ' l'antenna '. After that, the word 'antenna' became popular among people and had the meaning it has today. The plural of antenna is either antennas or antennae (U.S. and Canada tend to use antennas more than other places).
Each one is made to work for a specific frequency range. The antenna's length or size usually depends on the wavelength (1/frequency) it uses.",-0.928660451,0.462219894
5c0dd7800,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00046,CC BY 4.0,"You have probably realized that languages change over time. They change slowly and subtly, but you may have noticed some of these changes. Your parents may use some old-fashioned words that you and your friends would never use. For example, if you want to say that something is really good, you may say dope or phat. Instead, your parents may say awesome or wicked … and your grandparents, groovy or hip! However, it is not only the vocabulary that changes over time. All aspects of a language, from sounds, to grammar, to how words and sentences are used during conversation, change with time. Have you ever read the original version of any of Shakespeare's plays? If you have, you will have found many strange words and phrases. For instance, in Act 2, Scene 2 from Romeo and Juliet, Romeo praises Juliet's beauty by saying: ""But wait, what's that light in the window over there? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."" However, what Shakespeare actually wrote (and what people from that period would have said) was: ""But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.""",0.171552794,0.480881776
989afe6bf,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00068,CC BY 4.0,"What we wanted to understand by our experiments was how the different patterns on the two wing surfaces are created. But, before we go there, let us talk about how wings and their patterns develop in butterflies and what we currently know about this process. Butterflies, along with beetles, flies, moths, and wasps, fall into the category of holometabolous insects. This means that butterflies go through a complete metamorphosis, which is the transition from a larval, grub-like animal to an adult animal with wings, large slender legs, and big eyes. Butterflies have four different life stages during development. These are the embryonic stage (which takes place inside the egg), the larval (or caterpillar) stage, the pupal stage, and the adult stage. Eggs are laid on the leaves of specific plants and the caterpillars that hatch from the eggs eat these leaves until they enter the pupal stage. The pupal stage is when most of the larval body tissues are dissolved and re-formed to create the adult butterfly that finally emerges. The wings of butterflies are formed from a group of cells that are set aside during the embryonic stage, in the form of imaginal discs.",-0.902859765,0.485397972
cce06a110,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-value-of-being-confused,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Confusion isn't just an important step to learning in school, it's also important for learning who you are. Psychologists call that sense of who you are identity. Your identity can involve being part of groups like race, gender, subcultures. Identity is also made up of your values and goals. People figure out their identity in two steps. The first step is exploration, where you try out different groups and values and see what fits. The next step is commitment, when you decide firmly about some parts of your identity. Exploring your identity can feel very confusing. You might be afraid that people will judge you for going through different phases or not committing to a group. But phases are completely natural. A study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Development found that people who do the most exploring about who they are have better outcomes such as higher self-esteem later in life. Confusion gives us the space to try new things and be creative. Allowing ourselves to be confused and ask questions leads to deeper understanding, more learning, and higher self-confidence. So, try not to be embarrassed when you're confused about something.",-0.528970635,0.499277298
03b1a6ff7,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_memory,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Big memory is a software and hardware approach that facilitates storing/retrieval/processing of large data sets (terabytes and higher). The term is akin to big data and in some instances is a form of big data processing architecture implemented in memory rather than in disks/storage. Different caches are one of the usage of the big memory.
The computer memory, namely RAM, works orders of magnitude faster than hard drives or even solid state drives, which is usually due to higher raw data throughput from tighter coupling of CPU and RAM chips (wider bus, CPU and RAM are usually installed on the same motherboard).
Locality of reference is another important characteristic for caches and fast access.
The price of the computer memory chips has significantly declined since the late 2000s, as of 2015 it is affordable to have 256 gigabytes of RAM on a server.
Currently, not many vendors have solid software big memory solutions while there are plentiful hardware options (i.e. cheap RAM planks). Terracotta has developed an ""in-memory data management suite""",-2.134297951,0.494617341
ee2fcc78b,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A capacitor (also called condenser, which is the older term) is an electronic device that stores electric energy. It is similar to a battery, but is smaller, lightweight and charges up much quicker. Capacitors are used in many electronic devices today and can be made out of many different types of material. The Leyden jar was one of the first capacitors invented.
Capacitors are usually made with two metal plates that are on top of each other and near each other, but that do not actually touch. When powered, they allow energy to be stored inside an electrical field. Because the plates need a lot of area to store even a small amount of charge, the plates are usually rolled up into some other shape, such as a cylinder. Sometimes, other shapes of capacitors are used for special purposes. A capacitor-like effect can also result just from two conductors being close to each other, whether you want it to exist or not.",-0.597031199,0.484687244
a666c1db9,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"In capitalism, people may sell or lend their property, and other people may buy or borrow it. If one person wants to buy, and another person wants to sell to them, they do not need to get permission from higher power. People can have a market (buying and selling with each other) without anyone else telling them to. People who own capital are sometimes called capitalists (people who support capitalism are called capitalists, too). They can hire anyone who wants to work in their factories, shops or lands for them for the pay they offer.
The word capital can be used to mean things that produce more things or money. For example, lands, factories, shops, tools and machines are capital. If someone has money that can be invested, that money is capital too.
In capitalist systems, many people are workers (or proletarians). They are employed to earn money for living. People can choose to work for anyone who will hire them in a free market.",0.231689064,0.517092653
83f9c17b9,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00050,CC BY 4.0,"Could you imagine eating the same food for your whole life? How boring! Now imagine if that one food were poisonous? Yuck! Koalas do exactly that; they eat the leaves of a tree called Eucalyptus every day. Eucalyptus trees have poisons in their leaves that prevent most animals from eating them, but not koalas! Now that is a cool characteristic of a superhero! But how can they survive on nothing but poisonous leaves? Well, it turns out there are special microbes in the tummies of koalas that work really hard to break down the poisonous parts of the leaves into smaller pieces that cannot hurt the koala. Most of the microbes in the koala's tummy are just hanging out, a good example of commensalism. This means that these microbes are not helping break down the poisons, but they are not hurting the koalas either. One microbe that can break down the leaves, Lonepinella koalarum, is an important poison-fighting sidekick and forms a mutualism with koalas. Scientists are still learning about these microbes that serve as sidekicks to their koala superheroes.",0.779653259,0.540425223
c4569ce1b,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00026,CC BY 4.0,"Sofia told us about her own experience with the memory game. However, not everyone is the same, and we cannot be sure the game will work for someone else. Therefore, it is important to test the game with a large group of people. This is called using a large sample size. A sample is the scientific word for the group included in the study—because it is a sample of the population. Although we cannot ask every person in the world to take part in the study, using a large sample size helps us make sure that the results we find are true for more than just one person. If our sample is large enough it will be a good example of the whole population. If the brain-training game helps many people in the group to get better at remembering, we can be more sure the game will work for people in general. Also, using a large sample size means that any result that we find is more likely to be a real, true result; if the study is only done with one person, it could just be a coincidence that the training worked for them.",-0.544475948,0.489110259
298ce4b53,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00027,CC BY 4.0,"Neurons are cells contained within the brain and spinal cord that specialize in communicating information within the body. Neurons are important for many things including moving, breathing, thinking, and feeling pain. If these cells are injured due to an accident, for example, the body can no longer perform some of these important functions. As a result, a person can become disabled in some way. To help patients with injuries to their brains or spinal cords, scientists and doctors may be able to replace damaged neurons by transplanting new cells into the injured person. By using new cells to replace the neurons lost from injury, it is possible that patients will recover some of their lost abilities, such as moving. Scientists think that stem cells are the ideal cell type to transplant into injured patients, because stem cells can multiply and change into the different cell types needed to repair the injury. The stem cells that researchers transplant can be made in the lab from skin cells and blood cells. Skin and blood cells can both be obtained using a needle.",-0.552166718,0.482610713
85c3fe33d,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/CKHG_G6_U5_Industrial_Revolution_SR.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"As the Industrial Revolution gained speed, factories sprang up in one city after another. These factories drew many workers from the countryside to the cities. Thousands of people who had lived according to the age-old rhythms of planting and harvesting began to live according to the new rhythms of the modern factory. By the late 1800s, the Industrial Revolution had spread beyond Great Britain. It had spread across the body of water called the English Channel to Europe and across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. It had also begun to enter a new phase of development. Great Britain had taken the lead during the first phase of the Industrial Revolution, which featured steam power, coal, and cotton manufacturing. During the second phase, which featured steel, electricity, oil, and gas, the United States took the lead. Like most great changes in human history, the Industrial Revolution has had positive and negative results. Generally speaking, the Industrial Revolution improved the lives of millions by making a great variety of goods more affordable and more widely available. Most importantly though, the Industrial Revolution provided new kinds of employment opportunities for people. But industrialization has also had less desirable consequences.",-0.589643764,0.461594724
45564f878,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00063,CC BY 4.0,"Our ears are complex anatomical structures that are separated into three main parts, called the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear. The outer ear is the only visible part of the ear and is primarily used for funneling sound from the environment into the ear canal. From there, sound travels into the middle ear, where it vibrates the eardrum and three tiny bones, called the ossicles, that transmit sound energy to the inner ear. The energy continues to travel to the inner ear, where it is received by the cochlea. The cochlea is a structure within the ear that is shaped like a snail shell, and it contains the Organ of Corti, where sensory ""hair cells"" are present that can sense the sound energy. When the cochlea receives the sound, it amplifies the signal detected by these hair cells and transmits the signal through the auditory nerve to the brain. 
While the ears are responsible for receiving sound from the environment, it is the brain that perceives and makes sense of these sounds. The auditory cortex of the brain is located within a region called the temporal lobe and is specialized for processing and interpreting sounds.",-0.650322956,0.474291143
6c603c6dc,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One million years ago, a soccer gem was formed. When it was discovered, people fought to possess this powerful jewel. During the first soccer world war the gem was lost. No one knew what happened to it. Many years passed. The soccer gem would only be found when the greatest soccer star was born. Not long ago, there was a boy named David. He was from a poor family. Before David's father died, he gave the soccer gem to his son. At first, the boy didn't know the power of the jewel. He was a teenager when he first used the gem to play soccer. David hadn't gone to school. But with the gem's power, he won every single match he played with his friends. He realized that he could make money for his family from playing soccer. He would open a shop for his mother and send his brother and sisters to school. David became the best professional soccer player that anyone had seen. It was even said that he was from another world! The soccer star who will never be forgotten!",-0.291865363,0.470104464
e36cf4569,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Object_Identifier,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A Digital Object Identifier (or DOI) is a permanent way to identify an online document. This identification is not related to its current location.
A typical use of a DOI is to give a scientific paper or article a unique number that can be used by anyone find the location of the paper. It may also make it possible to find an electronic copy, for example, on the Internet. The DOI system has a DOI resolution system which is used to locate where the document is. When the document is moved, the DOI resolution system is updated with the new location of the document.
For example, doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2008.03.001 links to ""Web 2.0 authorship: Issues of Referencing and citation for academic integrity"" by Kathleen Gray et al. The work was published in The Internet and Higher Education, Vol. 11, Issue 2, 2008.",-2.023888916,0.464153587
124de178b,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormancy,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Dormancy is a period in an organism's life cycle when growth, development, and (in animals) physical activity are temporarily stopped. This minimizes metabolic activity and therefore helps an organism to conserve energy. Dormancy tends to be closely associated with environmental conditions. Organisms can synchronize entry to a dormant phase with their environment through predictive or consequential means.
Predictive dormancy occurs when an organism enters a dormant phase before the onset of adverse conditions. For example, day length and decreasing temperature are used by many plants as triggers to start dormancy before the onset of winter. Consequential dormancy occurs when organisms enter a dormant phase after adverse conditions arise. This is often found in areas with an unpredictable climate. Sudden changes in conditions may lead to a high mortality rate among animals relying on consequential dormancy. On the other hand, its use can be advantageous, as organisms remain active longer and are able to make greater use of available resources.",-1.239133707,0.460936772
9e7ada519,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00001,CC BY 4.0,"Bamboos, unlike other grasses, mostly live in association with forests. Two different types of bamboos are recognized: the thick, hard ""woody"" bamboos, reaching up to 40 m tall, and the softer-stemmed ""herbaceous"" bamboos, rarely reaching more than 1 m tall. Worldwide, over 1,650 bamboo species are known, and although many people think of bamboos as Asian, 530 species (about one-third of total bamboo diversity) are native to the Western hemisphere. With the exception of Canada, every country in the Americas has a least one bamboo species—even the USA has three. In this article, we will focus on the Mexican bamboo species. Mexico has 56 of the 530 bamboo species, of which 52 are woody bamboos and 4 are herbaceous bamboos. A total of 24 Mexican bamboo species live in the cloud forest, so this type of vegetation is very important for the bamboos of Mexico. Among those 56 species, 36 are found only in Mexico, which means they are endemic. Native bamboos in Mexico were used long before Spanish conquerors arrived and are still used today.",-0.857251547,0.458450058
d2556a097,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Goat, Dog and Cow were great friends. One day they went on a journey in a taxi. They reached the end of their journey. The driver asked them to pay their fares. Cow paid her fare. Dog paid extra, because he did not have the correct money. The driver was about to give Dog his change. Suddenly Goat ran away without paying. The driver was very annoyed. He drove away without giving Dog his change. That is why, even today, Dog runs towards a car to peep inside. He is looking for the driver who owes him change. Goat runs away from the sound of a car. She is afraid she will be arrested for not paying her fare. Cow is not bothered by cars. Cow takes her time crossing the road. She knows she paid her fare in full.",0.810874254,0.526752777
614acf47c,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"At this point, Hyena burst into laughter and began rolling on the ground. She said, ""That is a striking truth!"" Goat took advantage of this and ran, back towards his village. Hyena ran after Goat and soon caught up with him. ""Give me another truth, quickly!"" she ordered. Goat said, ""The second truth is, if I go back to the village and tell them that I met you, but you didn't eat me, nobody will believe it."" Again, Hyena began to roll on the ground with laughter. She said, ""That is truth!"" For the second time, Goat ran and got closer to the village. Very soon, Hyena caught up with Goat again. ""There is still one more truth left unsaid!"" Hyena shouted. Goat said, ""The third truth is, if you keep joking around like this, it means that you are not really hungry!"" Hyena laughed until she cried, rolling on the ground. ""That is very true!"" she giggled. Goat continued running towards his village. By the time Hyena caught up, Goat had already reached the village square. That is how He Goat saved his life.",-0.563904647,0.451045562
9c82627a0,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"They invited all the animals to come and watch the race. Chameleon and Rabbit lined up and waited for the signal. As the race began, Chameleon jumped onto Rabbit's tail. The animals laughed and laughed. Rabbit did not realize that Chameleon was on his tail. Hearing the noise, Rabbit skidded to a stop. Chameleon jumped off Rabbit's tail. ""Hey, watch where you're going! It's about time you got here,"" Chameleon shouted at Rabbit. Rabbit was amazed. He started running again. He did not know that Chameleon had once again jumped onto his tail. As Rabbit approached the finish line, the animals saw that Chameleon was still on Rabbit's tail. They clapped and laughed. Rabbit heard the noise and thought that Chameleon had already arrived ahead of him. When they arrived at the finish line, Chameleon jumped off Rabbit's tail. ""Don't step on me! I got here first!"" Chameleon shouted at Rabbit.",0.946567567,0.517911357
24e00a515,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkpad,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"An inkpad is a small box which contains a pad of cloth or other material. It is impregnated with ink (the pad is inky). A marker is pressed onto the pad, then onto paper. Any raised marks on the pad leave an impression in ink on the paper.
Ink pads are used with rubber stamps. On the stamp is the symbol of an organization, for example. After a form has been passed by an official, it is stamped to show it is authentic. Another variation is a date stamp, placed on all letters which arrive in the building. Another version is a stamp with a facsimile (copy) of an official's signature. Using this, staff can send out letters when the official is not present. Rubber stamps and ink pads have been used for at least a hundred years by civil servants and businesses. They are still in use in many countries but are gradually being replaced with other systems.",0.627618676,0.520606534
c89fe1521,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrigation,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Irrigation is when people add water to plants, to help them grow when there is not enough rain. Irrigation water can be pumped from rivers, natural lakes or lakes created by dams, from wells or allowed to flow to the fields by the force of gravity along pipes or open canals.
Irrigation water can be applied to the plants from above by sprinklers that throw water out under pressure, or from watering cans. In sprinkler irrigation, water is moved through pipes to sprinklers scattered around and within the field. Center pivot irrigation is a type of sprinkler irrigation. In drip irrigation water is brought to the plants via pipes having small holes or special emitters spaced along the pipe.
Surface methods allow water to flow onto the soil surface from canals or pipes. Traditional methods allow water to flow over the entire surface of the field, but drip irrigation allows water to be directed to the roots of each plant and much less water is lost by soaking into the ground.",-0.699299571,0.4756939
0b405c725,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobitism,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Jacobitism was (and, to a much smaller extent, is) the political movement that tried to put the Stuart kings back onto the thrones of England, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland. The movement took its name from the Latin form Jacobus of the name of King James II and VII.
Jacobitism began after the deposition of James II and VII in 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II jointly with her husband and first cousin William of Orange. The Stuarts lived on the European mainland after that, sometimes trying to get back the throne with the help of France or Spain. The most important places of Jacobitism were Ireland and Scotland, especially the Scottish Highlands. In England, Jacobitism was strongest in the north, and some support was also in Wales.
A great number of Catholic people liked Jacobitism. They hoped the Stuarts would end bad laws. Lots of different helped the military campaigns for all sorts of reasons. In Scotland the Jacobite cause became a lasting romantic memory.",-1.725606079,0.484262761
b3769fbe0,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00035,CC BY 4.0,"Ticks ingest the host's blood, and in the blood, there are cells that contain the disease-causing microbes. We call them infected cells. Once the infected cells are ingested, their first stop will be the tick's guts, which function as the tick's stomach, where these microbes start their journey through the tick's body. Depending on the disease-causing microbe, they can stay in the guts shorter or longer periods of time, for example, for only a few hours, for days, or for weeks. From the guts, the microbes travel through the gut wall to go for a swim in a liquid called haemolymph, a fluid that circulates inside of the tick's body. This liquid is rich in ""little soldiers,"" the cells of the tick's immune system, which are constantly patrolling and preventing invaders from harming the tick.",0.034710132,0.489665913
bacdd6a73,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time, there lived a prince who had no name from birth. He was the only child of King Dunoma, who wanted a successor. He was born after several years of waiting. 
When he was born, the king was so happy that he decided to keep his son's name a secret until he grew up. Then, any girl who knew the name would become the prince's wife. 
When the prince was old enough to marry, the king ordered the town crier to make an announcement. 
""This is a contest for young women throughout the kingdom! Say the prince's name and become his wife!"" announced the town crier. 
The girls devoted the remaining days to preparation. They plaited their hair and trimmed their nails. They decorated their hands and feet with henna and went to the tailor for new dresses. 
Some even visited the marabout for prayers and good luck. The impatient among them visited the diviners to tell them about their fate. 
On the appointed day, all roads led to the king's palace. The prince and his father, accompanied by the palace guards, arrived at the assembly ground first.",0.642449351,0.500603258
f113e6d15,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00016,CC BY 4.0,"As fruit-bearing plants grow, the fruits accumulate water and nutrients from the plant, and they use these nutrients to create their flesh and seeds. Most growing fruits initially provide protection to the developing seeds. At this stage, fruits are generally hard and unattractive to predators—including us! After seed development and fruit growth, the properties of the fruit change to make the fruit more attractive to potential consumers, such as animals, birds, and humans. These changes include the most common ways by which we judge whether a fruit is ripe or not, including external features, such as softness to the touch, and internal features, such as sweetness. Fruits also change color as they ripen. This happens because of the breakdown of a green pigment called chlorophyll, along with the creation and accumulation of other pigments responsible for red, purple, or blue hues (anthocyanin), or bright red, yellow, and orange hues (carotenoids), to name a few.",-0.618987302,0.457412099
6c2e05a3e,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00033,CC BY 4.0,"Trees are a lot like people: they experience stress and they get infected with bugs or diseases and they can be attacked by fire, windstorms, floods, and droughts. We call these things that attack or infect trees disturbances. Trees are not like people, because they cannot go to the doctor to get better and they cannot move away from whatever is disturbing them. This last part is very important because it means that, in order for trees to have existed for hundreds of millions of years, they must have had the ability to cope with disturbances without a doctor. As you may imagine, different kinds of trees have evolved different ways to deal with certain disturbances. This is what we have learned from our research in an area called the Pine Barrens of New Jersey on the East Coast of the United States.",1.040517007,0.575830948
848d00314,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00004,CC BY 4.0,"Every living thing needs food, also known as nutrients. In nature, living things are connected through food webs. Food webs show us how animals and plants are related through feeding relationships, like birds eating fish. But how do nutrients get returned back into the food web? The answer is bacteria! Bacteria are impossible to see with the naked eye. But they are found almost everywhere in the world and are very important for recycling nutrients within habitats, like a river. Scientists use the DNA of bacteria to figure out which bacterial species are present and how these different bacterial species recycle nutrients in a river. Knowing which species are present helps scientists to use bacteria to monitor changes in river habitats. These changes might include the amount of food that is available for larger animals. Bacteria are considered to be the base, or foundation, of the food web, and paying attention to early changes in bacteria may allow us to prevent more extreme changes from causing problems later on for larger creatures.",-0.062845458,0.479056854
cfa18ebad,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Every day after school, Abebe went to the field to help his father. Next to the teff field was a football field. One afternoon while Abebe was chasing birds, four English boys came to play soccer. The boys began to play. The ball bounced up and landed in the teff field. The ball damaged some teff. One of the boys ran into the field to get the ball, and he damaged more teff! They continued to play. The ball bounced and landed on the crop again and again. The boys kept running into the field to fetch the ball. Each time they damaged some of the teff. Abebe and his father became more and more angry about the destruction of their crop. Neither Abebe nor his father could speak English. They didn't know how to say to the boys, ""Don't come into this field. Stop damaging our crops!"" The English boys didn't know any other language except English. Abebe's father said, ""Son, use what you have learned in school. Tell them to stop kicking the ball into our field!""",0.86413932,0.517035779
c7be17d70,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00054,CC BY 4.0,"People feel socially connected when they feel comfortable, confident, and like they belong with not only their family and friends, but the community. If people are struggling to feel socially connected, then they may feel unable to relate to the people around them, and they may struggle to make friends or to understand their role in the world and feel all alone because of this. Feeling all alone can then lead to a number of other problems, such as low self-esteem, not trusting other people, and just feeling lonely and as though they do not belong. Imagine, what would happen if a person who is already feeling these things is also cyberbullied? Such a person might feel like there is no one to turn to.
Since everybody is different, people may feel this sense of connection and belonging in different ways. Some young people may feel really connected to their schools, whether it be through groups that they are a part of or because of particular teacher.",0.918885563,0.531574255
e89267551,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00002,CC BY 4.0,"While they may look similar, seagrasses are very different from seaweeds, which are a type of organism known as algae, not a flowering plant. Seagrasses are part of a group of plants called monocotyledons. This group of plants also includes the grasses that grow on land, lilies (seagrasses' closest relative), and palms. Seagrasses have roots, veins, and leaves. Seagrasses, like other plants, have special food producers inside their cells, called chloroplasts. Chloroplasts use energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen for growth, through the process called photosynthesis. Veins inside the seagrass tissue then transport the sugar and oxygen around the plant. The veins also contain air pockets, called lacunae, that help keep the seagrass leaves floating in the water. Seagrasses have roots and rhizomes (thicker stems), which extend into the sediment below the leaves. The roots and rhizomes absorb and store nutrients and help to anchor the seagrass plants (and sediment) in place. Seaweeds, however, are much less complex than seagrasses, with no flowers or veins.",-1.112676572,0.460838355
f4d52c329,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00010,CC BY 4.0,"Volcanologists study the personality of volcanoes because this information can determine how far from the volcanoes the eruptions will have an impact—remember rocks from the Phlegrean fields were found 4,000 km away! Now, we will tell you about the different hazards associated with volcanic eruptions.
When a volcano erupts explosively, the magma cools and is turned into volcanic ash and gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). The ash travels so fast that it is injected far into the atmosphere, as high as planes can travel. Volcanic ash can stop planes from flying, because ash is bad for their engines. Volcanic ash and gas from large eruptions can travel in the atmosphere all around the Earth, changing the climate. Volcanic gases form aerosols (mixture of fine particles) in the atmosphere that reflect the solar radiation back to space and lead to global cooling. In fact, one eruption in Indonesia in 1815 caused a year without a summer in Europe and North America in 1816.",-1.395231365,0.485250647
4cf4a2fa3,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00036,CC BY 4.0,"Although anyone, from kids to the elderly, can come into contact with the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the vast majority of people (about 90%) who are infected with this bacterium will eliminate it through the work of the immune system. However, some people (about 10%) who come into contact with M. tuberculosis cannot fully control the bacteria. These people can develop a disease called active tuberculosis (ATB), with fever, coughing, and weight loss. In these cases, M. tuberculosis makes its home within the lungs and can be transmitted to other people when the sick people expel the bacteria through coughing. In some people, another scenario occurs in which their immune system keeps the bacteria in a dormant or ""sleeping"" state. This is called latent TB. In these people, no fever, coughing, or weight loss will be apparent until their immune system stops working properly.",-1.802185475,0.51823917
cd1915d2d,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00064,CC BY 4.0,"We classify spiders into over a hundred families, like jumping spiders, crab spiders, wolf spiders, ogre-faced spiders, bird-eating spiders (which are also known as tarantulas), and the primitively segmented spiders. Some spiders are very good at camouflage—the art of disguise. Often, the colors of camouflaged spiders blend nicely into the environment, but spiders do a lot more than that to protect themselves. Some, for example, are difficult to tell apart from ants, and that disguise makes them safe from predators that dislike stinging ants. Tropical orb weavers have lots of different shapes. Some look like leaves, others like twigs, bark, or even bird droppings and all in order to fool their predators. Other spiders may protect themselves with armor. Spiny orb weavers, for example, have various thorny projections that predators will want to avoid. Some other spiders show flashy colors intended to warn their predators that they are not the kind of prey that should be meddled with. Recently, we discovered an orb-weaver spider in the tropical forests of China whose abdomen resembles both a green leaf and a dried-up leaf at the same time.",-0.567156181,0.466949498
1c66b6ca4,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00043,CC BY 4.0,"An antibiotic is a compound that kills bacteria. Antibiotics stop essential cell activities that allow the bacteria to live. For example, some antibiotics harm the cell wall, and some prevent the bacteria from reproducing. The first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered over 90 years ago. Since then, many other antibiotics have been found. Since the discovery and use of antibiotics, bacteria have evolved that resist antibiotics and multiply even when antibiotics are present. These are called ""antibiotic-resistant bacteria."" Antibiotic resistance evolves by mutations (genetic changes) in the bacterial DNA that allow the bacteria to survive in the presence of antibiotics. A year ago, the World Health Organization published a report on 12 different bacterial strains that are resistant to antibiotics. For these antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, solutions other than antibiotics must be found to kill the bacteria. My research group believes that, if we can prevent biofilm formation, we will be able to successfully fight the antibiotic-resistant bacteria.",-0.647143875,0.457757424
7aeab5aca,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00059,CC BY 4.0,"You guessed it–science! Fluorescent colors are very special. You might have seen fluorescence
before if you have ever seen a blacklight poster or paint illuminated with blacklight. Fluorescent colors seem to glow, because they absorb one color of light and then they emit a different color. This is because of the way the pigment (color) molecules release energy from the light they absorb. When a pigment molecule absorbs light energy, it usually slowly releases the energy as heat. Instead, a fluorescent molecule releases some of the energy from the light it absorbed as new light that has lower energy than the light that was absorbed. Normal pigments just cannot do this—they can only bounce back colors of light that exist already in their environment. That is why fluorescent colors look amazing and a bit unbelievable.
 Remember how everything looks blue when you are 60 feet under the sea? Like living blacklight posters, fluorescent fish absorb that blue light, and then they emit red light. Fish that live in deeper, bluer water have even brighter red fluorescence.",-0.101779002,0.497815765
8878141a0,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-legacy-of-william-shakespeare,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Shakespeare was an innovator of language. People quote his plays all of the time without realizing it. If you've ever heard someone say that ""love is blind"" or ""all that glitters is not gold,"" they're quoting The Merchant of Venice. In fact, Shakespeare is credited with inventing over 1700 words and phrases. Do you know the joint that bends in the middle of your arm? Without Shakespeare, we wouldn't have the word for elbow!
Not only has Shakespeare shaped the English language but he's also had a hand in almost every form of popular culture. From books to music to modern theatre, Shakespeare has served as an inspiration. The popular TV series Breaking Bad is in part inspired by Macbeth — just as House of Cards takes cues from Richard III, and the show Empire has been compared to King Lear.
One reason his work has endured is because he wrote about universal themes. His storylines are dramatic and engaging. His dialogue is witty and poetic. He wrote tales of forbidden romance, of political intrigue, of murder and revenge. In their time, these plays were comparable to modern blockbusters.",0.348589053,0.516490563
563b1c260,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/tornadoes-watch-out,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Tornadoes usually form from large thunderstorms. When the winds beneath a storm are unstable, they blow at different speeds. These unstable winds underneath the thunderstorm can begin to rotate. If that rotating air gets pushed up into the storm, it can gain strength and speed. A dark cone of air may swirl down from the storm. This is called a funnel cloud. If the funnel touches the ground, it becomes a tornado.
Tornadoes can form very quickly. They create the strongest winds on the planet, with speeds that can top 200 miles per hour. In 1967, a powerful tornado struck Oak Lawn, Illinois. Patti Ernst lived through that tornado as a child. ""Our garage blew away. Our car was crunched,"" she remembered in an interview with Chicago television station, WGN. Still, she knew it could have been much worse. A powerful twister can rip houses from their concrete foundations and flatten whole neighborhoods. ""My family was so lucky,"" Ernst said.
The Oak Lawn tornado destroyed over 100 homes, and it killed dozens of people. But survivors of 2011's Joplin, Missouri tornado know that tornadoes can be much worse. Rance Junge described the tornado to ABC News.",-0.041010564,0.489296193
e3fcdeed3,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"""The rainbow is a magical river with healing powers. But it is so high up in the sky that you can't reach it. If you catch a cold, the rainbow can't help you."" 
The children thought about this. ""Mother, please tell us our rainbow story,"" said Erdoo. ""Yes, please mother, I want to hear it too,"" Udoo chimed in. ""Me three,"" Eryum begged, lifting up three little fingers. 
""Well, let me see, mmmm,"" she said playfully. ""Okay lovelies, gather round. Mother, the storyteller is here!"" 
Erdoo ran for the naha, the stirring stick they used as their totem. She handed it over to mother. Eryum got the headgear for mother to wear. It never failed to put her into character. 
They all sat quietly to listen to the story they had heard many times. Udoo blew the whistle, telling mother to start. Then the story began. 
""Once, the rainbow was a magical river. It was hidden inside the green woods of Mbadede. Because it had healing powers, it was guarded. 
If you were sick, you drank the water. The rainbow was always happy to share. But it didn't like badly behaved people.""",0.108476405,0.49338488
b84fb22ef,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Lion said to Hyena, ""Can't we even find peace in our dens? You throw dust into our eyes!"" Hyena answered, ""King, I did not mean to disrespect you! I am only running after my food!"" Lion said, ""You are food to me, too, Hyena. Did I chase you? You came to me. Don't blame me later."" Then Lion said to Sheep, ""Why did you come to the bush?"" Sheep replied, ""I came because I am a diviner."" Lion said, ""Prepare traditional medicine to prove that you are truly a diviner."" Sheep replied, ""My medicine is expensive."" Lion said, ""That is no problem, whatever it costs. There is nothing that is impossible for me."" Sheep said, ""The medicine is Hyena's ear."" Lion cut off Hyena's ear and gave it to Sheep. Sheep put Hyena's ear inside a jar of honey and gave it to Lion. Lion ate Hyena's ear and found it so sweet.",-1.056268572,0.448421175
b7b432441,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00045,CC BY 4.0,"There are two ways that scientists talk about amnesia. First, amnesia can happen alongside other problems. For example, there are some diseases and injuries that can cause damage to the hippocampus and cause memory loss. These include Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury. Both of these conditions can cause memory loss, but they usually also cause other problems for a person's ability to think. For example, a person with Alzheimer's disease or traumatic brain injury might have difficulty planning for the day or making good decisions. So, when people with Alzheimer's disease or traumatic brain injury have memory loss, we say that they have amnesia as one of their symptoms. People can have different degrees of amnesia as a symptom, from mild memory problems to severe memory problems. Having amnesia as part of a large set of problems is fairly common. But amnesia can also occur by itself, without other problems.",-0.759767384,0.491102571
74f266b31,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00019,CC BY 4.0,"Heart disease is a major cause of health problems worldwide. There are many different types of heart disease, but one that is fairly common and can have lots of negative side effects is called cardiomyopathy. We know that humans and many mammals, including dogs, get cardiomyopathy. In dilated cardiomyopathy the heart changes shape and often the electrical signals within the heart change. Because of these changes, the heart is not able to pump blood around the body very well, which means that oxygen and nutrients are not delivered to the body at the optimal levels. This can affect day-to-day life, and it can also cause early death. Understanding cardiomyopathy and finding the mutations in genes that cause it are essential, as this information can help us to diagnose, treat, and prevent this heart disorder. We can try to mend the broken hearts that do not work properly. In dogs with cardiomyopathy, we have discovered genetic mutations and found links between these changes in the dogs' hearts.",-0.150425549,0.466774626
9497ca7b3,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One day, Chat was strolling in the garden. She liked the sweet scent of flowers. She loved to touch their soft petals. Chat wished she could see flowers, just once. ""They are lovely,"" she said to herself. Every day, Chat walked in the garden. She knew her way around. Today, she raised her head to the skies. Suddenly, she heard thunder and lightning. ""I need to hurry back to the house,"" Chat thought. Rain began to fall. Chat slipped, lost her balance and fell. She hit her head on a stone. When Chat woke up, there were people around her. ""What happened?"" she asked. ""You fell and bumped your head,"" her father said. ""Thank God you are fine,"" said her mother. ""Daddy, mummy?"" asked Chat. She also called the names of her brothers and sisters. ""Please, get me a flower."" Everyone was surprised. Her sister returned with a flower. Chat held it gently. ""It is so lovely,"" she said. Her family looked at one another. ""Chat, can you see the flower?"" her mother asked. Chat played with the flower in her hand. ""You are all so beautiful, just like this flower,"" she smiled.",0.422776366,0.543269882
b3f2457aa,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerve,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A nerve is a group of special nerve cells grouped together in parallel. Another word for nerve cell is neuron. The special neurons grouped together in nerves take information (messages) to and from the human body to the central nervous system. The central nervous system (acronym) CNS is the brain and spinal cord. The spinal cord is the big cord that goes from the brain into the back. It carries all the information that goes from the brain to the nerves in the body.
All the nerves in the body make the peripheral nervous system (acronym PNS). The brain and spinal cord are the CNS. All the nerves that come from the spinal cord are the PNS. Together the CNS and PNS are the nervous system. The nervous system contains neurons and cells called glia. Glia cells keep the neurons safe and healthy. Neurons take messages to and from the CNS to the rest. The dendrite and axon are fibers that go out from the cell body. Axons take information away from the cell body. Dendrites take information to the cell body.",-1.569126023,0.468663081
8f35441e3,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Every day, Emeka's father took him to school in his car. He also brought Emeka home after school. One afternoon on their way home, Emeka's father stopped to buy something at a big shop. From the car, Emeka looked across the road and saw an old man. He was carrying a big load on his head. He was tired and walked slowly. Emeka kept looking at him. The old man sat under the shade of a tree on the walkway and opened his bag. He had two flat plastic water bottles, which he was making into shoes. Emeka thought about that old man for a long time. He felt sad. When he got home, he could not eat. He thought about what he could do. He got up and took some money from his money bag. He called Chita and jumped on his bicycle. Emeka rode to the shop where his father had shopped. The boy ran into the shop and came out with a bag. He went to where the old man was resting against a tree. Emeka called out, ""Good afternoon, sir."" The man answered, ""Peace to you, my child.""",1.583846826,0.624776392
3af1c6ed0,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"The oldest hyena said, ""Let the strongest hyena stand on the ground and then let the rest of us stand on each other's backs. We will climb on one another's backs until we reach the clouds."" They agreed and started climbing up on one another's backs. Soon, there were no more hyenas left remaining on the ground except the strongest one. After the last hyena climbed up, the hyena on the ground thought that the others had started eating. He asked, ""Why don't you give me some of the food you're eating?"" However, the hyenas did not reach the clouds. They didn't find any food and so they had nothing to give to the strongest hyena standing on the ground. The strongest hyena became impatient and moved to the left side. All the others came falling down to the right side. As a result, even today all hyenas limp on their right side.",0.330810305,0.51208716
5ab7669bb,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Fati was also very busy. She found small pieces of firewood. She found very small pieces of firewood. Then Fati looked up. She saw a red bird in the tall grass. Next, Fati looked down. She saw a brown ant on the dusty path. Fati saw a beautiful leaf. The leaf was shiny and green. She put one finger on the beautiful leaf. Fati said, ""This does not feel like a leaf."" Suddenly, the beautiful leaf moved! Fati said, ""This is not a beautiful leaf. This is a green snake!"" Fati screamed, ""Eii!"" She ran very fast to look for her mother and father. Fati saw her father and shouted, ""A snake! A snake!"" Father said, ""Where? Where?"" Fati said, ""There! There!"" Then her father chased the green snake with a stick. The green snake slithered away. Father said, ""Fati, you are safe. Let's go to mother and tell her about the green snake."" Mother said, ""Fati, I am happy the green snake did not bite you."" ""But next time, please, look where you go, and be more careful."" And that was the end of that.",-0.157654161,0.49386076
7fe628758,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00067,CC BY 4.0,"Otoliths, or ear stones, grow inside the inner ear of bony fish. There are over 28,000 species, including such diverse species as clownfish, seahorse, salmon, and tuna. Bony fish have three pairs of otoliths—the sagittae, the lapilli, and the asteriscii. Otoliths are made of calcium carbonate, the same chemical compound that chalk and limestone are made of. Different fish have otoliths that are different in shape and size, so scientists can find the otoliths in the poop of birds and seals to see what kind of fish these animals are eating-yuck! Otoliths allow the fish to keep their balance and to detect sound and water depth. Otoliths grow continuously during a fish's life, a few microns each day from birth until death. One micron is 1,000 times smaller than one millimeter, so otoliths are typically about the size of a grain of sand in juvenile fish and the size of a fingernail in most adult fish.",-1.363978683,0.490965096
b690db35a,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00070,CC BY 4.0,"Colors are everywhere in nature, and they communicate useful information. Flowers use colors to advertise that they have nectar, fruits change color when they are ripe, and birds and butterflies use their colorful wings to find mates or to startle enemies. To use this information, animals must be able to see colors. Humans have ""trichromatic"" color vision, meaning that all the colors we perceive can be produced by mixing three primary colors—red, green, and blue. This is because we have three kinds of light-sensing cells in our eyes, one kind sensitive to red, one to green, and one to blue light. Different species have different types of light-sensing cells. Honeybees also have three types, but they have cells that sense ultraviolet light instead of red light. Butterflies typically have 6 or more types of light-sensing cells, but we found one swallowtail species that has at least 15, which is the record among insects. In this article, we discuss how the world might look to a butterfly with such a complex eye.",0.070826688,0.478978682
620f1eb43,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"The day before the king and his family left, he held a feast. Everyone attended. Leopards, snakes, rabbits, snails, birds and even ants came to the feast. The king addressed the people, ""My family and I are going away to the other part of Okugbe Island. We want to feel the pain that other people feel."" People whispered amongst themselves. The elders did not believe him. But who could question the king? So, everyone drank and feasted. The next day, the king and his family sailed away. For the first two days, the boats rolled through the waters. The sky was clear, the sea was calm, and the trip was a happy one. On the third day, the sea became rough. The sky became cloudy. A great storm came upon them. The boats were overturned. The king was helpless as his wealth and family were lost to the sea. The king alone survived.",0.684207676,0.488843705
cd5279677,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Podcasting is a way to share information as digital audio files. People often subscribe, download, and share podcasts using a computer and listen to them on an MP3 player.
Many podcasts are similar to broadcast radio news or discussion programs. Some use other formats such as a continuing story, comedy show, lecture, or audiobook.
Podcasts can be found for almost anything. Radio shows, do it yourself projects, special interest groups, religious sermons, comedy sketches, cartoons, and just about anything else can be found. Once a podcast is found, it can be subscribed to like a magazine or newspaper and then downloaded. Once it is downloaded, it can be stored on an MP3 player to be listened to.
Podcasting has become so popular that many people who write for magazines or report news on television have also been putting out their own podcasts.",1.174546793,0.531964254
99067575a,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-american-criminal-justice-system,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"The criminal justice system that originated with the amendments in the Bill of Rights now has three modern components. The first is law enforcement. There are law enforcement officers and departments in every arena of American life, from park rangers to small town police forces to federal agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Law enforcement is a vast and complex system because there is an enormous amount of laws in our country. Every year, new laws are introduced by elected officials and current laws are tweaked. At the national level, thousands of statutes and regulations codify our laws. In addition to federal laws, states have their own sets of statutes and regulations for issues and topics that have been left to states to regulate. Furthermore, when judges make rulings, their rulings set a precedent, meaning that these decisions can be binding or persuasive in subsequent cases. When a similar situation comes before a judge, they are guided by how previous cases in their jurisdiction were decided. Due to the complex tangle of laws at all levels of American society, the law enforcement branch of the justice system is immense.",-0.879313861,0.474963081
261432a07,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00062,CC BY 4.0,"A typical photograph is a motionless picture viewed from a single perspective. In the real world, however, when we view a scene we can move around and look at things from different angles. Leika the dog is sitting by a chair. We can sometimes see more of the chair than we can see of Leika, depending on our particular vantage point. How much our view of Leika is blocked by the chair depends on where we are standing. It is also important to note that we get a sense of depth in these pictures. In the photos, we can tell that the chair is (usually) closer to us than Leika, because it partially blocks our view of her. Knowing how close or far away things are partly depends upon our having binocular vision. Binocular vision means that our left and right eyes see things from slightly different viewpoints, because they are located on different sides of the face. This means that our brain has to merge together information from these two perspectives. This process is called stereopsis.",-0.510327323,0.467877691
5ac1be4cf,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00030,CC BY 4.0,"There are many situations in which you think about something or talk to somebody while you do some movement with your body at the same time. For example, you might talk about your homework with your friend while walking to school. Or you might ride your bike while listening to music. At first sight, these situations do not seem to be tricky, and you have probably done such things many times in your life. But what happens when you need to cross a busy street on your way to school? Maybe you will stop talking for a while and focus your attention on the traffic, so that you can reach the other side of the street safely. Researchers who are interested in the relationship between thinking and moving often ask people to perform tasks with both thinking and moving components in a laboratory. The researchers want to find out whether people's performances on the movement task or the thinking task or both get worse when they need to do two things at the same time.",0.356800873,0.512492518
e9027d7c5,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00003,CC BY 4.0,"To interpret context in social settings, your brain relies on a network of brain regions, including the frontal, temporal, and insular regions. These regions help you update contextual information when you focus on something (say, the traffic light as you are walking down the street). That information helps you anticipate what might happen next, based on your previous experiences. If there is a change in what you are seeing (as you keep walking down the street, a mean-looking Doberman appears), the frontal regions will activate and update predictions (""this may be dangerous!""). These predictions will be influenced by the context (""oh, the dog is on a leash"") and your previous experience (""yeah, but once I was attacked by a dog and it was very bad!""). If a person's frontal regions are damaged, he or she will find it difficult to recognize the influence of context. Thus, the Doberman may not be perceived as a threat, even if this person has been attacked by other dogs before! The main role of the frontal regions is to predict the meaning of actions by analyzing the contextual events that surround the actions.",-0.786118758,0.476348746
38035d30f,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts light energy into electrical energy. Sometimes the term solar cell is reserved for devices intended specifically to capture energy from sunlight, while the term photovoltaic cell is used when the light source is unspecified. The device needs to fulfill only two functions: photogeneration of charge carriers (electrons and electron holes) in a light-absorbing material, and separation of the charge carriers to a conductive contact that will transmit the electricity. This conversion is called the photovoltaic effect, and the field related to solar cells is known as photovoltaics. 
Solar cells have many apps. They have long been used in situations where electrical power from the grid is unavailable, such as in remote area power systems, Earth-orbiting satellites and space probes, consumer systems, e.g. handheld calculators or wrist watches, remote radiotelephones and water pumping applications. More recently, they are starting to be used in assemblies of solar modules connected to the electricity grid through an inverter, often in combination with net metering.",-2.457555647,0.521617955
09f2bfe05,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesizer,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A musical synthesizer is an instrument that uses electricity to make musical sounds. Very often synthesizers have a keyboard like that of a piano. When playing a piano keyboard, sounds are made by hitting soft hammers against strings pulled very tight. When playing a synthesizer keyboard, sounds are made by turning electrical oscillators on and off. Since ""synthesizer"" is such a big word, the word is usually shortened to ""synth"".
An oscillator is something that ""vibrates,"" or repeats the same pattern. The pendulum of a clock, for example, is a very slow oscillator. A piano string ""oscillates"" when struck by a hammer.
Electric oscillators might be made using transistors. They turn electricity into electrical patterns, or signals, that repeat over and over. When different keys are pressed, different notes are heard. This is done by making the signal from the oscillator repeat at different rates.",-1.077825512,0.459361179
79e11d324,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00070,CC BY 4.0,"Like Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease is also a neurodegenerative disease that causes movement problems and affects the basal ganglia. Unlike Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease is a genetic illness. This means that if either parent has the disease, the children are also very likely to have the illness. Huntington's Disease is a result of abnormal protein buildup in brain, which results in neuronal death, causing the movement disorder. Mainly, individuals with this disease will show excessive movement, movement that is generally unwanted and unnecessary. For example, they often have constant vibrating limbs, something that is out of their control. As the disease progresses, people with Huntington's will find it increasingly hard to move the way they want to move.
In any neurodegenerative disease, if neurons are dying, then the brain is getting smaller! This is a serious problem and causes the person to have memory and thinking problems. These problems are a common feature of all neurodegenerative diseases.",-0.687688231,0.444717183
30cab6ae4,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Long ago, there was a famine in the land of Taraba. People were forced to dig in ant hills to find grains. There was a man called Vyandeh who couldn't provide food for his family. One day, he said to his wife, ""Let me go and look for food."" He left. While he was away, the wife couldn't wait for his return. So, she cooked some pumpkin that she got from her mother for the children, Vyangel, Avaungwa and Jessica. Vyandeh come back late, with nothing for the family. The wife, Aershimana welcomed him and asked, ""Anything for the children to eat?"" He replied, ""No."" She gave him some pumpkin, but it didn't satisfy him. He asked, ""Where did you get the pumpkin?"" Aershimana replied, ""My mother keeps pumpkins on the roof of her room."" At midnight, Vyandeh woke up. He decided to go to his mother-in-law to steal the remaining pumpkins. He went to get a ladder. He put up the ladder and climbed to the old woman's roof. Vyandeh began to walk across the roof towards the pumpkins. Suddenly he fell through the roof, making a big noise! Pararam!",-0.407865668,0.47339431
32bbd34c9,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welding,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Welding is a way of heating pieces of metal using electricity or a flame so that they melt and stick together. There are many kinds of welding, including arc welding, resistance welding, and gas welding. The most common type is arc welding. Anyone who is near arc welding needs to wear a special helmet or goggles because the arc is so bright. Looking at the arc without visual protection may cause permanent eye damage. It is also important to cover all your skin because it can give you something like a sunburn. Hot sparks from the weld can burn any skin that is showing. One kind of welding that does not use an arc is Oxy-fuel welding (OFW), sometimes called gas welding. OFW uses a flame to heat up the metal. There are other kinds of welding that do not use an arc.",-0.651453846,0.487775611
ba96ff079,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_processor,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A word processor is a computer program (often a text editor) or a special computer intended to edit texts with colors and different font sizes and styles, or texts which will be printed.
Most such programs now have helpful instruments (tools) to make good texts. Important instruments include spelling & grammar checker, word count (this also counts letters and lines). Moreover, with such programs one can make attractive documents, add pictures into documents, make webpages, graphs etc. Also, they show synonyms (similar words) of words and some can read the text aloud. Many word processors, similar to many new programs, have configurable printing facilities. Some of the more versatile ones are called Desktop publishing programs.
Examples include:
Microsoft Word, one of the few commonly sold in shops
OpenOffice.org Writer, usually downloaded with OpenOffice.org
KWord for KDE
WordPad is among the simplest and most widespread",-0.631701701,0.492114614
165227ecf,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"They took Jallo and his mother to the village's fruit trees and invited them to take all the fruit that they liked. Except from the mango tree. In the garden, Jallo saw a very big mango tree with many ripe mangoes. Jallo was amazed to see so many ripe mangoes. He decided to pick one. Although Jallo had been asked not to eat from the mango tree, he did not listen. He said, ""Whatever happens, let it happen, I want to eat this mango."" Jallo's mother warned him again. But he refused to obey her. On eating the mango, his stomach suddenly started rumbling. Jallo felt unwell. He started crying. His head started to swell. Then, a mango tree grew out of his head! Jallo became a mango tree. Since that time, whenever someone touches the branches of that mango tree, it sings a song. The tree sings, ""Whoever doesn't obey the elders, will regret. I made Jallo an example."" That's how it is, and why wise people say, ""Whoever refuses to listen to the elders, ends up regretting it.""",-0.388758647,0.493860126
90d8170d5,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Kwesi's parents were Papa and Maame. Maame always advised her son, ""Don't swim in any river or sea because it is dangerous."" 
During the school vacation, Kweku Twum travelled to Simpa (Winneba). He went to spend the holiday with his uncle, Kobina Amfo who was a very good fisherman. Kobina Amfo had many canoes at Simpa. 
When Kweku Twum returned from Simpa, he visited his friend Kwesi Gyasi. He told Kwesi about his experiences and enjoyment, especially swimming in the sea! 
Kwesi was interested and wished he had travelled with Kweku to the sea. 
One afternoon, the two friends decided to swim in the village stream. They went out when nobody was watching. 
As soon as they got to the stream, Kweku Twum jumped into the water with a splash. He called Kwesi Gyasi to join him but he did not. He remembered his mother's advice. 
But Kweku finally convinced his friend to swim. They really enjoyed themselves in the water. 
It was getting late and the sun was setting. Kweku told Kwesi to get ready to go home. He got out of the water, dried himself and put on his clothes. Kwesi was still in the water.",-1.061225412,0.473118645
fa65744eb,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One Friday, the three friends decided to go in search of kola nuts in the forest. They wanted to sell at the market. After their parents left for the market, they also set off to the forest. They came to the River Dome, which was very full. Ntiamoa shouted, ""Eei! How can we cross this river?"" Nyameky answered, ""I have read that when rivers overflow their banks you can cross by making a sacrifice."" The children did not have anything to offer at that time, so they made promises to the river. Ntiamoa said, ""Nana Dome if you will allow me to cross over, I will offer you three times three kola nuts."" Nyameky made the same promise. When Adena's turn came, because of her pride, she promised, ""Nana Dome, if you will allow me to cross over, on my return I will offer three times two kola nuts and two eggs."" River Dome responded, ""My grandchildren, cross over, and remember to fulfil your promises."" After the children crossed the river safely, they went into the forest. They soon all filled their sacks with kola nuts. On their way home they got to the river again.",-0.968179945,0.469773464
e63fb9c1d,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00024,CC BY 4.0,"The way ticks develop and interact with their environment is complicated, but it is important to understand how ticks develop and search for hosts. Any information about how ticks live is the basis for understanding the epidemiology of tick-borne diseases, meaning how these diseases spread and how we can control them. Since ticks are blood feeders, they must ingest large amounts of blood to completely develop. An adult female I. solitarius may ingest as much as 5–10 times their weight in blood in one feeding. After the female feeds on a host and mates, she drops to the ground and finds shelter in leaves or other natural material to lay thousands of eggs. Temperature controls egg development. The higher the temperature, the faster the eggs develop. There is an optimal temperature that varies among tick species, but 20°C is a good average temperature for egg development. Temperatures higher than 20°C increase the chance that the eggs will die. The immature tick that hatches out of the egg is called a larva. The larvae must then find a host.",-0.119887973,0.49163297
bb02f66b8,,,"Nowadays, many of us think about corn grains as food for chickens, pigs, and other farm animals, but corn has many other uses. In the food industry, corn starch, derived from ground corn kernels, is added into various foods such as pasta, candies, sauces, breads, soups, stews, and baby food. Some edible oils and syrups are also made from corn, such as fructose and other sweeteners, used in most sodas or even juices sold in supermarkets. Processed corn is also used in medicines, cosmetics, glues, paper, textiles, paints, and solvents. Corn residues or ""scraps"" have recently been used to create biodegradable materials similar to plastics. Another use for corn is to use its sugars to make biodiesel fuel for use in cars and other vehicles.
So, not only can we eat corn as an additive mixed into different foods, or as a side dish like delicious corn on the cob, or grits, or as a snack in the form of nachos and popcorn: around the world, there are many dishes—and cultures—that totally revolve around corn. In such cultures, corn is a central component of their cuisines.",0.025798866,0.532566481
7680bdd18,,,"Whales and other marine mammals that dive to obtain food underwater often dive in bouts. The bouts are periods when the whale dives repeatedly, with only a short amount of time at the surface before the next dive. We think that marine mammals dive in bouts to get as much food as possible while they are diving. For example, if they find a large school of fish, they do not want to spend so much time at the surface that the school escapes, so they dive again to quickly get down to catch more fish. Therefore, they only stay at the surface long enough to replenish their oxygen. However, the time at the surface may not be long enough to remove all the nitrogen from their blood. Because of this, the amount of nitrogen increases slowly from dive to dive, and sometimes it increases enough that bubbles may form in the whales when they return to the surface.",-0.122770289,0.444109655
0915b75d9,,,"When thinking about why we yawn, people mostly pay attention to the respiratory, or breathing, aspect. When breathing, we inhale to increase our oxygen supply, and we exhale to get rid of excess carbon dioxide. So, the deep breath that accompanies yawning has led many people to believe that the purpose of yawns is to increase oxygen levels. While this explanation seems to make good sense, research conducted 30 years ago firmly rejected this idea. In a clear test of whether yawning was caused by low oxygen levels, Dr. Robert Provine et al. designed an experiment in which they changed the content of the air that was inhaled by participants in the laboratory and then witnessed the effects that the air had on yawning. The researchers had separate conditions where participants either inhaled air with extra oxygen or extra carbon dioxide. These experiments demonstrated that neither breathing pure oxygen nor increased levels of carbon dioxide altered the rate of yawning in humans. In other words, the results of this study revealed that yawning was unaffected by the amount of oxygen in the air, and that yawning, and breathing are controlled by separate mechanisms.",-0.634706485,0.44687298
b07592b93,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"During a drought, Yihdego left home to find a job. At that time, Tiebe was pregnant with their second child. 
After staying away for a long time, Yihdego decided to return to his home. 
Before starting his journey, he went to a wise old man for advice. 
After Yihdego greeted the old man, he said, ""I have been away from my home and family for a long time. Now I want to go back. I need your blessing and advice."" 
""Listen my son, on your journey home, do not use a shortcut. Do not comment on everything you see. Do not make a decision while you are angry,"" advised the old man. 
Yihdego set off on his journey. He met four merchants. They came to a cross- road. 
The merchants chose to go the short way. Yihdego remembered the old man's advice. He went the long way. 
The merchants who went the short way were robbed by bandits. 
After travelling the whole day, Yihdego arrived at a village. He asked many households if he could stay the night, but all refused. 
A man told him, ""We don't allow strangers to stay in our houses but ask over there.""",-0.743273833,0.477942309
2dad3528b,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"There was a hyena and a donkey who lived near a city. They met by chance and became friends. They made an agreement to share food, and to defend themselves together. They did everything together. They even started living together. One day they went to a river to drink water. On their way they were chatting and laughing. At the river, the donkey went downwards and was drinking downstream. Hyena was drinking upstream. Suddenly the hyena stopped drinking. He complained, ""Donkey, why are you stirring up the water?"" Donkey kept silent and continued to drink. Hyena was very angry. ""Don't you listen? I'm talking to you, Donkey,"" shouted the hyena. The donkey looked at the hyena and asked, ""Since when did water move from downstream to upstream?"" The hyena replied, ""Water started to flow upstream when we became friends."" The hyena had decided to eat the donkey. Helplessly, the donkey said, ""It is my fault for thinking we could be friends. Alright, eat me then."" Hyena jumped up and grabbed the donkey.",0.253266589,0.488919722
fb5e72460,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"""Where are you going?"" the snake asked Berhe. ""I am crossing the river,"" replied Berhe. The snake asked, ""Please let me cross the river with you because I can't do it on my own."" Berhe was kind and answered, ""Come, I will help you to cross the river."" The snake climbed onto Berhe's head and they crossed the river. Berhe told the snake to get down. The snake refused, ""I will not, I'm comfortable here."" Berhe was worried. If he hit the snake with his stick, he would hurt his head. If he grabbed the snake, it would bite him. Berhe decided to get advice. He wanted hyena's opinion about the problem. ""Good afternoon, hyena,"" said Berhe. ""Good afternoon, how can I help you?"" asked hyena. Berhe continued, ""I know you are very fair, so I want you to judge us."" Berhe explained what had happened with the snake, and asked hyena's opinion on the matter.",0.220640262,0.473741692
ef60b30c3,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"There were four lambs living in a house with their mother. Mother was on her way to the market. ""You will open the door only when I say open the door, my children,"" she warned her lambs. Meanwhile, a fox was nearby and heard the mother. He went to the house and said, ""My children, open the door."" One of the lambs said, ""No, that is not our mother's voice. Our mother's voice is soft."" The fox was angry. The fox wanted to make his voice like the lambs' mother. He decided to eat butter. He went to a shopkeeper. ""Give me some butter, or I will eat you,"" threatened the fox. The shopkeeper gave him butter. The fox went to the lambs and said, ""My children, open the door."" A lamb looked through the keyhole of the door and saw the black leg of the fox. ""No, our mother's legs are red!"" shouted the lamb. Fox was not successful. Fox thought of another way. This time he planned to paint his legs with pepper powder. He went to a miller. ""Give me pepper powder, or I will eat you,"" the fox threatened. The miller gave him pepper powder.",0.254373308,0.476720439
986d76541,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Long ago, there was a clever cat and a foolish dog. The clever cat lived well in a wealthy family's house. The foolish dog starved on the street. ""How is it that a wealthy family allows you to live in their house?"" the foolish dog angrily asked the clever cat. The clever cat replied, ""I live with people because I'm neat and I bury my waste. I ask for food saying, meow."" ""If I do the same, will they allow me to live in a house?"" asked the dog. The cat replied, ""Yes, do what I have told you and they will allow you. They will give you food."" The foolish dog said, ""Today, I will not hurt you."" ""He almost got me this time. I don't want to meet him again,"" said the cat, jumping away. Based on the cat's advice, the foolish dog barked loudly at the door of a house. ""The cat fooled me. I will eat her when I get her,"" shouted the foolish dog.",0.653170795,0.513919189
0eef376fd,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"There lived a beautiful girl. One day she was very hungry. She thought of ways of getting something to eat. She met a man who asked her, ""How are you, young girl? What makes you sad?"" The girl answered, ""I am hungry."" The man was sorry for the girl. He told her there was a feast in the neighborhood and she should go and steal food. The girl had never stolen before. The girl stood up quickly and went to the home that was holding the feast. When she got near, she forgot the instructions on how to steal. She sang repeatedly: I have come to steal food, f-o-o-d, I am walking slowly, slo-wly. People heard the song of the girl from far until she got into the homestead. People were amazed by the nature of the song and asked her, ""Where do you come from? What do you want? Why are you singing?"" The girl told them how hungry she was, and they gave her food. Later, she was advised that stealing is bad!",1.222901474,0.546869061
e422c68f6,,,"Studies have shown that people who are more grateful than others will automatically think about the things that happen to them in a more positive way. Most situations that happen in our lives are not 100% good or 100% bad. How we think about or interpret what happens to us plays a big role in how we feel about the situation. Most people have learned ""thinking habits"" that they repeat over and over again.
One of these thinking habits is what is called a ""positive interpretation bias,"" which means that you are more likely to interpret a neutral or negative situation in a more positive way. For example, after falling off your bike, you could think ""I got so lucky that I did not get hurt"" and feel very grateful. Or, you could think ""I can't believe I was so stupid to fall of my bike"" and feel really angry. Having the grateful thoughts would be an example of a positive interpretation bias.",0.408821311,0.501724248
7a8c7b9af,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"A long time ago, deep in the forests, King Leopard began to think about the future. 
He thought, ""I'm getting old and one day, I'm going to die. A wise ruler should pick a successor while still young and healthy."" 
But how could King Leopard choose? He loved all the members of the animal kingdom the same! 
King Leopard had an idea. He sent his messengers out into the forests. He told them to ask all the animals of the kingdom to come to the palace. 
He was going to have a big party and he was going to make an important announcement. 
Away the messengers ran, to all four corners of the forest. 
On the night of the party, all the animals were at the palace. They sang and they danced and had a great time. 
After the moon had risen above the trees, King Leopard came and stood in the middle of the clearing. The animals stopped their singing and dancing. They listened quietly as their king began to speak. 
He cleared his throat and said, ""I've been thinking that it's time for me to pick a successor.""",1.019009189,0.504840137
3bb533026,,,"Using math, brain waves can be described by their features. The frequency, or wavelength, shows how many times the wave repeats itself in a certain amount of time. The amplitude describes how ""tall"" the wave is, and the phase of the wave describes its position in the wave cycle at specific times (whether it is at the peak or the trough or somewhere in between). The waves are measured in microvolts (mV or 1/1,000,000 of a volt). A typical alpha wave is about 20–100 µV in size. The brain waves give scientists an idea of how excitable the millions of neurons are under each electrode. Previous experiments showed that certain types of brain waves are related to specific brain functions. For example, the act of seeing, called visual perception, is associated with a specific type of wave, called alpha wave.",-2.116397617,0.502720848
d74dbaa08,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One Saturday morning, Tarik and Bedilu were taking their flock to the common grazing land. They also carried their school books to study for examinations. Bedilu said, ""Let's play kisara for few minutes to relax our minds."" Tarik replied, ""No, we should start studying!"" ""We will study soon. Please play!"" Bedilu begged. In the end, the boys played kisara. (Kisara is a game where players take turns throwing flat stones or coins into a small hole, standing about a meter away.) Without noticing, they played the game for about two hours. When they looked, they couldn't see their sheep anywhere. They ran everywhere searching for the sheep. From a distance, they saw a wolf chasing their sheep! Then they saw that the wolf had killed Tarik's sheep. He began crying. He knew that his father would punish him severely. When Bedilu took his sheep home, Tarik didn't go home. He decided to spend the night in the big tree not far from his house.",-0.256244635,0.505786526
902d55f44,,,"Although people have known about liver regeneration for a long time, it was not until the 1900s that liver regeneration was formally studied and discovered to occur in all mammals. To study liver regeneration, in 1931, Higgins and Anderson performed an experiment in rats, in which the two largest lobes of the liver were very carefully removed. Work with animals involves the use of clean instruments, anesthesia, and respectful treatment. Because the liver has a lot of blood vessels, to avoid bleeding, the main vessels of the liver were tied with a special thread. Higgins and Anderson found that the rat liver returned to its normal size in 7 days. Even today, this is still the most popular way for scientists to study liver regeneration. Using experiments of this type, we are able to understand what kind of genes, hormones, and growth factor proteins participate in the process of liver regeneration.",-0.606895841,0.480216268
8397654c4,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Gong! Gong! Gong! 
We heard the village bell early in the morning. 
""Boys, wake up and prepare the tools,"" grandma called from her bedroom. 
We yawned and stretched out of bed. 
That day was nhimbe at Mbuya Sigauke's field. 
We went to the hozi and collected all the tools. 
We carried the tools to the fields. 
The whole Chamutsa village had come to help Mbuya Sigauke. 
Every farming season, the villagers help old people to weed their fields. 
Everyone is given a portion to weed. This portion is called ndima. 
When it was midday, the villagers sat under the big Mutsamvi tree to rest. 
Mbuya Sigauke gave the villagers maheu to drink. 
The villagers rested drinking maheu. 
After resting,the villagers finished weeding the field. 
Mbuya Sigauke was very happy. 
She thanked all the villagers for helping her. 
In Zimbabwe, people do nhimbe to help others do their work. Do you help people in your community?",-1.214881253,0.454183406
9be269634,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00017,CC BY 4.0,"A concussion is an injury to the brain that is caused by a sudden, abrupt movement of the head, typically because of a blow or jolt to the head or body that makes the brain move rapidly inside the skull.
The injury that results from this is called a mild traumatic brain injury, most commonly referred to as a concussion. There are many different definitions of concussion, but they all have some things in common. These common features include changes in brain function, including changes in the way you think (cognitive changes), in the way your brain works (neurological changes), and in the way you feel (physical and emotional changes). These changes may or may not be accompanied by a temporary loss of consciousness, also known as fainting or passing out. The abrupt movement of the brain can stretch and injure brain cells, which can change the way these cells function. These changes can be short-lived or long-lived, but most of the time, the cells heal and function normally in 7–10 days.
Sometimes, it may take longer than 10 days for the brain to return to normal after a concussion, especially in children.",0.469043768,0.555737774
04caeb3bd,,,"It is hard to figure out how little kids learn something as complicated as language. Do they copy their parents? Do they start making sounds until the right words come out? Do they find patterns and learn which sounds go together a lot, like b-a-b-y? Do they learn that different words match up with different things and use this to figure out what the words mean? Do they make guesses about what words come next and then learn from their mistakes? Do they just want to have fun with their moms, dads, brothers, and sisters, and this motivates them to learn language? Different scientists think learning happens in different ways. There are so many possibilities. While scientists love to disagree with each other, they generally agree that learning builds on itself over time. The first years of life matter a lot for our ability to learn later on and for our ability to do well in school. What's exciting is that language learning is still a big mystery, and scientists will have plenty of work to do in the coming decades (or even centuries)!",-0.406540947,0.508781261
79d17eb82,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"""What happened to my spinach?"" she demanded to know. Sipho was so scared that he could not talk. While they were standing in the garden, Thabo arrived. ""Thabo, do you know anything about my spinach?"" asked grandmother. ""No, grandmother. I don't know anything about the spinach,"" replied Thabo. ""Did you two boys leave the gate open? I told you never to leave it open."" ""No, grandmother!"" said the boys with one voice. The two boys started to blame each other. They began to argue. Grandmother heard them arguing and called them. Grandmother asked them what they were arguing about. The boys told her the truth about the spinach. They admitted to grandmother that they had left the gate open. They were very sorry. Grandmother was very kind. In a calm voice she said, ""I hope you two boys have learned your lesson. You must never leave the gate open again.""",0.556225571,0.548504604
d8f9566b2,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The constitution of a country (or a state) is a special type of law document that tells how its government is supposed to work. It tells how the country's leaders are to be chosen and how long they get to stay in office, how new laws are made and old laws are to be changed or removed based on law, what kind of people are allowed to vote and what other rights they are guaranteed, and how the constitution can be changed.
Limits are put on the Government in how much power they have within the Constitution (see Rule of Law). On the other hand, countries with repressive or corrupt governments frequently do not stick to their constitutions or have bad constitutions without giving freedom to citizens and others. This can be known as dictatorship or simply ""bending the rules."" A Constitution is often a way of uniting within a Federation.",-0.581659268,0.49428894
80fd33895,,,"A situation is a ""game"" whenever (i) more than one person is making a decision and (ii) people's decisions impact one another.
Just about everything we do in life is a game in the game-theory sense. At home, at school, everywhere we go, and just about everything we do, we are playing games. Do not believe me? Think back to the very beginning of your day, when you woke up. How quickly you got out of bed impacted your parents—and how early they woke you up impacted you—so that was a game! Think about what happened next, throughout the rest of the day. From the bathroom to the breakfast table, in the classroom and on the playground, you make choices that impact others as well as yourself. You're playing games! Knowing about game theory can help you improve your experience in those situations—not just to ""win,"" but to improve your relationships and have a happier life.
Game theory is used to study how people are likely to behave in strategic situations, with applications in economics, political science, business strategy, law, entrepreneurship, and military science, to name just a few.",-0.639122344,0.456438336
79e03e272,,,"The similarities and differences between the microbiomes of different animals made us wonder if species with similar diets have similar microbiomes, or whether the microbiomes are only similar because the species are related. For example, do a dolphin and a penguin have a similar microbiome because they both eat fish? Or, even though they have similar diets, do dolphins and penguins have different microbiomes because they are not closely related species? In science, it is common to create a hypothesis, then design an experiment, or a series of experiments, to test it. The results of the experiments are then reported in a trustworthy scientific journal. Other scientists read the report in the journal and come up with new ideas. Our hypothesis was that we would see the same bacteria in birds and animals with the same diet. Because this hypothesis needed multiple experiments to compare the microbiomes of different birds, this would have been impossible to do with a single experiment. To overcome this problem, we performed something called a meta-study. A meta-study involves looking at lots of different studies on the same topic and comparing the results from all the studies.",-1.120507299,0.438242253
84916bfcb,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delegate,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A delegate someone who is either chosen or elected to vote or act for others. In organizations like the United Nations, each country sends delegates to represent them.
Before a general election in the US, the process to select candidates begins with delegates. At the state level each of the major political parties selects delegates to attend a national convention. The two ways delegates are selected are the caucus and the Primary election. Each state may have different ways to select delegates as do political parties. The Republican Party lets each state decide how to select delegates. The Democratic Party uses a proportional method for awarding delegates. The percentage of delegates each candidate is awarded depends on the caucus or how many are elected for each candidate. Candidate ""X"" may have 40 percent, candidate ""Y"" may have 20 percent while candidate ""Z"" may have 50 percent. Any remaining percent may be undecided votes or for other candidates.",-1.509700571,0.495389448
5942695bd,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00030,CC BY 4.0,"Antibiotics have been used for almost a century to treat bacterial diseases in humans and also in animals. Throughout this time, bacteria have been looking for strategies to survive antibiotic treatment. Imagine a battlefield, where a population of bacteria is attacked by small bullets (antibiotics). If one of the bacteria can find a shield to protect itself, it will survive. The surviving bacteria will have the advantage of being resistant to antibiotics forever and so will their descendants. This is the reason why, when you get sick, you have to take all the pills prescribed by the doctor, even if you already feel better. This is very important to prevent ""survivors"" in the battle! Bacteria resistant to antibiotics (called ""superbugs"") are very dangerous for us, because we have no weapons to fight against them. Also, these resistant bacteria can be transmitted to other people or even to animals. Nowadays, there are a high number of bacteria that have become resistant to many different antibiotics, and this is a threat for people worldwide.",0.145878737,0.459836965
779547d0a,,,"Optogenetics is a method for controlling a neuron's activity using light and genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is a process where scientists change the information in the genetic code (the blueprints) of a living thing. In optogenetic studies, scientists take the genetic code of the neurons they want to study and add a new piece of code to it. The new code allows these neurons to make special proteins, called opsins, which respond to light. Opsins occur naturally and were first discovered in algae, which use these proteins to help them move toward light. But how does the opsin get into the neuron? This requires some specialized laboratory techniques. Let's look at a mouse as our example. To get the opsin into the neurons of a mouse, the genetic code for the opsin must be carefully inserted into the genetic code for the neurons in the mouse. If this is done correctly, now every neuron in the mouse should have the opsin. Because we understand a lot about the genetic code of the mouse, we can choose where to put the opsin. We can insert the code into a specific type of neuron, or into a specific location in the brain.",-2.629611905,0.500908131
ab26eef44,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00019,CC BY 4.0,"Why do humans feel the need to be creative and enjoy creative material? While creativity is a basic part of human thinking, what counts as creativity and how do we measure it? Creativity is often viewed as a subjective field, meaning that everyone's personal opinion about creativity is different, so we need to have a really clear definition in order to understand what creativity is. So, what exactly is creativity? While there are many components of creativity, including originality, pleasure, value, process, and imagination, the definition that scientists use to study creativity puts those components together to say that creativity is an ability to produce something that is both novel (or original) and has utility (is valuable to someone). This definition allows scientists to develop of testable hypotheses about how creativity arises from the human brain.
We all interact with, process, and produce creativity differently, which makes creating a universal definition of creativity very challenging. As Steve Jobs reminds us, even creative people have a hard time seeing the things they think and create as creative!",-0.722962079,0.481069636
bd4d8852e,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"In a certain year, there was no rain. The crops did not grow well. All the plants dried up. People did not have any food to eat. Cassava and Palm decided to travel to another village to look for work. On their way, they met a woman. ""Good afternoon,"" they greeted her. She responded and asked, ""Where are you going?"" ""We are going to the next village to look for work,"" said Palm. ""What work can you do?"" the woman asked. The friends responded, ""We can provide food for your family and animals."" The woman asked, ""What do you need to provide the food?"" ""Give us land, water and good care,"" they replied. The woman took them home with her One afternoon, Palm tree and Cassava had an argument. Cassava said he was more important than Palm. Palm said he was more important than Cassava. The woman heard them from her room. She came out and asked, ""Why are you fighting?"" Cassava spoke first. ""I am more important than Palm tree. I provide tubers for your fufu, gari, boiled cassava and cassava dough.""",-0.489722963,0.503064682
e33c8a8ce,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"An eclipse is an astronomical event. It is a process that develops slowly across time.
The eclipse is when one object in the sky moves into the shadow of another such object. When an eclipse happens within a system of stars, like the Solar System, it makes a type of syzygy. This means that three or more objects in the sky are lined up in a straight line in the same gravitational system.
The term eclipse is most often used to describe a solar eclipse, when the Moon's shadow crosses the Earth's surface, or a lunar eclipse, when the Moon moves into the shadow of Earth. No solar eclipse can last longer than 7 minutes and 58 seconds because of the speed at which the Earth and Moon move.
When the Sun is not involved, the event is called occultation.",0.031524594,0.514280934
7492e758c,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00027,CC BY 4.0,"Back in time, humans and any other animal on Earth needed to eat. Food consisted of fruits and cereals, which are rich in carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are our main nutrients still today. As its name says, they are formed basically of Carbon atoms bounded to Hydrogen and also to Oxygen atoms. Glucose is one of the simplest carbohydrates, known and has 6 atoms of Carbon, 12 of Hydrogen, and 6 of Oxygen. Many carbohydrates (glucose, sucrose, lactose, etc.) are sweet, and for this reason they are also known as sugars. The second most important nutrient for early humans was probably protein, and hunting/fishing wild animals was the best way to get protein. Lipids, vitamins and minerals, and other nutrients needed to keep early humans alive were obtained from the vegetable/fruit and animal foods. But there is one thing missing—actually the most important one—water. A relevant point for this article is the way Homo drank water before and after fire discovery. Before fire was discovered, humans obviously had to drink water that was at ""room"" temperature, but after they discovered fire, humans were able to prepare hot drinks.
The ability to heat water probably made eating more enjoyable for early humans.",-0.954180142,0.468965053
e7dca6a96,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_engineering,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Electronic engineering is a discipline that investigates all kinds of situations related to electricity and magnetism. Electronic engineers are concerned with such processes as; the transfer of information using radio waves, the design of electronic circuits, the design of computer systems, and the development of control systems such as aircraft autopilots and other embedded systems. The term electronic engineering started to emerge in the late 1950s. Before the second world war, electronic engineering was commonly known as a 'radio engineering'. At that time, studying radio engineering at a university was part of a physics degree. Later, as consumer devices started to be developed, the field broadened to include modern TV, audio systems, Hi-Fi and later computers and microprocessors. In the mid to late 1950s, the term radio engineering gradually gave way to the name 'electronic engineering', which then became a standalone university degree subject. Fundamental studies of the discipline are the sciences of physics and mathematics as these help to get both qualitative and quantitative descriptions of how such systems will work.",-1.011278343,0.479459357
b55026bd9,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,This is Cat. This is Dog. Cat and Dog live in a house. A house with a door. A house with a roof. Cat and Dog have a ball. The ball is red and blue and green. Cat and Dog play with the ball. Cat throws the ball to Dog. Dog catches the ball. Dog throws the ball to Cat. Cat catches the ball. Then Cat throws the ball very high. Oh! oh! The ball is on the roof. The ball is on the roof of the house. Cat and Dog can see the ball. Cat and Dog cannot get to the ball. Cat and Dog cry. Then Elephant comes by. Elephant is big. Elephant can see the ball. Elephant can get to the ball. Elephant gets the ball from the roof. Elephant takes the ball from the roof of the house. Elephant gives the ball to Cat and Dog. Cat and Dog smile. Elephant smiles. Cat and Dog and Elephant smile.,0.230335717,0.492035744
420b4ae48,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Cat and Dog look through the window. They look through the window. Then Cat and Dog see a butterfly! The butterfly is pink. Cat and Dog want to catch the butterfly. Cat and Dog follow the butterfly. They follow the butterfly. Cat and Dog follow the butterfly by foot. They walk after the butterfly. But the butterfly is fast. The butterfly is too fast, and Cat and Dog are slow. They are too slow. Cat and Dog follow the butterfly by bike. They ride after the butterfly. But the butterfly is fast. The butterfly is very fast, and Cat and Dog are slow. They are very slow. Cat and Dog follow the butterfly by car. They drive after the butterfly. But the butterfly is fast. The butterfly is still too fast, and Cat and Dog are slow. They are still too slow. Cat and Dog follow the butterfly by boat. They float after the butterfly. But the butterfly is fast. The butterfly is super-fast, and Cat and Dog are slow. They are still super-slow.",0.220971467,0.488543613
1c6ffcd35,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Dog is in his house. Dog is sitting in his house. Then someone knocks on the door. Dog opens the door. Dog sees someone yellow! Dog asks, ""Who are you?"" It is Cat. Cat is yellow. Cat's head is yellow. Cat's hair is yellow. Cat's arms are yellow. Cat's hands are yellow. Cat's mouth is yellow. Cat's nose is yellow. Cat's ears are yellow. Cat's eyes are yellow. Dog asks, ""Why are you yellow?"" Cat says, ""I do not know."" Dog asks, ""Where were you?"" Cat says, ""I was at the school."" Dog asks, ""Which school?"" Cat says, ""I was at the school in the village."" Dog asks, ""When were you at school?"" Cat says, ""I was at school this morning."" Dog asks, ""What were you doing at school?"" Cat says, ""I was sleeping."" Dog asks, ""You were sleeping at school?! Where were you sleeping?"" Cat says, ""I was sleeping behind the school.""",-0.605215702,0.469127294
78006971c,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"For Dog it is too cold. Cat gives Dog underwear. One pair of underwear is dirty. One pair of underwear is clean. Dog takes the clean underwear. But it is still too cold. Cat gives Dog shirts. One shirt is big. One shirt is small. Dog takes the big shirt. But it is still too cold. Cat gives Dog trousers. One pair of trousers is long. One pair of trousers is short. Dog takes the long pair of trousers. But it is still too cold. Cat gives Dog vests. One vest is wet, one vest is dry. Dog takes the dry vest, but it is still too cold. Cat gives Dog jackets. One jacket is thick, one jacket is thin. Dog takes the thick jacket, but it is still too cold. Cat gives Dog hats. One hat is high, one hat is low. Dog takes the high hat, but it is still too cold. Cat gives Dog shoes. One pair of shoes is new, one pair of shoes is old.",-1.340719333,0.464120003
08c7bbf09,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00018,CC BY 4.0,"Scientists haven't figured out exactly why some people struggle to focus or to stay still more than others. Many things, like the genes we got from our parents or the environment we grew up in, make us each unique and cause us to behave differently. While our brains are all built the same way, each person's brain works a little bit different. Some scientists think that the way chemical messages are sent in some parts of the brain makes it harder for some people to focus or wait, like children and adults with ADHD. They don't mean to bother their friends or make their teachers or parents mad by not focusing or waiting, but it is just so much harder for them.
Scientists think that several parts of the brain may be associated with the symptoms of ADHD. Right in the center of the brain, there is a part called the striatum—say it like ""strai-ay-tuhm."" This part of the brain becomes more active in response to experiences that are fun, tasty, or new. The striatum is made up of many neurons—neurons are nerve cells with the special function of carrying messages throughout our brain and body.",0.437422852,0.565359578
3a91be9ef,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Abel had no driver for his new cart. He said to his sister Meri, ""I want a driver for my cart. Please give me your doll. She can sit in the cart."" But Meri said, ""No, I want my doll."" When Meri would not let him take the doll, Abel was very angry. He grabbed the doll and pulled her. Meri pulled the doll's other arm. Abel pulled and Meri pulled. The doll's arm came off! Meri cried and ran to her mother. ""Look Mother,"" she said, ""Abel pulled my doll's arm and it came off. He wanted my doll to sit in his new cart, but I wanted to play with her."" Her mother said, ""Abel did not behave well."" Mother thought about how to teach her son not to touch his sister's toys. She had an idea. She went to her friend who was a doctor and she asked, ""I want you to help me please."" The doctor replied, ""How can I help, my friend?"" Mother answered, ""My son Abel is behaving badly these days. He pulled the arm off his sister's doll. He must not do that.",0.624679088,0.582305587
f7c409bed,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00005,CC BY 4.0,"Try this simple exercise: go to your music library, pick a song, and play the first 3 s of it. Give yourself 1 point if you can manage to sing or hum at least the next 5 s of that song. Do this for 20 songs. How many points did you score? We would not be surprised if it is more than 15. Now, think about what you just did. You effortlessly recalled the pitch, rhythm, and maybe even the lyrics of more than 15 songs in a short amount of time. That is a lot of data you managed to summon from your brain, just like that!
Our brains possess a remarkable ability to make, store, and retrieve memories of music, even when we are not aware of doing so. For example, if you hear a catchy song, you will most likely be able to remember parts of it a few days later. After hearing it several times, you might know it by heart. Think about how much more effort it takes to learn information from a textbook, or to remember the details of day-to-day events in your life.",1.026815279,0.520131757
20f3a0c5c,,,"When we mention bacteria in the human body, you might immediately think of a disease, called a bacterial infection. At some point in your life, you have probably had an infection that was treated by antibiotics prescribed by your doctor. Antibiotics are medicines that kill or prevent the growth of bacteria.
However, the majority of the microbes are harmless and actually help to maintain our health. The microbes of the skin, mouth, and nose fight against bad bacteria that want to enter the body to cause disease. These good bacteria act like guards that keep away the harmful bacteria that make us sick. The bacteria that colonize the vagina are another example of good bacteria. They maintain an acidic environment in the vagina that prevents the growth of other microorganisms that might cause disease. Disease-causing microorganisms are called pathogens.
Even though most of the time they are harmless or even helpful, in certain conditions some of the bacteria that are part of the human microbiota can harm us.",-0.136519785,0.489989263
4840d2cac,,,"Clouds, whether they are big gray layers, fluffy white lumps, or streaks in the sky from aeroplanes, all have a few things in common. Most importantly, they are made up of tiny droplets of water, called ""cloud droplets."" Cloud droplets form when hot air from the Earth's surface rises and slowly cools down. Like the particles, the cloud droplets are so small that they do not fall to the ground (unless the cloud is raining). The rising air around them is pushing them up, gravity is pulling them down, and they end up just floating around the sky.
In the sky, unless there is some kind of surface for it to stick to, or unless it is really, really cold (-38°C), water exists as a gas. When there is a surface, water can liquefy (become liquid) or freeze onto the surface, as it does on the ground. However, in the sky, there are no big obvious surfaces. Therefore, to make a cloud droplet, you need a tiny particle, which has a small surface that water can stick to. The particle acts as the seed for the droplet.",-0.26013064,0.462922487
b81464e80,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The word independence means ""not dependent"", or not having to depend on anyone or anything else. It also means being strong and able to survive alone. Anything can be dependent or independent. When people talk about independence, it may be about people or countries, where it is often being spoken about as a good thing. For places, it may mean sovereignty or autonomy. In science, as in independent variable the word does not mean it's good or bad.
A country gets its independence when it is no longer part of another country. Sometimes countries get their independence in a war, as when the United States left the British Empire in the American War of Independence. Countries can also get their independence peacefully, like Canada and Norway did. Help from another country may be needed to get independence, like in World War II, when the allies freed many countries that had been controlled by the Axis powers and, temporarily, vice versa. Attempts to gain independence may be unsuccessful and may lead to civil war.",-0.315739242,0.515779321
355a68dd7,,,"Neuroscientists, scientists who study how the brain works, have been very interested in learning how memories are stored in the brain. However, neuroscientists have only very recently begun to study forgetting. To understand how the human brain forgets, we can study how fruit flies forget. Fruit flies are awesome, small insects that are great for scientific research. They grow very fast in the laboratory and we can produce as many flies as we want. Their genetic material, or DNA, is also very easy to change. DNA is a very long, thin chemical that contains the instructions to build any living organism. DNA contains genes, which are sections of the DNA that tell a cell how to make a protein. The instructions contained in the DNA of the flies can be changed in the lab. Genes can be removed, making a mutant fly. In this way, we can explore what happens to a fly if a piece of these instructions is removed.",-0.129758457,0.439579853
d8b60e09a,,,"What do corn roots have in common with your Facebook profile?
No, that was not the beginning of a joke. The two have more in common than you might think. We often think of a corn plant as a single organism. But plants are part of a network of relationships, sort of such as Facebook. These plant relationships are easy to overlook because they are hard to study. Still, they are very important because they affect how healthy plants are.
Soil is full of millions of microscopic bacteria and fungi. These microscopic organisms are collectively called microbes. Some of these microbes form close partnerships with plants. Plants can rely on microbes to help them get nutrients that are scarce in soil. Microbes break down dead plants and animals, and this process slowly releases nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements that plants need to grow. When plants cannot get enough of these nutrients on their own, they can send out sugars from their roots. The energy microbes get from these sugars helps them break down even more dead plants and animals. If enough nutrients are available in the soil, though, plants would rather keep their sugars for themselves.",-0.769008705,0.455249357
74f63cb2e,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00010,CC BY 4.0,"Although reflexes are super-fast and just happen without you thinking about them, this does not mean that they are bad. Reflexes protect you and allow you to move around without thinking about every single action and response your body needs to make. It is important that reflexes occur without the need for thinking about them because there are things that happen to your body and forces acting in your body when you move that need to be responded to very quickly. Reflexes allow your body to react in ways that help you to be safe, to stand upright, and to be active.
Imagine a typical day. You might be thinking of practicing your sport or musical instrument, walking to school, or making a snack. In all of these actions, you are thinking, but at the same time, there are also reflexes that you are unaware of happening inside your body. These reflexes are built naturally into the body, and they exist at birth and change as we grow older. Reflexes are kind of like safety features for survival that allow us to move in response to something in the environment.",0.111872653,0.466571158
7ce670150,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00028,CC BY 4.0,"Pierre Latreille, a French zoologist, was the first to describe the kennel tick in 1806. Some decades later, the German scientist Carl Ludwig Koch studied these ticks too, and based on some of their characteristics he gave the scientific name Rhipicephalus sanguineus to this tick species. These ticks still have the same scientific name today. Because houses and kennels where the dogs live can frequently become infested, often with very high numbers of ticks, this tick species is often referred to as the kennel tick.
The kennel tick is the most widespread tick in the world, but it is especially common in tropical and subtropical regions. In cooler regions, these ticks are more active from late spring to early autumn; however, in tropical and subtropical areas they are active over the entire year .
Generally, kennel ticks are small, between 3 and 4.5 mm in length, with an elongated body and red-brown in color.",-0.883537828,0.467569757
854573ece,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"There lived a hunter who survived by trapping wild animals. For many days he did not trap any single animal. His family began to starve. Hunting was their main source of food. One morning he went to check his traps in the forest. He was lucky that day, one of his traps had caught a giraffe. He got very happy when he saw the giraffe. He celebrated that his family will get food. He said, ""Let me carefully get the giraffe without losing much of its blood."" ""Let me cut the ankle tendons so that there is little blood."" He crept slowly, with his spear aimed at the ankle tendons. To his disappointment, he missed the target. The spear cut the trap! The giraffe jumped and before it could get away, the hunter grabbed the tail. He was dragged away. He was dragged through the forest. He finally let go of the tail. He was left bruised in the thorny bushes. He struggled his way out of the thorny bush with injuries and went home miserably. His greed and foolishness had denied him food!",0.925734335,0.563686245
cf44e1a67,,,"Where do we feel empathy and how does it work? Well, everything we feel or do is controlled by the brain. So, when you feel empathy, your brain is generating this feeling by activating certain areas of the brain that are important for empathy. Research on empathy shows that one of the major areas of the brain that is activated when you see a friend in pain is an area that scientists call S1. This area of the brain is not only responsible for empathy, but it is also active when you are in pain yourself. For instance, if you hit your knee, the S1 area also activates. This is very interesting, because it means that the pain you actually feel in your body may be similar to the empathy you feel for a friend's pain. In other words, this may mean that when you see your friend in pain, your brain activates as if you yourself were in pain. This is why sometimes it feels painful to see someone else in pain.",0.564178555,0.486699354
f68bdf0ac,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00025,CC BY 4.0,"Imagine this: you are sitting in a classroom on a sunny day as your science teacher enthusiastically tells you what our brain is capable of doing. Initially, you pay close attention to what the teacher is saying. But the sound of the words coming out of her mouth gradually fade away as you notice your stomach growling and you begin to think about that delicious ice cream you had last night. Have you ever caught yourself mind wandering? In similar situations, where your eyes are fixed on your teacher, friends, or parents, but your mind has secretly wandered off to another time and place? You may be recalling the last sports game you watched or fantasizing about going to the new amusement park this upcoming weekend, or humming your favorite tune that you just cannot get out of your head. This experience is what scientists call mind wandering, which is a period of time when we are focused on things that are not related to the ongoing task or what is actually going on around us.
Humans on average spend up to half of their waking hours mind wandering.",1.01346899,0.55436269
3026c751f,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00021,CC BY 4.0,"Each species has their different habits: a monkey jumps from branch to branch until it finds some fruit to eat, a bat flies around in the dark of the night between trees, a whale swims in the wide-open ocean. Since the brains of these animals help them to do all these tasks, we would guess that their brains would be very different. But it turns out that the main parts of the brain and the connections within the brain are all pretty much the same for all mammals. This similarity in brain structure exists because of the evolutionary history that all these brains share.
In fact, if we put brains of different mammals next to each other, the similarities are easy to spot. Even though the brains vary (a lot) in their size and in their folds, they all have the same parts. All these brains have a cerebral cortex, a cerebellum, and a brain stem. Also, the same kinds of cells make up all brains: they are made of neurons, glial cells, and the cells that make the capillaries (small blood vessels) that bring blood into the brain.",0.019739515,0.472477559
41e16dfb0,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00020,CC BY 4.0,"You have probably heard that humans are made up of mostly water. So, why don't we collapse into puddles on the ground? That is because the human body is made up of all different types of cells – skin cells (which are really flat), heart cells (which beat – for real!), and brain cells (which transmit information), to name a few. Cells have an important feature that prevents us from collapsing into puddles on the ground: they have an outer membrane, made up of special fat molecules, that keeps the water inside from leaking out! Inside the cells, there are more fatty membrane compartments called ""organelles"" that all have their own important jobs. One of the most important organelles is the nucleus. This is where the genetic information in the form of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is found. The nucleus controls which different proteins are expressed in each different type of cell. The proteins are the busy workers in the cell because they perform important jobs to allow the cell to do what it needs to do!",0.672292596,0.527337196
cc445e16d,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Getting things ready for the party had been hard work. Lynne and Anton had to do most of it themselves as Oupa Karel was too old to climb up ladders. But Oupa Karel did what he could by blowing up the balloons. 
""Now we only have to bake the cake!"" said Lynne. 
Oupa Karel sighed as he turned the pages of his recipe book. ""I'm not going to be much help,"" he said, shaking his head. ""I've never been good at cooking."" 
""That's okay, Oupa,"" said Lynne with a smile. ""Anton and I can do it. We just need to follow the recipe. How much of these ingredients should we use?"" 
""We need 150 grams of flour,"" said Oupa Karel, running a finger down the list of ingredients. ""Fifty grams of cocoa, 220 grams of sugar, 80 grams of butter, two eggs and half a cup of milk. That's 125 millilitres of milk."" ""Let's mix everything together in the big bowl,"" said Lynne. 
Anton took the wooden spoon and began to mix the ingredients together.",-0.101555009,0.49884686
8f3c9b36f,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Little Jojo and Tata Rectangle looked everywhere but they could not find the spring horn. ""Go and see if Mama Triangle has the spring horn,"" said Tata Rectangle. Little Jojo stopped at his house to pour a glass of cold water. Jojo visited Dudu Diamond and asked if she would go with him. ""It's not far but I will pack some food to take with,"" said Dudu. Dudu and Jojo stopped to eat and rest at the bottom of the triangle mountain. When they were halfway up the mountain, they saw a strange spider web. Jojo and Dudu arrived at Mama Triangle's house. ""The chief did not leave his spring horn here,"" said Mama Triangle. Mama Triangle knew where they could find the spring horn. It was evening when they arrived at Chief Short and Round's house. Mama Triangle pointed at the chief. ""You are wearing your spring horn on your head."" Chief Short and Round gave Little Jojo the spring horn to blow. They were happy.",-0.934732434,0.470129202
a2317c5a4,,,"Microbial communities can be characterized using certain tests that look at the DNA molecules of the microbes. DNA, as you might already know, is the genetic material of the cell. It contains instructions, in the form of genes, which provide the blueprint for creating the organism. Studying specific genes is a good way for scientists to learn about microbial communities. For example, we can look at a gene called the 16S rRNA gene. The 16S rRNA gene tells us about the relationships of microbes, and that is why it is called a ""phylogenetic"" marker gene. ""Phylogenetic"" is derived from Greek words meaning the origin of a tribe or a family. There were other marker genes used in this study, too, including genes coding for special proteins called enzymes—specifically enzymes that are important in using sulfur for energy.
By studying the DNA of these microbes using several different methods, which will be described below, we were able to study three things: how many microbes were present in the samples taken from the groundwater, how those microbes grew over time in each microcosm, and how those microbes were related to each other and to other microbes that we know about.",-2.307657979,0.515423132
f4612c761,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00017,CC BY 4.0,"Like any other part of your body, the spinal cord can be injured. Some people damage their spinal cords when they dive into a swimming pool that is too shallow for diving, or even in a traffic accident. When the spinal cord is damaged, the messages from the brain cannot travel to the rest of the body. Therefore, after a spinal cord injury, the brain may no longer be able to send messages to the legs and the affected person may lose his ability to walk. A higher injury, where the spinal cord is damaged closer to the neck (in the cervical level), may cause even more severe problems and some people are left unable to move their arms. Worst of all, the cells in the spinal cord are very sensitive, and this damage is often permanent, meaning it cannot be fixed.
In the United States of America, it is estimated that there are about 906 people living with a spinal cord injury for every million people in the country. More than half of these spinal cord injuries are at the cervical level, and most people who get these injuries are aged between 15 and 30 when it happens.",0.169988149,0.509965092
4d7e8695a,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"The hyena and the monkey had an argument. They went to a judge to settle their differences. 
After the judge listened to their case, he was afraid to pass judgement on their case. 
He thought to himself, ""If I condemn the hyena, it will eat all my cattle. And if I condemn the monkey, he will eat all my corn! So, what am I to do?"" 
The judge thought for a while, and said, ""The case is too difficult for me to judge alone. You should go to the elders of the village."" 
So, the hyena and monkey went to the elders. 
They told the elders about their disagreement. 
After the elders listened to their case, they were also afraid to pass judgement. 
If they supported the monkey, the hyena might eat their cattle. If they supported the hyena, the monkey might eat their corn. The elders told Hyena and Monkey that their case was very difficult. 
Suddenly, the elders remembered a poor woman in the town. She had nothing to lose, neither cattle nor corn. 
""She can pass the judgement without any fear,"" said the elders to one another. They told the two animals to go to her.",-0.228202855,0.48808383
069359db4,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00011,CC BY 4.0,"To understand the mechanism behind reading emotions, let us think about the human face. Have you ever heard the saying ""The eyes are the windows to the soul""? Maybe it is a bit unlikely to see someone's soul through their eyes (our eyes are not real windows after all), but one of the reasons why people use this saying is because the eyes are very important for understanding what other people are feeling. In fact, we can learn a lot about others from their facial expressions, and other people can tell a lot about us from our faces. Think about all the ways you can express emotions using just your face! Even babies seem to be born understanding the importance of faces, because as early as 9 minutes after birth, babies prefer to look at faces rather than any other objects. By the time they are 12 days old, babies can already imitate the facial gestures of adults. This ability is very important for their development because it helps them to later learn how to speak and to think.",-0.078677586,0.506636952
29e0e6f3c,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00019,CC BY 4.0,"Tuberculosis (TB) is a very important public health problem. It is estimated that in 2014, 9.6 million people developed TB, and almost 2 million people died of this disease, where India, Indonesia, and China presented almost half of the cases occurring in the world. TB is caused by a bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is spread from person to person through the air, when someone with the disease coughs, talks, or sneezes. It is estimated that one third of the people infected with this bacteria do not get sick but still have the bacteria hiding in their bodies, in what doctors call a ""latent"" (or dormant) state.
There is only one vaccine currently approved for TB in humans, and it is called Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG). This vaccine has been given to more than 3 billion people since it was developed in 1921, with around 115 million doses per year given to newborns. The BCG vaccine is made from living bacteria that have been weakened in the lab so that they are unable to cause disease. This type of vaccine, using weak but still living bacteria, is called a live attenuated vaccine.",-0.897239358,0.472278247
48a78b891,,,"Sea level has changed naturally in the past, mostly due to the growth and melting of large ice sheets during ice ages. During the peak of the last ice age (~20,000 years ago), sea level was ~120 m lower than it is today. Because of global warming that occurred between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago (which was natural and not influenced by humans), the rate of sea level rise was 1.2 cm per year for 10,000 years, until it leveled off to zero. During this span of time, several episodes of extra rapid sea level rise happened. For example, about 14,000 years ago, the rate of sea level rise jumped to about 3 cm per year, because of ice sheet melting. The last time when the climate on earth was similar to today's climate was 120,000 years ago, which is in between ice age episodes. Sea level then was at least 6 m higher than it is today, almost certainly because parts of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets were smaller than they are now.",-1.385954048,0.451437304
db67bd439,,,"Face pareidolia (par-i-DOH-lee-a) is when we see faces in objects that do not actually have real faces. How is it that we can see an object come to life with a face? When the brain gets the message from the eyes with the information about what they are seeing, the message is sent to the occipital lobe, the part way in the back of the brain that deals with vision. When the message arrives in the occipital lobe, it is not yet organized into a face. Instead, the message is made up of information such as patterns of light and dark as well as edges. A process begins that is kind of like an assembly line that builds the face, where parts of the face are put together as it travels through the occipital lobe. As the assembly line finishes traveling through the occipital lobe, it carries the parts of the face that are being built to a different brain area, the temporal lobes, which are located behind the ears. In the temporal lobes, the information is put together into a complete picture, or the process of building the face is finished.",-2.307499375,0.547706346
6263c49aa,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00006,CC BY 4.0,"Metallic compounds and a number of other chemicals can cause damage to the DNA in our body. Our DNA carries the information that guides all the activities being performed in our cells, organs, and bodies. This information is vital and should not be damaged or altered. In a normal cell, if there is any damage to DNA, it is fixed by DNA repair and maintenance systems. However, if a cell or an organ is continuously exposed to a chemical or metallic compound that has ability to damage DNA, then the damage to the DNA becomes excessive. Excessive or continuous damage to DNA is risky because the following things could happen. Some of the damage may be left unrepaired, causing changes in the information carried by the DNA or if this damage occurs in the regions of DNA where repair genes are located, the repair system could become either defective or overactive. Both of these problems can lead to a further increase in the number of changes in the DNA.",-1.12417843,0.450114374
871c880aa,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00025,CC BY 4.0,"Eric Mamajek is a professor at the University of Rochester in the United States. He and his graduate student, Mark Pecaut, looked at lots of star light data in the SuperWASP database. Eric and Mark are both experts in finding very young stars, and two signs of a young star are (i) they have lots of star spots which look like black dots on their surface and are cooler regions on the star and (ii) they spin faster than older stars. Our Sun takes about 25 days to spin around once, but young stars take only 2–3 days to spin around. As very young stars spin around, the star spots on their surface come in and out of view, and this changes their light levels by a small amount. By looking at the light given off by these young stars, Eric and Mark can see the brightness change by a small and repeatable amount every time the star spins around, and the SuperWASP database was an ideal place to look for evidence of new stars.
One of the stars they looked at is called J1407, and they saw that the light data from this star looked very strange.",-0.87656742,0.460564468
518a0eb0e,,,"Neurons come in many forms, shapes and sizes, but it is helpful to think of a neuron like a tree. A neuron has three main parts, the cell body, an axon, and the dendrites. The tree trunk (cell body) stores genetic information (DNA) in a compartment called the nucleus. The cell body also contains the chemical machinery to produce the neurotransmitters that the neuron uses to communicate with each other.
The tree's branches (dendrite, the word déndron comes from the Greek language and actually means ""tree"") are the parts of a neuron that receive signals. Dendrites were once thought to be like antennae, just receiving signals from other neurons, but, as I explain, they can do more than this.
The tree root (axon) is the structure used by a neuron to connect with and talk to another neuron. An axon carries information similar to a cable that carries electricity. When one neuron wants to share a message with another, it sends an electrical impulse, called an action potential, down its axon until it reaches the axon terminal, at the end of the axon.",-1.300679398,0.47544936
02b5f24ae,,,"As Johnson worked on math problems with the other female computers, she would ask questions. She didn't want to just do the work — she wanted to know the ""hows"" and the ""whys,"" and then the ""why nots."" By asking questions, Johnson began to stand out.
Women were not allowed to attend meetings with the male engineers and scientists. Johnson wanted to go to these meetings to learn more about the projects, so she went. She became known for her training in geometry and began to work with teams made up of men. Eventually, she was recognized as a leader, and the men increasingly relied on her to have the answers they needed.
In 1958, NACA officially became NASA. Shortly thereafter, Johnson became part of the space team. She began calculating the flight path, or trajectory path, for the rocket to put the first American in space in 1961. That American was astronaut Alan Shepard. The engineers knew when and where they wanted Shepard's space capsule to land, but the tricky part was to calculate when and where the rocket would have to launch. Johnson figured it out!",-0.592005772,0.473637592
ec387c953,,,"Although the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments outlawed slavery, provided for equal protection under the law, guaranteed citizenship, and protected the right to vote, individual states continued to allow unfair treatment of minorities and passed Jim Crow laws allowing segregation of public facilities. These were upheld by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1895), which found state laws requiring racial segregation that were ""separate but equal"" to be constitutional. This finding helped continue legalized discrimination well into the 20th century.
Following World War II, pressures to recognize, challenge, and change inequalities for minorities grew. One of the most notable challenges to the status quo was the 1954 landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas which questioned the notion of ""separate but equal"" in public education. The Court found that ""separate educational facilities are inherently unequal"" and a violation of the 14th Amendment. This decision polarized Americans, fostered debate, and served as a catalyst to encourage federal action to protect civil rights. 
Each year, from 1945 until 1957, Congress considered and failed to pass a civil rights bill. Congress finally passed limited Civil Rights Acts in 1957 and 1960, but they offered only moderate gains.",-1.045339874,0.490781025
cf08f83fb,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00026,CC BY 4.0,"Non-alphabetic orthographies represent either the syllable (for example, Cherokee, Tamil, or Japanese Kana) or a one-syllable unit of meaning (as in Chinese, Japanese Kanji) with each symbol. Similar to the alphabetic orthographies, a unit of spoken language is represented by a symbol, but in the non-alphabetic orthographies, unlike the alphabetic ones, that unit of spoken language is larger than just a phoneme. Chinese is often referred to as a pictograph (a language made up of pictures), because people think that the characters are pictures of the words they represent. In fact, very few Chinese characters are actually pictures of the words they represent. Rather, in Chinese, the symbols represent a unit of pronunciation (a syllable) that is also a unit of meaning (a morpheme), thus Chinese is considered a morpho-syllabic writing system. Approximately 80–90% of Chinese characters also contain what is called a phonetic radical. A phonetic radical is just one part of the character that provides a clue as to how to say the word.",-2.319747409,0.54037471
383d1fd4a,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00022,CC BY 4.0,"Your skin cells keep dividing, they die and give birth to new cells all the time, even when you're not injured. After an injury, the skin makes a bunch of new cells and uses them to heal your wound. Yet, nerve cells in your brain, also called neurons, do not renew themselves. They do not divide at all. There are very few exceptions to this rule – only two special places in the brain can give birth to new neurons. For the most part though, the brain cannot replenish dead neurons. This is especially worrisome because neurons are very sensitive cells and they die for all sorts of reasons. When you bump your head and suffer a concussion, neurons die. When there is a glitch in the blood supply to the brain, also called a stroke, neurons die. Neurons also die when faced with changes in their own functions, which happens in the so-called neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.
Here is the good news. Because loss of neurons is usually permanent, scientists are working on two important strategies to help the brain after injury. One way is to protect the nervous system immediately after the damage occurs.",-0.453465075,0.493952925
3423fc4ea,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00008,CC BY 4.0,"Imagine that you are 7 years old and need to read four sentences from a book to do your homework. The first two sentences are on a page full of text, while the other two sentences appear by themselves on the next page, with no other text around them. Which sentences do you think you would read faster and with less effort? Would your older sister, who is 11, read these sentences faster than you? What about your dad? Now imagine that you are doing your homework in a different situation. First, you are doing your homework on the table where you have other notebooks with words written on them in large print. Would you get distracted looking at the notebooks? Then, your mom puts a children's program on the radio and they are singing the alphabet—you can hear the speakers saying ""a,"" ""b,"" ""c,"" and other letters. Are you more distracted by this than you were by the notebooks? Which sentences are you now reading more slowly—the ones that are alone on the page or the ones surrounded by other text? Do you think your sister or your dad would have problems like you, or maybe more or less?",0.435490337,0.52921041
f8a732236,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"While Dande wondered how to punish Madola, a small black poisonous snake entered one of the gourds unnoticed. Afterwards, Dande sealed the gourds and left. Dande gave Madola one gourd expecting his pay. After tasting, Madola said, ""Bring me another gourd and I will pay you."" Dande ran for it. Dande brought the second gourd. He gave it to Madola saying, ""Here is another gourd of sweet honey like the last one. Pay me now."" Madola took the gourd but said in a cunning way, ""There is no pay today. Wait for the end of the year."" Dande was angry. Madola wanted to eat the honey. He put his finger in the gourd and was bitten. He cried, ""I'm bitten! Help!"" The snake disappeared unnoticed. All the workers ran away not knowing what had happened to their employer. A short while later, an ambulance arrived to take Madola to hospital.",-0.898352605,0.462964205
4223ee1bb,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"The next day he started building a huge compound in which to entertain his friend. As soon as the compound was completed, he asked Water to come and visit them. When Water arrived, he asked Sun whether it would be safe for him to enter. ""Yes, come in, my friend,"" Sun answered. Water began to flow in. He was accompanied by crocodiles, fish, frogs, snakes, snails, flukes, turtles, and all the water animals. Very soon Water was knee deep. He asked Sun if it was still safe. ""Yes,"" Sun again answered. So more of water's people came in. Water reached the level of the top of a person's head. He asked Sun, ""Can more of my people come in?"" Sun and Moon both answered, ""Yes."" Water flowed on, until Sun and Moon had to perch themselves on the top of the roof. Water's people continued to rush in. Very soon they reached the top of the roof. Sun and Moon were forced to go up into the sky. They have remained in the sky ever since.",-0.091202393,0.509992317
99f2949e4,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"The drum has always been an important musical instrument in our community. We love drums! We have drums of different sizes: big, medium-sized and small. We play drums using beaters, or with our fingers. We play drums for various reasons. We play drums with songs and dances, for feasts and in bad times. Drums enrich songs and make people want to dance. Drums make ceremonies colourful. We play drums during ceremonies for marriage and child naming. We play drums when celebrating a new harvest or a twin birth. We sound drums to announce grief and call people when death occurs. We sound drums to call people to clean wells, clear roads, or to build a hut for a needy old person. We sound drums to call people when cattle are stolen in our village. We sound drums to gather people for meetings at our chief's palace. Drums call people to go to church for prayers on Sundays, and other prayer days. We also play drums to enrich songs when singing in churches.",0.324048269,0.474581205
636fbc2e0,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00021,CC BY 4.0,"Technologies from science fiction movies and books sometimes become true in real life. Our research project was inspired by a Sci-Fi story from a book by Philip K. Dick called ""Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"" (1968), which was later turned into a movie called ""Blade Runner"" (1982). The story takes place in the year 2019, when androids made of artificial flesh, bones, and brains became so similar to humans that they could hardly be recognized as ""machines."" A detection device had to be used to find the only difference between androids and humans: the fact that only humans could have deep emotions, truly care for someone else, and experience what the other person is feeling – something we call empathy.
Empathic emotions such as affection are very important for humans, since the ability to build and sustain connections to other people is critical for our wellbeing and survival . These empathic emotions are important for things such as loving relationships, the care of a mother for her children, team spirit, and cooperation, or even something as simple as helping a friend. These emotions also lead to behaviors, such as unselfishness, that help people to live together in society .",-0.655958133,0.453893828
89948e4ea,,,"The development of antibiotics is one of the biggest successes of modern medicine. Antibiotics have saved millions of lives since doctors started using them in the 1940s. Antibiotics have helped humans to have much better lives by successfully treating almost all types of bacterial infections. But like us, bacteria are smart, too! Since the 1940s, bacteria have been developing tactics to overcome the effects of antibiotics, and today we are seeing more and more bacteria that can no longer be killed by antibiotics at all. These have become known as antibiotic-resistant bacteria or ""superbugs,"" and they are a serious threat to the health of people all over the world. If we do not have antibiotics to stop bacterial infections, even something as simple as a small infected cut on the finger could become life-threatening. Therefore, new weapons, in the form of new antibiotics, are needed to treat the infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.",0.790704112,0.528993272
d59b8be19,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00023,CC BY 4.0,"Our immune systems work to protect us from illness by recognizing foreign molecules, like those on bacteria or viruses, while not reacting to our own molecules. Bacteria and viruses that cause infection are known as pathogens. When your cells are infected by a pathogen, the pathogen will start to reproduce by making copies of its DNA or RNA (cellular instructions) and will also produce a lot of molecules that fight defense mechanisms of your immune system. The pathogen's DNA and the molecules it produces are foreign to our human cells and, therefore, act as a ""danger"" signal indicating that something is wrong with the infected cell. This danger signal causes phosphatidylserine to be exposed on the surface of the infected cell to attract macrophages. After macrophages arrive at the infected cell and phagocytose it, they present pieces of the pathogen, known as antigens, to other immune cells, so that the immune system can create a memory of that specific pathogen. If the infected cells are not phagocytosed by macrophages, then more cells, or even the whole organ, can become infected with the pathogen.",-0.986988435,0.487362719
baf17fffd,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/water-scarcity-a-global-issue,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Physical water scarcity is most often caused by drought. A drought occurs when it rains far less in a given area than it usually does, creating shortages in water supply. Droughts can be declared after as little as 15 days without rainfall and can continue indefinitely. The longest drought in recorded history lasted for 400 years in the Atacama Desert in Chile. However, most modern droughts are not nearly so severe. In the United States, the National Drought Mitigation Center finds only the panhandle of Oklahoma and northern Georgia experiencing ‘extreme drought'. California experienced severe drought between 2012 to 2017, while Florida experienced severe drought between 2006-2007, and again in 2017. Droughts are considered severe when water shortages become common and extreme when major crop loss occurs. Globally, the Center shows that there is ‘extreme drought' in the Middle East and eastern Australia and ‘severe drought' in parts of northern Africa.
Droughts are a natural process that have occurred throughout history. The effects of prolonged drought often depend on both severity and how people react to them. Sometimes, like in California, drought can simply lead to a change of what is easily available for purchase in grocery stores.",-0.456771963,0.483466022
447a2a0a9,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/how-the-internet-came-to-be,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"In 1969 four computers were successfully connected to ARPANET, creating a computer network. Things progressed quickly after that. More and more computers were added to ARPANET, and by 1972 computer scientists began to develop applications that worked over the network. One of these applications was email, called electronic mail at the time.
Another of the applications developed, although later than email, was the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 and it is the application used to create and view websites. It's also where the www. prefix of web addresses comes from. The World Wide Web is one of the primary tools that Internet users interact with.
The World Wide Web allowed for the exchange of web pages. These are primarily text documents, but they are not written in a language people speak. Instead, they're written and formatted in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which allows the computer to read the text and display it properly. HTML also allows the computer to ‘read' images, video, audio, and software components and to display those properly as multimedia on the page.",-0.852852172,0.467244367
cc3365b18,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/united-and-divided-how-religion-drove-politics-in-pre-modern-europe,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"An intense belief in Christianity is almost synonymous, for many people, with Europe in the Middle Ages. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the people launched crusades and built cathedrals. But in the Middle Ages, Christianity had only been present in Europe for a few centuries. Before that, paganism dominated the continent. Because of the way Christianity spread, particularly in Northern Europe, Europe's intense belief in Christianity was propped up and informed by the local legends of paganism. At the time, Christians in Europe saw any religion that was not Christianity, Islam, or Judaism as a pagan religion.
Although paganism, by definition, encompasses many different religions, most of the religions that existed in pre-Christian Europe had a few common attributes. These religions were incredibly local, often polytheistic, did not focus on individual choice or power, and were heavily tied to nature. The most well-known of the old pagan religions in Europe were the Greek and Roman religions, which had all of these attributes. The Greeks and Romans worshipped many gods with human characteristics. They believed there were godly wills and stories tied to natural phenomena, like seasons, as well as to natural elements like the springs, rocks, and hills.",-1.178376039,0.449576397
075d8a7fe,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00001,CC BY 4.0,"The hottest areas on Earth are often located near volcanoes on the Earth's surface and in the depth of the oceans. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an underwater ridge and the boundary between huge rock plates along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. These rock plates are called tectonic plates, and they are so huge that the North American plate lies under Cuba, the United States, Canada, and Greenland, while the Eurasian plate lies under Europe and most of Asia. At several spots, beautiful volcanic islands came up from the ocean floor after a very long period of time. One group of such volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean is called the Azores. The Azores are located almost halfway between the United States and Portugal, while Iceland can be found in the very north between Greenland and Norway. These islands are covered with hot springs. Heated water from underground reaches the Earth's surface. Hot springs naturally discharge hot water, and they occur, because there is a lot of heat deep underground and the water circulates into these deep areas before it reaches the surface.",-0.674413444,0.471892502
11bc4e9b9,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starch,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Starch is a complex carbohydrate. It is made of many glucose units joined by chemical bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants as an energy store. It is the most common carbohydrate in human diets. Pasta, potatoes, bread, and other starchy foods are made out of carbohydrates.
Some good food sources of starch are cereals, bread, potatoes, grains, peas, and beans. Starch is also used for thickening sauces in cooking. It is a white powder that is tasteless and odourless. It can also be used for thickening cold foods when they are pre-cooked.
Foods with a lot of starch produce more energy than other foods. However, if this energy is not used, it is turned into fat by our livers.
There are also different kinds of starch, like laundry starch, which gives clothing a smooth and crisp feel. Sweat and dirt from a person's wrist and neck will stick to the starch on the clothes, not to the fibers of the clothes, and will wash away along with the starch. Then, after each laundry load, the starch can be used again.",-0.041250227,0.48644296
14a6b98bc,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00024,CC BY 4.0,"Memory is a very large topic, and researchers divide the topic of memory to make it easier to study. There is long-term memory, short-term memory, and working memory. Long-term memory allows you to remember information for some time—for a few minutes, or for your whole life. For example, if you are divided into groups and are given a number, you will remember your group number for the entire activity. Or, you will remember your name for a lifetime. Short-term memory stores immediate information and is erased in less than a minute. For example, if someone tells you a phone number and you dial it immediately and then forget it. It is more difficult to dial a phone number if a person tells you the whole phone number at once, as opposed to telling you the number in bits and pieces. When you work with short-term memory, it is called working memory. For example, when you read a sentence, you need to remember the first words in the sentence until you finish reading the end of the sentence. Or else, the sentence will not make any sense!
Some researchers divide short-term memory into verbal memory and visuospatial memory .",-0.699823548,0.543603317
01cef15f6,,,"Social exclusion refers to the experience of being socially isolated, either physically (for example, being totally alone), or emotionally (for example, being ignored or told that one is unwanted). When someone excludes you, you probably feel bad or even experience ""painful"" feelings. Why does social exclusion cause these feelings? One possibility is that human beings are social animals, and we have been selected by evolution to live together with others. Social exclusion tells us that social relationships are threatened or damaged, and therefore, exclusion tells us there is a crisis, by causing aversive feelings. Previous research by psychologists (people who study the mind and behavior) and social neuroscientists (people who study the neural, hormonal, cellular, and gametic mechanisms underlying social interaction and behavior) has revealed much about what happens during and after social exclusion. Before beginning to explain how social exclusion dynamically affects our mind, brain, and behavior, I would like to briefly introduce the mystery of social pain—defined as the painful feeling caused by social exclusion.",-0.78354654,0.494926646
971ff1419,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00029,CC BY 4.0,"We learned from our results that people who are afraid of spiders imagine them to be bigger. We also learned that in order to overestimate the size of an object, that object needs to cause the person to feel fear and unpleasantness on a daily basis.
We demonstrated in this work that negative emotions (fear and unpleasantness) cause people to overestimate size. But what about positive emotions? Some studies found that positive emotions could also change size estimation. For example, expert golf players estimate the physical size of the hole the ball is hit into to be larger than non-expert players estimate the hole to be.
The next question to be asked is what causes what? Do some people have an image of a big spider in their mind and this is why they are afraid of spiders? Or are they afraid of spiders because when they see one, they see it as bigger than it really is? This question requires some more studies. Such additional studies are important because understanding why people are afraid of spiders can help scientists develop ways to help such people get over their fear.",0.274767866,0.509004394
c9757dff3,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00013,CC BY 4.0,"One simple example would be setting up an experiment to see if a particular plant food improved plant growth over a month. First, we would get 20 of the same type of plants of a similar age and size. In this example, plant type, age, and size at the start of the experiment are variables that we want to keep the same. Next, we would divide the plants into two groups by numbering them and randomly drawing numbers. The first 10 plants would go into our treatment group—the plants that get the plant food. The second 10 plants will go into what we call our control group—these are the plants that do not get plant food. This method of assigning things to groups is called randomization, and it makes sure that every plant involved in our study has an equal chance of being picked for either group. This is the best way to make sure that the groups are as equal as possible. Then, for a month, we give the plant food to the treatment group but not to the control group. All the other variables are kept exactly the same—the plants get the same amount of sunlight, the same environment, and the same water.",-0.703728941,0.449726326
c429433da,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/who-gets-to-be-president,CC BY 4.0,"What does the Vice President do? The only given constitutional duty is to preside over the Senate, a job with virtually no power since the Vice President can only vote in the event of a tie. Indeed, the nation's first Vice President, John Adams, called the post ""the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived.""
The President, then, has almost total control over what the Vice President does. If he chooses to give him many responsibilities, the Vice President can have a significant amount of power. But the President must be willing to delegate the Vice President that power.
In recent years Presidents have given their Vice Presidents more and more to do. They have headed commissions and organized major projects. The Vice President often makes goodwill missions and attends ceremonies and celebrations. If the President regularly asks for advice, then the Vice President has some real, though indirect, power.",0.227246688,0.481285489
d333b989d,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00022,CC BY 4.0,"Most people know that physical activity is important for their physical health. People who are more physically active have a smaller risk of getting ill (for example, developing heart disease), they tend to live longer and they have a higher quality of life. Because of this, an average of at least 60 min of physical activity per day is recommended for children and teenagers. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer children and teens are getting the recommended amount of exercise—sedentary (seated or inactive) behavior is increasing, especially in developed countries. 
Lack of exercise is not just a cause for concern because physical exercise is good for physical health, but because there is a connection between physical activity and the human brain. You may have heard the saying ""be smart, exercise your heart""? Well, a large amount of research has been conducted that shows that physical exercise has positive effects on the brain. This research indicates that exercise can boost your brainpower under certain circumstances. More specifically, this means that physical activity can help the brain to work better and more efficiently.",0.748955489,0.506323875
a8effc717,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00029,CC BY 4.0,"One of the first steps of the scientific method is coming up with a hypothesis, or just an educated guess or prediction about how/why something happens. The prediction must be tested by experiments or observation to see if that guess is right or wrong. For example, a famous hypothesis is that the speed at which an object falls to the ground does not depend on that object's mass. This hypothesis predicts that if you dropped a hammer and a feather from the same height at the same time in vacuum (without air resistance), then they should hit the ground at the same time. To test this, an astronaut actually tried dropping a hammer and a feather while standing on the Moon (which does not have air), and he showed that the hammer and the feather really hit the ground at the same time. This is evidence that the hypothesis was true.
Even though astronomers do not understand exactly what dark matter is, over the years they have had lots of ideas. One popular theory is called ""cold dark matter (CDM).""",-0.100796346,0.468197738
494a239ed,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00002,CC BY 4.0,"The sound is funneled through the outside of the ear, which is called the pinna, into the ear canal. These two parts are called the outer ear. The sound then vibrates the ear drum, which in turn sets the ossicles (a set of three tiny bones in the middle ear) in motion. This motion of the ossicles creates waves in the fluid of the snail-shaped cochlea. The cochlea is located deep inside, in an area called the inner ear. The cochlea is the place where the sound energy is converted into electrical impulses by thousands of tiny hair cells. The auditory nerve passes this information to the brain, where the details of the sound such as its characteristics, pitch, loudness, and direction, are then understood, so that the boy recognizes the sound of the engine as a car approaching from behind him. This is a rapid process that happens in less than a second. The speed of the hearing process allows the boy to quickly react.
Our hearing system, especially the hair cells in the inner ear, is very sensitive and can easily be damaged by loud sounds. Once these hair cells are damaged, the damage is permanent.",-0.716442767,0.497199447
ac62c7f35,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"A long time ago in the land of the Zulu people, the King Jama ka Ndaba was very powerful, wise, fair and kind. 
But he had no children and he was worried that he would not have an heir. 
He prayed and made offerings to the gods but nothing happened. 
One night while the king was asleep, a witch came in a dream. 
""The gods have heard your plea and the queen will bear twins. One will rule the Zulu nation and the other will have magical powers,"" the witch said. 
Twins Mkabayi and Mmama were born but the queen cried for Mkabayi because the rule said that the first- born twin must be offered to the gods. 
Seeing the queen's sadness, the king said, ""From today, when twins are born, both babies will live."" 
The people celebrated but not all were happy with the king's new rule. 
The little girls grew beautifully. One day Mkabayi had a stick fight and defeated a boy who bullied children. 
""Go away, you cursed girl!"" said the boy. 
""Come back, Mkabayi!"" 
Mkabayi cried and ran into the forest where the frightening ghosts, Hornhead and Longtom lived.",-0.928542452,0.488139866
198df7617,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00026,CC BY 4.0,"One of the best ways scientists have found to study impulsivity is with an experiment called the marshmallow test. In the marshmallow test, a kid is brought into a room with a single marshmallow on a plate. The kid sits down in front of the marshmallow and is told ""If this marshmallow is still here in 20 minutes, I'll give you two marshmallows. But if you eat this one marshmallow now, you won't get the second marshmallow."" Then, the scientist leaves the room, leaving the kid alone with the marshmallow. Most children spend their time desperately trying to not eat the marshmallow, looking away, closing their eyes, smelling it but not tasting it, trying not to touch it or think about it. Just as with the impulsivity examples discussed at the start of this article, there are two selves in these children—one self wants to eat the marshmallow now, and the other wants to wait to get two marshmallows. Precommitment is like locking the marshmallow in a box before entering the room.
Precommitment is the best defense against impulsivity. The more we understand about precommitment, the more we can find effective new ways to help people make better decisions.",0.096782583,0.515358146
cd98c6a15,,,"If we want to see if kids learn new words from hearing a book, there are different ways we could do this. We would, of course, read them a story and then measure how many words from the story they know. But is it really that simple? How would we know that the kids did not already know those words before they heard the stories? We have a really fun solution: we write our own storybooks so we can put special words in them! These special words are called ""target words."" The special words we use are made-up words like ""sprock"" and ""manu."" They sound like real words but we make them up. That way, we can know that kids do not already know the words before we even read the stories. Lots of studies use made-up words like these for the same reason. One famous study is ""the Wug Test"" . Kids have not heard the word wug before, but if you tell them ""Here is a wug, here is another wug, now there are two ___"" they know the next word is ""wugs.""",0.198116759,0.477997093
52bb23cce,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One day at the river, Dog came across some eggs in the sand. He asked himself, ""Which animal left these eggs here?"" He counted ten eggs and thought they might belong to Duck. He put them in his bag. He took the eggs home and put them in a warm place. When Dog returned to the river, he met Crocodile. She asked, ""Have you seen my eggs?"" ""I don't know anything about your eggs,"" he replied. Crocodile started visiting all the animals asking about her eggs. Meanwhile, the eggs hatched one by one. Dog did his best to look after the baby crocodiles, but there was never enough food. The young crocodiles were always hungry. One day Crocodile went to Dog's house looking for her eggs. As she stood outside, she heard the rumbling of little crocodile bellies! Crocodile stormed inside and hit Dog with her tail. Dog yelped and jumped through the window. Crocodile chased Dog all the way to the river. Dog cried, ""I'm sorry, I didn't know they were your eggs!"" Crocodile believed him and forgave him. She took her offspring for their first swimming lesson.",0.575136517,0.501151525
2ed964d21,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Long time ago, Hyena and Hare were great friends. They were both poor but Hare owned a donkey. He also had a very small basin, which he used to feed the donkey. 
One hot afternoon, Hare decided to give water to his donkey. 
However, Hare could not fetch water from the well with his small basin. So he decided to borrow a bigger basin from Hyena. Hyena gave Hare his basin because of their friendship. 
After getting water and giving it to the donkey, Hare went home with Hyena's basin. 
Two weeks later, Hyena wanted to wash clothes but Hare still had his basin. Hyena left the clothes and went to Hare's house for his basin. 
Hare gave Hyena his large basin. He also gave Hyena a small basin. 
Hare said, ""Your basin gave birth to a young one and since we are friends, I am giving you the two of them."" Hyena was happy and accepted the two basins. 
A few days later, Hare wanted to water his donkey and again he went to Hyena for help. Hyena thought, ""Since I will get an extra basin, I will give him my basin straight away!""",0.081029242,0.513088584
0e2cc2033,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/coping-mechanisms,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Adaptive coping mechanisms are positive ways people alleviate stress.
Anticipation is a way to reduce the stress of a difficult challenge by anticipating what it will be like and preparing for how to cope with it. Some literary critics believe that this is the reason why people enjoy reading about, watching, and analyzing tragedies. Thinking about tragic events helps people prepare for unforeseen difficult circumstances.
Finding emotional support from others or asking for help can be an instrumental way of maintaining emotional health during a difficult period. The brain's response to worry enhances the effectiveness of this strategy. Stress releases neurohormones that strengthen your ability to seek emotional support by increasing your empathy and encouraging you to look for close social bonds.
Problem-solving focuses on locating the source of the problem and determining solutions, or action steps. Developing a plan can help lessen stress that comes from the unknown. Problem-solving can be strengthened by creativity, and it is a useful response to both simple and complex issues. A strong problem-solving process involves defining the issue, brainstorming alternatives, evaluating and choosing between these alternatives, and implementing solutions.
People of all ages and cultures respond to humor.",-1.741490658,0.497097665
44e25739e,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00010,CC BY 4.0,"Feedback signals are used all the time to adapt our behavior. They can also be very useful when certain parts of your body are not working well. When this happens, a doctor may use a small machine to help the broken body parts do their job, and a feedback signal can be used to tell the machine when to work. This way, the machine and feedback signal can work together with the rest of your body to make sure everything is working correctly.
Have you heard of a ""pacemaker"" for a heart? This is a small machine that doctors use to help someone whose heart is not working properly. If you put your ear on your parent's chest you can hear their heart beating. Do you notice how regular this beat is? This regular rhythm is very important. Your heart needs to beat regularly, with beats evenly spaced in time, so it can pump blood throughout your body. Unfortunately, some people's heartbeats beat too fast or too slow, and this can be very dangerous.",-0.046594079,0.46186488
f3923203e,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Honey began dripping on Elephant's back. When Elephant asked what it was, Hare said that it was from his wound. They reached a river and found a large buffalo drinking water. Hare wanted to know who was stronger, Buffalo or Elephant. They began arguing. Elephant said she was stronger and Buffalo said she was stronger. Hare said he had an idea how to find out who was stronger. He asked them to wait for him there. Hare came back with a long rope. He tied the one end around Elephant's waist and led her away from the river. Hare tied the other end of the rope around Buffalo's waist and left her near the river. Hare ran and hid himself in a tree. He shouted, ""Ready! One, two, three! Pull!"" Buffalo and Elephant pulled. Elephant pulled Buffalo. Buffalo pulled Elephant. Neither could win. From where he was hiding, Hare continued to eat Elephant's honey. After he had finished the honey, he cut the rope closer to Buffalo.",0.160049511,0.458006211
57ad297c5,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_valve,CC BY-SA 3.0,"An earthquake valve (or seismic valve) is an automatic method to shut off the low pressure regulated gas supply to a structure during a major earthquake and/or if a pipe is broken. These are applicable both to utility-supplied natural gas and to gas from liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). These small devices are installed on the property gas meter (usually between the utility company's metered installation and the structure piping) and are designed to instantly stop the natural gas supply in order to protect the structure if a gas leak or line break occurs during an earthquake.
Fires or explosions due to gas line breaks can be more damaging than the actual earthquake itself. Gas supply companies recommend that the gas supply be cut off immediately if there is a smell of gas after an earthquake; if nobody is in place to do this, an unattended earthquake valve will instantly cut off the gas.",-1.0733541,0.469454276
92a0c2d46,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One day, the hyena's son died. 
A donkey heard the news.
He ran to his relatives and said, ""The hyena's son is dead."" All the other donkeys said, ""The hyena's son? That's good news. All the hyenas are our enemies."" 
One old donkey said, ""Brothers, we must go to the hyena's funeral and show respect."" 
""What? Go to the hyena's funeral?"" The other donkeys said. ""We don't want to go. We're frightened. The hyenas will eat us."" 
""Listen,"" said the old donkey. ""If we don't go, the hyenas will be angry with us. They will have a reason to eat us."" 
""You are right,"" said all the other donkeys. ""We must go to the hyena's funeral. If we go, the hyenas will be happy with us. Perhaps they will become our friends."" 
The hyenas saw the donkeys outside their house.
 ""Why are the donkeys here? Have they come to laugh at us?"" The hyenas wondered. 
The donkeys heard the hyenas. They were frightened and they began to sing.",0.463880718,0.505157714
ad84a0097,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One day Jackal felt sick. He tried drinking water, but that made his stomach swollen. He tried eating grass but still his stomach hurt. Jackal decided that only the medicine of man would help him so he dragged himself off to the clinic in the town. ""Auwwwh"" said the nurse when she saw the bedraggled jackal, ""this place is for sick people, not animals. Go away!"" Now Jackal was a clever animal, so sick as he was, he made a plan. He asked a boy called Ernst who was sitting outside the clinic, to help him by fetching the medicine from the nurse. ""If you do this for me, I will give you a fat, fresh bird for you cooking pot, everyday."" Ernst was hungry and anyway, he felt sorry for the sick jackal, with his drooping whiskers and his tail hanging like a rag, so he went in and got the medicine and gave it to the jackal. Jackal licked up all the medicine at once and immediately his ears stood up and his tail lifted.",0.030959164,0.475515353
f305c0e4a,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Zonke runs home. It's quite hot. Fortunately the house isn't far. Suddenly he notices something in the road. He stops. What is it? It is as big as the palm of his hand. It is brown. And it is made from leather. 
It's a wallet! Zonke can't believe his luck. He quickly glances inside the wallet. Wow, it contains money! 
Zonke's heart beats faster. Then he puts the wallet in his pocket. He quickly glances around to see if someone noticed. Yes! Somebody is approaching. It's Bheka. He is only a few steps behind Zonke. 
Zonke hurries on. He hopes Bheka hasn't seen him. He doesn't want to glance over his shoulder again. The wallet lies safely in his pocket. When he gets home he will take it out and see how much money it contains. 
At home Zonke puts down his school case. Then he walks to the shady tree next to the house. Carefully he takes the wallet from his pocket. His heart beats faster. He counts the notes. Fifty one hundred a hundred and fifty two hundred Rand! He is mega rich. But then he hears a familiar voice. ""What are you hiding?"" It is Bheka!",0.059704683,0.470261656
8a965eeaa,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/1180,CC BY 4.0,"Ammi's mobile rings. Basha sees that Ammi's best friend Saira aunty is calling and answers it quickly. He does not want to wake Ammi up. 
""I'm on my way back home from a wedding with lots of friends,"" Saira aunty explains. She sounds exhausted. ""We will be passing by your home in about two hours' time. Do you think we can have dinner at your place? There are 24 of us - and 4 are vegetarian."" 
Basha knows that Ammi would love to see them. He and Sainabi are very fond of Saira aunty too. ""You are most welcome,"" Basha says. 
He feels excited as he hangs up the phone. This is his chance to cook a dish on his own! But will he be able to do it? He feels nervous. He opens the fridge and sees many of his favourite vegetables - cauliflower, peas, beans. He can also see a bunch of fresh mint leaves peeking out from under the carrots. ""Yes!"" he thinks to himself. ""I have everything I need for a yummy Vegetable Dum Biryani!""",-0.466819547,0.438362421
1627fa147,,,"As soon as he set foot on the Rue d'Amsterdam, he felt himself in quite jovial mood. He said to himself:
""Decidedly, the air of Paris does not resemble any other air. It has in it something indescribably stimulating, exciting, intoxicating, which fills you with a strange longing to dance about and to do many other things. As soon as I arrive here, it seems to me, all of a sudden, that I have taken a bottle of champagne. What a life one can lead in this city in the midst of artists! Happy are the elect, the great men who make themselves a reputation in such a city! What an existence is theirs!""
And he made plans; he would have liked to know some of these celebrated men, to talk about them in Vernon, and to spend an evening with them from time to time in Paris.
But suddenly an idea struck him. He had heard allusions to little cafes in the outer boulevards at which well-known painters, men of letters, and even musicians gathered, and he proceeded to go up to Montmartre at a slow pace.",-1.503172935,0.48330496
e74cc0839,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Maria wants to climb the coconut tree. Naomi does not want to climb the coconut tree. ""It is dangerous!"" she says. Maria asks, ""Let's go up the mango tree?"" Naomi replies, ""I'm afraid. There could be a snake."" Maria laughs, ""There are no snakes in the mango tree. Let's go up."" So the two girls go up the tree. The two girls are in the mango tree playing. Then they hear a noise, Ssssssss. Maria is startled. ""A snake! Let's run away,"" she cries. Maria and Naomi got such a fright that they fell out of the mango tree. The girls run. The snake might bite! Naomi asks, ""Mother, please, kill the snake!"" Mother explains, ""Snakes bite only when they are frightened. There are dangerous snakes and others are harmless."" Mother wants to know what the snake looks like. Maria and Naomi draw and explain. Mother tells the girls that this snake eats rats. It helps farmers. Naomi says that she is not afraid of the snake anymore. She goes close to the mango tree, and whispers, ""Shuuu!"" Naomi does not want to scare the snake.",0.593029307,0.524660606
ce59e84ab,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Have you ever seen a herd of cows in the field? Every now and then you will notice a cow shaking her head. She tries to drive away the flies that pester her. But why do the flies zoom-zoom- zee around Cow's head? 
They say it started long, long ago in a far-off country. The country's queen was very rich and had a kind heart. One day she decided to arrange a huge banquet. All the animals were invited. The enormous tables were beautifully laden. Every table groaned under the delicacies, dishes full of meat, freshly baked bread, steaming vegetables and honey-sweet fruit. 
The animals smacked their lips when they saw the delicious food. ""The largest animal at each table should sit at the head,"" the queen said. ""It is his or her job to dish out the food."" Cow shared a table with Sheep, Goat, Dog, Goose and Fly. Since Cow was the biggest, she started dishing out the food. Each animal received a big chunk of home-baked bread with grape jam and cheese. 
But because Fly was so small, Cow hardly noticed her. ""Zoom! Zee! What about me? I'd also like something to eat, you see?"" Fly grumbled.",-0.272154008,0.483490568
61e569be7,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Ape meets Crocodile by the lake. ""Where do you live?"" asks Ape, ""In the lake,"" says Crocodile. ""Where do you live?"" asks Crocodile. ""In the trees,"" says Ape. ""Can you swim?"" asks Crocodile. ""I cannot swim,"" says Ape. ""I can teach you."" ""We are friends. Do not be afraid,"" says Crocodile. ""Ape, my uncle is sick. He needs meat,"" says Crocodile. Ape is very afraid. Will Crocodile eat her? Ape wants to escape from Crocodile. Ape has an idea. ""I will give you my heart for him,"" Ape promises. ""My heart is in a tree on the land,"" says Ape. ""Will you fetch your heart?"" asks Crocodile. ""Yes,"" says Ape. Crocodile swims back to the land. Ape runs to the trees. ""You are not my friend. You lied!"" says Crocodile. ""We are not friends. You want to eat me!"" says Ape.",0.008822918,0.469588999
9c0bed2c5,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Vusi looked at the photograph and quickly answered, ""Heptagon has seven sides!"" Khosi added, ""Yes, remember our teacher told us that Hepta means 'seven'."" ""Oh my wife, can you see how clever our children are? Okay, what about Deca, what does it mean?"" questioned Dad. ""Ten! Ten!"" shouted Vusi and Khosi together. ""Yes, that's why one of your cousins is called Decagon, but he is not coming because he has to represent the swimming team. There are so few Decagons at their school,"" Mom told them. Then the children asked, ""Mom and Dad, can we invite our friend Circle from next door?"" Their parents agreed that Circle was welcome to join the family gathering. Just then they heard a knock at the front door, and Dad got up to check. ""The Quadrilaterals are here! Welcome! Welcome"" called Dad. The rest of the family jump up to greet Square, Rectangle and the three Rhombus children. The Quadrilaterals are happy to arrive first.",-1.120484394,0.456405089
fe65836e5,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"It is nearly break time at Siyafunda Primary School. The two spaza shop owners at the school are preparing lunch to sell to hungry children. 
In Mr. Motaung's shop, the bread is cut and ready for making kotas. He carefully cuts out the soft middle of each quarter loaf. Then he puts polony and chips in the space inside. Motaung puts two spoonfuls of his wife's homemade atchar in each kota. He likes to boast that his kotas have atchar inside and atchar on top! 
In Mr Mkhize's shop, the chips are nearly ready, but he is still cutting his bread for kotas. He is worried because things are not going well with his shop. ""It started well,"" thinks Mkhize. ""But now I get fewer and fewer customers. At least I'm reducing some of my costs by cutting five kotas from a loaf."" 
Jabu and Zodwa are buying lunch. Zodwa buys from Mr. Mkhize. Jabu buys from Mr Motaung. He believes that Motaung's kota has got more chips and atchar than Mkhize's kota. The queue at Mr. Motaung's shop is always longer. Zodwa waits for Jabu. Then the friends sit together in the shade to enjoy their kotas.",-2.074318007,0.487130284
e0e6b41e5,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Leopard was always trying to catch Antelope. And Antelope was always escaping from Leopard. One day, Leopard called out to Antelope, ""Let's be friends. What you eat, I don't eat. Nothing makes us enemies."" Antelope agreed. So Leopard said, ""Let's make an oath to be friends. If either of us breaks the oath, her child will die."" They made an oath to be friends. At night, Antelope slept under a tree. Leopard slept in the branches above. Antelope soon became fat. Leopard became thin. Leopard was tempted to eat fat Antelope. She said to herself, ""I don't care about the oath. I don't even have a child!"" Leopard jumped down to catch Antelope. But she got caught between two branches. Antelope was shocked. She leaped up and cried, ""Beh! Beh!"" Leopard begged, ""My friend, help me. We agreed that whoever broke our oath to be friends, would lose a child."" Antelope replied, ""It must have been your parent who made the oath. Now it is meant for you!""",0.659357489,0.479718611
d82eca995,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"A few months later, Meseret wanted to build a new hut for himself. He thought, ""I'll burn down my old hut and build a big new one."" Meseret began to carry everything out of his hut. Demeke saw him and asked, ""What are you doing?"" Meseret replied, ""I'm going to burn my hut and build a new one."" Demeke was worried, ""But your hut is next to mine. If you burn your hut, you will burn mine, too."" Meseret was angry. ""Don't try to stop me! This is my hut, and I will burn it if I want to,"" he said. ""Stop! Let's go and ask the judge."" cried Demeke. The unwise judge didn't listen carefully and didn't try to understand. ""Let Meseret burn his hut because it's his own and no one can stop him,"" the unwise judge ruled. So Meseret burned his hut. The wind carried the fire to the roof of Demeke's hut and soon it was burning too. They went back to the judge. Demeke cried, ""Look! Meseret has burned my hut! He must pay me."" ""No, Meseret burned his own hut.",-0.702185604,0.462390657
b81cf476e,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time, there was a man who had three sons. The youngest son was the cleverest and his father liked him the most. Then the man realised that his two other sons were jealous. So when the father died, he left all his cattle to his two elder sons. He only left one ox for the youngest son. But the brothers were still jealous of him. 
One day they said, ""We've got to slaughter your ox."" He was the youngest so he couldn't protest. He said, ""If that must be so, there's nothing I can do. But please give me the hide."" When they slaughtered the ox, he took the hide. After drying it, he climbed a tree with it. 
As it got darker, a group of merchants came to sleep under the tree. In the middle of the night, the young man started beating the hide with a stick. When the stick hit the hide it sounded like thunder. The merchants thought that a storm was coming. They ran off leaving their goods behind. 
The young man picked up the goods and took them home to his brothers.",0.607157733,0.496029908
543bcf94d,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-roaring-twenties,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"The cross-Atlantic flight of Charles ""Lucky Lindy"" Lindbergh in 1927 made him an instant global hero, but even lesser daredevils earned brief fame. A Texan won a $500 bet by pushing, in 22 days, a peanut with his nose up the 14,400 feet-high Pikes Peak. A Louisville housewife won a $200 prize for listening to a radio station for 106 hours without falling asleep (She had to be hospitalized for a combination of delirium and exhaustion).
In no mood to worry whether the good times would last, Americans were happily spending money they had had to save because of wartime shortages, and there was a plethora of new marvelous products to buy. Automobiles, an expensive prestige symbol before the start of WWI, became mass-produced, cheaper and a necessity for taking the new roads to America's thriving cities. By 1927, Ford discontinued the Model T after selling 15 million of them.
Industries switched from coal power to electricity, the production of which almost quadrupled; telephone lines began spanning the continent; and modern waterworks, sewer systems, bridges and other new infrastructure were improving the quality of life even in out-of-the-way communities and regions.",-0.866794227,0.469905877
7c52601b9,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-progressive-era,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was the paramount trailblazer who gave the Progressive Era its name.
Famous for his strenuous lifestyle, swashbuckling and exuberant personality, our 26th president was a statesman honored by the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War; an author of 18 books (including a four volume history entitled The Winning of the West), a warrior who in the Spanish-American War led the legendary charge of the Rough Riders up the San Juan hill in Cuba; and a learned naturalist who explored remote regions of South America and Africa.
But Roosevelt's biggest claim to lasting fame was his bold leadership as the youngest President of the United States.
Deeply socially-conscious and furious at the greed and deceitful practices of big business leaders, Roosevelt fired his first barrage at what were then called ""the robber barons"" shortly after his inauguration in 1901. He delivered a 20,000-word speech to Congress calling for laws to curb the power of large corporations. 
He pressed forward with his populist crusade by supporting organized labor, promoting federal regulations to protect consumers, and launching 40 antitrust suits to break up major railroad companies and Standard Oil.",-1.054659865,0.506404642
56e590582,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00014,CC BY 4.0,"Sometimes, bacteria swim or float freely in liquids – in the water in your tap, in juice left sitting on the counter, or, if a person has a blood infection, even in human blood. Swimming allows bacteria to move around to find food, or move away from things they do not like, such as bright sunlight, or cells from the human body that want to eat bacteria. But, most bacteria would rather sit still than swim around. Sitting still takes less energy, and bacteria that sit in the right spot can wait for food to come to them. Sitting still is the first step in making a bacterial biofilm. The first bacterium that sits still might be joined by others, or it might reproduce and make many more bacteria that are copies of itself. When more and more bacteria get together, they start to make sticky substances called extracellular polymeric substances that they cover themselves with. This sticky community of bacteria is called a biofilm. The bacteria in a biofilm live happily eating whatever food comes along and can communicate with each other by releasing special molecules. Biofilms are very common.",-0.573610547,0.463227993
f71ecd9e9,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"One day, he called his sons and said, ""I am old and will die soon. But before I die, I want to see you in your own homes. You have one month to each make your own home. I want to see you back here after the month."" The two sons rushed out. The first one went to the roadside. He cut down trees and began to build a big compound for himself. The second one, however, went out and started forming special relationships with other families. He went to different people, and he became like their foster child. After a month, the two brothers came back to their father. The father said, ""Well, have you built your homes?"" And both of the brothers said, ""Yes."" The father went with his eldest son. He saw that the son had built many huts. As he walked by each hut, he asked, ""Is there anybody in this hut?"" Each time, the son replied, ""No.""",0.802762783,0.58824095
4e0cdfdaf,,,"In 1943 and 1944 the government assembled a combat unit of Japanese Americans for the European theater. It became the 442d Regimental Combat Team and gained fame as the most highly decorated of World War II. Their military record reflected their patriotism.
As the war drew to a close, the relocation centers were slowly evacuated. While some persons of Japanese ancestry returned to their home towns, others sought new surroundings. For example, the Japanese American community of Tacoma, Washington, had been sent to three different centers; only 30 percent returned to Tacoma after the war. Japanese Americans from Fresno had gone to Manzanar; 80 percent returned to their hometown.
The internment of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II sparked constitutional and political debate. In the 1940s, two men and one woman — Hirabayashi, Korematsu, and Endo — challenged the constitutionality of the relocation and curfew orders. While the men received negative judgments from the court, in the 1944 case ExParte Mitsuye Endo, the Supreme Court ruled that, ""Mitsuye Endo is entitled to an unconditional release by the War Relocation Authority.""",-1.063358784,0.458297507
2ac04d8a0,,,"In March of 1897, William McKinley was inaugurated as President of the United States. McKinley was in favor of annexation, and the change in leadership was soon felt. On June 16, 1897, McKinley and three representatives of the government of the Republic of Hawaii --Lorrin Thurston, Francis Hatch, and William Kinney-- signed a treaty of annexation. President McKinley then submitted the treaty to the U.S. Senate for ratification.
The Hui Aloha Aina for Women and the Hui Aloha Aina for Men now organized a mass petition drive. They hoped that if the U.S. government realized that the majority of native Hawaiian citizens opposed annexation, the move to annex Hawaii would be stopped. Between September 11 and October 2, 1897, the two groups collected petition signatures at public meetings held on each of the five principal islands of Hawaii. The petition, clearly marked ""Petition Against Annexation"" and written in both the Hawaiian and English languages, was signed by 21,269 native Hawaiian people, or more than half the 39,000 native Hawaiians and mixed-blood persons reported by the Hawaiian Commission census for the same year.",-1.259489664,0.462591067
dcf85ad40,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Kadogo and Juma are friends who love running. They run together every day. 
One day they were reading maps at school. 
Juma said, ""Let's run across our continent. Let's race, together with Africans from many countries!"" 
""Let's go, we can do it! African unity!"" cheered Kadogo. 
They decided to carry a unity torch on their journey. They lit the torch and began to run. 
The race started at the southern tip of our continent, in Cape Town, South Africa. From South Africa they headed along the west coast. 
They ran through Namibia, Angola, DRC, Congo and Cameroon. Runners quickly joined them from these countries. The growing group of people rested in Nigeria, in Abuja. 
More runners from West Africa joined the friends as they passed through Nigeria. They continued together, following the River Niger. 
A sandstorm in Mali made it difficult to run. Juma was the strongest of all of them. He led the way safely, holding the unity torch high. At Guinea's coast in Conakry the dusty runners washed in the sea. 
Then they decided to race to Morocco through Senegal and Mauritania. All the way, more people joined them.",-0.928510729,0.444140156
7350f59fd,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00016,CC BY 4.0,"Because we are interested in how the brain processes and regulates emotions, we do a lot of work with children who can successfully handle their emotions. We also invite children who struggle with emotion processing and regulation to see whether their brain structure and function looks any different from the children who do not have trouble with emotion processing. So far, there have been several small studies, suggesting that there are differences in brain function and structure in children with aggressive behavior. But, as our MRI section describes, there are challenges when doing research studies with younger participants. For example, it is very hard for children to stay very still while the MRI takes pictures. Because of this, most studies have a very small number of participants, and the results are not as clear. A method called ""meta-analysis"" helps to summarize the information from all of these very important small studies. Meta-analysis takes the results of many studies and combines them into one big finding. For example, we have combined all small studies done so far in children and teenagers with aggressive behavior.",-0.901117986,0.498530186
0d7191993,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"It is a hot Saturday morning on the farm. Maya, Duksie and Doobie are helping Mama K in her vegetable garden. The children work all morning. They dig compost into the soil. They weed and water the garden. Then, they harvest what is ripe. 
Today each of the children will take home freshly picked strawberries, spinach and carrots. 
Mama K always gives the children a treat for helping her. Sometimes the treat is cake, chocolate, or long sweets that look like snakes. Sometimes it's apples, pears, or oranges. 
Mama K has only one rule. ""Share it fair!"" The children know they must share the treats equally, so they all get the same amount. 
Today Mama K has baked a round strawberry cake with pink icing and berries from her garden. The children wait on the grass for their treat. ""Here you go!"" smiles Mama K. ""But remember the rule that everyone must get the same. Share it fair! Don't fight!"" 
Maya has the first turn to share the cake. She uses the knife to trace lines in the icing. The others watch her. She does not cut the cake yet. The others must first agree if her way is fair.",0.861779838,0.501941423
9707b4ed7,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/1184,CC BY 4.0,"We set out in a little boat, hoping for a BIG adventure! When we reached the dive site, we carefully checked all our equipment and put on our fins and masks. As soon as we were underwater, we were greeted by a school of yellowback fusiliers. There were so many different creatures to see around this large table coral: oriental sweetlips, parrotfish, batfish, and even a beautifully-patterned nudibranch. This trumpetfish changed colour to try and blend in with a school of yellow tang, but you can pick him out easily enough, can't you? It's a good thing we kept a safe distance from this lionfish. The spines on his back can be quite poisonous! These clownfish carefully guarded their sea anemone home, but finally agreed to let me take a few pictures. We saw a honeycomb moray eel having its teeth cleaned by cleaner wrasses, and another pair even offered to give us a scrub!",0.170972345,0.49079503
7b862221d,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/FKB-kids-stories-dive.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"Corals are both plants and animals. Thousands of little algae live inside corals, and give them energy to grow. They have hard outer skeletons and grow into many different shapes. Plankton is the main source of food for many sea creatures. They are a mix of algae, bacteria, tiny animals, and the eggs and larvae of larger animals that float about with the ocean currents. Feather stars may look like plants, but they're really animals. They use their feather-like ‘arms' to catch and eat bits of floating plankton.
Parrotfish have strong teeth that form a parrot-like beak, which they use to scrape algae off hard coral. Some species don't mind eating bits of coral as well, and they later poop out a fine sand that washes up on land to form beautiful white beaches. Clownfish and sea anemones live together and help each other. The clownfish help the anemones by cleaning their tentacles and luring other fish for the anemone to eat. The anemones, in turn, allow the clownfish to hide among their poisonous tentacles without stinging them. 
Cleaner wrasses are small fish that keep bigger fish clean by feeding on their parasites and dead skin.",0.446698097,0.556644198
5ee85b861,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regnal_year,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A regnal year is a year of the reign of a monarch. It is from the Latin regnum meaning kingdom or rule. Some of the oldest dating systems were in regnal years. A regnal year usually begins on the date of a monarch's accession to the throne. Year one is counted from day one to the end of the first year of a monarch's reign. Then a second year of rule, a third, and so on. They would not have a zero year of rule. It is displayed as an ordinal, not a cardinal number.
Every year of a monarch's reign falls within two calendar years, unless the reign began on the first day of the calendar year. When converting a regnal year in history to a calendar year, this can cause an error of one year. In England, from the 10th century until the late 13th century, the practice was to count the regnal year from the date of coronation. This was usually a later date than when a monarch was proclaimed king or queen.",-0.929380334,0.487708975
42903ee90,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"The parents gave a small pot as a gift to their daughter. Natabo loved that little pot. She loved to play with it. One day, by accident, the boys broke Natabo's pot. It broke into small pieces. The brothers did not know what to do. They threw the pieces into the bush. Natabo looked for her pot but did not find it. She got very upset and cried. She refused to eat anything. She begged her parents and brothers to find the pot, but they could not. Natabo became even more upset. She ran away and went to the forest. She climbed up the tallest tree in the forest. Natabo's parents searched for their daughter. They found her, and asked her to climb down. But she refused. They told her to come down, but she still refused. Natabo's brothers gathered and sang a song to ask her to come down. This is the song: ""Our last born, come down and we can go home. We shall get a new pot!""",0.393562039,0.519430701
034bfda3f,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/everyday-life-as-a-learning-experience,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Even the clothes we wear every day are scrupulously patterned after Victorian antiques and nineteenth-century fashion plates. Clothes are incredibly intimate. They influence how we move, and at the same time record tiny details about us that seem too mundane to write down — things like whether the items in our pockets are light or heavy, or what we do with our hands when we don't have pockets at all. I sew all my own clothes by hand, and Gabriel's are made for him by a seamstress in Seattle.
I'm an author; as with any true writer it's not just my profession but how I experience the world. I keep a diary every day, using an antique mother-of-pearl fountain pen I bought with part of my first book advance. I draft a lot of my manuscripts the same way: I enjoy this tangible connection to my words. (There have been some really interesting studies done showing the human brain processes information more thoroughly when it's written by hand as opposed to typed.) When I take notes from antique books and magazines I use a pencil to avoid dribbling ink on irreplaceable antique volumes.",-1.624428478,0.484176325
9e2bc2bf9,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/CALI_Coloring_Book-Images-of-the-law-FKB.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"The United States Supreme Court's approach to the unlawful delegation of legislative power has changed over time. Initial cases like Panama Refning Co. v. Ryan, 293 U.S. 388 (1935), and A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495 (1935) required Congress to include clear limits on presidential discretion in order for there to be a valid delegation. The modern approach requires Congress to lay out an ""intelligible principle"" to guide administrative and judicial agencies. Under the current three part test, established by Mistretta v. United States, 488 U.S. 361, 373 (1989), Congress must delineate the ""general policy"" to be executed, designate the agency that is expected to execute the policy, and specify the limits of the delegated authority. Advertisements are generally not offers that a consumer can unilaterally accept under Contract Law. They are offers to negotiate. In order to be offers, there must be clear terms. In most cases, advertisements state a price or terms, and include fne print that says it is conditional ""on approved credit.""",-2.930766646,0.552186968
4db658993,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrant,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A tyrant (pronounce: tie-rant) is a person who rules with absolute power. In its Greek origin the word has no negative meaning: we translate Oedipus Tyranos as 'Oedipus the King'. A tyrant usually rules a country, and he often got his position as powerful ruler by force, although some of them inherited their power.
Later, the word came to mean someone who ruled with cruelty and injustice. The rule of a tyrant is called tyranny. The adjective is tyrannical.
A dictator or despot is someone who rules with absolute authority, usually cruelly. It now has the same meaning as 'tyrant', whereas before, 'tyrant' meant something like 'ruler' or 'king'.
In the 10th and 9th centuries BC, Ancient Greece was ruled by monarchs. By the 7th century BC, they were ruled by groups of aristocrats. These aristocrats started to become unpopular. This gave cruel people the chance to get power for themselves, telling the people that they would be good rulers, but turning bad once they got power.
Around 650 BC the tyrant Cypselus became powerful in Corinth.",-0.426009233,0.445914936
4409e7d1d,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/witchcraft-in-salem,CC BY 4.0,"Puritans believed that to become bewitched a witch must draw an individual under a spell. The girls could not have possibly brought this condition onto themselves. Soon they were questioned and forced to name their tormentors. Three townspeople, including Tituba, were named as witches. The famous Salem witchcraft trials began as the girls began to name more and more community members.
Evidence admitted in such trials was of five types. First, the accused might be asked to pass a test, like reciting the Lord's Prayer. This seems simple enough. But the young girls who attended the trial were known to scream and writhe on the floor in the middle of the test. It is easy to understand why some could not pass.
Second, physical evidence was considered. Any birthmarks, warts, moles, or other blemishes were seen as possible portals through which Satan could enter a body.",-0.056144523,0.482800372
8702c3b65,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/french-and-indian-war,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"The first phase of this war was a sheer disaster for Britain. Assaults on French territory ended in bitter defeat. The French and their Indian allies inspired fear on the British frontier by burning and pillaging settlements. The French even struck within sixty miles of Philadelphia. Americans were dismayed. They believed that Britain was not making the proper commitment to North America.
The turning point in the war came when the British statesman William Pitt took over wartime operations. He believed North America was critical for England's global domination. Pitt turned command of recruitment and supplies over to local authorities in America and promised to reimburse them for their efforts. He committed more troops and rearranged commanding officers, replacing old war heroes with energetic young ones.
Militarily, the tide began to turn, as the British captured Louisbourg, an important strategic port the British used to close the St. Lawrence Seaway. The death blow to the French cause was struck in Quebec in 1759. Commander James Wolfe bravely sent his forces up a rocky embankment to surprise the French.",-1.560700658,0.47125628
92800bdda,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-rush-of-immigrants,CC BY 4.0,"Most immigrant groups that had formerly come to America by choice seemed distinct, but in fact had many similarities. Most had come from Northern and Western Europe. Most had some experience with representative democracy. With the exception of the Irish, most were Protestant. Many were literate, and some possessed a fair degree of wealth.
The later groups arriving by the boatload in the Gilded Age were characterized by few of these traits. Their nationalities included Greek, Italian, Polish, Slovak, Serb, Russian, Croat, and others. Until cut off by federal decree, Japanese and Chinese settlers relocated to the American West Coast. None of these groups were predominantly Protestant.
The vast majority were Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. However, due to increased persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe, many Jewish immigrants sought freedom from torment. Very few newcomers spoke any English, and large numbers were illiterate in their native tongues. None of these groups hailed from democratic regimes. The American form of government was as foreign as its culture",-0.287080965,0.45801623
1f3711a4c,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-south-secedes,CC BY 4.0,"After Davis' and Lincoln's inaugurations, pressure mounted for the two new leaders to take some action on Fort Sumter. Lincoln in particular was pressured to reunite the states. The Union president thought that the southern secession was ""artificial."" When Jefferson Davis sent a group to Washington to negotiate for the transfer of Fort Sumter to South Carolina, they were promptly refused.
Lincoln had a dilemma. Fort Sumter was running out of supplies, but any attack on the South Carolina militias cutting off the fort from resupplies would appear as Northern aggression. States that still remained part of the Union (such as Virginia and North Carolina) might be driven into the secessionist camp if they thought that the Union soldiers were the aggressors. People at home and abroad might become sympathetic to the South. But Lincoln could not allow his troops to starve, nor could they surrender and risk showing considerable weakness.
At last he developed a plan. On April 6, Lincoln told the governor of South Carolina that he was going to send provisions to Fort Sumter. He would send no arms, troops, or ammunition — unless, of course, South Carolina attacked.",-0.550398737,0.481397908
3a251b3f4,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/clash-of-cultures-indigenous-america-and-the-conquistadores,CC BY 4.0,"Long before Cortés landed at Vera Cruz on Good Friday, 1519, omens of doom appeared. A comet ""bright as to turn night into day"" lit the sky. Dismayed soothsayers and astrologers maintained they did not see it, and Montezuma cast them into cages where they starved to death. Then, an important temple burned. Lastly, hunters brought Montezuma a bird with a mirror strapped to its head. In it he saw large numbers of people ""advance as for war; they appeared to be half men half deer.""
How much of this is fact? How much is myth? Since much of the history is told from the Spaniards' point of view, it's hard to tell. By the time spies brought tales of mountains floating upon the sea (Spanish galleons), and men with ""flesh very white... a long beard and hair to their ears,"" Montezuma's nerves were shattered. Was this the legendary feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, who once vanished into the eastern ocean, now returned?
Montezuma half-convinced himself that Cortés was a god—though whether this is true or another mythic reimagining of history is up to debate.",-1.564971397,0.445789047
86d0efac3,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/to-the-front-lines-america-in-world-war-i,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"The Germans felt they had done their part to warn Americans about the danger of overseas travel. The German government purchased advertisement space in American newspapers warning that Americans who traveled on ships carrying war contraband risked submarine attack. When the Lusitania departed New York, the Germans believed the massive passenger ship was loaded with munitions in its cargo hold. On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed the ship without warning, sending 1,198 passengers, including 128 Americans, to an icy grave. The Lusitania, as it turned out, was indeed carrying over 4 million rounds of ammunition.
President Wilson was enraged. Wilson's Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, recommended a ban on American travel on any ships of nations at war. Wilson preferred a tougher line against the German Kaiser. He demanded an immediate end to submarine warfare, prompting Bryan to resign in protest. The Germans began a 2-year practice of pledging to cease submarine attacks, reneging on that pledge, and issuing it again under U.S. protest.",-0.590181763,0.488847441
ef7091d7c,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-sit-in-movement,CC BY 4.0,"On February 1, 1960, the peaceful activists introduced a new tactic into their set of strategies. Four African American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter at the local Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and asked for coffee. When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served.
The civil rights sit-in was born.
No one participated in a sit-in of this sort without seriousness of purpose. The instructions were simple: sit quietly and wait to be served. Often the participants would be jeered and threatened by local customers. Sometimes they would be pelted with food or ketchup. Protestors did not respond when provoked by angry onlookers. In the event of a physical attack, the student would curl up into a ball on the floor and take the punishment. Any violent reprisal would undermine the spirit of the sit-in. When the local police came to arrest the demonstrators, another line of students would take the vacated seats.
Sit-in organizers believed that if the violence were only on the part of the white community, the world would see the righteousness of their cause.",0.699182731,0.513607272
dcdb76d20,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/a-nation-divided-north-vs-south,CC BY 4.0,"Within days of the fall of Fort Sumter, four more states joined the Confederacy: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. The battle lines were now drawn.
On paper, the Union outweighed the Confederacy in almost every way. Nearly 21 million people lived in 23 Northern states. The South claimed just 9 million people — including 3.5 million slaves — in Confederate states. Despite the North's greater population, however, the South had an army almost equal in size during the first year of the war.
The North had an enormous industrial advantage as well. At the beginning of the war, the Confederacy had only one-ninth the industrial capacity of the Union. But that statistic was misleading. In 1860, the North manufactured 97 percent of the country's firearms, 96 percent of its railroad locomotives, 94 percent of its cloth, 93 percent of its pig iron, and over 90 percent of its boots and shoes. The North had twice the density of railroads per square mile. There was not even one rifleworks in the entire South.
All of the principal ingredients of gunpowder were imported. Since the North controlled the navy, the seas were in the hands of the Union.",-1.040647035,0.473550185
c72336fa5,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/egyptian-mummies,CC BY 4.0,"A dead noble stands trembling in the Hall of Truth. Behind the noble, Horus, the half-falcon, half-man ruler of Earth, unleashes a piercing stare at the quivering man. Thoth, the sharp-beaked, ibis-headed deity of scribes, sharpens his quill — poised to record a verdict of divine judgment.
Seated before the noble on a golden throne is Osiris, the king of the dead. Upon his head rests a glittering crown with a gorgeous white feather plume on either side. Behind Osiris stands Isis, the revered goddess of nature, who is responsible for bringing the dead earth back to life each year. She holds an ankh, a cross with a loop above the bar. An ankh guarantees that a dead person will live forever.
The noble wonders if he will live forever. Or will he be fed to the hideous crocodile-like god called the Eater of the Dead and forever cease to exist. (How can the noble wonder about all this if he's already dead? The noble is actually in limbo, a place where the souls of dead people go while being judged.)
Osiris begins the process of judging the noble's life.",-1.861507512,0.491353044
611974422,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"It was fast approaching the time when mamas and papas call children for clean ups. It was time for children to wave goodbye to friends. It was getting to the dreaded bedtime. The sun was not moving. He stubbornly remained rooted at the same spot. Normally the shadows would grow longer, the later it got. But on that day, the shadows did not grow any longer. The sun refused to go to bed. Below, children were still playing, laughing, skipping and jumping, although it was long past their playtime. Parents, being parents, looked with worry at their watches. They were puzzled. What should they do? The clocks showed it was past playtime, but the sun still stood at playtime! In faraway villages, parents were saying, ""Children it is time for bed."" And children, being children, responded, ""But the sun is still shining brightly."" Mammas and pappas looked at each other. Then they looked up to the sky and wondered, ""Should we send our children to bed? It is late, but the sun is still at the midday spot.""",0.41702917,0.487432152
70da9960b,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/capitalism-will-eat-democracy-unless-we-speak-up,CC BY-NC-ND 4.0,"Tonight, here, I want to present to you an economic case for an authentic democracy. I want to ask you to join me in believing again that Lee Kuan Yew, the Chinese Communist Party and indeed the Eurogroup are wrong in believing that we can dispense with democracy — that we need an authentic, boisterous democracy. And without democracy, our societies will be nastier, our future bleak and our great, new technologies wasted.
Speaking of waste, allow me to point out an interesting paradox that is threatening our economies as we speak. I call it the twin peaks paradox. One peak you understand — you know it, you recognize it — is the mountain of debts that has been casting a long shadow over the United States, Europe, the whole world. We all recognize the mountain of debts. But few people discern its twin. A mountain of idle cash belonging to rich savers and to corporations, too terrified to invest it into the productive activities that can generate the incomes from which you can extinguish the mountain of debts and which can produce all those things that humanity desperately needs, like green energy.",-2.311147518,0.500727084
589c8bd39,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"For many months, the skies were dry. Lomongin, the famous rain-maker, talked to his gods. People gathered outside his home, anxiously waiting for a message of hope. When he came out, he assured people that the creator was going to give them rain soon. They would be able to plant their crops. Children played outside as we waited for the rains. Later that day, we saw big white clouds in the far east. I knew they were rain clouds. People were still thinking about what the rain-maker said. Mother shouted loudly, ""There! The clouds are now dark. Come inside."" The rain poured down. We had waited for the rains! At first,we rejoiced. But the rains did not stop. There was water everywhere. The bridge linking our village to the mainland was washed away. Houses were washed away by floods. What was a blessing, was now a disaster for us? Everybody had prepared for planting. But now they could not plant. People of my village had longed for rain but now they did not want it anymore. We had no bridge to cross on. Many had no homes.",-0.313049974,0.462351332
50e7e7f29,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"One early morning, Ekai was woken up by his mother. He was in a deep sleep and he could not wake up immediately. His mother kept calling him, ""Ekai! Ekai-i-i."" Ekai was very annoyed because that was unusual thing to him. His mother had prepared breakfast for him and warm water for bathing. Ekai woke up, took a bath and breakfast. Ekai's mother brought him new school uniform and a pair of black shoes with grey pair of socks. He was surprised to see his father holding a blue bag full of books. He knew that his time to start school had reached. Ekai and his father left the house. He waved to his mother and held his father's hand. They walked to the bus stop. They found a bus that was ready to leave. They boarded the bus. After a few minutes, they reached a place where there were many buildings and children.",0.226125373,0.472143705
a713d5ec4,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time, there was a goat called Igodhoobe. Igodhoobe the goat was the king of farm animals and birds. He lived a good life. One day, Igodhoobe the goat called all the animals and birds to a meeting. 
""My friends, I have called you because I had a dream,"" said the goat. All the animals and birds kept quiet. They listened to their king carefully. 
""I dreamed that there was no food or water left in the land. Many of our relatives died!"" said the king. When the animals and the birds heard the dream, they were worried. ""What shall we do?"" asked the cat. 
The hen and the duck had an idea. They said, ""Let each one of us bring food and put it in the king's store."" All the animals agreed with this idea. 
The king made a rule. He said, ""Get ropes. Tie up anyone who does not 
bring food to my store. Then carry him to me."" 
But, soon after this, it was time for a new king to rule over the farm. All the animals and birds met and elected the cat as their new king.",-0.531587618,0.494598961
46de95092,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplifier,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Electronic amplifiers make a signal from the radio or electric instrument louder and stronger by using transistors or vacuum tubes. Electronic amplifiers have to be connected to electrical current or a battery to work. Once the signal from the radio or electric instrument has been made louder and stronger, the signal needs to be connected to a loudspeaker so that people can hear it.
When an amplifier tries to make the sound louder than it can, it adds distortion to the sound. Some amplifiers are made to add controlled distortion. Distortion from transistors sounds different than distortion from tubes. Distortion from tubes is often said to be more musical. Because of all this, more expensive amplifiers often add controlled distortion with tubes. Many of these amplifiers use transistors for a ""clean"" sound (without distortion).
From the 1920s until the 1950s, electronic amplifiers used vacuum tubes. However, electronic amplifiers with vacuum tubes were heavy, and they produced a lot of heat. They also broke down a lot.
Since the 1960s, most electronic amplifiers have been built with transistors. Transistors are lighter, cheaper, and more reliable.",-1.301436029,0.457682155
44574243c,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2015.00006,CC BY 4.0,"Our findings support our prediction that individuals with damage to the LTP would be able to recognize famous musical songs, but not name them. These findings help show that the LTP is a critical region for naming proper nouns of various types, including famous faces, landmarks, and now, songs. Without this brain region, people are impaired at naming unique items. This shows us that the LTP is an important brain region for naming proper items. The LTP is called a ""convergence zone"" for naming items. What this means is that the LTP does not store the names of the items, but it is a region where the names of items are related to the information about the items. This explains why people with LTP damage are able to say information about the item but not the name. So, next time you hear a song on the radio and think of its name, remember that you are using your LTP!",-1.196385858,0.473911746
dcfa7a4cf,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00001,CC BY 4.0,"All the information about a microbe, or any kind of cell, exists in the cell's DNA. DNA is the molecule that contains the genetic code of organisms and, thus, can be described as the ""blueprint"" of the cell, since it tells the cell what to do and when to do it. In can further be divided in small subsections called genes. There are thousands of genes in the DNA of an organism and each gene has a specific function. For example, the human DNA contains about 25,000–35,000 genes, but only a very few genes are responsible for the color of your eyes. The NGS technology allows scientists to ""read"" the DNA from a whole microbial community without the need for pure cultures of the microbes. This approach is called ""Metagenome sequencing"" and it provides the scientist with a list of the genes of all the microbes living in a particular area.",-0.798291846,0.487537629
20a7c954d,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"In January and February, Sun woke up early every day and shone strongly. All crops and grass dried up. People were thirsty. Animals had no water. Every place was very hot. People looked for small rivers for swimming. In March, Rain suddenly started pouring. It rained in the morning. It rained in the afternoon. It rained in the evening and night. Everything was wet. Then the weather became cold. People had to cover themselves with long jackets and big hats. Everything was muddy. The farmers got excited. They planted a lot of crops for food. They hoped that the crops would grow quickly once the rain stopped. After some time, everybody was fed up with Rain. Animals from the bush and forest looked for safer places on dry land. Finally, Sun came but was very weak. The weather became colder. No one liked the weather. People asked each other about Sun and Rain. They wanted to know who is more powerful. What do you think? Who is more powerful? Sun or Rain?",-0.244359685,0.443613194
eb4e3cbc2,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"In a village there was a disagreement among people of different occupations. Everyone thought their work was the most important! The teacher said that he had the most important occupation. ""Without teachers you could not go to school and learn."" The builder said that he had the most important occupation. ""Without builders you would not have schools to learn in or houses to sleep in."" The carpenter said that he had the most important occupation. ""Without carpenters you would have no furniture for your houses and schools."" The doctor claimed that he had the most important occupation. ""Without doctors and nurses, you could get sick and die The farmer said that she had the most important occupation. ""Without farmers you would not have food to eat."" The student argued that students had the most important work. ""Without students, there would be no teachers, builders, doctors, farmers, or carpenters."" Eventually everyone agreed that all the occupations are important. We need teachers, builders, doctors, farmers, and carpenters. But everyone has to be a student first!",0.76450389,0.530191205
b5e073c7b,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/maslow-s-hierarchy-of-needs,CC BY NC-SA 2.0,"According to Maslow, our most basic needs — such as the need for food, air, and water — are inborn. These needs are required for the survival of our species. According to Maslow, humans are motivated to fulfill the obvious needs for survival first. Only once these needs are met do we begin to grow and focus on our ""higher order"" needs.
This hierarchy is most often displayed as a pyramid. The lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are located at the top of the pyramid.
The first level in Maslow's hierarchy of needs:
I. PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS
Physiological needs are the physical requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met, the human body cannot function properly and will ultimately fail. Physiological needs are thought to be the most important; they should be met first.
Air, water, and food are metabolic requirements for survival in all animals, including humans. Clothing and shelter provide necessary protection from the elements.",-0.672687728,0.480950132
e97000e5a,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/frank-abagnale,CC BY-NC 2.0,"Frank Abagnale was born in Bronxville, New York, and lived there until he was sixteen. His first con victim was his father, who gave him a gasoline credit card and a truck when he was fifteen, so that he could get to and from his part-time job. Instead of using the card to buy gas as intended, Abagnale used it to buy tires, batteries, and other products at gas stations and then sold the products to people for cash. His father was liable for a bill of $3,400 for all the products Abagnale charged to the card.
Abagnale's next tricks focused mostly on cashing personal checks for money that was not in fact in his bank account. This never works for long at a single bank, so he began to open other accounts at different banks, eventually adopting several different identities to enable this. Abagnale's cons grew in scale and sophistication. He became very skilled over time, and he devised a variety of schemes for defrauding banks.
As his crimes became increasingly serious, Abagnale went on the run and adopted a variety of false names and identities to evade police.",0.199687267,0.486170398
822c5d421,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-1972-andes-flight-disaster,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Search parties from three countries looked for the missing plane. However, since the plane was white, it blended in with the snow, making it virtually invisible from the sky. The initial search was canceled after eight days. The survivors of the crash had found a small transistor radio on the plane and Roy Harley, one of the survivors, first heard the news that the search was canceled on their 11th day on the mountain.
Upon hearing the news, the survivors began to sob and pray — all except Gustavo Nicolich, who looked calmly up the mountains which rose to the west. ""Hey boys,"" he shouted, ""there's some good news! We just heard on the radio. They've called off the search."" Inside the crowded plane there was silence. As the hopelessness of their predicament enveloped them, they wept. ""Why the hell is that good news?"" another shouted angrily at Nicolich. ""Because it means,"" Nicolich said, ""that we're going to get out of here on our own."" The courage of this one man prevented a barrage of total despair.
The survivors had a small amount of food: a few chocolate bars, assorted snacks and several bottles of wine.",-0.279951755,0.465558315
7aad61e03,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/freud-s-theory-of-the-id-ego-and-superego,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"The most primitive part of the human mind, the id is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses. Freud believed that the id acts according to the ""pleasure principle"" – the psychic force that motivates the tendency to seek immediate gratification of any impulse. The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth, and for good reason. Infants depend on others to provide them with food, to change their diaper, and to avoid pain or discomfort. The id is the part of the mind that compels a baby to cry when he or she is in need of something, ensuring a healthy and happy upbringing.
The id, according to Freud, is the most selfish part of our mind. It is only concerned with the immediate satisfaction of whatever want or need the body is experiencing at the moment. Freud stated that the id ""knows no judgements of value: no good and evil, no morality"" – only the fulfillment of immediate desires. Infants, for example, do not consider the needs of their parents when they cry.",-2.05197829,0.508171026
d23861773,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"The king's bull has got stuck in the mud!"" All the villagers came running. What concerns the king, concerns everyone. A crowd soon gathered around the head and tail. They started asking, ""Now what do we do?"" Magezi Mataala Manene advised, ""Some of you pull the tail, and some of you pull the head. We will pull the bull from the mud."" The people took his advice. ""Ready! One, two, three, pull! Come out nowwwww!"" they shouted. The villagers fell down over each other from the effort of pulling. Two were still holding the head. One held up the tail. Magezi Mataala Manene cried out, ""Wo wee! You have pulled apart the king's bull. Each one of you must give one bull for the king."" Quickly, the people went back to their homes. Quickly, they returned with a bull each. And so Magezi Mataala Manene left with a herd of bulls to return to his friend Kasiru Kasiira Katono.",-0.5754147,0.462403509
fa245b18c,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time, there was a man called Byantaka who had a cow. Each day Byantaka grazed his cow. He also gave the cow water to drink, but Byantaka only had a very small pot for water. So, he went at his neighbor's home to borrow a bigger pot for water. His neighbor agreed to lend Byantaka his biggest clay pot saying, ""My neighbor's problem is my problem."" After a few days, Byantaka went to a potter and bought a small pot. He took it home. He put the small pot inside the big pot that he had borrowed from his neighbor. Then, he put the big pot, with the small pot inside it, on his head. He carried the big pot to the neighbor who loaned it to him. Byantaka told him, ""I am returning your pot, it has reproduced."" The neighbor was amazed that his pot had produced another pot. He praised Byantaka saying, ""Your home is blessed."" After a while, Byantaka went back to his neighbour to borrow the pot again. He did not have good intentions.",-0.838223764,0.4903957
25453cfdf,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2015.00014,CC BY 4.0,"However, too much of CO2 in our air can be a bad thing. Humans are responsible for producing large amounts of CO2. Every day we use fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, or natural gas, which we find deep underground in solid, liquid, or gas forms) in our cars or power plants, or we cut down forests. All these activities combined have caused the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere to increase to levels not seen on earth in 55 million years. This increase in greenhouse gases heats the earth. The increase in temperature causes climate change, which is a change in average worldwide or regional weather patterns. Scientists project that climate change will cause a rise in sea level, more intense heat waves, extreme weather, species extinction, and other negative impacts on our world.
Luckily, there are several steps that we can take to reduce the impacts of future climate change. Scientists generally divide these helpful actions (known as ""climate change mitigation"") into three categories: reducing CO2 and other harmful greenhouse gas emissions (the release of these gases into the atmosphere), reducing the amount of sunlight that reaches the earth's surface, or removing CO2 from the atmosphere.",-0.939374758,0.476615842
70d41e95f,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/3823,CC BY 4.0,"The clever Rabbit was awake inside his hutch. He was thinking, ""I want to explore the outside world."" The other rabbits were dozing. The door to their hutch opened. The farmer came in. It was meal time for the rabbits. The food smelled nice. All the other rabbits were awake now. They hopped closer to the farmer. The clever Rabbit watched the farmer walk out the hutch. ""Aha! Now I know how I can sneak out. Tomorrow I must get out of here."" ""I'll hop into the basket when the farmer brings in food,"" the clever Rabbit thought. 
 The other rabbits quickly finished their meal and fell asleep. In the morning, the farmer brought in food for the rabbits. ""Today is the day,"" the clever Rabbit thought to himself. ""I must get out of this hutch."" 
 As soon as the farmer put the basket down, the clever Rabbit quickly jumped in. No one saw him. After the farmer had fed the other rabbits, he carried the basket outside.",0.62587834,0.529096065
b0e0d3a39,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2015.00002,CC BY 4.0,"Neuroethics is a field of study dedicated to understanding the ethical, legal, and social impact of research on and about the brain (i.e., neuro). Neuroethics also aims to better understand the brain processes that are involved in making decisions about what is right or wrong. Ultimately, research in neuroethics seeks to identify solutions to help neuroscience and society come together safely and with the best results.
Research in neuroethics breaks down into four main areas of study. To provide a better understanding of each of these areas, we highlight four examples of neuroethics research from each of the four categories.
 The term cognitive enhancement refers to the improvement of thinking skills when there is not an inherent problem with thinking. Several medications have been created to help people with thinking problems improve their ability to concentrate and do better in school. Sometimes, however, healthy people also use these medications because they want to improve their memory or ability to learn as well. This is called cognitive enhancement, and neuroethicists have raised four concerns related to this practice.",-1.686057742,0.500360955
124782d8d,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/3826,CC BY 4.0,"The tortoise moved quite slowly. 
 She was never be able to collect enough tree branches to build a proper house. She sat down and thought about what to do. 
 After thinking for a long time, she decided to go in search of a house that was already built. One day, she saw a cave. She peered inside. It looked warm and dry! 
 But the cave belonged to a rabbit and her children. She climbed up a tree. But, she was chased away by birds chirping and cawing noisily in their nests. 
 The tortoise walked away sadly, sweating in the heat of the sun. One day, as the tortoise was wandering about, she found a cow in its pen. She was with her calves. 
 ""Can I join you, please?"" asked Tortoise. 
 ""I'm sorry,"" said the cow, ""but we can't help you. It's full in here already.""",1.332118919,0.548490301
e7d6acd2e,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"This is Billy. He is the goat Jan was given by his father as a gift. Even though Billy is stubborn, Jan loves him very much. He always gives birth to healthy kids that Jan and his father sell. Yesterday Billy went out of their compound with her two kids. Jan does not like this because the kids easily get stolen or be eaten by dogs. Billy chewed the books containing all the homework Ann had done. Ann was angry that she was going to be punished by her teacher. She kicked Billy very had. This made Jan angry. He locked himself in his room to play with his toys. Jan is afraid that his father will sell Billy for what he has done. However, Mr. Tom, his father does not want to annoy his son by selling Billy. He has promised to wait until the kids are old enough so that he can give one to Jan.",0.052490473,0.516245305
849971671,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"For her last birthday, Sisanda had a special treat – her parents got permission for her to have a party at the game reserve. The giraffes at the reserve were curious about this group of people. They stretched out their long necks for the best view of the party and they even seemed to want some of the birthday cake! Sisanda loved the giraffes. All animals were special to her, but it was the quiet and gentle giraffes that stole her heart. She could spend all day watching them. 
One Friday, Sisanda's father came home from work early. He looked very upset. ""What's wrong, Baba?"" Sisanda asked. ""Today a swarm of bees stung a mother giraffe,"" explained Sisanda's father. ""Her head was so swollen from all the stings that her beautiful eyes were closed. We tried everything to help her, but it was no use – she died. And the saddest part of all is that she had a young calf that still needs her.""",1.597869841,0.596348832
39fde689a,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"A woman with her baby went into the forest. She went to pick fruit. In the forest she found a tree with ripe fruit. She put down her sleeping baby and climbed the tree. An erotot from another community came by. He saw the baby. He was surprised. He asked himself, ""Where is the mother?"" He bent down. The sound of the chains on his neck woke the baby. He let the baby play with his chains. The baby laughed as he played. The woman looked down to see why the baby was laughing. She saw the stranger. She was so afraid that she dropped her bag of fruit. The erotot looked up. He said, ""Don't be afraid. I'm only playing with your beautiful baby."" So, the woman came down from the tree. The erotot took off one of his chains. He gave it to the baby. ""Here is a gift for you,"" he said. ""Go home with your baby. Tell your husband to move to a more peaceful village. Your baby has given me peace,"" said the erotot.",0.568791653,0.535309831
42040e08c,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Sinyaire village was surrounded by hills. Many snakes lived in the forest on those hills. The biggest snake was called Unyalego by the villagers. Unyalego scared many people. It swallowed whole goats and sheep. 
One day, three sisters, Apiyo, Ajoh and Atieno went to the forest to fetch firewood. The girls' grandmother warned, ""Beware of Unyalego the big snake. Do not take anything from the forest except the wood."" Only Ajoh did not pay attention to her grandmother. 
The girls packed milk, bananas, sweet potatoes and water. They took ropes for tying firewood and a sharp machete for chopping the wood. Then they left for the forest. 
On the way, the sisters chatted and laughed. Suddenly, Apiyo, the eldest of them, said, ""Be quiet. We are coming to where Unyalego the snake lives."" 
Atieno called to the others, ""Look, here are Unyalego's golden teeth. Let us take them."" Apiyo reminded them, ""Don't forget grandmother's warning. We must not take anything from the forest except firewood."" 
Ajoh said, ""I don't trust grandmother. She said that to stop us having what we want. I want the golden teeth."" Her sisters were worried, but Ajoh did not care.",-0.813193749,0.469203625
ab21a5be7,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Amara loved animals very much. 
Amara lived with her mother, Margy. She was a very hardworking farmer. Amara's father died when she was 5 years old. 
When Amara was not at school, she spent her time with Mbisa, the goat. She cleaned and fed it. 
Amara also had her pet, Simba. Her mother did not like dogs very much, but she let Amara keep Simba. Whenever Simba disturbed her, she would shout, ""Go away before I kick you out."" Amara felt sad. 
One Saturday, they had visitors from the women's group. Amara was happy that her mother's friends had come with their children. They could play football. 
Her mother had prepared the food that the group liked. Amara was reminded by her mother to keep Simba locked up. It barked at strangers. 
Amara did not lock up Simba well. The visitors were surprised to see the dog in the room. Mama Oto asked, ""Why do you allow the dog to come inside the house?"" Amara's mother called Amara to come and take Simba out. 
Amara did not hear her mother calling because they were busy playing. 
When Amara went to the house, she called Simba out. Simba was very obedient to Amara.",0.124536598,0.49487347
7d262dd9b,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Moon asked Rain, ""What do you do that helps the earth?"" Rain answered, ""I give the earth water so that the trees and plants can grow well. I give water for animals to drink."" Rain asked Wind, ""What do you do that helps the earth?"" Wind answered, ""I sweep the earth clean. I scatter the rain over the whole earth."" Wind asked Sun, ""What do you do that helps the earth?"" Sun answered, ""I give the earth light and warmth, so that animals and plants can live."" Sun, Moon, Rain and Wind listened carefully to each other. Then Sun said, ""It is true that each of us helps the earth in our own special way."" ""Yes"", said Moon, ""Not one of us is better than the others."" ""We can work together,"" said Rain. Wind said, ""Then let us share the days."" They all agreed. And that is why you sometimes see the moon when the sun is shining. And sometimes you feel the wind when it is raining. Sun, Moon, Rain and Wind work very well together.",0.128857544,0.553758403
cbd39e3aa,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Thoko was sitting on his father's wagon. It was piled high with mielies. There were many children on the wagon. They were going home after spending the whole day in the fields. They had all worked hard that day. 
Thoko was very lucky. He worked the hardest of all the children. So, his father had bought him a FantaPine drink from M'e Pontso's shop. ""Mmmmm, mmmmm it is delicious,"" said Thoko. It was Thoko's favorite drink. 
He sipped it slowly. He wanted it to last him until they got to the top of the hill. At the top of the hill his father stopped to give the oxen a rest. ""What a beautiful valley we live in children,"" he said. ""We are lucky to live in such a clean, fresh place."" He smiled. On they went. 
The sun was warm. The wagon was rocking gently from side to side as the oxen walked. The children were chatting softly to each other. Thoko felt sleepy. He wanted to lie down on the mielies and sleep a little. He looked at the empty FantaPine tin in his hand. ""I am tired of holding this empty tin,"" he thought to himself.",-0.511391002,0.46124311
03b761fd9,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larva,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Probably the most widely accepted theory explaining the evolution of larval stages is the need for dispersal. Sessile organisms such as barnacles and tunicates, and sea-floor groups like mussels and crabs, need some way to move their young into new territory, since they cannot move long distances as adults. Many species have relatively long pelagic larval stages (how long a larva is in the water column). During this time, larvae feed and grow, and many species move through several stages of development. For example, most barnacles molt through six nauplius larva stages before molting to a cipris, when they look to settle. The larvae eat different food from the adults, and disperse.
The other consideration is the small size of the eggs. If animals lay many small eggs (and most do), then the young stages cannot live the life the adults lead. They must live a separate life until they have the size and capability to live as an adult. This is what the larvae do.",-2.778515087,0.533111486
3362c7f9a,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One day while Magozwe was looking through the dustbins, he found an old tattered storybook. He cleaned the dirt from it and put it in his sack. Every day after that he would take out the book and look at the pictures. He did not know how to read the words. The pictures told the story of a boy who grew up to be a pilot. Magozwe would daydream of being a pilot. Sometimes, he imagined that he was the boy in the story. It was cold and Magozwe was standing on the road begging. A man walked up to him. ""Hello, I'm Thomas. I work at a place where you can get something to eat,"" he said. Thomas pointed to a house nearby. ""I hope you will go there to get some food?"" he asked. Magozwe looked at the man, and then at the house. ""Maybe,"" he said, and walked away. Over the months that followed, the homeless boys got used to seeing Thomas around. He liked to talk to people, especially people living on the streets. Thomas listened to the stories of people's lives. He was patient and respectful.",0.010803516,0.540584127
501927637,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"The city bus was almost full, but more people were still pushing to get on. Some packed their luggage under the bus. Others put their things on the racks inside. New passengers clutched their tickets as they looked for somewhere to sit in the crowded bus. Women with young children made them comfortable for the long journey. I squeezed in next to a window. The person sitting next to me was holding tightly to a green plastic bag. He wore old sandals, a worn-out coat, and he looked nervous. I looked outside the bus and realized that I was leaving my village, the place where I had grown up. I was going to the big city. The loading was completed and all passengers were seated. Hawkers still pushed their way into the bus to sell their goods to the passengers. Each one was shouting the names of what was available for sale. The words sounded funny to me. A few passengers bought drinks, others bought small snacks and began to chew.",1.104488747,0.553092811
9ba54834d,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,My cousin Kamohelo leans on her hoe. What do I do? What do I know? My aunt Keromang has a dress to sew. What do I do? What do I know? My uncle Khotso herds the cattle that low. What do I do? What do I know? Mama dries wheat when the wind does not blow. What do I do? What do I know? Papa rides a horse over mountains in snow. What do I do? What do I know? Grandpa's slow donkey walks to and fro. What do I do? What do I know? Grandma sings songs till the fire burns low. What do I do? What do I know? You know how to say yes. You know how to say no. That's what you do! That's what you know! Everyone laughs when you put on a show. Your work is to play. Your work is to grow.,-0.536890434,0.494248674
9cf73dfa2,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"When Papa came home, Sima was nursing Siza. ""What are you doing?"" asked Papa. ""I'm being a nurse,"" said Sima. ""Will you play with me?"" ""Yes. But we will go to the park and play soccer,"" said Papa. His friends saw Sima and Papa playing soccer. They joined in. Sima and Papa often play soccer now. But they still haven't played with dolls. One day, Sima was playing hospital-hospital with his dolls. He heard Mama shout. ""Sima! Run! Papa is waiting to play with you at the park."" ""Why on earth are you wearing a dress?"" said Papa in an angry voice. Just then a ball flew out of nowhere and. Knocked Papa down. Everyone panicked. Except Sima. He knelt and tied his blanket around Papa's bleeding head. ""Call an ambulance!"" he shouted. ""He needs stiches in his head. You did just the right thing,"" said the nurse. Sima was proud. ""You're a hero. You'll make a great doctor one day."" ""But I want to be a nurse, just like you, "" said Sima. ""Thank you, Nurse Sima,"" said Papa. Now Sima and Papa play hospital and soccer – and his friends do too.",-0.154503372,0.482271782
5e0850d8c,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2015.00008,CC BY 4.0,"The human brain is arguably the most complex structure known to science. A century ago, the German Korbinian Brodmann made the first serious attempt at cataloging this complexity. He divided the cerebral cortex, the biggest and uniquely mammalian part of the brain, into about 50 regions based on their anatomical appearance. These are now known as ""Brodmann areas."" In modern neuroscience, we understand that some of these anatomical regions have similar functions, while others play multiple roles. For example, Brodmann areas 39, 40, and part of 22 together make up ""Wernicke's area,"" named after Carl Wernicke, another German. Wernicke's area is crucial for our seemingly effortless ability to make sense of words (as well as other forms of communication, such as sign language). When scientists first studied brains, they noticed that some parts were a bit darker in appearance than others, and called these ""gray matter"" and ""white matter."" We now know that gray matter is made up of billions of nerve cells or neurons. White matter consists of the neural cables or axons that connect different brain regions.",-1.588661778,0.488347471
dc05f5cbd,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One day we saw a strange black cloud move in from far away. It was a swarm of locusts, headed for our village. The locusts attacked farms and ate the crops. We tried to chase the locusts away. But they would not go. We made noises and screamed, ""Wuwi, wuwi!"" But the locusts would not go. We hit tins and metal pots. But the locusts would not go. We lit fires to chase the locusts away. But they would not go. They settled on trees. Branches broke because of the weight of all the locusts. Then we remembered that roasted locusts are good to eat! Everyone started to collect the locusts in sacks and nets. Children brought gourds and filled them with locusts. We roasted locusts and fried them. We even dried locusts for the cold season. But still, there were so many locusts. Then, the next morning, the locusts flew away. The cloud left our village. When the farmers saw their farms, they moaned loudly: ""Our farms are destroyed!"" The villagers cried, ""What will we eat this year? What have the locusts left us?""",0.729105439,0.561512336
f9aeaeeaa,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Other people arrived at the bus stop. They complained because the bus was late. ""Where is the bus?"" they asked. Ebei was worried. ""We will not be able to go to town,"" he thought. ""I will not be able to get my uniform."" Some people gave up and went home. Ebei cried. He did not want to go. ""We will wait a bit longer,"" said his mother. Suddenly, they heard a noise. They saw dust in the air. The bus was coming! But this bus was not blue. It was not big. It was red and small. The people did not want to get in this bus. ""Get in! Get in!"" shouted the driver. ""We are very late today,"" he called. Ebei and his mother got in first. Soon everyone else got in the small red bus. Ebei looked out the window. He saw more people at the bus stop. Even more people were running to catch the bus.",0.4694777,0.518400275
a6c6237aa,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Ekai keeps all sorts of animals in his father's homestead. His mother Mrs. Anok has always supported Ekai in the purchasing of the animals. Goats, chicken, chicks, cattle, rabbits and a dog are Ekai's favorite animals. During holidays Ekai with the help of his sister will take the goats out to graze in the nearby river banks, have fun and make sure all their livestock are satisfied. At the grazing banks Ekai would hold one of the goats after it has taken water confirming how the goats are growing fat each and every day. Ekai has a dog pet called Bony. Every time Ekai is around he would give Bony food and a hot shower with a shampoo, that makes Bony a happy and healthy dog. In the morning Ekai and his sister will give the birds food and water before he takes breakfast. Besides him Bony the dog would play and let no other wild birds to disturb their birds.",-0.702123724,0.478014942
e847e756b,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Nkanyezi walked all day. She hiked up a hill, and down into a valley. She sailed across the great river, and climbed between sharp rocks. She marched across the plains until she reached the shadow of the red mountains. As night was closing in, Nkanyezi arrived at a village of patterns and colors as she had never seen before. She told the village elders about her journey to bring back the spirit of celebration to her people. The mother of this tribe gave Nkanyezi a gift. She told the girl, ""With love we give to you this paint to restore color to your village."" Nkanyezi thanked the elders and put the paint in her bag. Early the next morning she went on her way. Nkanyezi walked all day, through a vast forest of giant trees. As the sky became too dark for her to see, she heard the sound of beating drums. She hurried towards the drumming, feeling the spirit of dance coming to her tired feet.",-0.610830873,0.463156915
c9bbb69f6,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/1187,CC BY 4.0,"One day, Kindru-Lalim remarked, ""O Lali, I'm so tired of living in a dark cave. Why don't we build a house in the forest?"" ""That's a fantastic idea, Kindru!"" exclaimed Kincha Lali-Dam. ""Let's go and ask our friends - the birds, beasts and reptiles - how to build a house!"" So Kincha Lali-Dam and Kindru-Lalim came out of their caves and entered a dense forest. The first animal they saw was an elephant standing under a tree, flapping his large ears. 
 ""Can you tell us how to build a house, O mighty one?"" they asked. The elephant trumpeted loudly and said, ""Cut logs to make pillars as strong and thick as my legs!"" The two friends chopped down a tree and made thick pillars out of it. 
 A snake suddenly slithered past them on the forest floor. ""Fetch poles as long and thin as I am,"" hissed the snake, so off went Kindru-Lalim and Kincha Lali-Dam to cut bamboos from a nearby grove.",-0.728360793,0.479860263
459707759,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Why-Cant-We-Glow-Like-Fireflies-FKB-Stories.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"Imagine a dark, moonless night when you have gone camping with your classmates and you lose your way. What would you do? Will you not try contacting your friends by flashing your torchlight?
Well, fireflies or ‘lightning bugs' as they are sometimes called do the same, except that they have an unlimited supply of light within themselves! That is why fireflies never worry about fused light bulbs or electricity tariffs. They seem immensely happy just flying around and glowing- this is their signal to say, ""Hey, look! I'm here!""
The glow of the firefly is produced by a protein called luciferase and a pigment called luciferin. Proteins are special food used by our bodies to create muscles, bones and skin while pigments are natural coloring substances found in plants and animals. When these two meet inside the tiny belly of the firefly, they react with the oxygen already found in there.
A celebration takes place, a soft firework display, so to say and bright light is produced which is the ‘glow' of the firefly! Fireflies therefore are bioluminescent but they are not the only ones. Different types of fish and marine creatures in the sea also produce their own lights!",0.190036692,0.480486868
b025a7846,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2015.00018,CC BY 4.0,"Fog is an accumulation of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended above the surface of the Earth. It forms when moist air is cooled below a specific temperature and some of the water vapor condenses (turns to tiny liquid droplets). By definition, the weather is considered foggy when we cannot see more than 1000 m ahead. In his book, Robert L. May described fog ""as thick as white fizz"" and near zero visibility (it was ""dark and drear""), which suggests that the fog could have been one of two possible types: radiation fog or ice fog. Radiation fog happens when the ground cools the air above it by contact. Ice fog occurs when warm air interacts with extremely cold air and the water vapor changes directly into a solid, forming tiny ice crystals suspended in the air.
The ability of light to shine through fog varies according to the color of light.",-0.691647347,0.458516558
cd2961c53,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Most mornings, Hare would take some seeds from Hyena's granary. Then he went to his field and pretended to work. He would light a fire and roast the seeds. He did nothing, except eat roasted seeds. At harvest time, Hare went and stole his friend's ripe maize. He carried it to his own granary. Hyena complained about the stolen crops. Hare answered, ""Maybe the neighbors stole your maize. They are suffering from famine because they are lazy."" Hyena thought about this problem for a long time. He came up with an idea. He collected gum from the trees. He put that sticky gum around the whole field. The thief would get stuck in the gum. During the night, Hare went to Hyena's field to steal more maize. Before entering the field, he looked around to see if it was safe. Hare did not see the gum that Hyena had put around the field. Hare stood in the gum and was stuck. He started shouting for help. Hyena heard the shouts and ran out to catch the thief. He could not believe his eyes. It was his friend Hare who was stuck in the gum!",-0.651409644,0.47965072
2d3e20104,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Then he would say to the next child, ""I am old enough for meat. Here is yours. Wait until you are older."" Each small portion became even smaller. It went like this for all the children. The youngest child got a tiny piece of meat. The father kept the big pieces of meat for himself and his wife. The children were quiet and ate their food. Years passed and the children grew up. The parents grew old. They became weak. The children looked after their old mother and father. One day at meal time, the eldest child served the meat, as usual. But this time she gave only a tiny piece to her father and a tiny piece to her mother. She said to her parents, ""You ate yours, now it is our time. We are old enough."" She served most of the meat to her brothers and sisters. The father remembered what he did while his children were young. Mother and father agreed that it was not the right thing to do. They asked for forgiveness. The children promised that they would not repeat this mistake with their own children.",0.512359829,0.502433514
dad182181,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/3704,CC BY 4.0,"Bon is on a summer break! He asks Ma to play. But she is busy. She tells Bon to ask his Pa. Bon finds his Pa. ""Pa! Want to play ball?"" Pa says no. He is going to work. But Pa has an idea. He gives Bon a bag of balloons. Then Pa goes out the door. Bon finds his sister. Su is busy cutting paper for a class party. She gives Bon some paper. She tells him to make airplanes! Bon is very upset. Everyone is too busy to play with him! So, Bon goes into the garden. He will play with Butter the parrot. Butter looks at Bon. Bon looks at Butter. Bon has an idea. He has balloons. He has paper. Bon gets to work. He cuts and pastes. He pastes and cuts. Bon works for days! Finally, it's Saturday. Everybody is home. Bon invites his family to a party. They are surprised. It is not Bon's birthday. So, whose party is it? Bon just smiles. He asks his family to follow him. Bon jumps up and down. He laughs. He tells his family that it is Butter's birthday!",-0.707411103,0.505044616
42e422ab7,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Hare used to sit all day doing nothing and when Hyena came home after work, Hare would always ask him for nuts from his farm. But Hyena didn't like this very much. Hyena believes in working hard and not getting things for free. So, one day Hyena thought to himself, ""Its so hard to work all day by myself. Maybe Hare could help me and in return he can get some nuts that he has actually worked for."" Hare agreed to his terms and they shook hands on it because he thought it was a good deal. They also agreed that more work could be done and they will also get enough food for their families. The two worked so good together. They would work and laugh together. Hare would dig and plant and Hyena would help and sing along as they went. Hyena was very happy because he was able to plant a lot more than before. Hare was a really hard worker and worked all day long with no rest. He would work fast and faster. But he felt like he was working too much and wanted a raise because what Hyena was paying too little.",-0.033961058,0.488793491
c182a398b,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/3739,CC BY 4.0,"Mother Goat passes by. ""Will you go to the fair with me?"" she asks Mother Hen. 
""I'm busy with my eggs, "" Mother Hen answers. One, two, three, four, five, six. 
Six round eggs! Mother Pig passes by. ""Will you go to the fair with me?"" she asks. ""I'm busy with my eggs,"" answers Mother Hen. One, two, three, four, five, six. Six round eggs! Mother Cow passes by. ""Will you go to the fair with me?"" she asks Mother Hen. ""I'm busy with my eggs,"" answers Mother Hen. Mother Hen waits and waits. ""When will I see my chicks?"" she wonders. Mother Hen feels something. What's happening? One, two, three, four, five, six. Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Six chicks have hatched. Mother Hen is happy with her lovely chicks. Then she remembers. There is a fair today! Mother Goat, Mother Pig and Mother Cow have already left. Mother Hen is ready now. She will take her chicks to the fair. One, two, three, four, five, six! Mother Hen and her six chicks have a fantastic time at the fair. What fun! Her chicks were worth the wait.",0.682031464,0.481839076
d6ad3a9f9,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"He continued walking. He saw some splendid new clothes. He took off his clothes and put on the new ones. Then he thought about what the old woman had said. He took off the new clothes and put his old ones back on. Next he saw the root. It was withered from the sun. He asked himself what the old woman thought he would do with the root. Next to the root, there was a bowl of food. The food smelled delicious and the boy was hungry. He couldn't stop himself from eating. When he had finished, he remembered what the old woman had told him. The old woman had said he must only take the root. He looked around for the root, but he couldn't see it anymore. The boy left the forest feeling disappointed. He went back to tell the old woman what had happened. But the old woman was gone.",0.49588364,0.494972639
9.36E+194,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Elephant lived in a house on one side of the palace. Chameleon lived on the other side. At this time, there was a terrible drought across the land. The king had an idea and called his two neighbors to the palace. The king said to Elephant and Chameleon, ""I want you to stomp on the ground with your feet until water comes out."" The king promised a large reward to the one who succeeded. Chameleon had no hope since he was very small. Elephant was extremely happy since he was so big and powerful. Elephant went to the field and started stomping on the ground. A lot of dust came, but no water. Elephant stomped on the ground until water was almost coming out, but he was too tired. He gave Chameleon a chance to try. Chameleon started stomping on the ground. After a short while, water came out. People could not believe their eyes!",1.378184677,0.608948007
f741de5e3,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"On the way, we saw our friends playing football. ""Ah! Football!"" I said. I wanted to play too. I said to Chuma, ""Let's ask if we can play with them. I like playing football very much."" Chuma replied, ""Let us go to the shop first, then we can come to play."" But I replied, ""Let us play first! Grandmother will not allow us to return."" We joined our friends to play. I was the goal keeper. The goal posts were made of two big stones. I worked hard to catch the ball. My friends were not able to score any goals. We played until the field was full of sand. Then we went to the shop. Grandmother's money was gone! I started to cry. Chuma shouted, ""Stop crying. You wanted to play first."" We returned home without salt or cooking oil. We were very dirty and worried.",0.464625783,0.494498399
1b0a2c763,http://ukuqonda.co.za/digicom/Grade-10-Technical-Mathematics/TechMaths_Gr10LB_Eng.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"There is no specific scientific calculator prescribed for this subject. Any scientific, nonprogrammable calculator is suitable for your studies. Different scientific calculators have different functions and it is up to you to know your calculator. Most scientific calculators have algebraic logic; the operation in an expression can be entered in the calculator in the order in which the expression is read (left to right). The calculator automatically follows the conventional order of operations. 
You can setup your calculator to work either in natural display or linear display. Natural display causes fractions, irrational numbers, expressions, and certain functions to be displayed as you see them on paper. Linear display causes fractions and other expressions to be displayed in a line. 
When we come across an expression such as 7 + 3 ÷ 10 × 1, it makes a difference how we choose which operations to perform first.
Scientific calculators have been programmed to follow preset mathematical rules. If we press the buttons in a certain order, the calculator does the operations according to the rules that it has been programmed with.",-2.217939181,0.510936939
112f57fc9,http://ukuqonda.co.za/digicom/Grade-10-Technical-Science/TechSci_Gr10_LB_Eng_lowres.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"The candle clock was used years ago to indicate the passing of time. Special candles were marked with lines spaced so that, as the candle burned down, one line would disappear each hour. The process of marking the lines is called calibration. In this activity you will calibrate a candle to make a candle clock. 
A. Plan the activity a few days ahead as it might take most of the day to complete. AND plan a strategy to convince the principal to use your candle to run the school for a day. 
B. Decide what marks you will make on the candle. You might choose, for example to make marks for 15-minute periods of time. Thin candles burn faster than thick candles. 
C. Place the candles firmly in the holders. 
D. Put the candle holders close together and check that the candles are the same height. 
E. Light one candle. After the chosen period of time make a mark on the second candle opposite the top of the burning candle. Carry on marking the second candle until about one third of the candle has burned.",0.297964401,0.496086831
2d5024090,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One day his mother asked him, ""Where do you learn these songs from, Sakima?"" Sakima answered, ""I just know them, mother. I hear them in my mind and then I sing."" Sakima liked to sing for his little sister, especially, if she felt hungry. His sister would listen to him singing his favorite song. She would sway to the soothing tune. ""Can you sing it again and again, Sakima,"" his sister would beg him. Sakima would accept and sing it over and over again. One evening when his parents returned home, they were very quiet. Sakima knew that there was something wrong. ""What is wrong, mother, father?"" Sakima asked. Sakima learned that the rich man's son was missing. The man was very sad and lonely. ""I can sing for him. He might be happy again,"" Sakima told his parents. But his parents dismissed him. ""He is very rich. You are only a blind boy. Do you think your song will help him?"" However, Sakima did not give up. His little sister supported him. She said, ""Sakima's songs soothe me when I am hungry. They will soothe the rich man too.""",0.273022642,0.500075718
c911a8e1e,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Goat said, ""Ehe, Pig! Come with me to my house. We are having a small party."" When they were eating, Pig thought, ""This food is so delicious. I think I will stay here forever. It was time for everybody to dance. But Pig danced alone on the side. At the end of the dance, they left. After a short while, Pig said, ""I feel sick."" The others decided to carry Pig to his home. But Pig cried and said, ""Take me back to Goat's house instead. My home is too far."" They put him down and said, ""You are heavy. You can walk back if you want."" Pig called to two of his friends, but they ran away without looking at him. Pig walked back to Goat's house. He thought, ""I just want to eat the delicious food that Goat prepares."" Goat was surprised to see Pig so soon. He asked, ""Did you forget something?"" Pig said, ""My friend, I am sick."" At that time, the others arrived and began quarrelling Pig. ""You are lying. If you were sick, you would not have walked back here on your own.""",0.459932235,0.530281664
c9170e4aa,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Rooster wanted to be king. So he lied to the other animals. He told them, ""The red comb on my head is fire! Don't touch the comb on my head!"" The other animals believed Rooster. They decided to elect Rooster as their king. The animals hoped that Rooster's fire would help them in cold weather. Then came a day when it rained. And rained. And rained. It was cold. Everything was wet and cold. ""Where can we get fire to warm our bodies?"" Rabbit asked the other animals. ""We can get fire from the comb on Rooster's head,"" replied Monkey. ""Rooster is our king because he has fire on his head,"" said Monkey. The animals agreed with Monkey. They sent Fox to collect fire from king Rooster. Fox found Rooster in a deep sleep. So he decided to take fire without asking Rooster. Fox collected some dry grass. He put the grass next to the comb on Rooster's head. Nothing happened. The grass did not catch fire. ""Wake up king Rooster!"" yelled Fox. ""We need fire now."" But Rooster could not give fire to Fox.",0.739487555,0.485336436
c3086ffed,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"A baby elephant was born. She was very curious. She had a question for every animal. She was curious about Giraffe. ""Why do you have a long neck?"" she asked. She was curious about Rhino. ""Why does your horn have a sharp point?"" she asked. She was very curious about Crocodile. ""What do crocodiles eat for dinner?"" she asked. Clever Crow quickly said, ""Follow me to the river. There you will see what crocodiles eat for dinner."" So, Baby Elephant followed Crow to the river. She pushed through the reeds and stood on the bank. She looked into the water. Where was Crocodile? ""Hello,"" said a stone near the river bank. ""Hello,"" said Baby Elephant. ""Can you tell me what crocodiles eat for dinner?"" she asked. ""Come closer and I will tell you,"" said the stone. Baby Elephant bent down. ""Come closer,"" said the stone. Baby Elephant bent down lower. Suddenly, snap! Crocodile grabbed Baby Elephant's nose in his jaws. Baby Elephant sat back on her strong legs and pulled. And pulled, and pulled. But Crocodile did not let go of her nose. Baby Elephant's nose stretched and stretched. And stretched. Until she fell over. ""Dufff!""",1.294290964,0.548880408
7a1d484be,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"More people came to the bus stop just before 9am. Half an hour later they are all still waiting. Sam is worried. ""Maybe the bus broke down,"" he thinks. ""Maybe we won't go to town today. Maybe I won't get my new school uniform."" At 9:45am some people give up and go home. Sam starts to cry. ""We will wait a bit longer,"" says his mother. Suddenly, they hear a noise. The bus is coming! The bus arrives at the stop at 10 o'clock. ""Get in! Get in!"" calls the driver. ""We are very late today!"" People get on the bus and sit down. The bus leaves the stop at 10:10am. ""What time is the return bus this afternoon?"" asks Sam's mother. ""The blue bus leaves town at 2:30pm,"" replies the driver. Sam thinks, ""We will get to town at 11 o'clock."" ""How much time will we have in town before the return bus?"" wonders Sam.",1.541671879,0.606996738
a3786e03d,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Now, with the suns gone, there was darkness everywhere. The deer could not see the tigers. The elephants bumped into trees. The rabbits walked over the lions and there was confusion all around. To find a solution, the animals decided to have a meeting. A rabbit told them about one of the seven suns who was still alive and hiding behind a hill. But who would be the best one to call back the sun? ""I will call out to the sun,"" said the lion, for he was the king of the forest. ""Sun, sun, please do not run away. Come back and shine on us,"" roared the lion. But the sun did not listen to him. The elephant called out next. He raised his trunk and trumpeted, ""Sun, sun, please come back."" But the sun did not listen to him. The peacock danced and pleaded, ""Sun, sun, please come back."" But the sun refused to come out. One after the other, all the animals called out to the sun.",-0.34398012,0.48178195
e7ad87dde,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time, there lived a woman. She always wanted a child. The woman took the best clay soil she could find. She started to make a girl. The girl who was made of mud became a real human girl. The woman named the girl Akatope. The woman was very happy. She loved Akatope very much. Akatope was warned by her mother not to go out of the hut. She did not listen. Whenever her mother was not home, Akatope ran out to play with other children. One day Akatope was out playing with the other children. It began to rain hard. The other children ran to their huts. As Akatope ran, her legs started to dissolve. She hunched over and sat down between bushes. The other children told their parents what had happened to Akatope. They were very sad and shocked. When the woman heard what had happened to Akatope, she cried for many days. The villagers took an orphan girl to take the place of Akatope.",0.55619397,0.518737422
c1e021c32,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"When they reached the first piece of fatty meat, Hyena felt a jerk. One of Raven's tail feathers came off in his hand! Then there was another jerk, and another. Raven felt much lighter, and the ache in his tail was going. He sang: Raven's feathers, unpluck yourselves. Raven's feathers, unpluck yourselves. In response, Hyena sang the opposite: Raven's feathers hold on, don't unpluck yourselves. Raven's feathers hold on, don't unpluck yourselves. 
 Finally, the feathers could not hold Hyena anymore. He was in the middle of nowhere in the sky. He jumped onto the fatty meat thinking that as he ate, the fatty meat would hold him. But as he tried to hold and eat the 'meat', all he felt was moist cloud! By now he was falling fast. ""Help, help!"" he shouted. But no one could hear him. Raven was lost in the clouds. Hyena fell on the ground with a crash and lay silent for some minutes. He woke up howling in pain, with a broken leg and dark scars all over his body. From that day to now, Hyena limps and he has many scars on his body. He has never been able to fly.",-0.805155232,0.482007837
d5f23b194,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/pet-rocks,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"A ""pet rock"" was a collectible item that became wildly popular in the United States in the 1970s. Gary Dahl was the inventor of the pet rock; he was sitting in a bar in California in 1975, listening to his friends discuss the needs and annoyances of their pets. In response, he conceived the idea of a pet rock, which the owner would not have to bathe, groom, walk, or feed; the pet rocks could never become sick or be disobedient. Dahl joked that this would make them ""perfect pets.""
Although he was merely making a joke at first, Dahl eventually began to take the idea of the pet rock seriously. He actually packaged pet rocks and sold them for almost $17 by today's standards. He even wrote a 32-page instruction manual about caring for them, which spoke of the rock as if it was an actual pet. The manual described in detail how to discipline the rock, teach it simple commands, and potty train it. Obviously, the instructions were highly ironic and humorous in tone, like the product itself. The rocks were ordinary gray stones, but they were marketed and sold as if they were actual animals.",0.979971046,0.547306916
6e2cbd96e,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/herd-behavior,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Herd behavior in humans is frequently observed at times of danger and panic; for example, a fire in a building often causes herd behavior, with people often suspending their individual reasoning and fleeing together in a pack. People in a crisis that requires escape will attempt to move faster than normal, copy the actions of others, interact physically with each other, and ignore alternative strategies in favor of following the mass escape trend.
Another commonly cited example of human herd behavior is the phenomenon of stock market bubbles. Large stock market trends often begin and end with a mass frenzy of buying (bubbles) or selling (crashes). Many observers see these stock market trends as examples of herding behavior because individuals are driven by emotion rather than reason to ""join the crowd""; greed drives mass buying frenzies, and fear drives crashes.
A more obvious example of human herd behavior occurs in dense public crowds or mobs. Crowds that gather because of a grievance or protest can involve herding behavior that becomes violent. Psychologists posit that a ""group mind"" can overtake a mob and embolden people to act in ways they would not individually, increasing the likelihood that situations become violent.",-0.74705416,0.47790775
ec941d0ff,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/conformity,CC BY NC-SA 2.0,"Psychologist Herbert Kelman identified and labeled three major types of conformity. The first, compliance, occurs when a person conforms publicly, but privately keeps his or her own original beliefs. People comply because of a need for approval from others and fear of rejection. The second, identification, is conforming to a particular person who is well liked and respected, such as a friend or a family member. Identification is usually motivated by the perceived role model's attractiveness or success. Internalization is when people have actually internalized a group's belief system and see it as truly their own, both publicly and privately. This is the most profound form of conformity and is likely to stay with people for a long time.
The strong force of conformity is well documented in psychological research. A researcher named Muzafer Sherif, for example, wanted to know how many people would change their opinions about something because of the desire to conform to a larger group. He conducted an experiment in which people were positioned in a dark room and asked to stare at a small dot of light 15 feet away.",-2.034098092,0.455627318
31f4701e4,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/All-About-Seals-FKB-Kids-Story.pdf,CC-BY-SA,"Seals are a wide spread and diverse group of fin footed, semiaquatic, marine mammals. Seals belong to the order Carnivora. Their closest living relatives are bears, otters, weasels, and raccoons. 
There are three types of seal families: 
Odobenidae: whose only living (extant) member is the walrus; 
Otariidae: the eared seals ( sea lions and fur seals); and 
Phocidae: the earless, or true seals.
The smallest seal is the Baikal seal at around 1 meter (3ft 3in) long and 45 kilograms (100lbs). The biggest is the southern elephant seal, at over 5 m (16ft) and 3 ton (6,600lb), making it also the largest carnivoran. 
Seals spend most of their lives in the water, but come ashore to mate, give birth, or escape from predators, like sharks and killer whales. Seals have streamlined bodies and four limbs in the form of flippers, that act as paddles in the water. They are not as fast in the water as dolphins, but much more flexible and agile. Fur seals and sea lions use their front limbs primarily to propel themselves through the water.",-0.932738804,0.485086881
6c021c53c,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Pink-Flowers-FKB-Kids-Stories.pdf,CC-BY-NC,"Daisies are the most fun flowers to draw. Small daisies often grow wild in wet grassy areas and are popular for making daisy chains. This is a pink orchid flower. There are over 25,000 species of orchids. They grow in all continents except Antarctica. Orchids come in many shapes, sizes, and colors, from pure white to deep black.
This is a pink rose. This is another pink rose. A rose is the most popular flower for bouquets, poetry, and is a romantic icon. This is a pink hibiscus flower. Hibiscus flowers grow in warm climates. They are often used for decorations. Having a pleasant citrus flavor and as a source of Vitamin C, they are also used in food and tea. This is a pink lotus bud. A lotus is a flower that grows in water, and is a symbol of purity and life. A bud is a flower that hasn't opened. This is a pink Protea. The family of plants the Protea comes from has been around for millions of years. Proteas can be found in Southern Africa, Australasia, and South America.",-0.391498678,0.465127527
1bc647ae2,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2014.00009,CC BY 4.0,"Human sleep consists of different stages which can be distinguished by inspecting the recordings of electrical activity from sensors placed on someone's scalp, a method called electroencephalography. While dreams can occur during all sleep stages, we are dreaming most vividly in a sleep stage known as ""REM sleep"" because of the occurrence of Rapid Eye Movements. During REM sleep, all body muscles (with the exception of the eye muscles, obviously) are paralyzed by neural structures in the brain stem, which prevent us from acting out our dreams. Accordingly, complex movements like sleepwalking normally occur only during non-REM sleep stages. In such cases, a small part of the brain appears to be awake while the rest of the brain is asleep. This seems to be true for sleep talking as well: producing speech requires the planning and execution of rapid sequences of muscle movements, hence it will most likely occur in non-paralyzed, non-REM sleep stages.",-0.296450678,0.491336588
eb8c0bbe0,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2014.00015,CC BY 4.0,"A national study of over 1000 subjects of 8- to 18-year olds across the US found that almost all kids play video games, but most of them (91.5%) do not have a serious problem with it. This is a good thing – serious problems should not be extremely common. Nonetheless, this is not a small number of children. There are about 40 million children between 6 and 18 years in the US. If about 9 out of 10 play video games, and about 8.5% of those gamers would be classified as addicted, which means that over 3 million children today are playing in such a way that it is causing serious damage to their lives. These individuals should probably get some help, because we know that addiction can sometimes lead to quite severe issues. In a large study of over 3000 Singaporean children who were followed over 2 years, those children who became addicted also became more depressed, more anxious, more social phobic, and got worse grades than children who also played but did not get addicted. When children stopped being addicted, their depression and anxiety got better.",-0.050461806,0.520337008
e291215df,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 3.0,"The coach put his hands on his hips. ""At this school, only boys are allowed to play soccer,"" he said. The boys told her to go and play netball. They said that netball is for girls and soccer is for boys. Andiswa was upset. The next day, the school had a big soccer match. The coach was worried because his best player was sick and could not play. Andiswa begged the coach, ""Please, let me play."" The coach was not sure what to do. Then he decided that Andiswa could join the team. The game was tough. Nobody had scored a goal by half time. During the second half of the match, Andiswa got the ball. She moved very fast towards the goal post. Andiswa kicked the ball hard and scored a goal. The crowd went wild with joy. Since that day, girls were also allowed to play soccer at the school.",1.242843482,0.571475513
0684bb254,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Goat, Dog and Cow were great friends. One day they went on a journey in a taxi. They reached the end of their journey. The driver asked them to pay their fares. Cow paid her fare. Dog paid extra, because he did not have the correct money. The driver was about to give Dog his change. Suddenly, Goat ran away without paying. The driver was very annoyed. He drove away without giving Dog his change. That is why, even today, Dog runs towards a car to peep inside. He is looking for the driver who owes him change. Goat runs away from the sound of a car. She is afraid she will be arrested for not paying her fare. Cow is not bothered by cars. Cow takes her time crossing the road. She knows she paid her fare in full.",0.10280278,0.501281485
0ae484f14,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One day, all the wild animals got together to choose a king. 
They saw that it would be good to choose Lion to be the king of the animals. 
At that meeting, they crowned Lion the king of the animals. As part of the ceremony, they had a big party that lasted a week. 
All of the animals attended the ceremony until the end. They ate, they drank, they sang and they danced. 
When the ceremony was over, they all dispersed. They were returning to their homes. 
It was the custom for every animal to go and greet Lion because he was their king. 
One visitor who came to greet King Lion was Hyena. When Hyena arrived at Lion's house, he found the king in bed. 
Lion told him, ""I'm sick with an incurable illness."" 
Hyena responded, ""O, Great King, don't be sad because of your illness. Hare knows the cure for this illness."" 
The reason Hyena said this was because he wanted to get Hare in trouble in the eyes of Lion. 
Hyena knew that Hare was unable to heal Lion. 
Lion cheered up and sent Hyena right away to call Hare.",0.048205653,0.489442357
e4438a351,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Rabbit owned a big farm with lots of vegetables and fruit. Even though Rabbit shared generously with his friend, Anansi was unhappy and jealous. 
So, Anansi thought of a clever plan to take over Rabbit's farm. Soon Rabbit was left poor and homeless. Anansi was the proud owner of all Rabbit's land, vegetables, and fruit. 
Anansi went to the market to sell his fruit and vegetables. He made so much money that he filled a big basket with it! With some of the money, he bought maize for his family, and put it on top of the money in the basket. 
Anansi happily headed home with his basket on his head, singing. He was thinking about all the things he was going to buy with his money.  
On the way it started to drizzle. Soon the drizzle turned into a heavy downpour. Anansi the Spider left his basket on the side of the road to shelter under a tree. But from there he kept a close watch on his precious basket. 
It started to rain even more heavily, and Anansi was getting cold and wet. So, he ran into a hole.",0.975200134,0.548298302
45f01d4f7,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Long, long ago, the Sky God, Nyame, kept all stories locked in a wooden box, high in the sky. People down on earth had no stories to tell and they were very sad. They asked Anansi the clever Spider to help them. 
Anansi spun a long thread, and climbed up his sticky thread all the way to heaven. ""Can I have the stories, please?"" he asked the Sky God. But Nyame laughed at Anansi and said, ""Oh, these are very expensive stories. You wouldn't be able to pay for them, little spider."" 
""How much do the stories cost?"" asked Anansi. ""You'll have to bring me three rare and fierce animals,"" Nyame answered, ""A leopard with sharp teeth like spears, a hornet that stings people, and a snake that swallows people whole."" He laughed and laughed. He thought his stories were quite safe. 
So Anansi climbed slowly back down his sticky thread to the earth. He thought and he thought, and he came up with a plan. He dug a deep hole, covered it with branches and dirt so it was hidden, and he went home for supper. In the morning, sure enough, a leopard had fallen into his pit.",0.227889548,0.488942456
2dd95c781,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Mister Popples told the squirrels, the squirrels told the birds, caterpillars, butterflies, tiny spiders and all those who lived in the little garden. There was total panic, a lot of running, flying, scurrying and hopping, with no one knowing what to do? Where to go? The caterpillars said, ""Let us look for leaves."" The butterflies said, ""We want flowers."" The mice wanted holes. The squirrels, birds, insects wanted trees, bushes and grass. All the animals wanted the soft earth, not cement or concrete. ""Where will we find all this?"" they cried. ""We will surely die,"" they said and wept. Kato's uncle and aunt were very quiet and all the little squirrels crept close to their mom. Kato cleared his throat and spoke shyly, ""I live in the Far Forest, maybe we can all go there?"" There was a buzz of excitement and someone said, ""How?"" Kato scratched his head and thought hard, ""Well, the Squirrel Express can take the squirrels and the butterflies, spiders caterpillars and all the insects. The birds can either fly or come with us. The moles, mice and the grass snake family can go by the underground Mole Express.""",-0.68131055,0.516959362
1952e3237,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"My home was Sophiatown, a place of culture and music. Sophiatown, a place where South Africans could make music in harmony and dance together. But the people who ruled the land at the time did not like this togetherness. Those rulers didn't want black and white people to be friends. I knew it was wrong to treat people differently because of their skin color. I did not hide my beliefs, and so those people in charge wanted me out of the country. When I was singing in America, I was told I could never return home. People all over the world heard my story. My songs and my story helped many to see how there was no fairness in South Africa for those with black skin. I decided to go on singing and telling the truth about my country, no matter what. The world loved my music and I was welcomed in many countries. I won awards and sang for important people all over the globe.",0.041924427,0.477436752
cd4dc91f6,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Long, long ago when the earth was new, great mountains covered the world like a blanket, and tall trees spiked the sky. In this world, there was a deep dark pool, silent and cold. At the bottom of this pool were two snakes. One had thick strongly patterned coils, and the other was smaller and more delicate. Then one day, there was a great storm. A flash of lightning pierced right to the bottom of the pool. The waters parted for a moment. The snakes saw the earth above, full of colors and shapes and feathered creatures. When the waters closed again, the snakes could not forget the beauty they had seen. ""We cannot stay in this dark cold pool any longer,"" they said to each other. ""Let us go up and see the earth above."" ""How will we live on earth?"" said the smaller snake. ""Will we crawl on our bellies?"" ""The birds of the air will not laugh at us for being so low,"" said her friend. ""We will not crawl, we will walk!"" Very slowly the snakes uncoiled themselves. Close together they began to swim up, up, to the light above.",0.202274188,0.496067058
69b153a1b,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2014.00014,CC BY 4.0,"When babies are born, they cannot talk or understand words. A baby's communication is generally basic and non-verbal. Babies are not born with speech or language. This is something they learn from their interactions with others. Within the first year of life, babies say their first words, and they can soon speak full sentences. After only 2–3 years, babies are already quite good at verbal communication and are able to say what they want. This fast progress in language abilities is probably supported by genetic conditions that support fast language learning.
However, it is interesting to think that a baby has already taken the first steps in terms of language development even before birth. This sounds impossible when we know that language needs to be learned and does not happen automatically, unlike breathing or sleeping. But babies are actually born knowing the sound and melody of their mother tongue – and they can already ""speak"" by following the melodic pattern of the language. Of course, this ""speaking"" does not involve words, and the sound made by newborn babies is often that of crying.",0.913525851,0.575202062
314809a6c,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2014.00005,CC BY 4.0,"Before the 8 weeks of game playing, we measured how well the children in the two training programs performed on tests of mental ability. After the 8 weeks of training, we tested both groups again, to see whether they had gotten better on these tests. The children who had played games like SET improved a lot on the reasoning test and showed improvements in spatial working memory and one of the speed measures. The children who had played games like Blink showed a different pattern: they got a lot faster on the speed measures but were not any better at reasoning. These results show that playing different kinds of games can sharpen different mental skills.
These are really exciting findings! However, our work is not done yet. For one thing, this study included only a small number of children. We would like to run this same experiment again with a larger group of children to make sure that we get the same findings. This is a process known as replication, and it is a really important part of scientific discovery.",-0.569187796,0.47498236
634c43abf,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"When she was a child, Bassie was very shy. She liked to sing and dance in her room on her own. One day at school netball practice, the coach told two girls to pick teams. Bassie stood on the edge of the field hoping someone would say, ""Come play with us!"" But nobody wanted her on their team. Little did they know, Bassie would become one of the most popular girls in the country. 
On weekends, she and her brother and sisters helped their teacher mom and bus driver dad to pay the bills. They made sandwiches to sell at local soccer matches. They tried to sell everything as fast as they could so they had time to play with the other children when the game was over. 
By the time Bassie turned 16, she was a beautiful young woman. She was so beautiful that she won two beauty competitions in one year: Miss Soweto and Miss Black South Africa. But Bassie was not only beautiful on the outside. She was also beautiful on the inside. Even though she was a beauty queen, she still cared about the community where she grew up. 
Bassie was also very smart.",1.190328647,0.551830405
3a54cfc98,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One old woman especially loved the smells that drifted out of the bakery window every morning. This was Ma Shange who slept on a bench in the park every night. A few weeks before, a kind person had given her the money to buy herself a cinnamon bun. She had taken the bun back to the park and ate it very slowly, licking her lips and sharing the last crumbs with the birds. After that, although the old woman didn't have enough money to buy breakfast, she longed for the delicious bun again. So, every morning she walked slowly past Mr Shabangu's bakery, sniffing the air and smiling blissfully at the mouth-watering smell. Ma Shange's new habit made the baker very angry. As each day went by, he grew angrier and angrier with her. Finally, one winter morning when he was in an especially bad mood, he stormed out of his bakery and grabbed the old woman by the arm. ""How dare you steal my smells!"" he shouted. ""You're nothing but a smell thief!"" He wiped his hands on an apron, then pulled it off and threw it back into the bakery.",0.568668511,0.536743095
c5c0d7b08,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Nosisa visited the fish every day until her stepmother became suspicious. Nosisa had gained weight and she was glowing. ""Something is going on at the river, I must find out what it is,"" thought the stepmother. One afternoon she followed Nosisa to the river. She saw Nosisa talking to the fish, and getting delicious food. Nosisa's secret was out. ""I have to do something about this fish,"" said the stepmother. In the evening, Mpunzi came back from the fields. He found his new wife crying in her hut. ""What is wrong my lovely wife,"" asked Mpunzi. ""I went to a traditional doctor,"" said the wife. ""He told me that the only way for me to give you a son is to eat the biggest fish that lives in this nearby river,"" she said. ""Will you catch the fish for me tonight?"" pleaded the woman. ""I will do anything for you my beautiful wife,"" said Mpunzi. Mpunzi set off to the river before it was too dark. He took his servants to help him find the biggest fish in that river.",-0.81034806,0.475654069
0103162f0,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time, Sly Jackal woke up early in the morning. He was very hungry. His tummy gave a big growl. GRRrrrrr! He jumped up and went searching for food. 
He wandered around the forest for hours without getting any food. The sun was very hot. Sly Jackal could barely see in front of him. All he could think of was his hunger pangs. 
""Aaauuuu!"" Sly Jackal let out a loud scream. He fell into a well right in front of him. He was so hungry that he did not spot it. 
""Oh, my hat!"" he thought. ""I have to get out of this well. I will die of hunger."" 
Sly Jackal screamed and shouted: ""Help! Anyone help!"" Donkey was grazing a few meters away from the well. Donkey heard Sly Jackal's desperate cry. He came rushing. 
""What is the matter?"" Donkey was very worried. ""The water in this well is cool and sweet. I am bored swimming alone. I need someone to help me swim. Please will you join me?"" 
""The sun is very hot,"" said Donkey. ""I can't swim very well though."" ""Jump in! I will help you come out of the well,"" promised the Sly Jackal.",0.356298587,0.519363452
a8a7fcc01,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time, there was a hungry jackal. He was walking around the bush looking for food. He came across a grapevine. He spotted a bunch of juicy ripe grapes hanging from a high branch. ""Those look really delicious,"" he thought. He took a few steps back so that he could make his highest jump. The grapes were too high. Jackal fell on his back without even touching the bunch. Jackal got up and went further back from his starting spot. He ran, and almost got high enough. But he fell, even harder. He tried again and again. But he couldn't get to the grapes. He kept falling until his back was very sore. Finally, he gave up and walked away. He stopped and looked back at the grapes. He was hungrier than ever. ""Those grapes look really sour anyway,"" he thought.",0.741025678,0.544437216
9c5846f9b,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Papa cycles down to Muizenberg Beach. Squeak squeak go the wheels all the way to Surfer's Corner. Gulls circle the sky. ""Whaaat? Whaaat? Whaaat?"" they cry. ""What will you bring back for Yusuf?"" Papa rings his bell. ""Wait and see what it will be!"" 
The fishermen watch the sun rise. They check their nets. They check their oars. They listen to the wind. They drag their boats down to the water. Yusuf's grandfather, Oupa Salie was a treknet fisherman. Before him his father, Oupagrootjie Ridwaan, knew the sea too. 
The boat rides into the waves. Papa's arms stretch to the oar. His leg braces against the side. His neck strains, his back muscles ripple. Papa sings as he works: ""Drop and swish. Find a fish. Pull and plop. Don't you stop."" 
All day long Yusuf looks at the sky. It is bright and clear and windless. A fish and a gift! What will Papa bring home from the sea? Sometimes he brings a beautiful shell. Sometimes he brings a jewel green bottle rinsed by the waves.",-0.995472072,0.468563527
3f4b5b5c9,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2014.00023,CC BY 4.0,"One way that the brain makes sure to remember the events that are important to us is through specialized chemicals called neurotransmitters, which, when released, help build stronger memories. One such neurotransmitter is dopamine. Dopamine is released in the brain when something surprisingly good happens, such as walking into class and finding a box of chocolates on your desk. When dopamine is released, it strengthens memories. It does so by tagging these memories when they are created in a way that makes these memories slowly strengthen over time. This means that just as memories for unimportant things start fading away, memories for important things grow stronger over time. In the end, memories for these surprisingly good events can have greater influence over our behavior, making it easier to use these memories to get the things we really want or need.
A similar process takes place when especially bad things happen, such as eating something that tastes terrible, encountering a spider, or other frightening events. This kind of fear learning depends on a specialized part of the brain, the amygdala, which works together with the hippocampus to strengthen memories.",-0.123531157,0.457156055
5cbcd3d07,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/FKB-Stories-zanele-situ-my-story_pdf-ebook.pdf,"GNU Free Document License, version 1.2","I was very happy. But when I was eleven years old, I grew tired and weak, and then I couldn't walk. My parents took me to the hospital.
I had to stay in hospital for three years. I was very tired and I slept many hours every day. After three years the doctors told me I would not be able to walk again. I was very sad because I love sports.
I went to a special school in Umtata, and my teachers encouraged me. It was a very busy school, with lots of activities like sport and sewing. On weekends we had tasks to do. We had to clean our rooms, polish our shoes and clean our wheelchairs. 
I decided to keep trying, and never give up. If you have a disability, you can still do something you love. I love to see how far I can go, so I entered a competition. I won a bronze medal for shot putt, a silver medal for discus and a gold medal for javelin.",0.807642987,0.532751409
8c7fde315,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Tselane did not want to leave her old village and she started to cry. 
Her mother was scared to leave her daughter alone because giants lived in the caves nearby that village. But Tselane cried so much that her mother finally agreed that she could stay behind. 
Tselane's mother told her that she would bring food every day. She said, ""I will sing a song so that you know it's me. Don't open the door for anyone else, my child."" She sang the song: ""Tselane my child! Tselane my child! Come out and eat your porridge! Come out and eat your porridge!"" 
The next morning Tselane's mother came to the house with food. She sang their special song. Tselane opened the door and took her mother's delicious food. Then her mother kissed her and went back to her new home. 
A giant was hiding in the bushes, watching and listening to Tselane and her mother! After Tselane switched off her light that night, she heard a deep voice singing her mother's song outside the door. ""Tselane my child! Come out and eat your porridge!"" sang the giant. ""Go away! You are not my mother! You are a giant!"" shouted Tselane.",0.106256152,0.458225605
92d29d8c7,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2014.00001,CC BY 4.0,"The distinction between fluid and crystallized intelligence is important because the two are influenced by different factors. While the former is more biologically determined and genetically predisposed, the latter is shaped more by experience. This is a little bit similar to what we know of sports: some people are more likely to develop stronger muscles than others, but this does not turn them automatically into world-class athletes. Instead, they need many years of training and experience to make it to the top. Likewise, people need to apply their fluid intelligence to a particular domain of knowledge, such as physics or history or neuroscience, to become really good at what they are doing.
When it comes to cognition, psychologists speak of a two-component model of cognitive development. By that, they mean that cognition is always a combination of some aspects of fluid intelligence and some aspects of crystallized intelligence, but the two components develop differently across the lifespan. After you are born, your body and brain develop and you become smarter without much effort.",-1.989034319,0.506869622
7e6f263bc,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"A little later they passed Ladybird. ""Are you looking for something?"" asked Ladybird. ""Yes, Ladybird, I'm looking for my house. Have you seen it, by any chance?"" Ladybird said, ""No, I haven't, but I'll help you look!"" She hopped onto Tortoise's back and on he went, with Snail and Sparrow and Ladybird on his back. They looked and looked, but there was no sign of a house. A breeze started to blow. A little later they passed Mouse. He was making a garland of daisies. ""Are you looking for something?"" asked Mouse. ""Yes, Mouse, I'm looking for my house. Have you seen it, by any chance?"" Mouse said: ""No, I haven't, but I'll help you look!"" She hopped onto Tortoise's back. ""Wait, I can't leave my flowers behind."" Tortoise waited. Mouse stretched and stretched and scooped up her daisies. Tortoise walked on, with Snail and Sparrow and Ladybird and Mouse on his back. They looked and looked, but there was no sign of a house.",0.332933047,0.538575089
668b4f061,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Graça worked hard at school and as a teenager she received a gift that would change her life. It was a scholarship to attend a rich city school. She dreamed of becoming a teacher and using her education to educate others. She wanted the children of her beloved Mozambique to know reading and learning. She dreamed of a time when all children would go to school. Graça did her best in that city school and years later she was blessed again. It was another scholarship to attend a university in faraway Portugal. She met new friends, learned new languages and read a bounty of books. She realized her dream of becoming a teacher. All this made Graça very happy. There was only one thing that still made her sad. Back at home people were still not free. But now Graça had an education, skills, and hope. She also had friends who felt as she did about children's right to learn. She would use her knowledge and work with her friends. Together they would bring change to Mozambique.",0.192928409,0.482109059
1dc451c57,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/3864,CC BY 4.0,"Soon, Rini's father brought her a puppy. 
It was a white puppy with really soft fur. 
Rini named her Bhujar. 
Bhujar was full of energy! Her Dad taught Rini how to take care of a puppy. He said, ""You must feed her and clean her regularly. Then she will know to be faithful."" Rini looked after Bhujar everyday. Rini gave Bhujar baths, and took her for walks and on adventures. Bhujar adored Rini, and Rini adored Bhujar. Wherever Rini went, Bhujar went with her. But Bhujar was not allowed to go to school with Rini. 
When Rini went to school, Bhujar had to stay at home alone. One day, Bhujar followed Rini to school. She moved around Rini, barking and jumping. ""Bhujar, why are you coming with me?"" Rini scolded. ""You can't come to school. If you do, boys and girls will tease you. And the teacher won't be happy!"" 
So Bhujar went home.",0.927169042,0.531679207
82e11623c,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Long time ago Hare and Hyena were great friends. They did many things together. They danced and sang together. 
One day, Hare said, ""My friend Hyena, let us start farming together and we will be rich."" ""Oh yes, we can plant a lot of food, harvest it, and sell it to others,"" Hyena said. ""But what shall we plant?"" asked Hare. 
Hyena suggested that it was good to plant maize. Hare agreed. Hare also told Hyena that it was good for them to share duties on the farm. ""My work will be guarding the maize from birds,"" said Hare. Then Hare told Hyena to till the land, plant, and weed. 
Hyena complained that he had been given more work. But Hare said that the work of chasing birds was the most difficult and most important. ""My work is not easy. I will be climbing trees and chasing birds away day and night. And you are not able to climb a tree,"" Hare explained. 
Hyena was convinced by Hare's words. He agreed to till the land alone. It was a lot of work. Hare did not help at all. After tilling the land, Hyena planted maize in the whole field, alone.",-0.671514436,0.468129572
e84288bc7,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/FKB-Stories-A-Tiny-Seed-The-Story-of-Wangari-Maathai.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"In a village on the slopes of Mount Kenya in East Africa, a little girl worked in the fields with her mother. Her name was Wangari. Wangari loved being outside. In her family's food garden, she broke up the soil with her machete. She pressed tiny seeds into the warm earth. Her favorite time of day was just after sunset. When it got too dark to see the plants, Wangari knew it was time to go home. She would follow the narrow paths through the fields, crossing rivers as she went. Wangari was a clever child and couldn't wait to go to school. But her mother and father wanted her to stay and help them at home. When she was seven years old, her big brother persuaded her parents to let her go to school.
She liked to learn! Wangari learned more and more with every book she read. She did so well at school that she was invited to study in the United States of America. Wangari was excited! She wanted to know more about the world.
At the American university Wangari learned many new things. She studied plants and how they grow.",0.660067967,0.492769698
17435506e,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Abike arrived at her grandmother's house. ""What a lovely surprise Abike! Look at this new basket I made. Do you like it?"" Grandma asked. 
""I like the colors, but the shapes are too sharp and pointed,"" replied Abike. 
How would you copy the pattern on the basket? 
Are the shapes like a square or a rectangle or another shape? 
On her way home, Abike lost the path. She wasn't sure where she was, so she sat down to rest under a tree. 
Abike stared at the leaves dancing on the branches above. There were patterns of light and shade all around her. Soon she fell into a deep sleep. 
When she woke up, she felt afraid. She wanted to be at home with her mother, resting on her mat. 
Just then a small, blue bird landed in the tree. ""Hello, don't worry, I can help you get home. Follow me,"" it chirped. 
Abike was surprised to hear a bird talking. 
Abike followed the bird easily until they came to a fork in the path. The path split into two different directions, one to the left and one to the right. Which path should she take?",-0.175849361,0.497500187
d94fd9e15,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Olokwango hill stood smiling at the middle of Kwere Plains. From its side, came springs which joined downhill to form River Temu. Its waters were a gift to the sheep and goats of the area as well as the deer that dwelt in the plains. 
Things were all well until Matata became headman. He ordered a path to be cleared from the top of the hill to the foot so that he could climb uphill easily and roll gently down to the foot. Olokwango hill was angry with the damage to his beard, but he was patient. 
During the weekend, Matata's children and their friends would climb uphill to play. They would run all over the place, breaking twigs and branches, lighting fires for their games, which they would later leave burning. 
Over time, Olokwango lost patience. The dimples became smaller and smaller as his face turned into ugly wrinkles. At last the springs were no more. The deer in the plains migrated because there was no more tall green grass to play in. The sheep and goats grew thinner and thinner. Everyone felt the sadness of Olokwango hill. 
The people of Kwere realised that something needed to be done.",-1.757874897,0.44465209
17acf292d,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/how-autism-freed-me-to-be-myself,CC BY-NC-ND 4.0,"One of the things I can do because I'm autistic — it's an ability rather than a disability — is I've got a very, very vivid imagination. Let me explain it to you a bit. It's like I'm walking in two worlds most of the time. There's the real world, the world that we all share, and there's the world in my mind, and the world in my mind is often so much more real than the real world. Like, it's very easy for me to let my mind loose because I don't try and fit myself into a tiny little box. That's one of the best things about being autistic. You don't have the urge to do that. You find what you want to do, you find a way to do it, and you get on with it. If I was trying to fit myself into a box, I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't have achieved half the things that I have now. There are problems, though. There are problems with being autistic, and there are problems with having too much imagination.",0.115457832,0.482210685
c06f29ae8,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One day, Simbegwire's father came home later than usual. ""Where are you, my child?"" he called. Simbegwire ran to her father. She stopped still when she saw that he was holding a woman's hand. ""I want you to meet someone special, my child. This is Anita,"" he said smiling. ""Hello Simbegwire, your father told me a lot about you,"" said Anita. But she did not smile or take the girl's hand. Simbegwire's father was happy and excited. He talked about the three of them living together, and how good their life would be. ""My child, I hope you will accept Anita as your mother,"" he said. Simbegwire's life changed. She no longer had time to sit with her father in the mornings. Anita gave her so many household chores that she was too tired to do her school work in the evenings. She went straight to bed after dinner. Her only comfort was the colorful blanket her mother gave her. Simbegwire's father did not seem to notice that his daughter was unhappy.",-0.313013937,0.444067712
ad7445b0b,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time, in Joburg's Orange Grove, a little girl called Phyllis was born into the world. Two people in love hugged their sweet little babe. No one knew, then, what a dancer they'd made. By the time she was four, she had learned very quick. She impressed all her teachers with her ducky feet flicks! Before school and after, she danced every day. Nothing pleased Phyllis more than ballet. When the world was ready for Phyllis at fifteen, she arrived in big, old London, ready to live her dream. She said goodbye to all her friends. She was ready to start fresh. Watch out, Royal Ballet School! Phyllis is here to impress. When Phyllis danced Swan Lake, it was fit to show the Queen! After years of pirouetting, she was ready to be seen. Dancing for the audience, she turned and twirled about. Look! Everyone is smiling! See how they clap and shout!",0.56484945,0.507885228
3bfd25fdc,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/3779,CC BY 4.0,"The king thundered, ""My royal astrologer, tell me what I need to do to become emperor of the entire universe."" 
""Your Majesty,"" the astrologer answered, ""the stars say there is a one-hundred percent chance that you will become emperor of the entire universe."" ""Bravo, bravo!"" Everyone in the royal court began to clap. The royal astrologer opened his mouth to stay something more, but stopped himself. The king noticed his hesitation and said to him, ""Tell me what's on your mind. Do not be afraid!"" 
The astrologer said, ""Your majesty, we have an astonishing golden bird living in our kingdom. If you can catch that golden bird, no one will be able to stop you from becoming emperor of the entire universe."" The king said, ""This golden bird must be caught. Make arrangements to catch it now!"" 
The royal announcer made a public circulation, ""Anyone who catches the golden bird will be rewarded by his royal highness the king of Swarnadwip, Maharaja Rajabahadur.""",-0.334976582,0.464417256
e62f9d880,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One day the children put the baby under a tree in the shade on a bright red blanket. They went to play. The baby began crying as usual. A group of cranes flew above the playground and felt sorry for the crying baby. They tried to get the children to notice that the baby was crying but the children kept on playing. The cranes decided to take the baby and raise it themselves. 
Four cranes came to pick up the baby from under the tree. Each crane took a corner of the baby's blanket, lifted the baby up and flew away. The children did not notice anything because they were busy playing. The children's parents were working hard in the hot sun. It was so hot that the mother decided to rest under a tree. While she was resting she heard her baby crying. She looked around and she could not see anything. Then she looked up and she saw four cranes flying away with her baby in the bright red blanket. She screamed and chased after the cranes. When the woman told her husband what she saw he did not believe her.",0.811516326,0.515081919
64b635d77,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Once long ago, the birds had a meeting. They wanted a king, just like people and animals. Which bird should be king? 
""Eagle, he is strong and kingly!"" said one bird. ""No, he has no crown, and when he calls, he sounds too sad,"" said another. ""Then Ostrich, because he is the largest and roars like a lion,"" one called out. ""No, he can't fly. The king of the birds must be able to fly."" 
""I think I should be king,"" said Peacock, fanning his tail. ""I am so beautiful."" ""You are too proud,"" said Owl. ""I have the largest eyes of any bird. I should be king."" ""No, not you, Owl,"" the other birds shouted. ""You go to sleep when the sun rises!"" 
And so they didn't get very far with choosing a king. Then one bird had an idea. ""The one who can fly the highest will be king,"" she said. ""Yes, yes,"" all the birds shouted, and they all flew up, up, into the sky. 
Goose flew for one day, straight over the highest mountains in the world. Eagle flew for two days, into the sky high above the mountains.",0.639649888,0.503652331
e50e4b781,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time, Lion was the strongest and most feared of all the animals. He would catch other animals and eat them. But one morning while he was looking for his breakfast, he got caught in a hunter's trap. 
Lion gave his loudest roar. He pulled and pulled to free himself from the trap. The trap got tighter and tighter around his leg every time he pulled. Lion grew tired and he felt more pain in his leg. Finally, he gave up. 
Days went past as Lion lay baking in the sun. He was hungry and thirsty and there was nobody to save him. He became weaker and weaker. ""I am going to die of hunger and thirst in this trap,"" he thought to himself. 
One morning, Lion heard a sound coming from the nearby bushes. He listened and looked closer. He saw Warthog walking with his family, talking and laughing. The warthogs were going to the river to drink water and play in the mud before the sun got too hot. 
""Warthog! Please help me! Warthog!"" cried Lion. ""Please set me free from this trap,"" he pleaded. ""Never,"" said Warthog. ""You are a cruel animal.""",1.120176184,0.574968289
0ffa97fdb,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time, there lived a man who had plenty of everything – a large fertile farm, with cattle, sheep, and goats. But, as he grew old, he grew sad, because one thing was missing. He did not have a wife. 
Standing under a tree one day, he had a brilliant idea. If he couldn't find a wife, perhaps he could make one? 
So he set to work to shape a beautiful woman from a strong branch of the tree. When he had finished making the statue, he touched her eyes, and they opened. He blew gently on her, and she came alive. 
She was truly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He knelt before her, and asked her to be his wife. 
He gave her a colorful apron, beads, and a head ring, the sign of a married woman. And he built her a house with the mud and grass that used to lie at the foot of her trunk. ""Only one thing I beg of you,"" he said to his wife. ""Never tell anyone where you come from."" 
But before long, the young men from a neighboring village began talking among themselves.",1.290848776,0.552841586
d36a81a17,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Other families noticed how well the hill family lived. ""It is a good life up in the hills,"" said the husband. ""You should come there too."" Soon the other families left the flat land and went up to the hills. Each family found a cave to live in, and felt warm and secure. Soon the children became very quick at climbing rocks, and finding fruit in the trees. They could swing in the branches almost as well as any monkey. Slowly, things began to change. The children talked less, and grunted more. Then the adults noticed that their noses were getting bigger and that they were growing more hair. Every time they looked at one another they saw that their teeth were longer. They started to walk on four legs. They became a new creature that no-one had seen before in that place. This was the creature which people now call the baboon.",0.307041243,0.482599038
c88dc44b4,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2014.00003,CC BY 4.0,"Humans can do a number of things that no other animals – not even our closest relatives (such as chimps and gorillas) – can do. We are the only species that has developed languages with a set of rules (a grammar) that requires words to be in a certain order. You might have seen monkeys calling each other (for example, a ""koo"" call is signaling friendliness), but you have never seen one writing a letter and wondering about spelling! We are also able to predict from the look of a friend's face or the sound of his/her voice how he/she feels about the world, whether he/she is happy or sad. In addition, we pass from generation to generation the knowledge that we have learned about the world and our universe – this is why we go to school! Going to school and teaching children about the world is part of the human ""culture,"" another human-specific characteristic. Language, predicting a friend's mood, and culture are all examples of ""human-specific"" abilities.",0.162554017,0.46410992
1c5df7729,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"When they were nearly home, Nozibele put her hand to her neck. She had forgotten her necklace! ""Please come back with me!"" she begged her friends. But her friends said it was too late. 
Nozibele went back to the river alone. She found her necklace and began hurrying home. But, she got lost in the dark. 
In the distance she saw light coming from a hut. She walked quickly towards it and knocked at the door. 
To her surprise, a dog opened the door and said, ""What do you want?"" ""I'm lost and I need a place to sleep,"" said Nozibele. ""Come in, or I'll bite you!"" said the dog. Nozibele went in. 
The dog said, ""Cook for me!"" ""But I've never cooked for a dog before,"" Nozibele answered. ""Cook, or I'll bite you!"" said the dog. Nozibele cooked some food for the dog. 
Then the dog said, ""Make the bed for me!"" Nozibele answered, ""I've never made a bed for a dog."" ""Make the bed, or I'll bite you!"" the dog said. Nozibele made the bed. 
Every day she had to cook and sweep and wash for the dog.",-0.315435136,0.478219025
e25d616d7,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One day, Dima decided to visit Owl. When they served food, Dima wondered why Owl's food tasted so good. He wondered if it was because the food grew in the sun and it was cooked in fire. Secretly, Dima made a plan. He decided to dance. He wanted everyone at Owl's place to gather around him and see him dance. He was a good dancer. Owl and his family admired the beautiful dancing. When it grew dark, Owl decided to fetch the sun from his house so that he could still watch Dima's dancing. Owl kept the sun in an animal skin bag inside his hut. He carried the sun out from his house and held it high up above his shoulders. Now it was light. Everyone could see far into the distance. Soon everyone was dancing in the light of the sun. Dima crept closer to the sun while he was dancing. Owl held on to the sun but after a while he forgot about it because he enjoyed the dancing so much. He saw how beautifully Dima danced. He too wanted to dance like this.",-0.301448697,0.483382291
52b8773a4,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One morning Old Jackal woke up to find his son sleeping in the sun. The food was not ready and the goats were still in the kraal! ""Young man, you are so lazy! Go and find a wife. I am too old to look after you,"" said Jackal's father. So, Jackal jumped up and took the goats out to graze. 
In the bush, he saw something shining on a rock. He went closer and closer to the rock. The closer he got, the more beautiful the shine was. Perhaps this was the wife for him! 
""You are beautiful,"" said Jackal to the shine. ""But who are you? Why are you alone?"" ""I am the sun,"" the shine answered. ""My family left me here when they moved on. They did not want to carry me. I am too hot."" 
The jackal said, ""But you are so beautiful! I will carry you. I will take you home to meet my father."" ""All right, you can carry me. But do not complain when I get too hot for you,"" said the sun. 
So, Jackal put the sun on his back and started the journey home. Before long, the sun was burning Jackal's fur.",0.378501422,0.491765874
6d41c0d37,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Once upon a time in a mountainous African village there lived a famous blacksmith. The villagers called him Ratshipi - the man of iron and steel. 
Ratshipi was known by everyone in the village. Villagers went to his shop every morning to watch him work. He seemed to be able to make anything with his iron and steel. 
Kgosi Mogale, the village chief, heard about Ratshipi's work. He sent his servants to bring Ratshipi to the palace. 
Ratshipi was happy to hear that Kgosi Mogale wanted to see him. ""I will be very happy to work for the chief,"" he said. 
So Ratshipi went to the palace. ""Ratshipi, I have heard about your good work,"" said Kgosi Mogale. ""I want you to do a very special task."" 
""With your iron and steel, I want you to build a man who can walk, cry real tears and bleed real human blood."" ""Impossible!"" thought Ratshipi. But no one could say no to the king in this village. 
Ratshipi could not sleep that night. How was he going to do this impossible task? He was very scared and very worried. 
Suddenly, Ratshipi remembered a wise old man Rapule. Perhaps he could help.",-0.222946427,0.459241004
16913371,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Grandma's garden was wonderful. It was full of sorghum, millet, and cassava. But best of all were the bananas. Although Grandma had many grandchildren, I secretly knew that I was her favorite. She invited me often to her house. She also told me little secrets. But there was one secret she did not share with me. Where she ripened bananas. 
One day I saw a big straw basket placed in the sun outside Grandma's house. When I asked what it was for, the only answer I got was, ""It's my magic basket."" Next to the basket, there were several banana leaves that Grandma turned from time to time. I was curious. ""What are the leaves for, Grandma?"" I asked. The only answer I got was, ""They are my magic leaves."" 
It was so interesting watching Grandma, the bananas, the banana leaves and the big straw basket. But Grandma sent me off to my mother on an errand. ""Grandma, please, let me watch as you prepare."" ""Don't be stubborn, child, do as you are told,"" she insisted. I took off running. 
When I returned, Grandma was sitting outside but with neither the basket nor the bananas.",1.467665465,0.599600372
c2f2356f4,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"That day, it was about cows at the market. ""Push these silly cows away,"" she said. ""They are eating my vegetables."" 
""Hey you there! Push these silly cows away from here,"" she insisted. ""They are eating my clothes."" 
""Where is the owner of these silly cows?"" she shouted. ""They are eating my grains."" 
Sorimpan, the herd boy, had just gone to drink water at a tap when his cows wandered off to the market. He hid away, squatting in fear, when he heard the shouting woman. 
""Now look what these silly cows have done!"" she continued to shout. ""They have broken my beautiful pots."" 
A short time later, ""Aah! Not again!"" she was heard saying. ""I will report this matter to the police. These silly cows have knocked down my fruit stand."" 
Sorimpan finally came out stick in hand, dodged between the gathering crowds and managed to get a clear view of his cows. Sorimpan's cows knew him well so they turned and looked up at him as he appeared! 
At this point, the big crowd of onlookers of men, women and even children all stared at the cows which paid attention only to Sorimpan.",0.192212964,0.494301592
163b059f8,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"One day, Nyame decided that he would give the pot of wisdom to Anansi. Every time Anansi looked in the clay pot, he learned something new. It was so exciting! Greedy Anansi thought, ""I'll keep the pot safe at the top of a tall tree. Then I can have it all to myself!"" He spun a long thread, wound it round the clay pot, and tied it to his stomach. He began to climb the tree. But it was hard climbing the tree with the pot bumping him in the knees all the time. All the time Anansi's young son had been standing at the bottom of the tree watching. He said, ""Wouldn't it be easier to climb if you tied the pot to your back instead?"" Anansi tried tying the clay pot full of wisdom to his back, and it really was a lot easier. In no time he reached the top of the tree. But then he stopped and thought, ""I'm supposed to be the one with all the wisdom, and here my son was cleverer than me!"" Anansi was so angry about this that he threw the clay pot down out of the tree.",-0.346383854,0.466291965
3b8d5410a,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/96,CC BY 4.0,"Chicken and Millipede were friends. But they were always competing with each other. One day they decided to play football to see who was the best player. They went to the football field and started their game. Chicken was fast, but Millipede was faster. Chicken kicked far, but Millipede kicked further. Chicken started to feel angry. They decided to play a penalty shoot-out. First Millipede was goal keeper. Chicken scored only one goal. Then it was Chicken's turn to defend the goal. Millipede kicked the ball and scored. Millipede dribbled the ball and scored. Millipede headed the ball and scored. Millipede scored five goals! Chicken was furious that she lost. She was a very bad loser. Millipede started laughing because his friend was making such a fuss. Chicken was so angry that she opened her beak wide and swallowed Millipede. As Chicken was walking home, she met Mother Millipede. Mother Millipede asked, ""Have you seen my child?"" Chicken didn't say anything.",0.267636798,0.475824731
f852a4aea,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"As it got dark, they saw a light in a house. They agreed to go and ask for a place to sleep. They went to the house and knocked. The door opened and they went in. The young men didn't see anyone. But they heard a voice greeting them. The voice said, ""I am a louse. Open the metal pot and have food. Open the earthenware pot and drink amahewu."" Then the louse put on its skin and went out. The young men ate, drank, and gave thanks. Then they left the house. As they left, they had a bad thought. They said, ""No, it couldn't have happened that we had food from a louse."" Eventually they agreed to go back and crush the louse. They went back to the house and crushed the louse. Suddenly the louse was gone, and the house disappeared! They found themselves outside in the open.",-0.107896459,0.468648205
49e795bd1,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Sniffles did not want to be a crocodile. ""I am so ugly,"" he thought, bursting into tears. He did not even want to live like crocodiles do. His best friend was Punch, a golden yellow butterfly. And Punch wanted to be big and strong. So, Punch always had her feeler curled into a fist saying, ""Look out! I will punch you in the mouth."" They made a very funny pair. Sniffles swimming with Punch perched on his head. The other crocodiles would laugh and make fun of them. That did not bother Sniffles. He continued crying, sniffling and being friends with Punch. One sunny afternoon, Punch settled herself near Sniffles' ear and told him, ""I have seen two men come this way with guns, they want to kill crocodiles for their skins."" ""Don't these men have skins of their own?"" asked a puzzled Sniffles. ""I don't know Sniffles."" replied Punch. ""Tell the other crocodiles and hide."" ""But Punch, they might shoot you. Oh! What will I do?"" cried Sniffles sobbing loudly. ""People catch butterflies with nets and pin them on a board, my grandaunt told me,"" said Punch and flew away.",0.195555644,0.478857764
08237506d,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"One of the girls said, ""My mother loves me most."" Another said, ""My father loves me most."" But the third one said, ""I am loved by both parents."" The giant asked the girl loved by both parents to help her carry firewood. So, the girl followed the giant.They walked for some distance. The girl asked the giant, ""Where is your firewood?"" The giant replied, ""It is near those trees over there!"" When they reached the trees, the girl asked again, ""Where is your firewood?"" The giant answered, ""Not far now!"" They met a man along the way. He asked the giant, ""What is the name of your child?"" The giant replied, ""She is called the talking bag."" The girl burst out singing. She sang, ""I am not called the talking bag. My name is Kaamungei! Oh! My mother, whom I love. Oh! My father, whom I love. Oh! My calabash, which I use to drink milk!"" When the man heard what the girl sang, he rescued her and took her back to her parents. The story ends there!",-0.274797382,0.514604865
c9af1974b,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_navigation,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Air navigation is navigation while flying. It is used by pilots in aircraft to know their exact position and found their way. That is important because if they get lost, they can hit a mountain or fly into a dangerous area or not find a place to land. There are generally two types of air navigation depending on weather. In good weather, pilots navigate themselves visually with maps. But when the weather is bad and they do not see the ground, they use special radio navigational instruments or the air traffic controller navigates them. The first kind of navigation is called VFR (visual flight rules) navigation. The second is IFR (instrument flight rules) navigation.
Under Visual Flight Rules, pilots use a map and compass, and look on the ground. When preparing for a flight they choose big visible points on the map, for example large cities, lakes, hills, rivers, roads or forests. When in the air, they seek the chosen points to make sure of going the right way. The weather must be good enough to let them see the ground. They cannot fly into clouds, because they can get lost.",-0.032950289,0.500575596
4a2657f6c,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2013.00002,CC BY 4.0,"Flies have eyes that are very different from ours. Their eyes are called ""compound eyes"" because each eye is actually hundreds of little eyes compounded together. Each little eye has its own lens, rods, and cones, and transmits a unique signal to the fly's brain.
Though you may have heard differently, even though flies have compound eyes, they still see one image, just like us. This is because each little eye in the compound eye is pointed in a slightly different direction, so the light it senses is separate from the other little eyes.
The way a fly sees is similar to how a picture is formed on a computer. If you think of a picture on a computer, it is composed of many pixels that are in different places. Like the pixels in a picture on a computer, the information from the different little eyes gets put together to form an image. In this case, the fly's brain puts all the information from the little eyes together to make one image of what the fly sees.",0.178734491,0.502267688
a3642fd77,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ELA_Grade2_Unit4_Workbook_engageNY-FKB.pdf,CC BY 3.0,"Kim was happy that she had found a summer job. ""Let's go and visit Mom,"" she said. ""She will be finished teaching by the time we get there."" Kim held up a hand to hail a cab. A yellow cab screeched to a stop on the side of the street. ""Where to?"" asked the driver. Kim told him the address. They made it safely. Kim paid the driver. She and Kurt went in to see their mom. Mrs. Gunter gave Kim a big hug. Kurt snuck in between them so he could be part of the hug, too. Then Kim told her mom how they had spent the day. She told her mom how she had used math to help her get the job at the grocery. By the end of the story, Mrs. Gunter was beaming. ""You see,"" she said. ""I told you math would help you out one day."" ""I never dreamed I would have a job in a grocery,"" added Kim, ""but I think it's going to be a good job for me."" ""It may not be the job of your dreams,"" said her mom.",0.988936316,0.525286811
912344be5,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrete_cosine_transform,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A discrete cosine transform is a math process that can be used to make things like MP3s, and JPEGs smaller. It does this by breaking the sound or picture into different frequencies.
One way to calculate a discrete cosine transform is to use the Fourier transformation. ""Discrete"" means that it works on discrete-time signals (sampled data).
For sounds, frequencies are the same as simple tones. You can make any sound by playing several tones at the same time. The discrete cosine transform is a way to find out which tones to play in order to make a given sound. The only difference between the tones is their pitch.
Human ears are good at hearing low pitches, but bad at hearing high pitches. If you use the DCT to break a sound into tones, you do not need to be as careful when playing the higher tones because people cannot hear them as well. MP3 encoders (programs which make MP3s) use this fact to make the sound smaller.",-2.301071222,0.483924127
fe37691ed,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_construct,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"A DNA construct is an artificially constructed segment of nucleic acid which is going to be 'transplanted' into a target tissue or cell.
It often contains a DNA insert, which contains the gene sequence encoding a protein of interest. The DNA insert has been subcloned into a molecular biology vector.
A DNA construct may express wildtype protein, or prevent the expression of certain genes by expressing competitors or inhibitors. It may express mutant proteins, such as deletion mutations or missense mutations. A DNA construct is often used in molecular biology to analyze macromolecules such as proteins or RNA in more detail.
A molecular biology vector is a DNA molecule used as a vehicle to transfer foreign genetic material into another cell.
The main types of vectors are plasmids, bacteriophages and other viruses, and artificial chromosomes. Common to all engineered vectors are an origin of replication, a multicloning site, and a selectable marker.",-2.808524781,0.561930069
6a619e81f,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2013.00011,CC BY 4.0,"There are various types of mechanoreceptors (receptors concerned with touch). In the hairy skin, the hair follicle receptor is the main mechanoreceptor. In addition, the hairy skin contains fibers that respond well to slow stroking with a soft brush, and stimulation of these fibers results in an experience of pleasant touch. The non-hairy skin contains four main types of mechanoreceptors, which can be divided into two functional groups. The first group contains fast adapting mechanoreceptors, which respond only at onset, and frequently at the end, of a touch, but not in between. The second group consists of slowly adapting mechanoreceptors, which respond slowly to the onset of a touch, but continue to respond during the middle. The density of mechanoreceptors varies in different parts of the body. Within the hand, the highest density of receptors is found in the fingertips. The higher the density of mechanoreceptors, the smaller the distance between two touches that can be distinguished.",-2.072703816,0.519017478
99389445,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_crystallography,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Electron crystallography is a method to determine the arrangement of atoms in solids using a transmission electron microscope (TEM).
This method works in many cases where X-ray crystallography does not. The latter needs large 3-D crystals to work.
Protein structures are usually done from 2-dimensional crystals (sheets or helices), polyhedrons such as viral capsids, or dispersed proteins. Electrons can be used in these situations, whereas X-rays cannot, because electrons interact more strongly with atoms than X-rays do.
Electron crystallography is a method to determine the arrangement of atoms in solids using a transmission electron microscope (TEM). The method was invented by Aaron Klug, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this, and his studies on virus structures and transfer RNA, in 1982.
The first electron crystallographic protein structure to be solved was bacteriorhodopsin in 1990. Since then, several other high-resolution structures have been done by electron crystallography, including the light-harvesting complex, and the bacterial flagellum.",-3.352438391,0.618258256
465d65831,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2013.00005,CC BY 4.0,"Researchers around the world are spending more and more time studying friendship. There is evidence showing that our brain responds more strongly to friends than strangers, even if the stranger has more in common with us. Spending time with friends has been shown to cause more activity in the parts of the brain that makes us feel good – the reward circuits. What is more, having long-lasting valuable social relations, including friendships, and an active social life appears to protect the brain from illnesses later in life such as dementia, the loss of nerve cells in the brain that affects the brains of many older adults.
In summary, the contribution of brain to human social interactions is complex and not yet fully understood. What is clear now is that our brain enjoys making friends and that spending time with them can have very positive effects on learning, health, and life in general.",0.574606638,0.508895727
6fc3d6ef3,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2013.00001,CC BY 4.0,"There are numerous experimental studies using mostly mice and rats showing that, when these animals are reared in enriched environments, they outperform those reared in non-enriched cages in terms of learning, memory and visual acuity. These studies suggest that multiple circuits in the brain are modified, leading to improved cognitive abilities. At the micro-anatomical level, for example, an enriched environment has been shown to induce an increase in neuronal complexity in the cerebral cortex. Similarly, studies performed in the cerebral cortex of humans with different educational levels have reported an increase in neuronal complexity as educational levels increased.
Thus, the idea is not to try to sculpt our brain to become a genius, but rather to make the most of our own individual genetic make-up through education to increase our cognitive capabilities. In other words, sculpting our brain through our efforts at school would be amply rewarded with a greater brain capacity, benefiting us both during and beyond our school years.",-0.842188983,0.53319674
54bc78ebe,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"When they stopped looking after the bird, the rain stopped falling. The crops began to dry up and die, and the animals grew thin and weak. Still, nobody in the village went into the forest to feed the bird that brought the rain. Now they were all too busy trying to find money to buy food in the neighboring town. One scorching day, a young girl called Ketti decided to go into the forest after school. ""At least it will be cool in there,"" she thought. She walked and walked, and after some time, she came to the tall tree in which the rain bird lived. Ketti stared up at the tree. Suddenly, she remembered how her granny had taken her into the forest to feed the bird when she was still a tiny child. Ketti opened her school bag and pulled out a piece of bread left over from her lunch. Carefully she laid the bread at the base of the tree. Then because she had no thumb piano, she sang an old song that she had known all her life",-0.100216569,0.478387325
9f63010ae,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/what-fear-can-teach-us,CC BY-NC-ND 4.0,"As we grow up, we're often encouraged to think of fear as a weakness, just another childish thing to discard like baby teeth or roller skates. And I think it's no accident that we think this way. Neuroscientists have actually shown that human beings are hard-wired to be optimists. So maybe that's why we think of fear, sometimes, as a danger in and of itself. ""Don't worry,"" we like to say to one another. ""Don't panic."" In English, fear is something we conquer. It's something we fight. It's something we overcome. But what if we looked at fear in a fresh way? What if we thought of fear as an amazing act of the imagination, something that can be as profound and insightful as storytelling itself?
It's easiest to see this link between fear and the imagination in young children, whose fears are often extraordinarily vivid. When I was a child, I lived in California, which is, you know, mostly a very nice place to live, but for me as a child, California could also be a little scary.",0.375498596,0.515280683
f8732af25,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/read/3698/90190,CC BY 4.0,"Greeny doesn't want to nap. Today, she wants to be a tree! Trees don't need naps! Trees can play all day long. Trees only need to be green. Uh-oh. 
Dad can't find Greeny. She's hiding among the trees. It's so fun to be a tree! But it is a bit hot playing under the sun, isn't it? Actually, it's too hot! What should Greeny do? What should Greeny do? Should she go home to Dad? But where is home? Greeny is lost! Dad is looking for Greeny. 
Greeny keeps walking until she reaches a river. Tired and scared, Greeny bursts into tears. Her tears cause the river to flood! The whole city is flooded! Ah! Greeny has an idea. She will write messages for Dad on her leaves. The green world helps her too. Thanks to the green world, Dad finally gets her messages. Dad finds Greeny! DADDY! GREENY! Greeny is so tired. Now, all she wants is her nap.",-0.816137934,0.461713851
389343d57,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2013.00009,CC BY 4.0,"Described in the scientific literature more than 30 years ago, the feeling of being lonely is characterized as feeling socially isolated or on the social perimeter. It is noteworthy that feeling lonely does not necessarily mean being physically alone. Loneliness corresponds to a discrepancy between the relationships one wants and the relationships one has, so one can feel socially isolated even when they are among ""friends."" As the celebrity, George Clooney, said: ""Anyone would be lying if they said they did not get lonely at times. The loneliest you will get is in the most public of arenas: you will go to a place and end up in the smallest compartment possible, because it is a distraction to everybody, and you end up not getting to enjoy it like everyone else."" Although loneliness makes people feel sad, it has another, less obvious effect on our brain and biology: it triggers a sense in which the world is unsafe, and the brain tilts toward a self-preservation mode.",-0.634987162,0.490212722
9c22ab903,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/read/3718,CC BY 4.0,"I'm planting corn seeds for the new season. I must hurry. My parents' seeds have already sprouted. The bird flocks keep flying down to eat the seeds. The cats and I have to chase them away. 
""Flyaway, you bad birds!"" we shout. A few days later, a single sprout shows up. 
I name it Green Top. I read books to Green Top so he will grow up quickly. When Green Top is thirsty, I water him. The cats and I play hide-and-seek with Green Top. I bring a new kind of food for Green Top. It is called fertilizer. Green Top grows every day. One day, I see the bees talking to the other plants. 
They say that corn is on its way! I quickly run to Green Top. My parents' plants are happy. Why is Green Top so sad? I ask his friends. ""Does anyone know why Green Top is sad?"" Snail doesn't. Caterpillar doesn't. Only Frog answers. 
He says ribbit ribbit and then jumps into the water. What does that mean? Oh! I get it! There's too much water around Green Top. I'll dig a trench, for the water to flow away.",0.312500441,0.504023675
439864cdf,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Geography10-Namibia-COL-FKB.pdf,CC BY 3.0,"It is important for you to know that the scale of the map is determined by the amount of real-world area covered by the map. Almost all maps have scales. Scales play an important role in maintaining the dimensional accuracy of a map. The following types of scales are used: Ratio scale 1:24000 This type of scale is known as a ratio scale and what it means is that one centimeter (cm) on a map is equal to 24,000 cm (or 2 km) in the real world. Actually, it means that one of anything (mm, cm, etc.) on the map is equal to 24,000 of the same things on the map. Another way of writing this would be a fractional scale of 1/24,000, meaning that objects on the map have been reduced to 1/24,000th of their original size. Very interesting. Other map scales in common use for topographic maps are 1:25 000, 1: 50 000 and 1: 250 000.
Did you know that the smaller the ratio is between distances on the map and distances in the real world, the smaller the scale of the map is said to be.",-2.106774417,0.506808074
213418bf2,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/read/1123,CC BY 4.0,"Anu got ready in a jiffy. She gulped down her milk without a fuss. She didn't even cry when her mother combed her hair. The moment Anu entered Aunty's house she shouted, ""Aunty! Where is the baby?"" 
""Shhhh..."" said Aunty Jui, with her finger on her lips. ""Softly. The baby is sleeping."" 
Sleeping? What a bore. Anu began to sulk. Aai pulled Anu close. ""The baby is still very small, Anu. You must not trouble her. After all, you are her big sister!"" 
Big sister! Anu felt very important. But why did the baby have to go to sleep? Just then they heard a thin wail... 
""She is up,"" said Aunty, and gave the baby to Aai. 
""I want to hold the baby,"" said Anu. 
""Oh no, Anu. You won't be able to. You're much too small,"" said Aai. 
""But I'm her big sister,"" said Anu.",0.846838357,0.536822794
33ff38af6,,,"A week after the whales were found, then director of NOAA's National Marine Mammal Laboratory, Howard Braham, asked me to go work with the press and make sure they had accurate information about these incredible creatures.
It was freezing — about 30 to 40 degrees below zero every day during the rescue, so not at all like the average whale stranding at the beach. This was October in Alaska and everyone on the scene had to endure a lot of difficult conditions to be there. Meanwhile, it was a total zoo in Barrow with all the reporters there. At the time, we didn't know why this had captured the whole world's attention, but all eyes were on us. The whales were relatively young and confused. All of the other gray whales had started migrating much earlier, but these three whales stayed in the feeding grounds too long. As a result, they were trapped by ice as temperatures continued to drop. Once we started moving the whales toward freedom, however, I couldn't help but think that they knew something was happening. They seemed to understand that we were there to help them along.",-0.234766269,0.467151781
64e630e0b,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Freekidsbooks-Area-Apprenticeship-and-Workplace-Mathematics-10.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"Honeybees are master designers. Mathematicians have proven that the hexagonal pattern on the comb is the best way of dividing up a region into cells of equal area. The amount of wax required, and the energy expended by the worker-bees, are kept to a minimum. The cells are all the exact same size. There are approximately four cells per square centimeter or 25 per square inch. This section is all about the area measurements of shapes. You will estimate areas and use those estimates to ensure that your answers to area problems are reasonable. Some of the problem situations you will meet in this section involve areas of two-dimensional shapes such squares, rectangles, parallelograms, and circles. As well, you will explore the surface area of prisms, pyramids, cylinders, and cones. You will also investigate how changing the dimensions of geometric shapes affects the perimeters and areas of those shapes.",-0.417369423,0.467724737
d14e63848,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-price-of-greed-hannibal-s-betrayal-by-carthage,CC BY-NC-SA 3.0,"Following the First Punic War, Rome set about the task of unifying Italy under Roman rule. They subdued the Gauls and, through the Ebro Treaty with Hasdrubal the Fair, secured the boundary between Rome and Carthage's empires in Spain at the Ebro River. Rome would control all territories north of the river and Carthage those territories to the south. The Gauls saw the Romans as conquerors and occupiers and so, when Hannibal began his operations in the Iberian Peninsula, they did little to stop him. He not only had the support of the people but, equally important if not more so, the devotion of his army. Only 28-years-old upon assuming command, Hannibal had spent most of his life in army camps on campaign. The historian Durant, quoting Livy, writes, ""He was the first to enter the battle and the last to abandon the field."" Hannibal's army knew they could depend on him to take care of them just as surely as they knew the punishments he would wreak upon them if they disappointed him. In this same way, the people of the region looked to Hannibal to relieve them of the Romans.",-1.692133442,0.494061458
641c1c7e5,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/FKB-Kids-Stories-Sharks.pdf,CC BY-NC-SA 3.0,"Sharks are a kind of fish that live in every ocean around the world. Scientists think that sharks lived 200 million years before the dinosaurs. That is a long time ago! Teeth of a giant shark that lived millions of years ago. There are many different types of sharks. See if you can tell which shark is a hammerhead shark, which is a tiger shark and which is a great white shark. Sharks come in all different sizes. The whale shark is the biggest fish in the world. It can grow to be 45 feet long. Other sharks can be small, like the leopard shark. The smallest sharks are only seven inches long. Some sharks are born live but others hatch from an egg case. Baby sharks are called pups. A mother shark doesn't take care of her babies after they are born. They have to take care of themselves. Sharks are deadly predators, which means that they hunt and eat other animals like fish, seals and even other sharks. Great white sharks eat five hundred pounds of meat every day!",0.176314672,0.50902528
bb481343b,,,"Bhabhloo was a very, very naughty bear, loved by everyone in the jungle, but most of all, by his mother. But he was really very naughty. From early morning to nightfall, Bhabhloo would jump and play and run through the jungle and his mother would call after him.
""Bhabhloo, beta, don't be so naughty."" 
""Bhabhloo, sit for a little while, rest a bit…"" 
""Oh no, Bhabhloo, you'll get hurt, beta, be careful!"" 
""Bhabhloo, it's late now, it's nighttime, go to sleep now, son…"" Ma would keep trying to control Bhabhloo, and full-of-beans Bhabhloo would think of new things to do, not listening to a word his mother said. 
This is a story about just such a night. Ma was very tired. Who could blame her? She had been running after Bhabhloo and scolding him all over the jungle, all day long. But Bhabhloo was still too excited to sleep. His mind buzzed with questions.",-0.306367214,0.514143762
3763dbc60,,,"Known as the Cradle of Civilization, the Fertile Crescent is regarded as the birthplace of agriculture, urbanization, writing, trade, science, history, and organized religion and was first populated around 10,000 B.C. when agriculture and the domestication of animals began in the region. By 9,000 B.C. the cultivation of wild grains and cereals was widespread and, by 5,000 B.C., irrigation of agricultural crops were fully developed. By 4,500 B.C. the cultivation of wool-bearing sheep was practiced widely. The first cities began to rise (Eridu, the first, according to the Sumerians, in 5,400 B.C., then Uruk and the others) around 4.500 B.C. and cultivation of wheat and grains was practiced, in addition to the further domestication of animals (by the year 3,500 B.C. the image of the breed of dog known as the Saluki was appearing regularly on vases and other ceramics as well as wall paintings). The unusually fertile soil of the region encouraged the further cultivation of wheat as well as rye, barley, and legumes.",-1.285894014,0.46910895
243f9f286,,,"Living things are different from things that are not alive. It is usually easy to tell what is living and what is not, except with really small ""microscopic"" life forms and colorless, lifeless-looking mosses. Here are some properties of living things. Some non-living things can have some of these properties. Living things can change and grow. However, volcanoes also change and grow. Living things can move. However, the wind is moving air, and water always moves downhill. You probably want to know how plants can move. They can grow, and sometimes move more rapidly than that, in response to things such as the sun or water. One example is that sunflowers will turn during the course of the day so that they are always facing the sun. Another example is that if a plant gets tipped over, it will want to turn upwards. Living things can reproduce. That is, they can produce copies of themselves, over and over. This is the most important difference between living and non-living things. In order to reproduce, living things need nutrition, that is chemicals and energy sources in order to assemble the materials needed to reproduce themselves. In this process, living things must excrete waste.",-0.216738279,0.484298252
4ac629fc1,,,"I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So, at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.",1.090944394,0.523141998
8a4157251,,,"In Africa, they say that a male lion roars Ha inchi na yanni? Yangu, yangu, yangu! (Whose land is this? It is mine, mine, mine!). It is hard to listen to this ancient challenge without edging a little closer to the campfire. But what is behind that remarkable call? Certainly, to some degree, cats are cats around the world. You look at one of the neighborhood tabbies stalking a squirrel and you can see in miniature a tiger stalking deer on the meadows of Rhanthambore. And yet partly because they are so majestic, these big cats are different from the neighbor's feline. For one thing they are the lords of their kingdom and travel in confidence where small creatures scurry and hide. For many years, all they had to fear was each other, but the invention of gunpowder threatened to destroy this kingdom and send its feline lords to extinction. Fortunately, there are more people like you that see big cats more as a companion to be admired rather than an enemy to be destroyed. Learn more about these great cats and their remarkable world. After all, we appreciate what we understand, and save what we appreciate.",-0.66514694,0.493143053
6303d0608,,,"In May 1774, in retaliation for the ""Boston Tea Party,"" Parliament closed the port of Boston and virtually abolished provincial self-government in Massachusetts. These actions stimulated resistance across the land. That summer, the Massachusetts lower house, through the committees of correspondence, secretly invited all 13 Colonies to attend a convention. In response, on the fifth of September, 55 Delegates representing 12 Colonies, Georgia excepted, assembled at Philadelphia. They convened at Carpenters' Hall and organized the First Continental Congress.
Sharing though they did common complaints against the Crown, the Delegates propounded a wide variety of political opinions. Most of them agreed that Parliament had no right to control the internal affairs of the Colonies. Moderates, stressing trade benefits with the mother country, believed Parliament should continue to regulate commerce. Others questioned the extent of its authority. A handful of Delegates felt the answer to the problem lay in parliamentary representation. Most suggested legislative autonomy for the Colonies. Reluctant to sever ties of blood, language, trade, and cultural heritage, none yet openly entertained the idea of complete independence from Great Britain. 
After weeks of debate and compromise, Congress adopted two significant measures.",-1.625327383,0.476126644
767c8b535,,,"Chameli's mother had a lot of beautiful jewelry. 
One day, Chameli's mother showed her all the jewelry and also taught her their names. The next day Chameli secretly took out her mother's sirfhula (a head flower made of gold) and wore it. 
With the sirfhula on her head, she left for school. On her way, she met her friends Champa and Sohan. 
They were amazed to see the sirfool on her head. At school, Chameli was the center of attention. Everyone stared at her and talked about her. 
Nayantara composed a silly song: Look at this girl, who is that? Why, it's Chameli, in her Gorkha Hat! Teacher saw the sirfhula on Chameli's head but said nothing. In the class, Alka called to Chameli, ""My elder sister has lots and lots of jewelry. You have only one piece, and it's not even yours. It's your mom's!""",-0.047198886,0.479422416
4900e5f25,,,"The whole house was built upon the plan of a T, but a T with a very long cross piece and a very short tail piece. The long cross piece was the frontage that ran along in face of the street, with the front door in the middle; it was two stories high and contained nearly all the important rooms. The short tail piece, which ran out at the back immediately opposite the front door, was one story high, and consisted only of two long rooms, the one leading into the other. The first of these two rooms was the study in which the celebrated Mr. Quinton wrote his wild poems and romances. The farther room was a glass conservatory full of tropical blossoms of quite unique and almost monstrous beauty, and on such afternoons as these glowing with gorgeous sunlight. Thus when the hall door was open, many a passer-by literally stopped to stare and gasp; for he looked down a perspective of rich apartments to something really like a transformation scene in a fairy play: purple clouds and golden suns and crimson stars that were at once scorchingly vivid and yet transparent and far away.",-1.535457991,0.462831424
fc5a5244a,,,"The nurse looked at the man in astonishment, for she had never treated a death as a speculation, and she hesitated, tempted by the idea of the possible gain, but she suspected that he wanted to play her a trick. ""I can say nothing until I have seen your mother,"" she replied.
""Then come with me and see her."" 
She washed her hands, and went with him immediately.
They did not speak on the road; she walked with short, hasty steps, while he strode on with his long legs, as if he were crossing a brook at every step.
The cows lying down in the fields, overcome by the heat, raised their heads heavily and lowed feebly at the two passers-by, as if to ask them for some green grass.
When they got near the house, Honore Bontemps murmured: ""Suppose it is all over?"" And his unconscious wish that it might be so showed itself in the sound of his voice.
But the old woman was not dead. ",-0.806679665,0.520710676
7cda5f625,,,"The armies fought the way they did—on open ground in long lines of musket-wielding infantry standing two and three ranks deep—because that was the most rational way to use the weapons they had.
The main weapon of this combat was the muzzle-loading, smooth-bore, flint-lock musket, equipped with a 16-inch bayonet. It hurled a one-ounce lead ball of .70 to .80 caliber fairly accurately up to 75 yards, but distance scarcely mattered. The object was to break up the enemy's formations with volleys and then rout them with cold steel. The British were masters of these linear tactics, and Washington and his commanders spent the war trying to instill the same discipline in their Continentals so that they could stand up to redcoats on equal terms in battle.
The American rifle was not the significant weapon legend later made it out to be. Though accurate at great distances, it was slow to load and useless in open battle because it was not equipped with a bayonet. But in the hands of skirmishers, the rifle could do great damage, as the British found out at Cowpens.",-1.736050455,0.506599191
cc3b6ab12,,,"It will be observed that my sister-in-law, with a want of logic that must have been peculiar to herself, treated my complexion almost as an offense for which I was responsible, hastening to assume from that external sign inward qualities of which I protest my entire innocence; and this unjust inference she sought to buttress by pointing to the uselessness of the life I had led. Well, be that as it may, I had picked up a good deal of pleasure and a good deal of knowledge. I had been to a German school and a German university and spoke German as readily and perfectly as English; I was thoroughly at home in French; I had a smattering of Italian and enough Spanish to swear by. I was, I believe, a strong, though hardly fine swordsman and a good shot. I could ride anything that had a back to sit on; and my head was as cool a one as you could find, for all its flaming cover.",-1.578212728,0.511770619
8c39eca3e,,,"About a year after the family moved to Oklahoma, Will Johnson got a neighbor boy to go with him back to their place in Texas to bring another wagon load of household goods. They were gone about two weeks.
While the family was in Oklahoma, Will — who was about 20 — taught school two terms at Nubbin Ridge, somewhere near Duncan. Simpson, being about 17 at the time, was not about to go to school to a teacher who was his older brother, so he saddled his horse and slipped away back to Melvin's ranch, to be with his brother Joe. He said he got tired of riding but not nearly as tired as his horse. The journey was about 300 miles. He was on the trail three days and nights and had to stop at times to let his horse rest. When he got to the ranch, Joe wrote to the family saying that Simpson was with him and for them not to worry. They had suspected where he had gone but were not sure.",0.776011754,0.517354231
381bc33b5,,,"Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere — to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion; that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process, and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future. But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served. And there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.
I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interests of the nation must always come before any personal considerations. ",-1.708766013,0.515715829
62e457e21,,,"Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
This is the account of Jacob's family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him.
When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. 
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.
He said to them, ""Listen to this dream I had:
We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.""",-0.930922754,0.46699986
5c31b7541,,,"Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds. But serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation's war guardians, as its lifeguards from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiators in the arena of battle. For a century and a half, you have defended, guarded, and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice.
Let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government. Whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as firm and complete as they should be.
These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country. You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense.",-1.686775305,0.497620827
9a52b02f8,,,"Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation's own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension.
No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man's recorded history in a time span of but a half a century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. ",-1.296292486,0.494062686
d96a6c50d,,,"Therefore, I am delighted to come to Michigan, to this university, because unless we have those resources in this school, unless you comprehend the nature of what is being asked of you, this country can't possibly move through the next 10 years in a period of relative strength.
So I come here tonight to go to bed! But I also come here tonight to ask you to join in the effort...
This university... this is the longest short speech I've ever made... therefore, I'll finish it! Let me say in conclusion, this University is not maintained by its alumni, or by the state, merely to help its graduates have an economic advantage in the life struggle. There is certainly a greater purpose, and I'm sure you recognize it. Therefore, I do not apologize for asking for your support in this campaign. I come here tonight asking your support for this country over the next decade.",-0.822203733,0.451988859
87f96eb79,,,"But that hadn't helped Washington.
The American bloc governments moved to the Moon Base the first year. There was not much else to do. Europe was gone; a slag heap with dark weeds growing from the ashes and bones. Most of North America was useless; nothing could be planted, no one could live. A few million people kept going up in Canada and down in South America. But during the second-year Soviet parachutists began to drop, a few at first, then more and more. They wore the first really effective anti-radiation equipment; what was left of American production moved to the moon along with the governments.
All but the troops. The remaining troops stayed behind as best they could, a few thousand here, a platoon there. No one knew exactly where they were; they stayed where they could, moving around at night, hiding in ruins, in sewers, cellars, with the rats and snakes. It looked as if the Soviet Union had the war almost won. Except for a handful of projectiles fired off from the moon daily, there was almost no weapon in use against them.",-0.842596022,0.466193199
d74750e16,,,"The swaying had come to a halt and it was dark. The Explorer was not comfortable in the alien air. It felt as thick as soup and he had to breathe shallowly. Even so—
He reached out in a sudden need for company. The Merchant was warm to the touch. His breathing was rough, he moved in an occasional spasm, and was obviously asleep. The Explorer hesitated and decided not to wake him. It would serve no real purpose.
There would be no rescue, of course. That was the penalty paid for the high profits which unrestrained competition could lead to. The Merchant who opened a new planet could have a ten-year monopoly of its trade, which he might hug to himself or, more likely, rent out to all comers at a stiff price. It followed that planets were searched for in secrecy and, preferably, away from the usual trade routes. In a case such as theirs, then, there was little or no chance that another ship would come within range of their subetherics except for the most improbable of coincidences. Even if they were in their ship, that is, rather than in this—this—cage.",-1.141634645,0.455636344
924cdefd9,,,"He flung his pick out of the trench, climbed out and set off at a dogtrot for his shop. A little rummaging turned up a hypo and there was a plastic container of salt in the kitchen.
Back at his dig, he chipped for another half hour to expose the juncture of lid and body. The hinges were hopeless; he smashed them off.
Hawkins extended the telescopic handle of the pick for the best leverage, fitted its point into a deep pit, set its built-in fulcrum, and heaved. Five more heaves and he could see, inside the vault, what looked like a dusty marble statue. Ten more and he could see that it was the naked body of Honest John Barlow, Evanston real estate dealer, uncorrupted by time.
The potter found the apex of the trigeminal nerve with his needle's point and gave him 60 cc.
In an hour Barlow's chest began to pump.
In another hour, he rasped, ""Did it work?""
""Did it!"" muttered Hawkins.
Barlow opened his eyes and stirred, looked down, and turned his hands before his eyes.",-1.100204889,0.487602348
6f7826769,,,"Six years ago, at the time of the first conference to map out peace — Dumbarton Oaks — there was within the Soviet orbit 180 million people. Lined up on the anti-totalitarian side there were in the world at that time roughly 1.625 billion people. Today, only six years later, there are 800 million people under the absolute domination of Soviet Russia — an increase of over 400 percent. On our side, the figure has shrunk to around 500 million. In other words, in less than six years the odds have changed from 9 to 1 in our favor to 8 to 5 against us. This indicates the swiftness of the tempo of communist victories and American defeats in the Cold War. As one of our outstanding historical figures once said, ""When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be because of enemies from without but rather because of enemies from within."" The truth of this statement is becoming terrifyingly clear as we see this country each day losing on every front. 
At war's end we were physically the strongest nation on Earth and, at least potentially, the most powerful intellectually and morally.",-2.025856164,0.498185565
42f9be482,,,"The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products - principally from America - are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character.
The remedy lies in breaking the vicious circle and restoring the confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole. The manufacturer and the farmer throughout wide areas must be able and willing to exchange their products for currencies the continuing value of which is not open to question.
Aside from the demoralizing effect on the world at large and the possibilities of disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of the people concerned, the consequences to the economy of the United States should be apparent to all. It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. ",-1.428491792,0.444677305
a476df8a0,,,"Greece is today without funds to finance the importation of those goods which are essential to bare subsistence. Under these circumstances, the people of Greece cannot make progress in solving their problems of reconstruction. Greece is in desperate need of financial and economic assistance to enable it to resume purchases of food, clothing, fuel, and seeds. These are indispensable for the subsistence of its people and are obtainable only from abroad. Greece must have help to import the goods necessary to restore internal order and security, so essential for economic and political recovery. The Greek Government has also asked for the assistance of experienced American administrators, economists, and technicians to insure that the financial and other aid given to Greece shall be used effectively in creating a stable and self-sustaining economy and in improving its public administration. 
The very existence of the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, who defy the government's authority at a number of points, particularly along the northern boundaries.",-1.319758406,0.466593544
c73f31159,,,"The little woodcutter's cottage of Nikolai lay deeply hidden in the great pine woods of Lower Serbia, miles from his nearest neighbor. Yet even in that wild country the fame of the intertwined children travelled far, and the wise old women from those parts came to see if herbs or chanting or any of their dark gifts might be of the least avail. They were no more useful than a real doctor who had studied at Belgrade, was practicing at Monastir, and was stimulated to great interest by the account of these strange children. The case defied all the arts of black or white magic, and the interest of the episode flickered and died down.
So it was that Nikolai reconciled himself to the inevitable, and as the boys grew older he would cross himself devoutly and say: ""Thank God, it might have been a thousand times worse!"" They were lads of extraordinary beauty. Peter and Ivan, he called them, Ivan being the lad who held so irrevocably the wrist of his brother within his fingers.",-1.209490537,0.444423129
9f6061f86,,,"It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people — whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth — is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights — among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however — as our industrial economy expanded — these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. ""Necessitous men are not free men."" People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.",-1.971193545,0.456106145
d2353167d,,,"""Course change!"" gasped white-haired Stevens. ""Good God!""
The ship had reached the midpoint of its flight. The bells had sounded, warning every soul on it to take shelter, to strap themselves in their pressure bunks against the deadly stress of acceleration as the ship reversed itself and began to slow its headlong plunge into Callisto. But the two men had not heeded.
The small steering rockets flashed briefly. The men were thrust bruisingly against the side of the corridor as the rocket spun lazily on its axis. The side jets flared once more to halt the spin, when the one-eighty turn was completed, and the men were battered against the opposite wall, still weightless, still clinging to each other, still struggling.
Then the main drive bellowed into life again, and the ship began to battle against its own built-up acceleration. The corridor floor rose up with blinking speed to smite them—
And the lights went out in a burst of crashing pain for Peter Duane.",-1.568775143,0.462574729
97e96043b,,,"It was Rofan who first felt that something was wrong. The novelty was wearing off, and an elusive thought made him uncomfortable. Something was wrong with the picture ... what was it?
Suddenly he realized. He turned to Thak. ""But—the lights, Mor Thak? The signals—""
Thak's face looked as old as Mars itself as he gazed at his pupil. He started to speak several times before he could manage.
""We have failed,"" he said, in heavy tones. ""Our signals must have been too weak for the beings of the blue planet to detect. I had hoped—"" 
He arose and looked sadly into the evening sky. ""I had hoped I was wrong. For two years now—our years—I have watched through my small telescope, and the lights have been disappearing, one by one, sometimes, but more often several at a time. I thought it was the weakness of my instrument. I was wrong. Every light on the blue planet has been blacked out...""
His voice was a low wail. ""And—the blacking out of those lights means a blackout of life on Mars. A planet-wide blackout....""",-0.669447346,0.447460006
292f520b5,,,"Campbell must have made some involuntary motion, because a man standing at the edge of the hummock turned his head and saw him. He was tall and slender, and his crest was pure white, a sign of age.
He turned and came to Campbell, looking at him with opalescent eyes. The firelight laid the Earthman's dark face in sharp relief, the lean hard angles, the high-bridged nose that had been broken and not set straight, the bitter mouth. 
Campbell said, in pure liquid Venusian, ""What is it, Father?""
The Kraylen's eyes dropped to the Earthman's chest. There was black hair on it, and underneath the hair ran twisting, intricate lines of silver and deep blue, tattooed with exquisite skill.
The old man's white crest nodded. Campbell turned and went back down the path. The wind and the liha-trees, the hot blue night beat with the anger and the hate of the little man with the drum.
Neither spoke until they were back in the hut. Campbell lit a smoky lamp. The old Kraylen drew a long, slow breath.",-1.320507075,0.473991582
9c9974560,,,"The descent upon Vulcan took another twenty-four hours. Then at last we had passed through a cloudbank and, at some twenty thousand feet, the new world stretched dark and bleak beneath us. It certainly looked—to Jan's intense disappointment—wholly uninhabited. It was a tumbled, rocky landscape, barren and forbidding. Beneath us there were black ravines and canyons, little jagged peaks and hill-top spires, some of them sharp as needle-points. Off at one of the distant horizons the tiered land, rising up, stretched into the foothills of serrated ranks of mountain peaks which loomed over the jagged dark horizon line.
A great metal desert here. In the fitful starlight, and the mellow light of little crescent Mercury which hung over the mountains like a falling, new moon, the metallic quality of the rock was obvious—sleek, bronzed metal ore, in places polished by erosion so that it shone mirror-like. In other places it was mottled with a greenish cast.",-1.634697631,0.472100741
ad2423876,,,"Curt Varga's throat muscles tightened as he sent his inaudible questions to his brother in the curtained booth across the room.
""Is there any suspicion that you are working with me?"" he asked. ""If so, then this arrangement must be broken; I can't ruin your career, too.""
The bean-sized amplifier imbedded so cunningly in the living bone at his right temple vibrated lightly from the mocking laughter.
""I think they do, Falcon,"" Val Varga said lightly. ""But it doesn't matter; somebody has to do the undercover work—and I happen to be in a position where I can do it with the least suspicion."" The voice softened. ""Careers aren't important, anyway. I seem to remember that Dad had quite a reputation as a biochemist, until the Food Administrators decided his work threatened their dictatorial monopoly. And as a Commander of the IP, you were slated to go rather high.""
Curt Varga grinned, and suddenly all of the deadly grimness was gone from his tanned face, and there was only the laughter in his cool grey eyes and the hint of a swashbuckling swagger to the tilt of his head to betoken the man.",-1.480371295,0.462593633
cf3098cc2,,,"So, we went into the Home of the Street Sweepers. It is a grey house on a narrow street. There is a sundial in its courtyard, by which the Council of the Home can tell the hours of the day and when to ring the bell. When the bell rings, we all arise from our beds. The sky is green and cold in our windows to the east. The shadow on the sundial marks off a half-hour while we dress and eat our breakfast in the dining hall, where there are five long tables with twenty clay plates and twenty clay cups on each table. Then we go to work in the streets of the City, with our brooms and our rakes. In five hours, when the sun is high, we return to the Home and we eat our midday meal, for which one-half hour is allowed.",-0.522382942,0.458496268
3cfce94c0,,,"First, let me talk for a minute about this autumn and the coming winter. We have the option, in the case of families who need actual subsistence, of putting them on the dole or putting them to work. They do not want to go on the dole, and they are one thousand percent right. We agree, therefore, that we must put them to work for a decent wage, and when we reach that decision we kill two birds with one stone, because these families will earn enough by working not only to subsist themselves, but to buy food for their stock, and seed for next year's planting. Into this scheme of things there fit of course the government lending agencies which next year, as in the past, will help with production loans.
Every Governor with whom I have talked is in full accord with this program of doing work for these farm families, just as every Governor agrees that the individual states will take care of their unemployable but that the cost of employing those who are entirely able and willing to work must be borne by the Federal Government.",-1.171892029,0.471149041
a83725b19,,,"I know that many people are worrying about State banks that are not members of the Federal Reserve System. There is no occasion for that worry. These banks can and will receive assistance from member banks and from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. And, of course, they are under the immediate control of the State banking authorities. These State banks are following the same course as the National banks except that they get their licenses to resume business from the State authorities, and these authorities have been asked by the Secretary of the Treasury to permit their good banks to open up on the same schedule as the national banks. And so I am confident that the State Banking Departments will be as careful as the national Government in the policy relating to the opening of banks and will follow the same broad theory. 
It is possible that when the banks resume a very few people who have not recovered from their fear may again begin withdrawals.",-1.1911743,0.475461401
07ede44bb,,,"Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit, and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live. 
Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.
Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.",-3.203574994,0.548429851
46599d29c,,,"The stockings hung by the chimney, and the tall tree was standing in the parlor. The children were asleep, and the father and mother had gone upstairs to bed.
In the pantry wall, the little mice were all wide-awake.
""Ee-ee-ee!"" squeaked Squeaky; ""why can't we creep into the big room and see the tall Christmas tree? The children have talked about it for days, and we have never seen one. Mother, please let us go and see it.""
""Yes,"" said Sniffy, ""do let us go. Everything smells so good. The children and the cook made long strings of popcorn today. I found a little on the pantry floor, and I want some more.""
""I peeped out of our hole,"" said Sharpeyes, ""and I saw cake and candy all ready for the children. Oh, I do want a bite of those good things! Please let us have a Christmas party.""
""Well,"" said mother mouse, ""I will ask your father. If he says it is safe, we will go.""
When mother mouse asked father mouse, he said, ""I will go out first and look all about. If it is safe, I will come back for you.""",1.436503439,0.560819857
493b80aa7,,,"The Dunwich horror itself came between Lammas and the equinox in 1928, and Dr. Armitage was among those who witnessed its monstrous prologue. He had heard, meanwhile, of Whateley's grotesque trip to Cambridge, and of his frantic efforts to borrow or copy from the Necronomicon at the Widener Library. Those efforts had been in vain, since Armitage had issued warnings of the keenest intensity to all librarians having charge of the dreaded volume. Wilbur had been shockingly nervous at Cambridge; anxious for the book, yet almost equally anxious to get home again, as if he feared the results of being away long.
Early in August the half-expected outcome developed, and in the small hours of the third Dr. Armitage was awakened suddenly by the wild, fierce cries of the savage watchdog on the college campus. Deep and terrible, the snarling, half-mad growls and barks continued; always in mounting volume, but with hideously significant pauses. Then there rang out a scream from a wholly different throat—such a scream as roused half the sleepers of Arkham and haunted their dreams ever afterward—such a scream as could come from not being born of earth, or wholly of earth.",-3.66836041,0.571404262
a44d55893,,,"It was half-past five when we arrived at Yardly Chase and followed the dignified butler to the old paneled hall with its fire of blazing logs. A pretty picture met our eyes: Lady Yardly and her two children, the mother's proud dark head bent down over the two fair ones. Lord Yardly stood near, smiling down on them.
""Monsieur Poirot and Captain Hastings,"" announced the butler.
Lady Yardly looked up with a start, her husband came forward uncertainly, his eyes seeking instruction from Poirot. The little man was equal to the occasion.
""All my excuses! It is that I investigate still this affair of Miss Marvell's. She comes to you on Friday, does she not? I make a little tour first to make sure that all is secure. Also, I wanted to ask of Lady Yardly if she recollected at all the postmarks on the letters she received?""
Lady Yardly shook her head regretfully. ""I'm afraid I don't. It is stupid of me. But, you see, I never dreamt of taking them seriously.""",-1.297943747,0.454184043
e044e1347,,,"I'd always longed for adventures. You see, my life had such a dreadful sameness. My father, Professor Beddingfeld, was one of England's greatest living authorities on Primitive Man. He really was a genius—everyone admits that. His mind dwelt in Palaeolithic times, and the inconvenience of life for him was that his body inhabited the modern world. Papa did not care for modern man—even Neolithic Man he despised as a mere herder of cattle, and he did not rise to enthusiasm until he reached the Mousterian period.
Unfortunately one cannot entirely dispense with modern men. One is forced to have some kind of truck with butchers and bakers and milkmen and greengrocers. Therefore, Papa being immersed in the past, Mamma having died when I was a baby, it fell to me to undertake the practical side of living. Frankly, I hate Palaeolithic Man, be he Aurignacian, Mousterian, Chellian, or anything else, and though I typed and revised most of Papa's Neanderthal Man and his Ancestors, Neanderthal men themselves fill me with loathing, and I always reflect what a fortunate circumstance it was that they became extinct in remote ages.",-1.58438395,0.447261827
481f47cc5,,,"The sky too has its changes, but they are less marked than those of the vegetation and the river. Clouds map it up at times, but it is normally a dome of blending tints, and the main tint blue. By day the blue will pale down into white where it touches the white of the land, after sunset it has a new circumference—orange, melting upwards into tenderest purple. But the core of blue persists, and so it is by night. Then the stars hang like lamps from the immense vault. The distance between the vault and them is as nothing to the distance behind them, and that farther distance, though beyond color, last freed itself from blue.
The sky settles everything—not only climates and seasons, but when the earth shall be beautiful. By herself she can do little—only feeble outbursts of flowers. But when the sky chooses, glory can rain into the Chandrapore bazaars or a benediction pass from horizon to horizon.",-1.762893539,0.486091902
673fda913,,,"We were down in the street. The avenue was crowded. On days when the weather is so beautiful, the afternoon personal hour is usually the hour of the supplementary walk. As always, the big Musical Tower was playing with all its pipes, the March of the United State. The Numbers, hundreds, thousands of Numbers in light blue unifs (probably a derivative of the ancient uniform) with golden badges on the chest, — the State number of each one, male or female,—the Numbers were walking slowly, four abreast, exaltedly keeping the step. I, we four, were but one of the innumerable waves of a powerful torrent. To my left, O-90 (if one of my long-haired ancestors were writing this a thousand years ago, he would probably call her by that funny word, mine), to my right, two unknown Numbers, a she-Number and a he-Number.
Blue sky, tiny baby suns in each one of our badges; our faces are unclouded by the insanity of thoughts. Rays.... Do you picture it? Everything seems to be made of a kind of smiling, a ray-like matter.",-2.528077874,0.524193039
17f96f2dd,,,"Violet passed the hay up to her brother and crawled in herself. Then Jess handed Benny up like a package of groceries and, taking one last look at the angry sky and waving trees, she climbed in after him.
The two children managed to roll the door back so that the crack was completely closed before the storm broke. But at that very instant it broke with a vengeance. It seemed to the children that the sky would split, so sharp were the cracks of thunder. But not a drop of rain reached them in their roomy retreat. They could see nothing at all, for the freight car was tightly made, and all outside was nearly as black as night. Through it all, Benny slept on.
Presently the thunder grew fainter, and rumbled away down the valley, and the rain spent itself. Only the drip from the trees on the top of the car could be heard. Then Henry ventured to open the door.
He knelt on his hands and knees and thrust his head out.
The warm sunlight was filtering through the trees, making golden pools of light here and there.",0.383873629,0.490796157
3c1662f6d,,,"It was the northwest coast of Australia, the coast of that almost unexplored region which is one of the few remote territories of the world still retaining its fabulous atmosphere of romance.
It was on the shores of a wide, shallow bay where a small river abruptly opened out its land arms in welcome to the tropical ocean. Sun-scorched, fleshy vegetation grew densely almost to the water's edge, keeping dank and fever-laden the suffocating atmosphere within its widespread bosom. Yet only was it this merciful shade that made life endurable to sensitive human creatures.
The sun was at its zenith, a furious disc of molten heat in a brazen sky. The sea at the river mouth lay dead flat under its burning rays, except for the ripple where some huge submarine creature disturbed its surface. Not a breath of air was stirring to relieve the suffocating atmosphere.
The two men were lounging in the shade of the wattle walls of their reed-thatched shelter. It was built amidst a cluster of dense-growing trees, and the site looked out over the brilliant bay. They had long since eaten and were now awaiting the cooling of the day before returning to their labors.",-1.678689313,0.493149723
5aaea0bd8,,,"Sir Reuben Levy's cook, with her eye upon Mr. Bunter's gentlemanly and well-tailored appearance, hastened to produce what was necessary. Her visitor placed on the table a basket, containing a water-bottle, a silver-backed hairbrush, a pair of boots, a small roll of linoleum, and the ""Letters of a Self-made Merchant to His Son,"" bound in polished morocco. He drew an umbrella from beneath his arm and added it to the collection. He then advanced a ponderous photographic machine and set it up in the neighborhood of the kitchen range; then, spreading a newspaper over the fair, scrubbed surface of the table, he began to roll up his sleeves and insinuate himself into a pair of surgical gloves. Sir Reuben Levy's valet, entering at the moment and finding him thus engaged, put aside the kitchen maid, who was staring from a front-row position, and inspected the apparatus critically. Mr. Bunter nodded brightly to him and uncorked a small bottle of grey powder.",-2.096309799,0.515110003
ee740ca08,,,"The two horses picked their way carefully downward over the loose shale of the steep hillside. The big bay stallion in the lead sidled mincingly, tossing his head nervously, and flecking the flannel shirt of his rider with foam. Behind the man on the stallion a girl rode a clean-limbed bay of lighter color, whose method of descent, while less showy, was safer, for he came more slowly, and in the very bad places he braced his four feet forward and slid down, sometimes almost sitting upon the ground.
At the base of the hill there was a narrow level strip; then an eight-foot wash, with steep banks, barred the way to the opposite side of the cañon, which rose gently to the hills beyond. At the foot of the descent the man reined in and waited until the girl was safely down; then he wheeled his mount and trotted toward the wash. Twenty feet from it he gave the animal its head and a word. The horse broke into a gallop, took off at the edge of the wash, and cleared it so effortlessly as almost to give the impression of flying. ",-1.471790116,0.476198199
316a6bfad,,,"""'Morning, Jeeves,"" I said.
""Good morning, sir,"" said Jeeves. He put the good old cup of tea softly on the table by my bed, and I took a refreshing sip. Just right, as usual. Not too hot, not too sweet, not too weak, not too strong, not too much milk, and not a drop spilled in the saucer. A most amazing cove, Jeeves. So dashed competent in every respect. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I mean to say, take just one small instance. Every other valet I've ever had used to barge into my room in the morning while I was still asleep, causing much misery: but Jeeves seems to know when I'm awake by a sort of telepathy. He always floats in with the cup exactly two minutes after I come to life. Makes a deuce of a lot of difference to a fellow's day.
""How's the weather, Jeeves?"" 
""Exceptionally clement, sir.""
""Anything in the papers?""
""Some slight friction threatening in the Balkans, sir. Otherwise, nothing.""",-0.807292768,0.46130208
a9056d3a4,,,"It was the ebbing light of evening that recalled me out of my story to a consciousness of my whereabouts. I dropped the squat little red book to my knee and glanced out of the narrow and begrimed oblong window. We were skirting the eastern coast of cliffs, to the very edge of which a ploughman, stumbling along behind his two great horses, was driving the last of his dark furrows. In a cleft far down between the rocks a cold and idle sea was soundlessly laying its frigid garlands of foam. I stared over the flat stretch of waters, then turned my head, and looked with a kind of suddenness into the face of my one fellow-traveler.
He had entered the carriage, all but unheeded, yet not altogether un-resented, at the last country station. His features were a little obscure in the fading daylight that hung between our four narrow walls, but apparently his eyes had been fixed on my face for some little time.",-1.685742685,0.467769439
736909e7d,,,"It is a youth full of grace, and sprightliness, and candor, that comes forward with light and buoyant steps across the open court, towards the inner hall; and we shall hardly find time to sketch him before he reaches it. He is about fourteen years old, but tall for that age, with elegance of form and manliness of bearing. His bare neck and limbs are well developed by healthy exercise; his features display an open and warm heart, while his lofty forehead, round which his brown hair naturally curls, beams with a bright intelligence. He wears the usual youth's garment, the short toga, reaching below the knee, and a hollow spheroid of gold suspended round his neck. A bundle of papers and vellum rolls fastened together, and carried by an old servant behind him, shows us that he is just returning home from school. ",-1.822658907,0.510257968
d1d72c723,,,"Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course - and in truth it was something very like it in that house. Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and, mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all-around the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and feebly cried Hurrah!",-1.851236687,0.491931971
ef8dadd8e,,,"Once upon a time the Forest was in a great commotion. Early in the evening the wise old Cedars had shaken their heads and told of strange things that were to happen. They had lived in the Forest many, many years; but never had they seen such marvelous sights as were to be seen now in the sky, and upon the hills, and in the distant village.
""Pray tell us what you see,"" pleaded a little Vine. ""We who are not so tall as you can behold none of these wonderful things."" 
""The whole sky seems to be aflame,"" said one of the Cedars, ""and the Stars appear to be dancing among the clouds; angels walk down from heaven to the earth and talk with the shepherds upon the hills.""
The Vine trembled with excitement. Its nearest neighbor was a tiny tree, so small it was scarcely ever noticed; yet it was a very beautiful little tree, and the Vines and Ferns and Mosses loved it very dearly.",-0.927039954,0.445049316
f6693dda2,,,"Anthony, walking along Forty-second Street one afternoon under a steel-gray sky, ran unexpectedly into Richard Caramel emerging from the Manhattan Hotel barber shop. It was a cold day, the first definitely cold day, and Caramel had on one of those knee-length, sheep-lined coats long worn by the working men of the Middle West, that were just coming into fashionable approval. His soft hat was of a discreet dark brown, and from under it his clear eye flamed like a topaz. He stopped Anthony enthusiastically, slapping him on the arms more from a desire to keep himself warm than from playfulness, and, after his inevitable hand shake, exploded into sound.
""Cold as the devil—Good Lord, I've been working like the deuce all day till my room got so cold I thought I'd get pneumonia. Darn landlady economizing on coal came up when I yelled over the stairs for her for half an hour. Began explaining why and all. God! First, she drove me crazy, then I began to think she was sort of a character, and took notes while she talked—so she couldn't see me, you know, just as though I were writing casually—""",-0.784178437,0.464156574
f73f7365c,,,"If, then, we represent our earth as a little ball of one-inch diameter, the sun would be a big globe nine feet across and 323 yards away, that is about a fifth of a mile, four or five minutes' walking. The moon would be a small pea two feet and a half from the world. Between earth and sun there would be the two inner planets, Mercury and Venus, at distances of one hundred and twenty-five and two hundred and fifty yards from the sun. All round and about these bodies there would be emptiness until you came to Mars, a hundred and seventy-five feet beyond the earth; Jupiter nearly a mile away, a foot in diameter; Saturn, a little smaller, two miles off; Uranus four miles off and Neptune six miles off. Then nothingness and nothingness except for small particles and drifting scraps of attenuated vapor for thousands of miles. The nearest star to earth on this scale would be 40,000 miles away.
These figures will serve perhaps to give one some conception of the immense emptiness of space in which the drama of life goes on.",-1.942803646,0.466039003
ef53c25d9,,,"The other day, as I was walking through a side street in one of our large cities, I heard these words ringing out from a room so crowded with people that I could but just see the auctioneer's face and uplifted hammer above the heads of the crowd.
""Going! Going! Going! Gone!"" and down came the hammer with a sharp rap.
I do not know how or why it was, but the words struck me with a new force and significance. I had heard them hundreds of times before, with only a sense of amusement. This time they sounded solemn.
""Going! Going! Gone!""
""That is the way it is with life,"" I said to myself - ""with time."" This world is a sort of auction room; we do not know that we are buyers: we are, in fact, more like beggars; we have brought no money to exchange for precious minutes, hours, days, or years; they are given to us. There is no calling out of terms, no noisy auctioneer, no hammer; but nevertheless, the time is ""going! going! gone!""",0.062270013,0.495207324
f49f00012,,,"The accusing conscience, the life that knows it has ignored the rights of others, is Fear's ally.
Well, what about the mysterious future? What are its portents? What is the outlook? False prophets always prophesy peace, and the reason their prophecy is false is that there never is peace in the way they mean it.
So, if this page were to begin on the note of ""Peace, peace,"" you could at once set it down as false. As long as there is life there is Change. The peace of stagnation is an attribute of death.
That, therefore, is one element we may expect in the future—the element of Change.
Whatever we may regret about it, the old world as we knew it can never come back. It can never be the same again. Even if every human being on the globe devoted himself to reconstructing the old world as it was, it could not be done. 
And the reason for this is that we ourselves have changed. We are not what we were. We can never be the same again. Something has passed over us and upon us that has rendered us different. We have changed our angle of view.",-2.31601951,0.499850939
0f789ee41,,,"A gruff squire on horseback with shiny top boots. Soft day, sir John! Soft day, your honor!... Day!... Day!... Two top boots jog dangling on to Dublin. Lal the ral the ra. Lal the ral the raddy.
—That reminds me, Mr. Deasy said. You can do me a favor, Mr. Dedalus, with some of your literary friends. I have a letter here for the press. Sit down a moment. I have just to copy the end.
He went to the desk near the window, pulled in his chair twice and read off some words from the sheet on the drum of his typewriter.
—Sit down. Excuse me, he said over his shoulder, the dictates of common sense. Just a moment.
He peered from under his shaggy brows at the manuscript by his elbow and, muttering, began to prod the stiff buttons of the keyboard slowly, sometimes blowing as he screwed up the drum to erase an error.",-2.367913579,0.519368727
fb3a87374,,,"My own theme is Courage, as you should use it in the great fight that seems to me to be coming between youth and their betters; by youth, meaning, of course, you, and by your betters us. I want you to take up this position: That youth have for too long left exclusively in our hands the decisions in national matters that are more vital to them than to us. Things about the next war, for instance, and why the last one ever had a beginning. I use the word fight because it must, I think, begin with a challenge; but the aim is the reverse of antagonism, it is partnership. I want you to hold that the time has arrived for youth to demand that partnership, and to demand it courageously. That to gain courage is what you came to St. Andrews for. With some alarums and excursions into college life. That is what I propose, but, of course, the issue lies with M'Connachie. ",-1.1969034,0.459676635
e656d1eba,,,"So, saying, Tom flung himself out at the cottage door, and his wife thought he was going back to his work as usual; but she was mistaken. He walked to the wood, and there, when he came to the border of a little tinkling stream, he sat down and began to brood over his grievances.
""Now, I'll tell you what,"" said Tom to himself, ""it's much more pleasant sitting here in the shade, than broiling over celery trenches, and thinning wall fruit, with a baking sun at one's back, and a hot wall before one's eyes. But I'm a miserable toiler. I must either work or see my family starve; a very hard lot it is to be a workingman.""
""Ahem,"" said a voice close to him. Tom started, and, to his great surprise, saw a small man about the size of his own baby, sitting composedly at his elbow. He was dressed in green - a green hat, a green coat, and green shoes. He had very bright black eyes, and they twinkled very much as he looked at Tom and smiled.
""Servant, sir!"" said Tom, edging himself a little farther off.",-1.13804086,0.50285843
1cbe88ef7,,,"So, the boy wandered off into the forest till he came to the brink of a little sheet of water. It was too small to be called a lake; but it was deep and clear and was overhung with tall trees. It was evening, and the sun was getting low. The boy stood still beside the water and thought how beautiful it was to see the sun, red and glorious, between the black trunks of the pine trees. Then he looked up at the great blue sky and thought how beautiful it was to see the little clouds folding over one another like a belt of rose-colored waves. Then he looked at the lake and saw the clouds and the sky and the trees all reflected there, down among the lilies.
And he wished that he were a painter, for he said to himself, ""I am sure there are no trees in the world with such beautiful leaves as these pines. I am sure there are no clouds in the world so lovely as these. I know this is the prettiest little lake in the world, and if I could paint it, everyone else would know it, too.""",0.391168382,0.491441063
6ae81aabd,,,"He had hardly seen anything of her since it began. A bad business! He had no notion of giving her a lot of money to enable a fellow he knew nothing about to live on in idleness. He had seen that sort of thing before; no good ever came of it. Worst of all, he had no hope of shaking her resolution; she was as obstinate as a mule, always had been from a child. He didn't see where it was to end. They must cut their coat according to their cloth. He would not give way till he saw young Bosinney with an income of his own. That June would have trouble with the fellow was as plain as a pikestaff; he had no more idea of money than a cow. As to this rushing down to Wales to visit the young man's aunts, he fully expected they were old cats. ",-1.160499104,0.498521675
f5f7c3d26,,,"It was drawing toward winter, and very cold weather, when one day Gluck's two older brothers had gone out, with their usual warning to little Gluck, who was left to mind the roast, that he was to let nobody in and give nothing out. Gluck sat down quite close to the fire, for it was raining very hard. He turned and turned, and the roast got nice and brown. 
""What a pity,"" thought Gluck, ""that my brothers never ask anybody to dinner. I'm sure, when they have such a nice piece of mutton as this, it would do their hearts good to have somebody to eat it with them."" Just as he spoke there came a double knock at the house door, yet heavy and dull, as though the knocker had been tied up. ""It must be the wind,"" said Gluck; ""nobody else would venture to knock double knocks at our door.""
No; it wasn't the wind. There it came again very hard, and what was particularly astounding the knocker seemed to be in a hurry, and not to be in the least afraid of the consequences. Gluck put his head out the window to see who it was.",-0.626854713,0.458713654
a9da501cb,,,"Johnny started the Flying Machine again and steered it toward the Moon. And as they whirled around the side of the Moon the part that resembled a man's face twisted about until it disappeared.
""I can't tell whether we are getting closer to the Moon or not!"" cried Johnny anxiously.
Presently, however, they saw the face of the Man in the Moon coming around from the other side.
""We must have made a complete circuit of the Moon,"" Janey decided. ""See, Johnny, the rudder is pulled over to one side! That's the reason!""
Johnny pulled the rudder string until the Flying Machine was aimed right at the Moon, and they approached it at great speed. 
""Slow up, Johnny!"" Janey cried, when they could make out all the mountain tops and valleys very distinctly. ""It feels too much as if we were falling when we go so fast.""
So Johnny twisted the ""Start"" spool backwards until they were flying very slowly and seemed to be floating down toward the Moon's surface as lightly as a feather.
The Flying Machine still was headed directly toward the Moon, and this gave the children the impression that they were falling.",0.200942611,0.506688113
79b571bbd,,,"But Meg could not possibly go and supervise the men. She had washed her hair before breakfast, and she sat drinking her coffee in a green turban, with a dark wet curl stamped on each cheek. Jose, the butterfly, always came down in a silk petticoat and a kimono jacket.
""You'll have to go, Laura; you're the artistic one.""
Away Laura flew, still holding her piece of bread-and-butter. It's so delicious to have an excuse for eating out of doors, and besides, she loved having to arrange things; she always felt she could do it so much better than anybody else.
Four men in their shirtsleeves stood grouped together on the garden path. They carried staves covered with rolls of canvas, and they had big tool-bags slung on their backs. They looked impressive. Laura wished now that she had not got the bread-and-butter, but there was nowhere to put it, and she couldn't possibly throw it away. She blushed and tried to look severe and even a little bit short-sighted as she came up to them.",-0.868544343,0.440699977
def536646,,,"But he did not draw old Woodifield's attention to the photograph over the table of a grave looking boy in uniform standing in one of those spectral photographers' parks with photographers' storm clouds behind him. It was not new. It had been there for over six years.
""There was something I wanted to tell you,"" said old Woodifield, and his eyes grew dim remembering. ""Now what was it? I had it in my mind when I started out this morning."" His hands began to tremble, and patches of red showed above his beard.
Poor old chap, he's on his last pins, thought the boss. And, feeling kindly, he winked at the old man, and said jokingly, ""I tell you what. I've got a little drop of something here that'll do you good before you go out into the cold again. It's beautiful stuff. It wouldn't hurt a child."" He took a key off his watch-chain, unlocked a cupboard below his desk, and drew forth a dark, squat bottle. ""That's the medicine,"" said he. ""And the man from whom I got it told me on the strict Q.T. it came from the cellars at Windor Castle.""",-1.255286383,0.478366616
2d9607199,,,"Going down a very steep street, where the pavement was covered with ice, I saw before me an old woman, slowly and timidly picking her way. She was one of the poor but respectable old ladies who dress in rusty black, wear old fashioned bonnets, and carry big bags.
Some young folks laugh at these antiquated figures; but those who are better bred treat them with respect. They find something touching in the faded suits, the withered faces, and the knowledge that these lonely old ladies have lost youth, friends, and often fortune, and are patiently waiting to be called away from a world that seems to have passed by and forgotten them.
Well, as I slipped and shuffled along, I watched the little black bonnet in front, expecting every minute to see it go down, and trying to hurry, that I might offer my help.
At the corner, I passed three little school girls, and heard one say to another, ""O, I wouldn't; she will do well enough, and we shall lose our coasting, unless we hurry.""",-0.307056769,0.489589105
9bd5e9b85,,,"High above the earth, over land and sea, floated the seed-down, borne on the autumn wind's strong arms.
""Here shall you lie, little seed-down,"" said he at last, and put it down on the ground, and laid a fallen leaf over it. Then he flew away immediately, because he had much to look after.
That was in the dark evening, and the seed could not see where it was placed, and besides, the leaf covered it. 
Something heavy came now, and pressed so hard that the seed came near being destroyed; but the leaf, weak though it was, protected it.
It was a human foot which walked along over the ground, and pressed the downy seed into the earth. When the foot was withdrawn, the earth fell, and filled the little pit it had made.
The cold came, and the snow fell several feet deep; but the seed lay quietly down there, waiting for warmth and light. When the spring came, and the snow melted away, the plant shot up out of the earth.",-0.986645931,0.436275906
dccc13f89,,,"Daffy-down-dilly was so called because in his nature he resembled a flower and loved to do only what was beautiful and agreeable, and took no delight in labor of any kind. But, while Daffy-down-dilly was yet a little boy, his mother sent him away from his pleasant home, and put him under the care of a very strict schoolmaster, who went by the name of Mr. Toil. Those who knew him best, affirmed that this Mr. Toil was a very worthy character, and that he had done more good, both to children and grown people, than anybody else in the world. Nevertheless, Mr. Toil had a severe countenance; his voice, too, was harsh; and all his ways seemed very disagreeable to our friend Daffy-down-dilly.
The whole day long, this terrible old schoolmaster sat at his desk, overlooking the pupils, or stalked about the room with a certain awful birch rod in his hand.",-0.642891812,0.448441184
fd96c1cae,,,"What are their effects, for good and evil, upon modern literature? 
We recognize the physical expression of love as itself no way impure or unclean: but as a part of true passion. We know that sin means a state of mind or emotion, a false conception of moral values; and that virtue is not secured by legal sanction. We recognize, frankly, man's weakness and the complexity of social life; wherefore the dangers and temptations of ill-doing must be faced and understood.
Finally, we believe that knowledge brings strength; and, therefore, these ""difficult"" questions cannot, and should not, be ignored in conversation or in books: above all, not by those who, whether intentionally or not, do influence thought by their power to create character in fiction.
This awakening to a new view of Truth, however, has produced an atmosphere in modern novels which—whatever the aim or intention of modern novelists, leads to grave evil.",-1.464791796,0.477174484
676ea2c42,,,"Coffee first appears in the official records of the New England colony in 1670. In 1683, the year following William Penn's settlement on the Delaware, we find him buying supplies of coffee in the New York market and paying for them at the rate of eighteen shillings and nine pence per pound.
Coffee houses patterned after the English and Continental prototypes were soon established in all the colonies. Those of New York and Philadelphia are described in separate chapters. The Boston houses are described at the end of this chapter.
Norfolk, Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans also had them. Conrad Leonhard's coffee house at 320 Market Street. St. Louis, was famous for its coffee and coffee cake, from 1844 to 1905, when it became a bakery and lunch room, removing in 1919 to Eighth and Pine Streets.
In the pioneer days of the great west, coffee and tea were hard to get; and, instead of them, teas were often made from garden herbs, spice wood, sassafras roots, and other shrubs, taken from the thickets.",-0.268395178,0.483569741
e0f73ae9f,,,"The hypothesis of mental continuity throughout organic evolution may be used in two different ways. On the one hand, it may be held that we have more knowledge of our own minds than those of animals, and that we should use this knowledge to infer the existence of something similar to our own mental processes in animals and even in plants. On the other hand, it may be held that animals and plants present simpler phenomena, more easily analyzed than those of human minds; on this ground it may be urged that explanations which are adequate in the case of animals ought not to be lightly rejected in the case of man. The practical effects of these two views are diametrically opposite: the first leads us to level up animal intelligence with what we believe ourselves to know about our own intelligence, while the second leads us to attempt a levelling down of our own intelligence to something not too remote from what we can observe in animals. It is therefore important to consider the relative justification of the two ways of applying the principle of continuity.",-2.315213321,0.469841292
2b6d8d5c3,,,"Of all the specialized industries in the colonies, shipbuilding was the most important. The abundance of fir for masts, oak for timbers and boards, pitch for tar and turpentine, and hemp for rope made the way of the shipbuilder easy. Early in the seventeenth century a ship was built at New Amsterdam, and by the middle of that century shipyards were scattered along the New England coast at Newburyport, Salem, New Bedford, Newport, Providence, New London, and New Haven. Yards at Albany and Poughkeepsie in New York built ships for the trade of that colony with England and the Indies. Wilmington and Philadelphia soon entered the race and outdistanced New York, though unable to equal the pace set by New England. While Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina also built ships, Southern interest was mainly confined to the lucrative business of producing ship materials: fir, cedar, hemp, and tar. ",-0.76765557,0.461615217
9f92bbd72,,,"The clouds that visit its sky reveal themselves beyond the one great rise, and sail, white and enormous, to the other, and sink beyond that other. But the plains above which they have traveled and the Weald to which they go, the people of the valley cannot see and hardly recall. The wind, when it reaches such fields, is no longer a gale from the salt, but fruitful and soft, an inland breeze; and those whose blood was nourished here feel in that wind the fruitfulness of our orchards and all the life that all things draw from the air. 
In this place, when I was a boy, I pushed through a fringe of beeches that made a complete screen between me and the world, and I came to a glade called ""No Man's Land"". I climbed beyond it, and I was surprised and glad, because from the ridge of that glade, I saw the sea. To this place very lately I returned.",-1.54428469,0.477395996
df4468377,,,"The term ""unconscious,"" now so familiar to all readers of modern works on psychology, gives offense to some adherents of the past. There should, however, be no special mystery about it. It is not a new animistic abstraction, but simply a collective word to include all the physiological changes which escape our notice, all the forgotten experiences and impressions of the past which continue to influence our desires and reflections and conduct, even if we cannot remember them. What we can remember at any time is indeed an infinitesimal part of what has happened to us. We could not remember anything unless we forgot almost everything. As Bergson says, the brain is the organ of forgetfulness as well as of memory. Moreover, we tend, of course, to become oblivious to things to which we are thoroughly accustomed, for habit blinds us to their existence. So, the forgotten and the habitual make up a great part of the so-called ""unconscious"".",-1.31374463,0.505493673
af68dd0f2,,,"We had hiked seventeen miles that stormy December day—the third of a four days' journey. The snow was piled high on our packs, our rifles were crusted with ice, the leather of our hob-nailed boots was frozen stiff over our lamed feet. The weary lieutenant led us to the door of a little house in a side street.
""Next twelve men,"" he said. A dozen of us dropped out of the ranks and dragged ourselves over the threshold. We tracked snow and mud over a spotless stone floor. Before an open fire stood Madame and the three children—a girl of eight years, a boy of five, a boy of three. They stared with round frightened eyes at les soldats Americans, the first they had ever seen. We were too tired to stare back. We at once climbed to the chill attic, our billet, our lodging for the night. First, we lifted the packs from one another's aching shoulders: then, without spreading our blankets, we lay down on the bare boards.",-0.024836284,0.48860394
23608e428,,,"Here he was! And nervously he tied a bow in front of the mirror, jammed his hair down with both hands, pulled out the flaps of his jacket pockets. Making between £500 and £600 a year on a fruit farm in —of all places— Rhodesia. No capital. Not a penny coming to him. No chance of his income increasing for at least four years. As for looks and all that sort of thing, he was completely out of the running. He couldn't even boast of top-hole health, for the East Africa business had knocked him out so thoroughly that he'd had to take six months' leave. He was still fearfully pale—worse even than usual this afternoon, he thought, bending forward and peering into the mirror. Good heavens! What had happened? His hair looked almost bright green. Dash it all, he hadn't green hair at all events. That was a bit too steep. And then the green light trembled in the glass; it was the shadow from the tree outside.",-1.715521981,0.472144222
4ac44c984,,,"Down from the frozen mountains, in summer, birds and winds must bear the seed of alpine flowers—lilies that lean against un-melting snows, poppies, bright colored herbs, and the palely gleaming, fringed beauties that change names with countries. How just and reasonable it would seem to be that flowers which edge the ice in July should consent to bloom in lowlands no colder in February! The pageant of blue, magenta, and scarlet on the austere upper slopes of the Rockies, where nights are bitter to the summer wanderer—why should it not flourish to leeward of a valley barn in months when icicles hang from the eaves in this tamer setting? But no. Mountain tempests are endurable to the silken-petaled. The treacherous lowland winter, with its coaxing suns followed by roaring desolation, is for blooms bred in a different tradition.
The light is clear but hesitant, a delicate wine, by no means the mighty vintage of April. February has no intoxication; the vague eagerness that gives the air a pulse where fields lie voiceless comes from the secret stirring of imprisoned life. Spring and sunrise are forever miracles, but the early hour of the wonder hardly hints the exuberance of its fulfilment.",-2.150387868,0.478905236
6788643be,,,"The principal subjects, concerning which President Wilson and I were in marked disagreement, were the following: His presence in Paris during the peace negotiations and especially his presence there as a delegate to the Peace Conference; the fundamental principles of the constitution and functions of a League of Nations as proposed or advocated by him; the form of the organic act, known as the ""Covenant,"" its elaborate character and its inclusion in the treaty restoring a state of peace; the treaty of defensive alliance with France; the necessity for a definite program which the American Commissioners could follow in carrying on the negotiations; the employment of private interviews and confidential agreements in reaching settlements, a practice which gave color to the charge of ""secret diplomacy""; and, lastly, the admission of the Japanese claims to possession of German treaty rights at Kiao-Chau and in the Province of Shantung.
Of these seven subjects of difference the most important were those relating to the League of Nations and the Covenant, though our opposite views as to Shantung were more generally known and more frequently the subject of public comment.",-2.563457657,0.622350452
3f2f53afd,,,"The manager of one of the great power-stations on the banks of the river above the Falls told me that the center of the riverbed at the Canadian Falls is deep and of a saucer shape. So, it may be possible to fill this up to a uniform depth, and divert a lot of water for the power-houses. And this, he said, would supply the need for more power, which will certainly soon arise, without taking away from the beauty of Niagara. This is a handsome concession of the utilitarians to ordinary sightseers. Yet, I doubt if we shall be satisfied. The real secret of the beauty and terror of the Falls is not their height or width, but the feeling of colossal power and of unintelligible disaster caused by the plunge of that vast body of water. If that were taken away, there would be little visible change, but the heart would be gone.
The American Falls do not inspire this feeling in the same way as the Canadian. It is because they are less in volume, and because the water does not fall so much into one place. By comparison their beauty is almost delicate and fragile.",-1.645286253,0.455870458
ab39fee13,,,"Oh, so sad it is, this quarter! By day the streets are a depression, with their frowzy dosshouses and their vapor-baths. Gray and sickly is the light. Gray and sickly, too, are the leering shops, and gray and sickly are the people and the children. Everything has followed the grass and the flowers. Childhood has no place; so above the roofs you may see the surly points of a Council School. Such games as happen are played but listlessly, and each little face is smirched. The gaunt warehouses hardly support their lopping heads, and the low, beetling, gabled houses of the alleys seem for ever to brood on nights of bitter adventure. Fit objects for contempt by day they may be, but when night creeps upon London, the hideous darkness that can almost be touched, then their faces become very powers of terror, and the cautious soul, wandered from the comfort of the main streets, walks and walks in a frenzy, seeking outlet and finding none. Sometimes a hoarse laugh will break sharp on his ear. Then he runs.",-1.506979633,0.483243616
ad2d34279,,,"We turn in under an archway behind a theatre and adjacent to the stage-door of the Opera House. The booths are rapidly filling with produce. Gentlemen in long alpaca coats and carrying formidable marbled notebooks walk about with an important air. A mountain range of pumpkins rises behind a hill of cabbages. Festoons of onions are being suspended from rails. The heads of barrels are being knocked in, disclosing purple grapes buried in cork dust. Pears and figs, grown under glass for wealthy patrons, repose in soft tissue-lined boxes. A broken crate of tangerine oranges has spilled its contents in a splash of ruddy gold on the plank runway. A wagon is driven in, a heavy load of beets, and the broad wheels crush through the soft fruit so that the air is heavy with the acrid sweetness.
We pick our way among the booths and stalls until we find the flowers. Here is a crowd of ladies, young, so-so and some quite matronly, and all dressed in this same flamboyant finery of which I have spoken. They are grouped about an almost overpowering mass of blooms. Roses just now predominate.",-2.081851819,0.513041137
da9ed8478,,,"The balsam bed is made of the small twigs of balsam-trees. In gathering these, collect twigs of different lengths, from eighteen inches long (to be used as the foundation of the bed) to ten or twelve inches long (for the top layer). If you want to rest well, do not economize on the amount you gather; many a time I have had my bones ache as a result of being too tired to make my bed properly and attempting to sleep on a thin layer of boughs. 
If you attempt to chop off the boughs of balsam they will resent your effort by springing back and slapping you in the face. You can cut them with your knife, but it is slow work and will blister your hands. Take twig by twig with the thumb and fingers (the thumb on top, pointing toward the tip of the bough, and the two forefingers underneath); press down with the thumb, and with a twist of the wrist you can snap the twigs like pipe-stems.",-0.989921915,0.441039088
532994791,,,"She lifted her thin black eyebrows. ""Is New York such a labyrinth? I thought it so straight up and down—like Fifth Avenue. And with all the cross streets numbered!"" She seemed to guess his faint disapproval of this, and added, with the rare smile that enchanted her whole face: ""If you knew how I like it for just THAT—the straight-up-and-down-ness, and the big honest labels on everything!""
He saw his chance. ""Everything may be labelled—but everybody is not.""
""Perhaps. I may simplify too much—but you'll warn me if I do."" She turned from the fire to look at him. ""There are only two people here who make me feel as if they understood what I mean and could explain things to me: you and Mr. Beaufort.""
Archer winced at the joining of the names, and then, with a quick readjustment, understood, sympathized and pitied. So close to the powers of evil she must have lived that she still breathed more freely in their air. But since she felt that he understood her also, his business would be to make her see Beaufort as he really was, with all he represented—and abhor it.",-1.453580337,0.490807978
4d0d6a016,,,"On Thursday, therefore, he walked pensively along the slippery, shovel-scraped sidewalks, and came in sight of Myra's house, on the half-hour after five, a lateness which he fancied his mother would have favored. He waited on the doorstep with his eyes nonchalantly half-closed, and planned his entrance with precision. He would cross the floor, not too hastily, to Mrs. St. Claire, and say with exactly the correct modulation:
""My dear Mrs. St. Claire, I'm frightfully sorry to be late, but my maid""—he paused there and realized he would be quoting—""but my uncle and I had to see a fella—Yes, I've met your enchanting daughter at dancing-school.""
Then he would shake hands, using that slight, half-foreign bow, with all the starchy little females, and nod to the fellas who would be standing 'round, paralyzed into rigid groups for mutual protection.
A butler (one of the three in Minneapolis) swung open the door. Amory stepped inside and divested himself of cap and coat. He was mildly surprised not to hear the shrill squawk of conversation from the next room, and he decided it must be quite formal. He approved of that—as he approved of the butler.",-1.594174966,0.470751128
3c7e5abdb,,,"In nineteen observant years, Agatha had noted a businessman's invariable interest in the local telegraph service, and the tendency of lovers to be dissatisfied with the mail facilities of the neighborhood. The concern manifested by Burton Forbes on learning that the Rural Free Delivery called at Oak Knoll but once a day, classified him definitely, in Agatha's estimation.
""You can always send Howard to the village for the afternoon mail,"" she suggested, the new warmth in her voice an unconscious demonstration of the truth that all the world loves a lover.
""Thanks, that's fine!"" The brightening of Forbes' face quite offset his immediate conscientious warning that she was not to spoil him just because she was sorry for him.
As the Rural Free Delivery brought nothing of consequence on the morning following Forbes' arrival, Howard was dispatched to the village after the mid-day meal, leaving Forbes in Agatha's care. Agatha conducted her charge to a creaking rocking chair, in the shadiest angle of the porch, and shoved a footstool near. ""Now I'll get my knitting,"" she said blithely, ""and we'll talk.""",-2.414430879,0.500714249
54f550af1,,,"Now all these animals went back and told their brothers and friends that there was a doctor in the little house with the big garden who really was a doctor. And whenever any creatures got sick—not only horses and cows and dogs—but all the little things of the fields, like harvest-mice and water-voles, badgers and bats, they came at once to his house on the edge of the town, so that his big garden was nearly always crowded with animals trying to get in to see him. 
There were so many that came that he had to have special doors made for the different kinds. He wrote ""HORSES"" over the front door, ""COWS"" over the side door, and ""SHEEP"" on the kitchen door. Each kind of animal had a separate door—even the mice had a tiny tunnel made for them into the cellar, where they waited patiently in rows for the Doctor to come round to them.
And so, in a few years' time, every living thing for miles and miles got to know about John Dolittle, M.D.",-0.036227181,0.473509309
0c8f14517,,,"The ancient, withered creature, wearing a green satin dress, a black velvet cloak and a white hat with purple feathers, jerked slowly, slowly up the steps as though she were being drawn up on wires. She stared in front of her, she was laughing and nodding and cackling to herself; her claws clutched round what looked like a dirty boot bag.
But just at that moment there was Mrs. Raddick again with—her—and another lady hovering in the background. Mrs. Raddick rushed at me. She was brightly flushed, gay, a different creature. She was like a woman who is saying ""goodbye"" to her friends on the station platform, with not a minute to spare before the train starts. 
""Oh, you're here, still. Isn't that lucky! You've not gone. Isn't that fine! I've had the most dreadful time with—her,"" and she waved to her daughter, who stood absolutely still, disdainful, looking down, twiddling her foot on the step, miles away. ""They won't let her in. I swore she was twenty-one. But they won't believe me. I showed the man my purse; I didn't dare to do more.",-1.085751491,0.458854412
66621b582,,,"There were a number of people out this afternoon, far more than last Sunday. And the band sounded louder and gayer. That was because the Season had begun. For although the band played all the year round on Sundays, out of season it was never the same. It was like someone playing with only the family to listen; it didn't care how it played if there weren't any strangers present. Wasn't the conductor wearing a new coat, too? She was sure it was new. He scraped with his foot and flapped his arms like a rooster about to crow, and the bandsmen sitting in the green rotunda blew out their cheeks and glared at the music. Now there came a little ""flutey"" bit — very pretty! — a little chain of bright drops. She was sure it would be repeated. It was; she lifted her head and smiled.
Only two people shared her ""special"" seat: a fine old man in a velvet coat, his hands clasped over a huge carved walking-stick, and a big old woman, sitting upright, with a roll of knitting on her embroidered apron. They did not speak. ",-0.733407447,0.504010955
570cd7396,,,"Kepler's improved determination of the earth's orbit was obtained by plotting the different positions of the earth corresponding to successive rotations of Mars, i.e. intervals of 687 days. At each of these the date of the year would give the angle MSE (Mars-Sun-Earth), and Tycho's observation the angle MES. So the triangle could be solved except for scale, and the ratio of SE to SM would give the distance of Mars from the sun in terms of that of the earth. Measuring from a fixed position of Mars (e.g. perihelion), this gave the variation of SE, showing the earth's inequality. Measuring from a fixed position of the earth, it would give similarly a series of positions of Mars, which, though lying not far from the circle whose diameter was the axis of Mars' orbit, joining perihelion and aphelion, always fell inside the circle except at those two points. ",-2.238164382,0.506704939
e6b3f5f58,,,"Now you have to outline the rest of the head, and this is rather a gamble. Personally, I go in for strong heads.
I am afraid it is not a strong neck; I expect he is an author, and is not well fed. But that is the worst of strong heads; they make it so difficult to join up the chin and the back of the neck.
The next thing to do is to put in the ear; and once you have done this the rest is easy. Ears are much more difficult than eyes.
I hope that is right. It seems to me to be a little too far to the southward. But it is done now. And once you have put in the ear you can't go back; not unless you are on a very good committee which provides India-rubber as well as pencils.
Now I do the hair. Hair may either be very fuzzy or black, or lightish, or thin. It depends chiefly on what sort of pencils are provided. For myself I prefer black hair, because then the parting shows up better.",-1.384646741,0.466078699
55f425cd8,,,"She had no powder but found in her grandfather's room a lump of magnesia, which he was in the habit of taking for heartburn, and passed it over and over her brown face and hands. Then a lingering gaze into her small mirror gave her joy at last; she yearned so hard to see herself charming that she did see herself so. Admiration came, and she told herself that she was more attractive to look at than she had ever been in her life, and that, perhaps, at last she might begin to be sought for like other girls. The little glass showed a sort of prettiness in her thin, unmatured young face; tripping dance tunes ran through her head, her feet keeping the time — ah, she did so hope to dance often that night! Perhaps — perhaps she might be asked for every number. And so, wrapping an old waterproof cloak about her, she took her grandfather's arm and sallied forth, with high hopes in her beating heart.",-0.528146781,0.46978559
b09e32690,,,"After a long and arduous devotion to the study of physics and astronomy, I, Hans Pfaal of Rotterdam, at length determined to construct a balloon of my own along original lines and to try a flight in it. Accordingly, I had made an enormous bag out of cambric muslin, varnished with caoutchouc for protection against the weather. I procured all the instruments needed for a prolonged ascent and finally prepared for the inflation of the balloon. Herein lay my secret, my invention, the thing in which my balloon differed from all the balloons that had gone before. Out of a peculiar metallic substance and a very common acid I was able to manufacture a gas of a density about 37.4 less than that of hydrogen, and thus by far the lightest substance ever known. It would serve to carry the balloon to heights greater than had been attained before, for hydrogen is the gas usually used.",-2.431045951,0.506911206
f04e03fd8,,,"Jupiter, two hours high, was the herald of the day; the Pleiades, just above the horizon, shed their sweet influence in the east; Lyra sparkled near the zenith; Andromeda veiled her newly discovered glories from the naked eye in the south; the steady Pointers, far beneath the pole, looked meekly up from the depths of the north to their sovereign.
Such was the glorious spectacle as I entered the train. As we proceeded, the timid approach of twilight became more perceptible; the intense blue of the sky began to soften; the smaller stars, like little children, went first to rest; the sister-beams of the Pleiades soon melted together; but the bright constellations of the west and north remained unchanged. Steadily the wondrous transfiguration went on. Hands of angels, hidden from mortal eyes, shifted the scenery of the heavens; the glories of night dissolved into the glories of the dawn.",-3.229761439,0.551434794
a8fea555a,,,"Her instant welcome, the genuine smile! Almost immediately, I understood the fame of this little station, so far from everything but the air route. Her charm is indescribable. She is pretty, she is well dressed, but it isn't that. It is a sincerity of manner, complete hospitality; at once you are accepted as a bosom friend of the family—that is the charm of Suzanne's. After a few questions as to where I came from, how long I had been there, and where I was going, Suzanne led me upstairs to be presented to ""Ma belle mere,"" a white-haired old lady sitting in a big, straight-backed chair. Then, after more courtesies had been extended to me, Suzanne preceded me down to the garden and left me alone while she went in to see that the supper was exceptionally good. A soft footstep on the gravel walk sounded behind me, and I turned to see one of the most beautiful women I ever beheld. She was tall and slender, and as she came gracefully across the lawn, she swung a little work bag from one arm.",-0.857871736,0.464948726
a391b5f3e,,,"Connart had started in life with a fine, open, believing disposition, and with that disposition for his chief asset he had entered the world of business. At thirty he had lost nearly everything but his heart, yet it was stolen from him, also, by one Mary Bateman of Boston, a quiet-looking little woman, endowed with common sense, a few thousand dollars and a taste for travel. It was this taste, combined with a slight weakness of the lungs, that induced Connart to go into the Pacific trade, also a legacy, from an English relation, amounting to some two thousand pounds odd, which enabled him to make the new start in business without calling on his wife's capital. 
Dobree of San Francisco gave him the pitch. Connart had the qualities of his defects. Men robbed him, but they liked him. Men are queer things. Dobree, in business, was a very tough person indeed, quite without any finer feelings, and never giving a cent or a chance away, yet, taking a liking to Connart, he gave him a house, a go-down, and the chance of success on this Island, by name of Maleka, for nothing.",-2.057801801,0.506563336
e6dc71a9e,,,"And I want beauty in my life. I have seen beauty in a sunset and in the spring woods and in the eyes of diverse women, but now these happy accidents of light and color no longer thrill me. And I want beauty in my life itself, rather than in such chances as befall it. It seems to me that many actions of my life were beautiful, very long ago, when I was young in an evanished world of friendly girls, who were all more lovely than any girl is nowadays. For women now are merely more or less good-looking, and as I know, their looks when at their best have been painstakingly enhanced and edited. But I would like this life which moves and yearns in me, to be able itself to attain to comeliness, though but in transitory performance. The life of a butterfly, for example, is just a graceful gesture: and yet, in that its loveliness is complete and perfectly rounded in itself, I envy this bright flicker through existence.",-1.350629293,0.496674177
24e6ebf80,,,"I had remained some steps behind, when presently I saw Captain Nemo come hurriedly toward me. With his strong hand he bent me to the ground, while his companion did the same to Conseil. At first I knew not what to think of this sudden attack, but I was soon reassured by seeing the captain lie down beside me and remain immovable.
I was stretched on the ground, just under shelter of a bush of algae, when, raising my head, I saw some enormous mass, casting phosphorescent gleams, pass blusteringly by. My blood froze in my veins as I recognized two formidable sharks. They were man-eaters, terrible creatures with enormous tails and a dull glassy stare—monstrous brutes which could crush a whole man in their iron jaws! I noticed their silver undersides and their huge mouths bristling with teeth, from a very unscientific point of view and more as a possible victim than as a naturalist. ",-1.085620439,0.462025948
fbb641560,,,"Outside of Rainbow Valley the wind might be rollicking and boisterous. Here it always went gently. Little, winding, fairy paths ran here and there over spruce roots cushioned with moss. Wild cherry trees, that in blossom time would be misty white, were scattered all over the valley, mingling with the dark spruces. A little brook with amber waters ran through it from the Glen village. The houses of the village were comfortably far away; only at the upper end of the valley was a little tumbledown, deserted cottage, referred to as ""the old Bailey house."" It had not been occupied for many years, but a grass grown dyke surrounded it and inside was an ancient garden where the Ingleside children could find violets and daisies and June lilies still blooming in season. For the rest, the garden was overgrown with caraway that swayed and foamed in the moonshine of summer eves like seas of silver.",-1.551940751,0.490705438
b4d3d8ef2,,,"When we had sat by the fire for an hour, the old men and the warriors came to visit us, and the smoking began. The women laid mats in a great half circle, and each man took his seat with perfect breeding: that is, in absolute silence and with a face like a stone. The peace paint was upon them all—red, or red and white—and they sat and looked at the ground until I had made the speech of welcome. Soon the air was dense with fragrant smoke; in the thick blue haze the sweep of painted figures had the seeming of some fantastic dream. An old man arose and made a long and touching speech, with much reference to calumets and buried hatchets. Then they waited for my contribution of honeyed words. The Pamunkeys, living at a distance from the settlements, had but little English, and the learning of the Paspaheghs was not much greater. I repeated to them the better part of a canto of Master Spenser's Faery Queen, after which I told them the moving story of the Moor of Venice. It answered the purpose to admiration. ",-1.239472659,0.471227534
f1376df75,,,"One afternoon when the sun was going down, a mother and her little boy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great Stone Face. They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen, though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features. And what was the Great Stone Face? The Great Stone Face was a work of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness, formed on the perpendicular side of a mountain by some immense rocks, which had been thrown together in such a position as, when viewed at a proper distance, precisely to resemble the features of the human countenance. It seemed as if an enormous giant, or a Titan, had sculptured his own likeness on the precipice. There was the broad arch of the forehead, a hundred feet in height; the nose, with its long bridge; and the vast lips, which, if they could have spoken, would have rolled their thunder accents from one end of the valley to the other.",-0.726834636,0.474736541
d79a4e1a5,,,"The home I had come to as vicar was in a little neighborhood consisting of farmers who tilled their own grounds and were equal strangers to opulence and poverty. As they had almost all the conveniences of life within themselves, they seldom visited towns or cities in search of superfluity. Remote from the polite, they still retained the primeval simplicity of manners; and, frugal by habit, they scarce knew that temperance was a virtue. They wrought with cheerfulness on days of labor but observed festivals as intervals of idleness and pleasure. They kept up the Christmas carol, sent love-knots on Valentine morning, ate pancakes on Shrovetide, showed their wit on the first of April, and religiously cracked nuts on Michaelmas-eve. Being apprised of our approach, the whole neighborhood came out to meet their minister, dressed in their finest clothes and preceded by a pipe and tabor: a feast, also, was provided for our reception, at which we sat cheerfully down, and what the conversation wanted in wit was made up in laughter.",-2.022772326,0.510880119
7822e2ca6,,,"Corky was one of the artists. A portrait-painter, he called himself, but he hadn't painted any portraits. He was sitting on the side-lines with a blanket over his shoulders, waiting for a chance to get into the game. You see, the catch about portrait-painting — I've looked into the thing a bit — is that you can't start painting portraits till people come along and ask you to, and they won't come and ask you to until you've painted a lot first. This makes it kind of difficult for a chappie. Corky managed to get along by drawing an occasional picture for the comic papers—he had rather a gift for funny stuff when he got a good idea—and doing bedsteads and chairs and things for the advertisements. His principal source of income, however, was derived from biting the ear of a rich uncle — one Alexander Worple, who was in the jute business. I'm a bit foggy as to what jute is, but it's apparently something the populace is pretty keen on, for Mr. Worple had made quite an indecently large stack out of it. ",-1.117250773,0.469038361
9729b676a,,,"Lemaire had had a handsome face and been a fine man, stalwart, bold, muscular, determined. He did not belong to Marseilles but had come there to give an acrobatic show in a music-hall; and there Marie Bretelle had seen him, dressed in silver-spangled tights, and doing marvelous feats on three parallel bars. His bare arms had lumps on them like balls of iron, his fair moustaches were trained into points, his bold eyes were lit with a fire to fascinate women; and—well, Marie Bretelle ran away with him and became Madame Lemaire. And so she came to Algiers, where Lemaire had an accident while giving his performance. And that was the beginning of the Odyssey which had ended at El-Kelf.
""Fool—fool—fool!""
Often she said that to herself, as she went about the inn doing her duties with grains of sand in her hair.
""Fool—fool—fool!""
The word was taken by the wind of the waste and carried away to the desert. After his accident Lemaire lost his engagements. Then he lost his looks. He put on flesh. He ceased to train his moustaches into points. The great muscles got soft, were covered with flabby fat.",-1.217509269,0.475993912
de47da2fb,,,"The corollary in Flanders, unless it could be demonstrated, would be as great a failure as the main proposition in Picardy. And the still possible successful issue of the latter depended absolutely, as we shall see, on a complete demonstration of the former. Both have been so far handicapped by the augmenting mobility of the Allies, their growing numbers, their centralized command, and their successful insistence to control the air.
Such was the situation in Flanders and Picardy which confronted Ludendorff at the dawn of the second month of the German offensive. The whole problem to be solved was just as apparent to the Allies as it was to him—to gain the barriers which threatened his angles of penetration, in order again to utilize his preponderant forces of men and guns on a broad front. To attempt to extend the vertices without broadening the sides would mean to court danger, even destruction, at their weakest points. ",-3.213909426,0.543697443
897fbf60f,,,"The Police Department Band appeared and the band of the 15th Coast Artillery from Fort Hamilton. Taking advantage of the occasion, James Montgomery Flagg now appeared in his studio van on the southern fringe of the Broad Street crowd. A girl with him played something on the cornet. It was a good deal like a show on the Midway at a Western county fair. But this was no faker — one of the most famous artists in America, throwing in a signed sketch of whoever bought Liberty bonds. Those near him began pushing and crowding to take advantage of the offer.
And now, suddenly, a tremendous racket up the street toward Broadway. Who comes? 
Cheer on cheer, now. It is the ""Anzacs."" Twelve long, rangy fellows, officers all, six or seven of them with the little brass ""A"" on the shoulder, which signifies service at Gallipoli and in Flanders. They are members of the contingent of 500 which arrived here yesterday on its way to the battlefields of France. They run lightly up the Sub-Treasury steps and take their stand in a group beside the soldier band.",-2.071544877,0.485333759
37567968b,,,"Our first domestic war loan of £6,000 was made in 1775, and the loan was taken at par. A year and a half later found Congress laboring under unusual difficulties. Boston and New York were held by the enemy, the patriot forces were retreating, and the people were as little inclined to submit to domestic taxation as they had formerly been to ""taxation without representation."" To raise funds even a lottery was attempted. In October 1776, Congress authorized a second loan for $5,000,000. It was not a pronounced success, only $3,787,000 being raised in twelve months. In 1778 fourteen issues of paper money were authorized as the only way to meet the expenses of the army. By the end of the year 1779 Congress had issued $200,000,000 in paper money, while a like amount had been issued by the several States. In 1781, as a result of this financing and of the general situation, Continental bills of credit had fallen 99 per cent. Then came Robert Morris, that genius of finance, who found ways to raise the money which assured the triumph of the American cause.",-1.683823376,0.476443455
a6f74f001,,,"Checks require a stamp of 4 cents, also promissory notes. The excess-profit rate remains at 80 per cent. The tax on spirits is raised to $7.50 a gallon; on beer to $12.50 a barrel; on tobacco to $2.04 a pound, the effect of which will increase the price 4 cents an ounce, while the cheapest cigarette, now 6 cents for ten, will be 7 cents for ten. The tax on matches is increased so that they will be sold at 2 cents a box instead of 1 and a half cents. An additional duty of $3 a hundredweight is levied on sugar, so that sugar heretofore selling at 11and a half cents a pound will now have to be sold at 14 cents a pound.
A tax of 16 and two thirds per cent, is levied on the sale of luxuries, including jewelry, and of articles above a certain price when they become articles of luxury; also on hotel and restaurant bills. This tax will be collected by means of stamps. ",-3.338290654,0.614035689
e623232b0,,,"On April 16 M. Gukovsky, the Commissary for Finance, reported to the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets on Russia's financial and industrial condition. He said that the semi-yearly expenditure would amount to 4,000,000,000 rubles, while the income expected was only 3,300,000,000 rubles. The railroads had lost 70 percent of their freight capacity, and the cost of operation had increased ten times, (120,000 against 11,600 rubles per versta). The Central Government, he stated, derived no revenue from taxes, as the local Soviets used the sums they collected for their own purposes. To illustrate the industrial conditions the Commissary cited the example of the Sormov locomotive works, whose daily output is two locomotives, instead of eighteen as formerly. M. Gukovsky recommended strict economy in expenditures and urged the necessity of securing the services of financial and industrial experts for the purpose of organizing an efficient State machinery. Among the recent legislative measures of the Moscow Government must be mentioned the nationalization of foreign trade, which is a part of the general Bolshevist scheme of Socialist reforms. A special board has been created to regulate the prices of all exports and imports. ",-2.217146149,0.52708935
c6a1d59a2,,,"On May 7 General Maurice published a letter in which he definitely asserted that the Premier had made a misleading statement to the House of Commons April 9, when he asserted that the British Army in France on Jan. 1, 1918, was considerably stronger than on Jan. 1, 1917; that he misstated the facts regarding the number of white divisions in Egypt and Palestine; also that Bonar Law, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had made a misstatement in denying that the extension of the British front in France had been ordered by the Versailles War Council. 
A resolution was introduced by former Premier Asquith for the appointment of a committee to investigate the charges. The Lloyd George Government accepted the challenge and announced that they would regard the passage of the resolution as a vote of censure and would resign if it was carried. The debate on the resolution occurred May 9 and resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Government, the vote to uphold the Lloyd George Ministry being 293 to 106; the Irish members were not present.",-2.707377649,0.495518471
376438ce3,,,"December was an anxious month. Several German divisions were east of the Piave, and an attempt to force the river and capture Venice was considered likely. Local attacks grew more and more severe, and, though the progress of the enemy was not great and Italian counterattacks were constantly made, the danger of a breakthrough increased. The Austrians were being encouraged to persevere in the hope of getting down to the plains for the Winter. 
Rear lines of defense were constructed, and as time passed and the preparations were well forward the feeling of security grew, and was further increased by the recapture by the Italians of the slopes of Monte Asolone on Dec. 22. The following day Mount Melago and Col del Rosso, on the Asiago Plateau, were lost, but the Italians regained the former by a counterattack. Though Christmas Day found the situation still serious, especially on the Asiago, where the Italians, while fighting stubbornly, suffered from strain and cold, the situation showed signs of improvement. This outlook was brightened still further by the capture of Mount Tomba, with 1,500 prisoners, by the French. In this action British artillery assisted.",-2.279783534,0.51003415
46a1be37e,,,"The activity of the Soviets of National Economy is restricted to the field of industry. Their counterpart in agriculture are the so-called land committees. The decree relating to agrarian socialization, voted by the Bolsheviki at 2 A. M., Nov. 8, 1917, recommends the use of a certain nakaz (mandate), based on 242 resolutions passed by village communities, as a guide in putting the land reform into practice. Article 8 of this nakaz, which is a paraphrase of the agrarian program of the Social Revolutionists, reads thus: ""All the land, upon confiscation, forms a national agrarian fund. The distribution of the land among the toilers is taken care of by local and central self-governing bodies. The land is periodically redistributed, with the growth of population and the rise of the productivity of agricultural labor. ""For the purpose of putting this program into operation and regulating the economic life of the village generally there have been instituted land committees (decree of Nov. 16), one for each volost (rural district including several villages).",-3.070718237,0.577797109
96eddffa4,,,"The Russian Army no longer exists, and the Russian Navy no longer exists. The Rumanian Army — that most gallant and most unfortunate body, which might have and would have cooperated to preserve both Russia and Rumania from the tyranny of the Central Powers — had been betrayed by Russia itself. The unhappy results of the revolution from the military point of view are quite plain and obvious to the most casual observer. The actual course pursued by the Bolsheviki has rendered them completely helpless in the face of German aggression. Now they express the desire — I am sure they express it genuinely and earnestly — that they should reconstitute the Russian Army for the purpose of Russian defense, and they would welcome our assistance, doubtless, in carrying out this object. But can you reconstitute it for purposes of national defense? Can you improvise a new instrument when fragments of the old instrument are lying shattered around you? It cannot be done in a day.",-1.809774192,0.460738475
180e47ddb,,,"The War Council was created because it was necessary to have a group of experts in the War Department who would have time to study. Up to the time of its organization there had been little time to think about big problems and do nothing else. Everybody was rushed with some form of executive or administrative work. This council is in session every day and is one of the most effective war agencies that the Government has. There is no man on it who does not bring to its deliberations and conclusions some vital contribution to the welfare of the country and the army. It consists of the Secretary of War, the Assistant Secretary of War, General March, Acting Chief of the General Staff; General Crowder, Judge Advocate General and Provost Marshal General of the Army, one of the nation's great lawyers, who is devoting his life to the military welfare of his country; Generals Crozier, Sharpe, Weaver, and Pierce, and Charles Day, an able engineer drafted from the Shipping Board to render expert counsel to the War Department as a member of its War Council.",-1.577429866,0.471472133
c505566f2,,,"We have now entered the most critical phase of this terrible war. There is a lull in the storm, but the hurricane is not over. Doubtless we must expect more fierce outbreaks, and ere it is finally exhausted there will be many more. The fate of the empire, the fate of Europe, and the fate of liberty throughout the world may depend on the success with which the very last of these attacks is resisted and countered. The Government, therefore, propose to submit to Parliament today certain recommendations, in order to assist this country and the Allies to weather the storm. They will involve, I regret, extreme sacrifices on the part of large classes of the population, and nothing would justify them but the most extreme necessity and the fact that we are fighting for all that is essential and most sacred in our national life. ",-1.554615108,0.452925621
f46fe00a6,,,"The general plan of attack was to dispense with previous artillery preparation, and to depend instead on tanks to smash through the enemy's wire, of which there was a great quantity protecting his trenches.
As soon as the advance of the tanks and infantry, working in close cooperation, began, the artillery was to assist with counter battery and barrage work; but no previous registration of guns for this purpose could be permitted, as it would rouse the enemy's suspicions. The artillery of our new armies was therefore necessarily subjected to a severe test in this operation, and proved itself entirely worthy of the confidence placed in it.
The infantry, tanks, and artillery thus working in combination were to endeavor to break through all the enemy's lines of defense on the first day. If this were successfully accomplished and the situation developed favorably, cavalry was then to be passed through to raid the enemy's communications, disorganize his system of command, damage his railways, and interfere as much as possible with the arrival of his reinforcements. It was explained to all commanders that everything depended on secrecy up to the moment of starting, and after that on bold, determined, and rapid action.",-2.159716076,0.484114831
58e65a993,,,"I had often wondered what became of this highly interesting young woman, and when I began to write ""The White Morning"" she popped into my mind. I believe she could be a leader of some kind if she chose. Perhaps she is. The cases could be multiplied indefinitely. The Erkels and Mimi Brandt are drawn, together with their conditions, almost photographically. ""Heloise"" finally married a Scot and went with him to his own country, but her sisters were dragging out their tragic lives when I left Munich. A few days ago I met a highly intelligent American woman of German blood who, before the war, used to visit her relatives in Germany every year. I told her that I had written this story and she agreed with me that it was on the cards the women would instigate a revolution. ""Never,"" she said, ""in any country have I known such discontent among women, heard so many bitter confidences. Their feelings against their fathers or husbands were the more intense and violent because they dared not speak out like English or American women."" ",-1.659576072,0.452817405
aba1ee077,,,"America is sending to these islands almost two-thirds of our food supplies. Sixty-five percent of the essential foodstuffs eaten by the British citizen comes to him from the American Continent. This in itself is something which calls for our lively gratitude. But there is a quality in the action of America which should intensify our gratitude. For these American supplies, essential to our health and safety, represent in very large measure the personal and voluntary self-sacrifice of the individual American citizen. They are not crumbs from the table of Dives. They are not the commandeered supplies of an autocratic Government. They represent, rather, the kindly, difficult, and entirely willing self-sacrifice of a whole nation, the vast majority of whom are working people. There is only one altar for this act of sacrifice—it is the table of the American working classes. And the rite is performed by men, women, and children, at every meal of the day, day after day, week after week.This act of self-sacrifice, let us remember, is made in the midst of plenty.",-1.61389372,0.465722639
f62d12e7a,,,"On Feb. 4, 1917, an assembly composed of 200 Belgians speaking the Flemish language met and voted for the creation of a ""Council of Flanders."" On March 3, this body sent a deputation to Berlin, and the Chancellor announced to it that ""the policy tending toward the administrative separation would be pursued with all the vigor possible during the occupation,"" and that ""during the negotiations and after the conclusion of peace the empire would not cease to watch over the development of the Flemish race."" The German decrees dividing Belgium into two administrative regions followed close upon these declarations, (March 21, 1917). At the end of 1917 the German authorities believed that the moment had come to consummate the enterprise by completing the administrative separation with a political separation. Thus the end would be attained: Belgium would be dismembered; one part of the country would fall under vassalage to Germany, and, in case there were no annexation, would become in a way a sphere of influence for the empire. The intrigues of the ""Council of Flanders"" are merely a comedy intended to mask this policy. The policy rests upon a clever juggling with the question of languages.",-2.853298148,0.52634068
3ef19afed,,,"I was surprised at first to find how fresh a novelty an allied army was in this part of France. Then I remembered that these little towns and villages have in the last few months for the first-time seen allies of France. The ports where the American troops land have seen many other allies; they saw, indeed, in August, 1914, some of the first British troops land, whose reception remains in the recollection of the inhabitants as a scene of such fervor and loving enthusiasm as had never been known before and probably will not be known again. In fact, to put it brutally, French ports are blasé. But this Central France for the first time welcomes allied troops. It is true they had seen some Russians, but the least said of them now the better. Some of the Russians are still there, hewing wood for three francs a day per head, and behaving quite peaceably.
These old towns and villages look upon the American Army in their midst as the greatest miracle they have ever known, and a greater one than they ever could have dreamed of.",-1.364178596,0.468312825
e32075042,,,"We had every reason to believe that the Government contemplated immediate legislation upon the results of our labors. The work of an Irish settlement, suspended at the outbreak of the war, is now felt to admit of no further postponement. In the dominions and in the United States, as well as in other allied countries, the unsettled Irish question is a disturbing factor both in regard to war effort and peace aims. Nevertheless, urgent as our task was, we could not complete it until every possibility of agreement had been explored. The moment this point was reached—and you will not be surprised that it took us eight months to reach it—we decided to issue our report with the least possible delay. To do this we had to avoid further controversy and protracted debate. I was, therefore, on March 22, instructed to draft a report which should be a mere narrative of the convention's proceedings, with a statement, for the information of the Government, of the conclusions adopted, whether unanimously or by majorities. ",-2.218584563,0.506303911
5ca441f3c,,,"The window of my room overlooks the road. The child had seated herself at my feet near my table, and was playing softly, drumming on her knees. I was hard at work on my seventeenth chapter, where Pratap Singh, the hero, had just caught Kanchanlata, the heroine, in his arms, and was about to escape with her by the third-story window of the castle, when all of a sudden Mini left her play, and ran to the window, crying: ""A Cabuliwallah! a Cabuliwallah!"" Sure enough, in the street below was a Cabuliwallah, passing slowly along. He wore the loose, soiled clothing of his people, with a tall turban; there was a bag on his back, and he carried boxes of grapes in his hand.
I cannot tell what were my daughter's feelings at the sight of this man, but she began to call him loudly.",-1.130131848,0.481997915
d1aea5953,,,"The boys began to heave at the log with all their might, calling out, ""One, two, three, go!"" At the word ""go"" the log went; and with it went Makhan's philosophy, glory and all.
The other boys shouted themselves hoarse with delight. But Phatik was a little frightened. He knew what was coming. And, sure enough, Makhan rose from Mother Earth blind as Fate and screaming like the Furies. He rushed at Phatik and scratched his face and beat him and kicked him, and then went crying home. The first act of the drama was over.
Phatik wiped his face, and sat down on the edge of a sunken barge by the riverbank, and began to chew a piece of grass. A boat came up to the landing and a middle-aged man, with grey hair and dark moustache, stepped on shore. He saw the boy sitting there doing nothing and asked him where the Chakravortis lived. Phatik went on chewing the grass and said: ""Over there,"" but it was quite impossible to tell where he pointed.",-0.869998682,0.488363414
895a51290,,,"I remember vividly that evening in Calcutta when the fairy story began. The rain and the storm had been incessant. The whole of the city was flooded. The water was knee-deep in our lane. I had a straining hope, which was almost a certainty, that my tutor would be prevented from coming that evening. I sat on the stool in the far corner of the verandah looking down the lane, with a heart beating faster and faster. Every minute I kept my eye on the rain, and when it began to diminish, I prayed with all my might: ""Please, God, send some more rain till half-past seven is over."" For I was quite ready to believe that there was no other need for rain except to protect one helpless boy one evening in one corner of Calcutta from the deadly clutches of his tutor. If not in answer to my prayer, at any rate according to some grosser law of nature, the rain did not give up.",-0.243290418,0.51061622
af7fc4781,,,"The little Master's mind was made up, and Raicharan was at his wits' end. ""Very well, baby,"" he said at last, ""you sit still in the cart, and I'll go and get you the pretty flower. Only mind you don't go near the water.""
As he said this, he made his legs bare to the knee, and waded through the oozing mud towards the tree.
The moment Raicharan had gone, his little Master's thoughts went off at racing speed to the forbidden water. The baby saw the river rushing by, splashing and gurgling as it went. It seemed as though the disobedient wavelets themselves were running away from some greater Raicharan with the laughter of a thousand children. At the sight of their mischief, the heart of the human child grew excited and restless. He got down stealthily from the go-cart and toddled off towards the river. On his way he picked up a small stick and leant over the bank of the stream pretending to fish. The mischievous fairies of the river with their mysterious voices seemed inviting him into their playhouse.",-1.109881758,0.476643403
659865134,,,"But here Nature fulfilled her want of speech and spoke for her. The murmur of the brook, the voice of the village folk, the songs of the boatmen, the crying of the birds and rustle of trees mingled and were one with the trembling of her heart. They became one vast wave of sound which beat upon her restless soul. This murmur and movement of Nature were the mute girl's language; that speech of the dark eyes, which the long lashes shaded, was the language of the world about her. From the trees, where the cicadas chirped, to the quiet stars there was nothing but signs and gestures, weeping and sighing. And in the deep mid-noon, when the boatmen and fisherfolk had gone to their dinner, when the villagers slept and birds were still, when the ferryboats were idle, when the great busy world paused in its toil and became suddenly a lonely, awful giant, then beneath the vast impressive heavens there were only mute Nature and a girl, sitting very silent,—one under the spreading sunlight, the other where a small tree cast its shadow.",-2.599907213,0.557557569
ad0db6238,,,"One noon, during a break in the rains, there was a cool soft breeze blowing; the smell of the damp grass and leaves in the hot sun felt like the warm breathing of the tired earth on one's body. A persistent bird went on all the afternoon repeating the burden of its one complaint in Nature's audience chamber.
The postmaster had nothing to do. The shimmer of the freshly washed leaves, and the banked-up remnants of the retreating rain-clouds were sights to see; and the postmaster was watching them and thinking to himself: ""Oh, if only some kindred soul were near—just one loving human being whom I could hold near my heart!"" This was exactly, he went on to think, what that bird was trying to say, and it was the same feeling which the murmuring leaves were striving to express. But no one knows, or would believe, that such an idea might also take possession of an ill-paid village postmaster in the deep, silent midday interval of his work.",-0.95866767,0.474894612
ef6e90948,,,"It was hard to tell Nilkanta's age. If it was about fourteen or fifteen, then his face was too old for his years; if seventeen or eighteen, then it was too young. He was either a man too early or a boy too late. The fact was that, joining the theatrical band when very young, he had played the parts of Radhika, Damayanti, and Sita, and a thoughtful Providence so arranged things that he grew to the exact stature that his manager required, and then growth ceased. 
Since every one saw how small Nilkanta was, and he himself felt small, he did not receive due respect for his years. Causes, natural and artificial, combined to make him sometimes seem immature for seventeen years, and at other times a mere lad of fourteen but far too knowing even for seventeen. And as no sign of hair appeared on his face, the confusion became greater. Either because he smoked or because he used language beyond his years, his lips puckered into lines that showed him to be old and hard; but innocence and youth shone in his large eyes.",-0.883503775,0.449149321
4e092e773,,,"When the Goddess of Fortune deserts a house, she usually leaves some of her burdens behind, and this ancient family was still encumbered with its host of dependents, though its own shelter was nearly crumbling to dust. These parasites take it to be an insult if they are asked to do any service. They get headaches at the least touch of the kitchen smoke. They are visited with sudden rheumatism the moment they are asked to run errands. Therefore, all the responsibilities of maintaining the family were laid upon Rashmani herself. Women lose their delicacy of refinement, when they are compelled night and day to haggle with their destiny over things which are pitifully small, and for this they are blamed by those for whom they toil.
Besides her household affairs Rashmani had to keep all the accounts of the little landed property which remained and also to make arrangements for collecting rents. Never before was the estate managed with such strictness. Bhavani had been quite incapable of collecting his dues: Rashmani never made any remission of the least fraction of rent.",-2.127381462,0.496462132
6b9d9517c,,,"Among the most subtle and skillful of all the women spies was Baroness de Kaula. During the Franco-Prussian war the French General de Cissy was taken prisoner by the Germans. During his sojourn in Germany Baroness de Kaula and he became very intimate and the young woman, a Levantine by birth, wormed herself into his confidence. After peace was restored Gen. de Cissy returned to Paris, where he soon became a great factor in the reconstruction of the French army. In 1875 he was Minister of War and great things were expected for the ""Armee de la Revanche."" At the command of Bismarck Baroness de Kaula received her instructions from Dr. Stieber and was ordered to rejoin the old French General in Paris. Unsuspectingly flattered, Gen. de Cissy welcomed her. The Baroness was installed in a private apartment where the old General came every day after breakfast to listen to her beautiful playing of the piano or to give an opinion on her newest French poem. Baroness de Kaula was a poet, an artist and a musician. ",-1.877337905,0.45214857
115f29c07,,,"""I will swear that there are dozens of men sitting there in these dark war hours who have written and said similar things in sharper and more bitter words."" Herr Harden asked whether these would meet the same fate if their papers were stolen and exposed in German shop windows. ""Many a trusted wife,"" he said, ""must cry out in fear: 'But, you know, Ernst, Adolf, and Klaus have spoken more desperately.'"" The chief theme of Lichnowsky's memorandum, the editor of Die Zukunft asserts, was the danger to Germany of a too-close alliance with Vienna and Budapest, of the flirtation with Poland, and his insistence upon the necessity of friendly relations with a strong Russia. The German outcry against Lichnowsky, however, gave foreign countries the impression that the Prince had made fearfully damaging disclosures of Berlin's guilt. The question of blame, he says, ""reflected almost an identical interpretation to that of our White Book, and a cool head would not have made a world sensation out of it."" ",-2.368856329,0.503192563
f011f5c51,,,"As I passed the mayor's office, I saw that there were people gathered about the little board on which notices were posted. For two years all our bad news had come from that board—battles lost, conscriptions, orders from headquarters; and I thought without stopping:
""What can it be now?""
Then, as I ran across the square, Wachter the blacksmith, who stood there with his apprentice, reading the placard, called out to me:
""Don't hurry so, my boy; you'll get to your school soon enough!""
I thought that he was making fun of me, and I ran into Monsieur Hamel's little yard all out of breath.
Usually, at the beginning of school, there was a great uproar which could be heard in the street, desks opening and closing, lessons repeated aloud in unison, with our ears stuffed in order to learn quicker, and the teacher's stout ruler beating on the desk:
""A little more quiet!"" 
I counted on all this noise to reach my bench unnoticed; but as it happened, that day everything was quiet, like a Sunday morning.",0.332036628,0.465437155
cce4e4d35,,,"This is a story of a man who, when in command of his ships and when everything went prosperously with him, was so overbearing and cruel that some of his men, in desperation at the treatment they received, mutinied against him. But the story shows another side of his character in adversity, which it is impossible not to admire.
In 1787, Captain Bligh was sent from England to Otaheite in charge of the Bounty, a ship which had been especially fitted out to carry young plants of the breadfruit tree for transplantation in the West Indies.
""The breadfruit grows on a spreading tree about the size of a large apple tree; the fruit is round, and has a thick, tough rind. It is gathered when it is full-grown, and while it is still green and hard; it is then baked in an oven until the rind is black and scorched. This is scraped off, and the inside is soft and white, like the crumb of a penny loaf."" ",-1.012834903,0.488010203
7012cea5f,,,"""Exactly, my dear Watson; he might have proved an alibi. We will suppose, for argument's sake, that the household of Wisteria Lodge are confederates in some design. The attempt, whatever it may be, is to come off, we will say, before one o'clock. By some juggling of the clocks it is quite possible that they may have got Scott Eccles to bed earlier than he thought, but in any case, it is likely that when Garcia went out of his way to tell him that it was one it was really not more than twelve. If Garcia could do whatever he had to do and be back by the hour mentioned he had evidently a powerful reply to any accusation. Here was this irreproachable Englishman ready to swear in any court of law that the accused was in the house all the time. It was an insurance against the worst.""",-1.436555618,0.475728002
d1dfd1715,,,"In the blank astonishment that followed, the colonel hesitated. Should he station a whole company at the post? This would doubtless prevent further loss; but then it was little likely to explain the mystery; for the hands that had carried off three sentinels, would, it was reasonable to believe, make no attempt to spirit away a whole company of men. And for future action as well as to put an end to the superstitious terror of the soldiery, the vital necessity was to clear up the mystery. He had no belief in the theory that these men deserted. He knew them too well. He prided himself mat he was thoroughly acquainted with his own regiment and had well-grounded reasons for pride in his men. For this reason, he was the more chary of exposing a fourth brave man where three had already been lost. However, it had to be done. The poor fellow whose turn it was to take the post, though a soldier of proved courage and even recklessness in action, positively shook from head to foot.",-1.789432346,0.468177023
37d4bfa13,,,"Of course they made but slow progress; so that when they rose on the top of a swell, which was still very long and high in consequence of the gale, they could only just discover the distant land, Muckish, a remarkable flat-topped mountain on the northwest coast of Ireland, not very far from the promontory called the Bloody Foreland.
There appeared to have been little discipline among this forlorn crew, even when the breeze was in their favor; but when the wind chopped round, and blew off shore, they gave themselves up to despair, laid in their oars, let the sail flap to pieces, gobbled up all their provisions, and drank out their whole stock of water. Meanwhile the boat, which had been partially stove, in the confusion of clearing the ship, began to fill with water; and, as they all admitted afterwards, if it had not been for the courage and patience of the women under this sharp trial, they must have gone to the bottom.",-1.603581736,0.510058469
ed0663872,,,"A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree which bore golden apples. These apples were always counted, and about the time when they began to grow ripe it was found that every night one of them was gone. The king became very angry at this and ordered the gardener to keep watch all night under the tree. The gardener set his eldest son to watch; but about twelve o'clock he fell asleep, and in the morning another of the apples was missing. Then the second son was ordered to watch; and at midnight he too fell asleep, and in the morning another apple was gone. Then the third son offered to keep watch; but the gardener at first would not let him, for fear some harm should come to him: however, at last he consented, and the young man laid himself under the tree to watch. As the clock struck twelve, he heard a rustling noise in the air, and a bird came flying that was of pure gold; and as it was snapping at one of the apples with its beak, the gardener's son jumped up and shot an arrow at it.",-0.161361391,0.497203861
c0624493d,,,"Now there was once a maiden whose name was Jorinda. She was prettier than all the pretty girls that ever were seen before, and a shepherd lad, whose name was Jorindel, was very fond of her, and they were soon to be married. One day they went to walk in the wood, that they might be alone; and Jorindel said, ‘We must take care that we don't go too near to the fairy's castle.' It was a beautiful evening; the last rays of the setting sun shone bright through the long stems of the trees upon the green underwood beneath, and the turtle-doves sang from the tall birches.
Jorinda sat down to gaze upon the sun; Jorindel sat by her side; and both felt sad, they knew not why; but it seemed as if they were to be parted from one another for ever. They had wandered a long way; and when they looked to see which way they should go home, they found themselves at a loss to know what path to take.",-0.76989626,0.45700456
7c9c3bb32,,,"An honest farmer had once an ass that had been a faithful servant to him a great many years, but was now growing old and every day more and more unfit for work. His master therefore was tired of keeping him and began to think of putting an end to him; but the ass, who saw that some mischief was in the wind, took himself slyly off, and began his journey towards the great city, ‘For there,' thought he, ‘I may turn musician.'
After he had travelled a little way, he spied a dog lying by the roadside and panting as if he were tired. ‘What makes you pant so, my friend?' said the ass. ‘Alas!' said the dog, ‘my master was going to knock me on the head, because I am old and weak, and can no longer make myself useful to him in hunting; so I ran away; but what can I do to earn my livelihood?' ‘Hark ye!' said the ass, ‘I am going to the great city to turn musician: suppose you go with me, and try what you can do in the same way?' The dog said he was willing, and they jogged on together.",-0.147458393,0.474600083
61deb8eed,,,"The wolf and the wild boar were first on the ground; and when they espied their enemies coming, and saw the cat's long tail standing straight in the air, they thought she was carrying a sword for Sultan to fight with; and every time she limped, they thought she was picking up a stone to throw at them; so they said they should not like this way of fighting, and the boar lay down behind a bush, and the wolf jumped up into a tree. Sultan and the cat soon came up, and looked about and wondered that no one was there. The boar, however, had not quite hidden himself, for his ears stuck out of the bush; and when he shook one of them a little, the cat, seeing something move, and thinking it was a mouse, sprang upon it, and bit and scratched it, so that the boar jumped up and grunted, and ran away, roaring out, ‘Look up in the tree, there sits the one who is to blame.'",-1.077611573,0.465471678
54bd46713,,,"In a village dwelt a poor old woman, who had gathered together a dish of beans and wanted to cook them. So she made a fire on her hearth, and that it might burn the quicker, she lighted it with a handful of straw. When she was emptying the beans into the pan, one dropped without her observing it, and lay on the ground beside a straw, and soon afterwards a burning coal from the fire leapt down to the two. Then the straw began and said: ‘Dear friends, from whence do you come here?' The coal replied: ‘I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped by sheer force, my death would have been certain, I should have been burnt to ashes.' The bean said: ‘I too have escaped with a whole skin, but if the old woman had got me into the pan, I should have been made into broth without any mercy, like my comrades.' ‘And would a better fate have fallen to my lot?' said the straw.",-0.839384401,0.452782346
91baeb938,,,"It happened that, on the very day she was fifteen years old, the king and queen were not at home, and she was left alone in the palace. So she roved about by herself, and looked at all the rooms and chambers, till at last she came to an old tower, to which there was a narrow staircase ending with a little door. In the door there was a golden key, and when she turned it the door sprang open, and there sat an old lady spinning away very busily. ‘Why, how now, good mother,' said the princess; ‘what are you doing there?' ‘Spinning,' said the old lady, and nodded her head, humming a tune, while buzz! went the wheel. ‘How prettily that little thing turns round!' said the princess, and took the spindle and began to try and spin. But scarcely had she touched it, before the fairy's prophecy was fulfilled; the spindle wounded her, and she fell down lifeless on the ground.",0.055211105,0.471001233
a5617616c,,,"A shepherd's dog had a master who took no care of him, but often let him suffer the greatest hunger. At last he could bear it no longer; so he took to his heels, and off he ran in a very sad and sorrowful mood. On the road he met a sparrow that said to him, ‘Why are you so sad, my friend?' ‘Because,' said the dog, ‘I am very very hungry, and have nothing to eat.' ‘If that be all,' answered the sparrow, ‘come with me into the next town, and I will soon find you plenty of food.' Soon they went together into the town: and as they passed by a butcher's shop, the sparrow said to the dog, ‘Stand there a little while till I peck you down a piece of meat.' So the sparrow perched upon the shelf: and having first looked carefully about her to see if anyone was watching her, she pecked and scratched at a steak that lay upon the edge of the shelf, till at last down it fell.",0.485115124,0.519269019
6108bfcfe,,,"Then they came to another grove of trees, where all the leaves were of gold; and afterwards to a third, where the leaves were all glittering diamonds. And the soldier broke a branch from each; and every time there was a loud noise, which made the youngest sister tremble with fear; but the eldest still said, it was only the princes, who were crying for joy. So they went on till they came to a great lake; and at the side of the lake there lay twelve little boats with twelve handsome princes in them, who seemed to be waiting there for the princesses.
One of the princesses went into each boat, and the soldier stepped into the same boat with the youngest. As they were rowing over the lake, the prince who was in the boat with the youngest princess and the soldier said, ‘I do not know why it is, but though I am rowing with all my might we do not get on so fast as usual, and I am quite tired: the boat seems very heavy today.' ‘It is only the heat of the weather,' said the princess: ‘I feel it very warm too.'",-0.900441127,0.452315227
7dfcd289d,,,"Once in summer-time the bear and the wolf were walking in the forest, and the bear heard a bird singing so beautifully that he said: ‘Brother wolf, what bird is it that sings so well?' ‘That is the King of birds,' said the wolf, ‘before whom we must bow down.' In reality the bird was the willow-wren. ‘IF that's the case,' said the bear, ‘I should very much like to see his royal palace; come, take me thither.' ‘That is not done quite as you seem to think,' said the wolf; ‘you must wait until the Queen comes,' Soon afterwards, the Queen arrived with some food in her beak, and the lord King came too, and they began to feed their young ones. The bear would have liked to go at once, but the wolf held him back by the sleeve, and said: ‘No, you must wait until the lord and lady Queen have gone away again.' So they took stock of the hole where the nest lay, and trotted away. The bear, however, could not rest until he had seen the royal palace, and when a short time had passed, went to it again.",-0.975162943,0.458525142
0bff554c0,,,"Then the king said to the young princess, ‘As you have given your word you must keep it; so go and let him in.' She did so, and the frog hopped into the room, and then straight on—tap, tap—plash, plash—from the bottom of the room to the top, till he came up close to the table where the princess sat. ‘Pray lift me upon chair,' said he to the princess, ‘and let me sit next to you.' As soon as she had done this, the frog said, ‘Put your plate nearer to me, that I may eat out of it.' This she did, and when he had eaten as much as he could, he said, ‘Now I am tired; carry me upstairs, and put me into your bed.' And the princess, though very unwilling, took him up in her hand, and put him upon the pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long. As soon as it was light he jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the house. ‘Now, then,' thought the princess, ‘at last he is gone, and I shall be troubled with him no more.'",-0.074393372,0.469193625
7422f1dcd,,,"When I was a boy I lived in one of those rustic neighborhoods on the outskirts of the great ""Maine woods."" Foxes were plenty, for about all those sunny pioneer clearings birch-partridges breed by thousands, as also field-mice and squirrels, making plenty of game for Reynard.
There were red foxes, ""cross-grays,"" and ""silver-grays;"" even black foxes were reported. These animals were the pests of the farm-yards, and made havoc with the geese, cats, turkeys, and chickens. In the fall of the year, particularly after the frosts, the clearings were overrun by them night and morning. Their sharp, cur-like barks used often to rouse us, and of a dark evening we would hear them out in the fields, ""mousing"" around the stone-heaps, making a queer, squeaking sound like a mouse, to call the real mice out of their grass nests inside the stone-heaps. This, indeed, is a favorite trick of Reynard.",-0.379957131,0.474075957
af362cca1,,,"It was about nine o'clock in the morning when the ship first appeared. At once there was the greatest excitement in the village. It was a British warship. What would she do? Would she tack about in the bay to pick up stray coasters as prizes, or would she land soldiers to burn the town? In either case there would be trouble enough.
Those were sad days, those old war-times in 1812. The sight of a British warship in Boston Bay was not pleasant. We were poor then, and had no monitors to go out and sink the enemy or drive him off. Our navy was small, and, though we afterwards had the victory and sent the troublesome ships away, never to return, at that time they often came near enough, and the good people in the little village of Scituate Harbor were in great distress over the strange ship that had appeared at the mouth of the harbor.",0.278434963,0.46456723
137110330,,,"It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had; and this extremity roused my application. We had several spare yards, and two or three large spars of wood, and a spare topmast or two in the ship; I resolved to fall to work with these, and I flung as many of them overboard as I could manage for their weight, tying every one with a rope, that they might not drive away. When this was done I went down the ship's side, and pulling them to me, I tied four of them together at both ends as well as I could, in the form of a raft, and laying two or three short pieces of plank upon them crossways, I found I could walk upon it very well, but that it was not able to bear any great weight, the pieces being too light. So I went to work, and with a carpenter's saw I cut a spare topmast into three lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great deal of labor and pains.",-1.773906294,0.494432316
078e5a9d1,,,"We had, upon the first appearance of the boat's coming from the ship, considered of separating our prisoners; and we had, indeed, secured them effectually. Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured than ordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the three delivered men, to my cave, where they were remote enough, and out of danger of being heard or discovered, or of finding their way out of the woods if they could have delivered themselves. Here they left them bound, but gave them provisions, and promised them, if they continued there quietly, to give them their liberty in a day or two; but that if they attempted their escape they should be put to death without mercy. They promised faithfully to bear their confinement with patience, and were very thankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and light left them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know but that he stood sentinel over them at the entrance.",-1.251990702,0.459598845
4b24e0419,,,"The boat was cast on an island, and Prospero and his little one landed in safety. Now this island was enchanted, and for years had lain under the spell of a fell witch, Sycorax, who had imprisoned in the trunks of trees all the good spirits she found there. She died shortly before Prospero was cast on those shores, but the spirits, of whom Ariel was the chief, still remained in their prisons.
Prospero was a great magician, for he had devoted himself almost entirely to the study of magic during the years in which he allowed his brother to manage the affairs of Milan. By his art he set free the imprisoned spirits, yet kept them obedient to his will, and they were more truly his subjects than his people in Milan had been. For he treated them kindly as long as they did his bidding, and he exercised his power over them wisely and well. One creature alone he found it necessary to treat with harshness: this was Caliban, the son of the wicked old witch, a hideous, deformed monster, horrible to look on, and vicious and brutal in all his habits.",-0.469289372,0.499193002
b5a864f26,,,"When Grandmother Lane was a little girl her father came in one day and said, ""Wife, it is all settled at last. I have sold the farm. Next week we will start West. There is a large company going from here, and we must try to get ready to go with them.""
Little Mary, as grandmother was then called, heard the news with great delight, because she knew it would mean a long, long journey, lasting months, and carrying them into a new country, where there was never any cold weather and where great crops could be raised without much hard work, and there would always be plenty to eat. Besides, her family was not going alone, but many other families whom they knew were going at the same time, so that she would have some of her playmates with her all the way.",0.29292368,0.489827351
dac02af65,,,"About eleven o'clock, when all the house was still, the window of June's closet softly opened. There was a roofed doorway just underneath it, with an old grapevine trellis running up one side of it. A little dark figure stepped out timidly on the narrow, steep roof, clinging with its hands to keep its balance, and then down upon the trellis, which it began to crawl slowly down. The old wood creaked and groaned and trembled, and the little figure trembled and stood still. If it should give way, and fall crashing to the ground!
She stood a minute looking down; then she took a slow, careful step; then another and another, hand under hand upon the bars. The trellis creaked and shook and cracked, but it held on, and June held on, and dropped softly down, gasping and terrified at what she had done, all in a little heap on the grass below.",-0.315866135,0.439672269
fb36ee6cd,,,"As they rounded the spur of rocks which had made the watch-tower of the sentinel, the full scene burst upon their eyes. There was a wide, sweet space in the valley, made as if for the very purpose of the great rendezvous. A flat of green cottonwoods adjoined the river-bank. ""Benches,"" or natural terraces, of sweet grass rose along the hillside a half-mile away. Hundreds of horses, picketed or hobbled, grazed here and there. Others, favorite steeds of their masters, stood tied at the doors of lodges, in front of which rose long, tufted spears, in the heraldry of that land insignia of their owner's rank. Teepees, a hundred and twoscore, skin tents of the tribes and homes also of the whites, were grouped irregularly over a space of more than half a mile. At the doors of many of these, silent Native Americans sat and smoked. In the wide interspaces of the village were many men, some of them dressed in brown buckskins, others clad more gaudily. These passed to and fro, some on foot, others riding furiously. Animation was in all the air.",-1.382536058,0.491611811
79806b5a8,,,"Just above the cliffs grew a number of dwarfed spruces, some of them with trunks six inches in diameter, yet lying flat along the ground, so that the gnarled and wind-pressed boughs were scarcely knee-high. They stood so closely together, and were so stiff, that I could not pass between them; but, on the other hand, they were strong enough to bear my weight, so that I could walk over their tops when it was inconvenient to go around.
Some small brown sparrows, of two or three species, lived there, and they were very talkative. Sharp, metallic chirps were heard, also, as the blue snow-bird flitted about, showing the white feathers on either side of its tail, in scudding from one sheltering bush to another. Doubtless, careful search would have discovered its home, snugly built of circularly laid grasses, and tucked deeply into some cozy hollow beside the root of a spruce.",-1.320423367,0.479564932
487771845,,,"Once at sunset an old man came through the forest where the poplar trees lived. The trees were going to sleep, and it was growing dark.
The man held something under his cloak. It was a pot of gold—the very pot of gold that lies at the foot of the rainbow. He had stolen it and was looking for some place to hide it. A poplar tree stood by the path.
""This is the very place to hide my treasure,"" the man said. ""The branches spread out straight, and the leaves are large and thick. How lucky that the trees are all asleep!""
He placed the pot of gold in the thick branches, and then ran quickly away.
The gold belonged to Iris, the beautiful maiden who had a rainbow bridge to the earth. The next morning she missed her precious pot. It always lay at the foot of the rainbow, but it was not there now.
Iris hurried away to tell her father, the great Zeus, of her loss. He said that he would find the pot of gold for her.",0.70560033,0.494343738
f8bff64b5,,,"The feeling between the Americans of the two different parties was more violent than that between the patriots and the British troops, and before long it became entirely unsafe for any Tory to remain in his own home in New Jersey. Many of them went to New York, where the patriotic feeling was not so strong at that time, and there they formed themselves into a regular military company called the ""Associated Loyalists""; and this company was commanded by William Temple Franklin, son of the great Benjamin Franklin, who had been appointed Governor of New Jersey by the British Crown. He was now regarded with great hatred by the patriots of New Jersey, because he was a strong Tory. This difference of opinion between William Franklin and his father was the most noted instance of this state of feeling which occurred in those days.",-1.141776425,0.487884206
1c7862644,,,"A pet grizzly bear had been for a number of years a feature at Hartranft's. As a puny infant, barely able to crawl, Solomon, as he was solemnly dubbed, was brought in off the Teton Mountains, and as milk was scarcer than money at the horse-ranch, he was aristocratically fed on malted milk.
On this expensive diet the cub throve amazingly. Good feeding was continued after his weaning from the rubber nipple, and at the end of three years Solomon had grown to be a fat wooly monster. He was kept chained to a post in the warm season, and had an enclosed stall in a big barn for his winter quarters. Ordinarily he was good-natured, but he was a rough and not altogether safe playfellow. The near-by bawling of cattle always aroused in him ebullitions of rage.
""Solomon's got an awful grouch agin any noise bigger than what he can make hisself,"" was the saying of the ranch hands.",-0.992186958,0.484848452
cbec73e11,,,"The Fourth of July, 1862, was a gala day at Roanoke Island. The camps of the island and the vessels in the harbor were in holiday attire. Colors were flying, bands playing, drums beating, patriotic steam was up to high pressure. The good old day, so dear to the hearts of Americans, was made more glorious by the exchange of camp hospitalities and an indulgence in such simple hilarity as the occasion seemed to require; but ""Jeff"" was not forgotten. Early in the morning he was bathed and scrubbed, more than to his heart's content, and then patriotically decorated. In his right ear was a red ribbon, in his left a white one; around his neck another of blue.
Thus adorned he was brought on shore to pay me a visit, and as he came through my door he appeared to be filled with the pride of patriotism and a realization of the greatness of the occasion. His reward for this unusual demonstration was instantaneous, and consisted of some apples and a toothsome dessert of sugar. Afterward he made the round of the camps with a special escort of warrant officers and devoted Jack Tars.",-1.270860639,0.46285437
40065fb08,,,"Some of the stories told of his childish brightness are hard to believe. They relate, for instance, that before he was two years old he could talk almost as plainly and clearly as a grown person; that he could repeat many passages of ""Pilgrim's Progress,"" from having heard them, before he could read; and that at five years old he could read very rapidly, and remembered almost everything he read.
His father, the wood-carver, had died while Humphry was still very young, and had left his family poor. But by good-fortune a kind neighbor and friend, a Mr. Tonkine, took care of the widow and her children, and obtained a place for Humphry as an apprentice with an apothecary of the town. Humphry proved, indeed, a rather troublesome inmate of the apothecary's house. He set up a chemical laboratory in his little room upstairs, and there devoted himself to all sorts of experiments. Every now and then an explosion would be heard, which made the members of the apothecary's household quake with terror.",-0.819014554,0.463668957
9f01afcff,,,"Charles Goodyear was born at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1801. He was the eldest of the six children of a leading hardware merchant of that place, a man both of piety and of inventive talent. When Charles was a boy, his father began the manufacture of hardware articles, and at the same time carried on a farm. He often required his son's assistance, so that Charles's schooling was limited. He was very fond of books, however, from an early age, and instead of playing with his mates, devoted most of his leisure time to reading.
It was even while he was a schoolboy that his attention was first turned to the material, the improvement of which for common uses became afterwards his life-work. ""He happened to take up a thin scale of India-rubber,"" says his biographer, ""peeled from a bottle, and it was suggested to his mind that it would be a very useful fabric if it could be made uniformly so thin, and could be so prepared as to prevent its melting and sticking together in a solid mass."" Often afterward he had a vivid presentiment that he was destined by Providence to achieve these results.",-0.933956739,0.455281177
37674c1a5,,,"To the student of French history and character nothing the French have done in this war is surprising; nevertheless it seemed to me that I had a fresh revelation every day during my sojourn in France in the summer of 1916. Every woman of every class (with a few notable exceptions seen for the most part in the Ritz Hotel) was working at something or other: either in self-support, to relieve distress, or to supplement the efforts and expenditures of the Government (two billion francs a month); and it seemed that I never should see the last of those relief organizations of infinite variety known as ""oeuvres.""
Some of this work is positively creative, much is original, and all is practical and indispensable. As the most interesting of it centers in and radiates from certain personalities whom I had the good fortune to meet and to know as well as their days and mine would permit, it has seemed to me that the surest way of vivifying any account of the work itself is to make its pivot the central figure of the story. So I will begin with Madame Balli.",-1.977920314,0.502336487
924fe9fc2,,,"What began, during the springtime of my actual reference, in a couple of dusky ground-floor rooms at number 7 Half-Moon Street, was simply an establishment all in a few days of a personal relation with London that was not of course measurable at the moment—I saw in my bedazzled state of comparative freedom too many other relations ahead, a fairly intoxicated vision of choice and range—but that none the less set going a more intimately inner consciousness, a wheel within the wheels, and led to my departing, the actual, the general incident closed, in possession of a return-ticket ""good,"" as we say, for a longer interval than I could then dream about, and that the first really earnest fumble of after years brought surprisingly to light. I think it must have been the very proportions themselves of the invitation and the interest that kept down, under the immense impression, everything in the nature of calculation and presumption; dark, huge and prodigious the other party to our relation, London's and mine, as I called it, loomed and spread—much too mighty a Goliath for the present in any conceivable ambition even of a fast-growing David.",-2.158359899,0.479446214
e6a53230e,,,"Once upon a time there lived in a certain village in a province of Spain called the Mancha, a gentleman named Quixada or Queseda, whose house was full of old lances, halberds, and other weapons. He was, besides, the owner of an ancient target or shield, a raw-boned steed, and a swift greyhound. His food consisted daily of common meats, some lentils on Fridays, and perhaps a roast pigeon for Sunday's dinner. His dress was a black suit with velvet breeches, and slippers of the same colour, which he kept for holidays, and a suit of homespun which he wore on week-days.
On the purchase of these few things he spent the small rents that came to him every year. He had in his house a woman-servant about forty years old, a niece not yet twenty, and a lad that served him both in field and at home, and could saddle his horse or manage a pruning-hook.",-1.561510027,0.528833072
c913c40e9,,,"The innkeeper cried to them to let him alone, for he had already told them that he was mad. But Don Quixote cried out louder than the innkeeper, calling them all disloyal men and traitors, and that the lord of the castle was a treacherous and bad knight to allow them to use a knight-errant so basely; and if he had only received the order of knighthood he would have punished him soundly for his treason. Then calling to the carriers he said: ""As for you, base and rascally ruffians, you are beneath my notice. Throw at me, approach, draw near and do me all the hurt you may, for you shall ere long receive the reward of your insolence.""
These words, which he spoke with great spirit and boldness, struck a terrible fear into all those who assaulted him, and, partly moved by his threats and partly persuaded by the innkeeper, they left off throwing stones at him, and he allowed them to carry away the wounded men, while he returned to his watch with great quietness and gravity.",-0.413637413,0.495895819
cb354ebe8,,,"Don Quixote persuaded a certain labourer, his neighbour, an honest man, but one of very shallow wit, to go away with him and serve him as squire. In the end he gave him so many fair words and promises that the poor fellow determined to go with him. Don Quixote, among other things, told him that he ought to be very pleased to depart with him, for at some time or other an adventure might befall which should in the twinkling of an eye win him an island and leave him governor thereof. On the faith of these and other like promises, Sancho Panza (for so he was called) forsook his wife and children and took service as squire to his neighbour.
Whilst they were journeying along, Sancho Panza said to his master: ""I pray you have good care, sir knight, that you forget not that government of the island which you have promised me, for I shall be able to govern it be it never so great.""",-1.2658349,0.467816226
21436de64,,,"The curate rode first on the mule, and with him rode Don Quixote and the princess. The others, Cardenio, the barber, and Sancho Panza, followed on foot.
And as they rode, Don Quixote said to the damsel: ""Madam, let me entreat your highness to lead the way that most pleaseth you.""
Before she could answer, the curate said: ""Towards what kingdoms would you travel? Are you for your native land of Micomicon?""
She, who knew very well what to answer, being no babe, replied: ""Yes, sir, my way lies towards that kingdom.""
""If it be so,"" said the curate, ""you must pass through the village where I dwell, and from thence your ladyship must take the road to Carthagena, where you may embark. And, if you have a prosperous journey, you may come within the space of nine years to the Lake Meona, I mean Meolidas, which stands on this side of your highness's kingdom some hundred days' journey or more.""",-2.261080639,0.495444426
decc534df,,,"After crossing the Traun, burning the bridge at Mauthhausen, and passing the Enns, Napoleon's army advanced to Mölk, without knowing what had become of General Hiller. Some spies assured us that the archduke had crossed the Danube and joined him, and that we should on the morrow meet the whole Austrian army, strongly posted in front of Saint-Pölten. In that case, we must make ready to fight a great battle; but if it were otherwise, we had to march quickly on Vienna in order to get there before the enemy could reach it by the other bank. For want of positive information the emperor was very undecided. The question to be solved was, Had General Hiller crossed the Danube, or was he still in front of us, masked by a swarm of light cavalry, which, always flying, never let us get near enough to take a prisoner from whom one might get some enlightenment?",-2.152497167,0.47439375
54ba18cae,,,"A wise and just monarch was the good King John. His kingdom extended over Central Italy, and included the famous town of Atri, which in days gone by had been a famous harbour on the shores of the Adriatic. Now the sea had retreated from it, and it lay inland; no longer the crested waves rolled on its borders, or tossed their showers of silver spray to meet the vivid turquoise of the sky.
The great desire of good King John was that every man, woman and child in his dominions should be able to obtain justice without delay, be they rich or poor. To this end, since he could not possibly listen to all himself, he hung a bell in one of the city towers, and issued a proclamation to say that when this was rung a magistrate would immediately proceed to the public square and administer justice in his name. The plan worked admirably; both rich and poor were satisfied, and since they knew that evil-doers would be quickly punished, and wrongs set right, men hesitated to defraud or oppress their neighbours, and the great bell pealed less often as years went on.",-0.692536784,0.495042758
f68b10085,,,"Seated on warm skins by the fire, the storyteller would exclaim, ""Hanio!"" This meant, ""Come, gather round, and I will tell a story.""
Then all would cry, ""Heh,"" and draw close to the fire. This meant that they were glad to hear the story. And as the flames leaped and chased one another along the fire trail, they would listen to these wonder stories of the Little People, of the trees and flowers, of birds, of animals, and men. When the storyteller had finished, he said, ""Na ho."" This meant, ""It is the end.""
The earth was very young, when the Iroquois first learned how everything came to be, and just why it is that things are as they are. They told these wonderful things to their children, and their children in turn told them to their children; and those children again in turn told them to theirs, that these things might not be forgotten.",-0.15003615,0.479009047
fa3cd3cea,,,"One day Betty's father said, ""Let us go to town tomorrow. President Washington is passing through the South, and a man told me today that he will be in Salisbury tomorrow.""
""Yes,"" said Betty's brother Robert, ""and our company has been asked to march in the parade. One of the boys is going to make a speech of welcome.""
""I should like to go,"" said their mother, ""but I can't leave home.""
""Oh, yes, you can, mother,"" said Betty. ""I have stayed here by myself many times, and I can stay tomorrow. You go with father, and I will take care of things.""
The next morning every one on the place was up before the sun. Robert was so impatient to start to town that he could scarcely eat any breakfast. Mother was so excited that she forgot to put coffee in the coffee pot.
At last every one had left, and Betty was alone. ""I wish I could see the President,"" she said, ""and I do wish I could see his great coach. Father says that it is finer than the Governor's.""",0.975370996,0.579442044
71f0d87cc,,,"Whenever Mr. Prideaux went out for a walk, Turk was sure to be near his heels. Street dogs would bark and snarl at the giant as his massive form attracted their attention, but Turk seldom condescended to notice such vulgar demonstrations; he was a noble-looking creature, somewhat resembling a small lioness; but although he was gentle and quiet in disposition, he had upon several occasions been provoked beyond endurance, and his attack had been nearly always fatal to his assailants. He slept at night outside his master's door, and no sentry could be more alert upon his watch than the faithful dog, who had apparently only one ambition—to protect, and to accompany his owner.
Mr. Prideaux had a dinner-party. He never invited ladies, but simply entertained his friends as a bachelor; his dinners were but secondary to the quality of his guests, however, who were always men of reputation either in the literary world, or in the modern annals of society. The dog Turk was invariably present, and usually stretched his huge form upon the hearth-rug.",-1.27451227,0.464071258
0883ddb34,,,"""Martha!"" now came her husband's impatient voice. ""Don't keep folks waiting out here in the cold.""
She again opened the storm-door, and this time joined the three men and the one woman waiting for her in the big two-seated buggy.
After she had the robes tucked around her she took another look at the woman who sat beside her on the back seat. She had met Mrs. Peters the year before at the county fair, and the thing she remembered about her was that she didn't seem like a sheriff's wife. She was small and thin and didn't have a strong voice. Mrs. Gorman, sheriff's wife before Gorman went out and Peters came in, had a voice that somehow seemed to be backing up the law with every word. But if Mrs. Peters didn't look like a sheriff's wife, Peters made it up in looking like a sheriff. He was to a dot the kind of man who could get himself elected sheriff — a heavy man with a big voice, who was particularly genial with the law-abiding, as if to make it plain that he knew the difference between criminals and non-criminals.",-0.050774561,0.459100133
b2ddc6a72,,,"England is convinced, and has repeatedly declared, in spite of her desires for the limitation of expenditure on armaments and for the adjustment of any disputes that may arise by arbitral procedure, that her fleet must in all circumstances be superior, or at any rate equal, to any possible combination in the world. England has a perfect right to strive for such a state of things, and, precisely because of the position that I take up toward the disarmament question, I am the last to cast doubts upon it. It is quite another thing, however, to make such a claim the basis of a convention which must be recognized by all the other powers in peaceful agreement. What if counterclaims are raised and the other powers are not satisfied with the roles assigned to them?
One only requires to propound these questions in order to see things would not go well for European dignity at any world congress which had to decide upon such claims.
And then armies. If, for example, Germany should be required to reduce her army by 100,000 men, by how many men must the other powers diminish their armies?",-2.471668157,0.499603424
e1e6416c6,,,"On one of her voyages from China, the Pitt, East Indiaman, had on board, among her passengers, a young tiger. He appeared to be as harmless and playful as a kitten, and allowed the utmost familiarity from every one. He was especially fond of creeping into the sailors' hammocks; and while he lay stretched on the deck, he would suffer two or three of them to place their heads on his back, as upon a pillow. Now and then, however, he would at dinner-time run off with pieces of their meat; and though sometimes severely punished for the theft, he bore the chastisement he received with the patience of a dog. His chief companion was a terrier, with whom he would play all sorts of tricks—tumbling and rolling over the animal in the most amusing manner, without hurting it. He would also frequently run out on the bowsprit, and climb about the rigging with the agility of a cat.",-0.905980026,0.437630341
7c9a8e9f5,,,"He was at that time as droll and roguish-looking a grizzly cub as ever stepped. In a grizzly-gray full moon of fluffy hair, two big black eyes sparkled like jet beads, behind a pudgy little nose, absurdly short for a bear. Excepting for his high shoulders, he was little more than a big bale of gray fur set up on four posts of the same material. But his claws were formidable, and he had the true grizzly spirit.
The Bears' Nursery at the New York Zoological Park is a big yard with a shade tree, a tree to climb, a swimming pool, three sleeping dens, and a rock cliff. It never contains fewer than six cubs, and sometimes eight.
Naturally, it is a good test of courage and temper to turn a new bear into that roystering crowd. Usually a newcomer is badly scared during his first day in the Nursery, and very timid during the next. But grizzlies are different. They are born full of courage and devoid of all sense of fear.",-0.660358016,0.470245076
4766cdb83,,,"There once lived in a town of Persia two brothers, one named Cassim, and the other Ali Baba. Their father divided a small inheritance equally between them. Cassim married a very rich wife, and became a wealthy merchant. Ali Baba married a woman as poor as himself, and lived by cutting wood, and bringing it upon three asses into the town to sell.
One day, when Ali Baba was in the forest, and had just cut wood enough to load his asses, he saw at a distance a great cloud of dust, which seemed to approach him. He observed it with attention, and distinguished soon after a body of horsemen, whom he suspected might be robbers. He determined to leave his asses to save himself. He climbed up a large tree, planted on a high rock, whose branches were thick enough to conceal him, and yet enabled him to see all that passed without being discovered.",-0.14555091,0.470122165
4053d0bab,,,"We set sail, and steered our course toward the Indies, through the Persian Gulf. At first I was troubled with sea-sickness, but speedily recovered my health. In our voyage we touched at several islands, where we sold or exchanged our goods. One day we were becalmed near a small island, but little elevated above the level of the water, and resembling a green meadow. The captain ordered his sails to be furled, and permitted such persons as were so inclined to land. While we were enjoying ourselves eating and drinking, and recovering from the fatigue of the sea, the island of a sudden trembled and shook us terribly.
The trembling of the island was noticed on board ship, and we were called upon to re-embark speedily, lest we should all be lost; for what we took for an island proved to be the back of a sea monster.",-0.522167305,0.469793222
16d7a4e4d,,,"After I had rested from the dangers of my third voyage, my passion for trade and my love of novelty soon again prevailed. I therefore settled my affairs, and provided a stock of goods fit for the traffic I designed to engage in. I took the route of Persia, travelled over several provinces, and then arrived at a port, where I embarked. On putting out to sea, we were overtaken by such a sudden gust of wind as obliged the captain to lower his yards and take all other necessary precautions to prevent the danger that threatened us. But all was in vain; our endeavors had no effect; the sails were split into a thousand pieces, and the ship was stranded; several of the merchants and seamen were drowned, and the cargo was lost.
I had the good fortune, with several of the merchants and mariners, to get upon some planks, and we were carried by the current to an island which lay before us. There we found fruit and spring water, which preserved our lives. We stayed all night near the place where we had been cast ashore.",-1.427391513,0.462369846
2b418e85b,,,"All the troubles and calamities I had undergone could not cure me of my inclination to make new voyages. I therefore bought goods, departed with them for the best seaport; and there, that I might not be obliged to depend upon a captain, but have a ship at my own command, I remained till one was built on purpose, at my own charge. When the ship was ready I went on board with my goods; but not having enough to load her, I agreed to take with me several merchants of different nations, with their merchandise.
We sailed with the first fair wind, and, after a long navigation, the first place we touched at was a desert island, where we found an egg of a roc, equal in size to that I formerly mentioned. There was a young roc in it, just ready to be hatched, and its beak had begun to break the egg. The merchants who landed with me broke the egg with hatchets, and made a hole in it, pulled out the young roc, piecemeal, and roasted it. I had in vain entreated them not to meddle with the egg.",-1.817004018,0.545644729
f536d8076,,,"On my return home from my sixth voyage, I had entirely given up all thoughts of again going to sea; for, besides that my age now required rest, I was resolved no more to expose myself to such risks as I had encountered, so that I thought of nothing but to pass the rest of my days in tranquillity. One day, however, an officer of the caliph's inquired for me. ""The caliph,"" said he, ""has sent me to tell you that he must speak with you."" I followed the officer to the palace, where, being presented to the caliph, I saluted him by prostrating myself at his feet. ""Sindbad,"" said he to me, ""I stand in need of your services; you must carry my answer and present to the King of Serendib.""
This command of the caliph was to me like a clap of thunder. ""Commander of the Faithful,"" I replied, ""I am ready to do whatever your majesty shall think fit to command; but I beseech you most humbly to consider what I have undergone. I have also made a vow never to leave Bagdad.""",-1.429487286,0.464544107
590467bd6,,,"Hamilton was working hard to bring New York over to an understanding that she must stand firm against English rule. He organized meetings, gave addresses, wrote letters, newspaper articles and pamphlets. Then he joined a military company and was perfecting himself in the science of war.
There were frequent outbreaks between Tory mobs and Whigs, and the breaking up of your opponents' meeting was looked upon as a pleasant pastime.
Then came the British ship ""Asia"" and opened fire on the town. This no doubt made Whigs of a good many Tories. Whig sentiment was on the increase; gangs of men marched through the streets and the king's stores were broken into, and prominent Royalists found their houses being threatened.
Doctor Cooper, President of King's College, had been very pronounced in his rebukes to Congress and the Colonies, and a mob made its way to his house. Arriving there, Hamilton and his chum Troup were found on the steps, determined to protect the place. Hamilton stepped forward, and in a strong speech urged that Doctor Cooper had merely expressed his own private views, which he had a right to do, and the house must not on any account be molested.",-1.753041534,0.489683082
0c21ee6f8,,,"As far as I am concerned, I have already been able, during a previous trip, to fully appreciate the noble virtues of the American Nation, and I am happy to take this opportunity to express all the admiration with which they inspire me.
Ever since her independence was first established, Belgium has been declared neutral in perpetuity. This neutrality, guaranteed by the powers, has recently been violated by one of them. Had we consented to abandon our neutrality for the benefit of one of the belligerents, we would have betrayed our obligations toward the others. And it was the sense of our international obligations as well as that of our dignity and honor that has driven us to resistance.
The consequences suffered by the Belgian Nation were not confined purely to the harm occasioned by the forced march of an invading army. This army not only seized a great portion of our territory, but it committed incredible acts of violence, the nature of which is contrary to the law of nations.",-1.171332861,0.495418486
eb4a2f7bf,,,"Jack Lawton looked over from his side. The little silk badge with the red rose on it looked very rich because he had a blue sailor top on. Stephen felt his own face red too, thinking of all the bets about who would get first place in elements, Jack Lawton or he. Some weeks Jack Lawton got the card for first and some weeks he got the card for first. His white silk badge fluttered and fluttered as he worked at the next sum and heard Father Arnall's voice. Then all his eagerness passed away and he felt his face quite cool. He thought his face must be white because it felt so cool. He could not get out the answer for the sum but it did not matter. White roses and red roses: those were beautiful colours to think of. And the cards for first place and second place and third place were beautiful colours too: pink and cream and lavender. Lavender and cream and pink roses were beautiful to think of. Perhaps a wild rose might be like those colours and he remembered the song about the wild rose blossoms on the little green place.",-1.194476673,0.45818866
4377e3a0d,,,"That night at Dalkey the train had roared like that and then, when it went into the tunnel, the roar stopped. He closed his eyes and the train went on, roaring and then stopping; roaring again, stopping. It was nice to hear it roar and stop and then roar out of the tunnel again and then stop. 
Then the higher line fellows began to come down along the matting in the middle of the refectory, Paddy Rath and Jimmy Magee and the Spaniard who was allowed to smoke cigars and the little Portuguese who wore the woolly cap. And then the lower line tables and the tables of the third line. And every single fellow had a different way of walking.
He sat in a corner of the playroom pretending to watch a game of dominoes and once or twice he was able to hear for an instant the little song of the gas. The prefect was at the door with some boys and Simon Moonan was knotting his false sleeves. He was telling them something about Tullabeg.",-1.045067123,0.483619802
38af5cc3a,,,"We have related all this so conscientiously that the reader himself might be convinced that it was impossible for the little Akaki to receive any other name. When and how he entered the chancellery and who appointed him, no one could remember. However many of his superiors might come and go, he was always seen in the same spot, in the same attitude, busy with the same work, and bearing the same title; so that people began to believe he had come into the world just as he was, with his bald forehead and official uniform.
In the chancellery where he worked, no kind of notice was taken of him. Even the office attendants did not rise from their seats when he entered, nor look at him; they took no more notice than if a fly had flown through the room. His superiors treated him in a coldly despotic manner.",-1.940968083,0.531069298
68badb173,,,"It is a tale of love that they tell in the low-lit Causeway that slinks from West India Dock Road to the dark waste of waters beyond. In Pennyfields, too, you may hear it; and I do not doubt that it is told in far-away Tai-Ping, in Singapore, in Tokyo, in Shanghai, and those other haunts of wonder whether the wandering people of Limehouse go and whence they return so casually. It is a tale for tears, and should you hear it in the lilied tongue of the yellow men, it would awaken in you all your pity. In our bald speech it must, unhappily, lose its essential fragrance, that quality that will lift an affair of squalor into the loftier spheres of passion and imagination, beauty and sorrow. It will sound unconvincing, a little ... you know ... the kind of thing that is best forgotten.",-2.01721308,0.486691274
1de24de83,,,"""The suggestion that Mr. Gerhard go to Berlin was made by Count von Bernstorff to the President at the White House conference on Wednesday. The Ambassador described to the President the difficulties he experienced in transmitting information to his Government. He cannot use the cables, which are in the possession of the Allies. So far as wireless is concerned, conditions make it almost impossible to send anything but the briefest dispatches. As a result, Germany is not well informed in regard to the reasons controlling the policy of the Administration or the state of public sentiment. If his Government were adequately informed the Ambassador is confident that it would look at the demands of the United States in a different fashion.
The President apparently appreciated the view presented by the Ambassador. In any event, he authorized him to send an agent to Berlin, and it is presumed that thereupon he was apprised of the identity of the man selected. Count von Bernstorff vouched for Mr. Gerhard as thoroughly informed on the entire diplomatic situation as well as upon the condition of public sentiment. In addition, he is carrying full explanatory reports from the Ambassador himself.""",-2.524451353,0.512222695
8a78b9740,,,"In Sir Edward Grey's ""White Paper"" Mr. Beck has missed no important documents because he looked at England's well-prepared case through sympathetic eyes, and it did not occur to him to ask, ""Where are all the documents bearing on Italian neutrality?"" Does he believe that England was so little interested in the question whether she would have to fight two or three foes, and whether her way to Egypt and India would be safe or threatened? There are many dispatches to and from Rome included in the ""White Paper,"" but not a mention of Italy's position.
The first paper contains a letter to the British Ambassador in Berlin concerning the Austro-Serbian relations. Is it not probable that Sir Edward Grey's attention was called to this question by his Ambassador in Vienna? Where is his letter? Or, if Sir Edward thought of it himself, why did he not mention his conversation also to Sir M. de Bunsen in Vienna? Where is this note? Are we to assume that Sir M. de Bunsen made his first report on July 23, although Sir Edward Goschen in Berlin had an interesting report to make a day earlier?",-2.723659077,0.49988817
c049c77b7,,,"After the great crisis of the first world war, which terminated in the Congress of Vienna, the relations of England to the German States were fairly good. People lived in the protecting shade of the great alliance; England was busy digesting the enormous prey which it had seized at the expense of all the other powers that had taken part in the war; Continental Europe was endeavoring, as best it could, to heal the wounds and sores which had remained behind as mementos of oppressive but, despite all, glorious years. France recuperated most rapidly; by the Treaties of Paris there had been recovered from it only part of the abundant harvest which it had gathered in consequence of the victories and the coercive policy of Napoleon; the national soil was still fertile and the national consciousness was still imbued with the ""gloire"" which the Corsican General, with the help of his own and of foreign troops, had won for the French name. The great disturbances of world peace that marked the years 1830, 1854, and 1870 were attributable to an incessant pursuit of new ""gloire,"" to which all other aims were subordinate.",-2.362822909,0.545073104
000accf7e,,,"I believe Machiavelli once said that a war which is necessary is also just. Viewed from this sober, practical, political standpoint, which leaves out of account all moral considerations, has this war been necessary? Is it not, indeed, directly mad? Nobody threatened Italy; neither Austria-Hungary nor Germany. Whether the Triple Entente was content with blandishments alone history will show later. Without a drop of blood flowing, and without the life of a single Italian being endangered, Italy could have secured the long list of concessions which I recently read to the House—territory in Tyrol and on the Isonzo as far as the Italian speech is heard, satisfaction of the national aspirations in Trieste, a free hand in Albania, and the valuable port of Valona.
Why have they not taken it? Do they, perhaps, wish to conquer the German Tyrol? Hands off! Did Italy wish to provoke Germany, to whom she owes so much in her upward growth of a great power, and from whom she is not separated by any conflict of interests? We left Rome in no doubt that an Italian attack on Austro-Hungarian troops would also strike the German troops. ",-2.002054981,0.497273694
612920de8,,,"On Time's high canopy the years are as stars great and small, some of lesser magnitude, some forever bright with the splendor of supreme human achievements; and now there flashes out a year concerning which, indeed, no man can say as yet how great it will be; but all men know that it must be great. It is destined to drown all lesser years, even as sunrise dims the morning stars with day; it is a year bright with promise and bodeful with ill-tidings also; for in the world at this moment there exist stupendous differences that this year will go far to set at rest. This year must solve profound problems, determine the trend of human affairs for centuries, and influence the whole future history of civilization. This year may actually see the issue; at least it will serve to light the near future when that issue shall be accomplished.",-2.500835952,0.5619275
0a51787d0,,,"The alteration manifested by Canada's active, voluntary engagement in the European war is the change from Canadians holding, as they formerly did, that Great Britain was bound to defend Canada, while Canadians were not bound to defend Great Britain outside Canada. The ""dependency"" has not been now dragged in; it acted as an independency; it recognized its participation with Great Britain in a common danger; it proceeded quite voluntarily, quite independently, to recruit, organize, dispatch, and maintain large forces for the common cause. Canada's course has become that of a partner in respect of acceptance of risks and of contribution to expenses.
This partner has no formally specified share in gains, or in authority, or in future policy of the concern. Canada has no obvious, distinct, admitted way or voice as to the conduct of war or making of peace. She appears, with the other self-governing Dominions of the Crown, as an ally having no vote in settlements, none of the prerogatives of an ally.",-2.654973598,0.502479076
f84c4a1c0,,,"This request to pay my respectful homage to you has given me the first real pleasure I have been permitted to feel since the good days of Liège. At this moment you are the one King in the world whose subjects, without exception, unite in loving and admiring him with all the strength of their souls. This unique fate is yours, Sire. No leader of men on earth has had it in the same degree as you.
In spite of the immensity of the sorrow surrounding you, I think you have a right to rejoice, and the more so as your consort, her Majesty the Queen, shares this rare privilege with you.
Sire, your name will be great throughout the ages to come. You are in such perfect sympathy with your people that you will always be their symbol. Their courage, their tenacity, their stifled grief, their pride, their future greatness, their immortality all live in you. Our hearts are yours to their very depths. Being yourself, you are all of us. And this you will remain.",-2.149327999,0.476725407
ebd23c3cc,,,"Miss Marie Van Vorst, who nursed the wounded at the American Ambulance in Paris, will speak to you of it as an eyewitness. From her you will receive direct news of your splendid work of humanity. While she was caring for wounded French, English, and German I was attached to another hospital at Chartres. It happens, therefore, that I have never seen the American Military Hospital created by you, but I am not in ignorance concerning it any more than any other Parisian, any more, indeed, than the majority of the French people. I know that the American Ambulance is the most remarkable hospital that the world has seen. I know that you, since the beginning of the war, have brought the aid of medical science to wounded men and that you have given not only money, but an institution, all ready, complete and of the most modern type, and, even more, that you have sent there your best surgeons and a small army of orderlies and nurses.",-1.964240942,0.464324802
ff5668ed1,,,"Curiously enough,"" he said, without waiting for any opening question from The Times reporter—Mr. Smith often interviews himself—""curiously enough, I was on my way to Rheims to make a sketch of the Cathedral when the war broke out. I had started out to make a series of sketches of the great European cathedrals. Not etchings, but charcoal sketches.
""Let me say here, too, that cathedrals for the most part ought not to be etched. You lose too many shadows, though you gain in line; but in the etching you have to cross-hatch so heavily with ink that the result is just ink, and not shadow at all. Charcoal gives you depth and transparency. I was eager to do a series of the cathedrals, as I had done a series for the Dickens and Thackeray books, and had planned to give my, entire Summer to it.",-0.739408733,0.459144155
365bd0179,,,"The first thing he wanted to do was to get up in peace without being disturbed, to get dressed, and most of all to have his breakfast. Only then would he consider what to do next, as he was well aware that he would not bring his thoughts to any sensible conclusions by lying in bed. He remembered that he had often felt a slight pain in bed, perhaps caused by lying awkwardly, but that had always turned out to be pure imagination and he wondered how his imaginings would slowly resolve themselves today. He did not have the slightest doubt that the change in his voice was nothing more than the first sign of a serious cold, which was an occupational hazard for traveling salesmen.
It was a simple matter to throw off the covers; he only had to blow himself up a little and they fell off by themselves. But it became difficult after that, especially as he was so exceptionally broad.",-0.588322995,0.444231824
40366641a,,,"Mr. Beck's allegation that the question ""Was England justified in declaring war against Germany?"" is more easily disposed of than the questions ""Was Austria justified in declaring war against Serbia?"" and ""Was Germany justified in declaring war against Russia and France?"" proves two things—first, that his interest lies primarily in the vindication of England; second, that he disregards the fundamental causes and recognizes only the precipitating causes of the war.
The precipitating cause of the war between England and Germany is verbosely if inadequately covered by his article. We must admit that a treaty was broken by Germany, yet we contend that this broken agreement was a pretext for a war fomented and impelled by basic economic causes. At the outset, let us distinguish between a contract and a treaty. A contract is an agreement between individuals contemplating enforcement by a court of law; punishment by money damages in the great majority of cases, by a specific performance in a very few. A treaty is an agreement between nations contemplating enforcement by a court of international public opinion; punishment by money indemnity in the great majority of cases, by specific performance (i.e., force of arms) in a very few.",-2.25590829,0.510228048
d4a81e7b0,,,"Careful investigation by our committees who have looked into the question of national defense brings to light the following conditions of affairs:
According to official Government reports, there are barely 30,000 mobile troops in continental United States. These are distributed among fifty-two widely scattered posts, which would make it impossible to mobilize quickly at any given point. Even this small force is short of officers, ammunition, and equipment. Furthermore, it has no organized reserve.
Our National Guard, with negligible exceptions, is far below its paper strength in men, equipment, and efficiency.
Our coast defenses are inadequate, our fortifications insufficiently manned and without adequate organized reserves.
Our navy is neither adequate nor prepared for war. This, our first line of defense, is inadequately manned, short of ammunition, and has no organized reserve of trained men. Our submarine flotilla exists chiefly upon paper. Fast scout cruisers, battle cruisers, aeroplanes, mine layers, supply ships, and transports are lacking. Target practice has been neglected or altogether omitted.",-0.985550509,0.452276766
0435e884e,,,"Within the last ten months, contracts for war supplies estimated to exceed $1,000,000,000 have been placed in the United States.
When war was declared last August, this country was suffering from acute industrial depression; many factories shut down, others operating on short time, and labor without employment. After the paralyzing effect of the news that war was declared had worn away, businessmen here realized the great opportunity about to be afforded them of furnishing war supplies which must soon be in demand. Their expectations were soon fulfilled, as almost immediately most of the Governments sent commissions to the United States. Some had orders to buy, while others were authorized to get prices and submit samples.
It was not long until mills and factories were being operated to capacity, turning out boots and shoes, blankets, sweaters, socks, underwear, &c. The manufacturers of these articles were merely required to secure additional help in order to increase their plants' production.",-0.797884938,0.471678396
477c42aa9,,,"But it was only last night in this old and mighty city of Philadelphia that the greatest of reasons for an alliance was brought sharply home to my mind. I had thought, loosely enough, that since we speak the same language, share many of the same traditions, and equally desire peace for the prosperity of our trade, surely some alliance between us was natural, and with a little effort might be made inevitable. The deeper, more political, and far grander reason for this comradeship between the two nations had never definitely shaped itself to my consciousness.
Enlightenment came to me in the course of conversation with two thoughtful Philadelphians whose minds are centered on something which transcends patriotism and who work with fine courage and remarkable ability for the triumph of their idea.
One of these men said to me: ""You speak of an alliance between England and America; do you mind telling us what you mean by that term alliance?""",-1.642610843,0.471796819
0bf29d257,,,"The truth stands that the whole Schleswig-Holstein question is one that involves the modern principle of ""nationality,"" and, as such, enters of necessity into the present European crisis. It is broadly understood by Dr. Eliot and willfully misapprehended by his critic.
Passing on to consider Alsace-Lorraine, Dr. Dernburg declares that ""it had belonged to Germany until it was taken, against the will of the people, under Louis XIV.""
In this statement, as in the treatment of the previous question, facts are mutilated and wrong impressions are given. Alsace, it is well known, was included within the confines of ancient Gaul, its original population was Celtic, and it passed, late in the fifth Christian century, under the rule of the Franks, one of whose chieftains, Clovis, became the founder of the first French monarchy. In dealing with its later history Dr. Dernburg confuses the Holy Roman (Germanic) Empire with Germany, considered in its modern sense. He appears to forget that the reign of Louis XIV was an age of absolutism and not of plébiscites.",-3.351955983,0.554593166
62919523,,,"The inevitable consequence of a depreciated currency must be a rise of prices, usually greater than the actual percentage of depreciation. To meet this situation there came a device possible in no other commercial country. The Government fixed prices at which goods could be sold. This medieval device could be enforced only in a land where such State interference had been habitual, and, of course, could give to the notes the fictitious purchasing power only inside the country. After the Christian Science fashion, one had only to believe the notes were of value to make them so; but in the cold world outside German jurisdiction, their value would be gauged by the chances of getting gold for them. Here, then, we find Germany in all the mazes of our ancient ""greenbackism,"" but still in possession of a large stock of gold. As soon as the war ends, she may be able to return to gold payments at an early date—very much as did France after the ordeal of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871.",-2.783439222,0.519952648
7619f7f19,,,"Most persons in this country, including all those who work for peace, agree with you in deploring the vast armaments which European States have been piling up, and will hope with you that after this war they may be reduced—and safely reduced—to slender dimensions. Their existence is a constant menace to peace. They foster that spirit of militarism which has brought these horrors on the world; for they create in the great countries of the Continent a large and powerful military and naval caste which lives for war, talks and writes incessantly of war, and glorifies war as a thing good in itself.
It is (as you say) to the peoples that we must henceforth look to safeguard international concord. They bear the miseries of war, they ought to have the power to arrest the action of those who are hurrying them into it.
To get rid of secret diplomacy is more difficult in Europe than in America, whose relations with foreign States are fewer and simpler, but what you say upon that subject also will find a sympathetic echo here among the friends of freedom and of peace. I am always sincerely yours,",-2.273443711,0.5443415
fb06f97c8,,,"Then, clear, I heard a Voice call: ""Brothers! The dike is breaking! The River comes! Link arms, brothers; with the dike of our bodies we will save our home! Sisters, behind us, link arms! Close in the crevices, children! The River!"" And all that multitude, whom I had seen treading quietly the grass and fallen leaves with prosperous feet, came hurrying, their eyes no longer fixed on the rich plain, but lifted in trouble and defiance, staring at that rushing blackness. And the Voice called: ""Hasten, brothers! The dike is broken. The River floods!""
And they answered: ""Brother, we come!""
Thousands and thousands they pressed, shoulder to shoulder—men, women, and children, and the beasts lying down behind, till the living dike was formed. And that blackness came on, nearer, nearer, till, like the whites of glaring eyes, the wave crests glinted in the dark rushing flood. And the sound of the raging waters was as a roar from a million harsh mouths.
But the Voice called: ""Hold, brothers! Hold!""
And from the living dike came answer: ""Brother! We hold!""",-2.062823949,0.493917916
7d016018e,,,"In these times one dread lies heavy on heart and brain—the thought that after all the unimaginable suffering, waste, and sacrifice of this war, nothing may come of it, no real relief, no permanent benefit to Europe, no improvement to the future of mankind.
The pronouncements of publicists—""This must never happen again,"" ""Conditions for abiding peace must be secured,"" ""The United States of Europe must be founded,"" ""Militarism must cease""—all such are the natural outcome of this dread. They are proclamations admirable in sentiment and intention. But human nature being what it has been and is likely to remain, we must face the possibility that nothing will come of the war, save the restoration of Belgium, (that, at least, is certain;) some alterations of boundaries; a long period of economic and social trouble more bitter than before; a sweeping moral reaction after too great effort. Cosmically regarded, this war is a debauch rather than a purge, and debauches have always to be paid for.",-2.034688078,0.466945697
73bdebe89,,,"In the second place, the Emperor is an exceedingly intelligent and highly cultivated man. His mental processes are swift, but they go also very deep. He is a searching inquirer, and questions and listens more than he talks. His fund of knowledge is immense and sometimes astonishing. He manifests interest in everything, even to the smallest detail, which can have any bearing upon human improvement. I remember a half hour's conversation with him once over a cupping glass, which he had gotten from an excavation in the Roman ruin called the Saalburg, near Homburg. He always appeared to me most deeply concerned with the arts of peace. I have never heard him speak much of war, and then always with abhorrence, nor much of military matters, but improved agriculture, invention, and manufacture, and especially commerce and education in all their ramifications, were the chief subjects of his thought and conversation. I have had the privilege of association with many highly intelligent and profoundly learned men, but I have never acquired as much knowledge, in the same time, from any man whom I have ever met, as from the German Emperor.",-1.436563785,0.468536107
1de2b5e2c,,,"On the 19th day of April, 1839, Belgium and Holland, which from 1815 to 1830 had formed the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, signed a treaty of separation from, and independence of, each other. It is in this treaty that the original pledge of Belgian neutrality is to be found. The clause of the treaty reads: ""Belgium in the limits above described shall form an independent neutral State and shall be bound to observe the same neutrality toward all other States."" On the same day and at the same place, (London,) a treaty, known in the history of diplomacy as the Quintuple Treaty, was signed by Great Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, approving and adopting the treaty between Belgium and Holland. A little later, May 11, the German Confederation, of which both Austria and Prussia were members, also ratified this treaty.",-1.31066947,0.482566259
200a6e681,,,"Medea, seeing that he knew not fear, gave him a magic ointment which should give him the strength of seven men and protect him from fire and steel.
All the people assembled at sunrise in the field of Ares. When the fire-breathing bulls saw Jason standing in the middle of the field, fury shot from their eyes. Fierce was their onset and the multitude waited breathless to see what the end would be. As the bulls came on with lowered heads, and tails in air, Jason leaped nimbly to one side, and the monsters shot past him with bellowings that shook the earth. They turned and Jason poised for the leap. As they passed a second time, he grasped the nearest by the horn and lightly vaulted upon its back. The bull, unused to the burden, sank cowering to the ground. Jason patted its neck caressing it, and gladly it shared the yoke with its fellow.",-0.921112782,0.466982735
46ee3a263,,,"She enjoyed the evening tremendously, but the end of it rather spoiled all. Gilbert again made the mistake of saying something sentimental to her as they ate their supper on the moonlit verandah; and Anne, to punish him, was gracious to Charlie Sloane and allowed the latter to walk home with her. She found, however, that revenge hurts nobody quite so much as the one who tries to inflict it. Gilbert walked airily off with Ruby Gillis, and Anne could hear them laughing and talking gaily as they loitered along in the still, crisp autumn air. They were evidently having the best of good times, while she was horribly bored by Charlie Sloane, who talked unbrokenly on, and never, even by accident, said one thing that was worth listening to. Anne gave an occasional absent ""yes"" or ""no,"" and thought how beautiful Ruby had looked that night, how very goggly Charlie's eyes were in the moonlight—worse even than by daylight—and that the world, somehow, wasn't quite such a nice place as she had believed it to be earlier in the evening.",-0.947514257,0.435478256
932243dd0,,,"The Government of the United States and the Imperial German Government are contending for the same great object, have long stood together in urging the very principles upon which the Government of the United States now so solemnly insists. They are both contending for the freedom of the seas. The Government of the United States will continue to contend for that freedom, from whatever quarter violated, without compromise and at any cost. It invites the practical cooperation of the Imperial German Government at this time, when cooperation may accomplish most and this great common object be most strikingly and effectively achieved.
The Imperial German Government expresses the hope that this object may be in some measure accomplished even before the present war ends. It can be. The Government of the United States not only feels obliged to insist upon it, by whomsoever violated or ignored, in the protection of its own citizens, but is also deeply interested in seeing it made practicable between the belligerents themselves, and holds itself ready at any time to act as the common friend who may be privileged to suggest a way.",-1.532702197,0.479701514
cfbbbec88,,,"As it was known that the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were still at large in Pacific waters, it was decided not to go direct to Samoa, but to shape a course direct for New Caledonia. For the next fortnight or so we were playing a game of hide and seek in the big islanded playground of the Pacific Ocean. The first evening out the Psyche signaled ""Whereabouts of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau still unknown; troopships to extinguish all lights and proceed with only shaded lights at bow and stern."" Military books and papers were quickly gathered together, and the remaining few minutes of daylight were used for getting into bed, while the difficult task was set us of trying to sleep the round of the clock. Thus, night after night, with lights out, we steamed along our northward track, the days being spent in drill and ball firing with rifles and the Maxim guns.",-2.268261039,0.54590534
7aa905ff4,,,"The world then was in formation. Will a new Europe, a new society, a new humanity, take form from the prodigious shock by which our imagination is confounded?
We can at least seek to understand what we cannot hinder.
This war was not a matter of blind fate, but had been foreseen for a long time. What are the forces that have set the nations in movement? I do not seek to establish responsibility. Whosoever it may be, those who have let loose the conflict have behind them peoples of one mind. That, perhaps, is the most surprising feature in an epoch when economic, social, and moral interests are so interwoven from one end of the earth to the other that the conqueror himself must suffer cruelly from the ruin of the conquered.
The Governments have determined the day and the hour. They could not have done it in opposition to the manifest will of the nations. Public sentiment has seconded them. What is it then which rouses man from his repose, impels him to desert his gains, his home, the security of a regular life, and sends him in eager search for bloody adventures?",-2.423958975,0.532818467
cd298e163,,,"But I have come here to appeal for the assistance of the men of Liverpool and the surrounding districts.
The situation is a serious one. It is as grave a situation as this country has ever been confronted with. You need have no special knowledge in order to ascertain that yourselves. A careful, intelligent perusal of the published dispatches in the newspapers must have caused you to come to the conclusion that this country is engaging one of the most formidable enemies that it has ever waged war against.
The issues are great, the perils are great, and nothing can pull us through but the united effort of every man in the British Empire. If you look at what our brave fellows are doing at the front you can see the perils there facing them, the trials, the privations, and they are doing it without flinching. [""Hear, hear!""] Never in the history of this country have our men shown greater courage and endurance than they have during this war. They have done all you can expect of mortal man.",-1.799280378,0.497709447
091dbda14,,,"The landscape had appeared arid at first, for the translation from recent agony into freedom from pain had been so numbing in its swiftness that it was some time before he could fully appreciate the pleasant dog-country through which he was passing. There were woods with leaves upon the ground through which to scurry, long grassy slopes for extended runs, and lakes into which he might plunge for sticks and bring them back to—But he did not complete his thought, for the boy was not with him. A little wave of homesickness possessed him.
It made his mind easier to see far ahead a great gate as high as the heavens, wide enough for all. He understood that only man built such barriers and by straining his eyes he fancied he could discern humans passing through to whatever lay beyond. He broke into a run that he might the more quickly gain this enclosure made beautiful by men and women; but his thoughts outran his pace, and he remembered that he had left the family behind, and again this lovely new compound became not perfect, since it would lack the family.",-1.220816365,0.486798843
b40a35033,,,"Nearly five months have now passed by since the German Army invaded Belgium and France. These 140 days have been packed with thrilling and momentous events. While from their safe vantage ground the American people have surveyed the scene, an old régime has literally crumbled under our very eyes. Europe is a loom on whose earthen framework demiurgic forces like Frederick the Great, Bismarck, and Napoleon once wove the texture of European civilization. Now the demon of war has, with hot knife, shorn away the texture, and a modern Czar and Kaiser, King and President, with Generals and Admirals, are weaving the warp and woof of a new world. One hundred years ago the forces that bred wars were political forces; today the collision between nations is born of economic interests. The twentieth century influences are chiefly the force of wealth and the force of public opinion. These are the giant steeds, though the reins of the horses may be in the hands of Kings and Kaisers. In Napoleon's day antagonism grew out of the natural hatred of autocracy for democracy, of German imperialism for French radicalism.",-1.545941286,0.449430627
bfafffdeb,,,"The library of the University of Louvain possessed 500 manuscripts, about 800 incunabula, and 250,000 to 300,000 volumes. One noted especially the original of the bull of foundation of the university in 1425, an example on vellum of the famous work of André Vésale, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, an example given to the university by Charles V., a precious manuscript by Thomas à Kempis. The bibliographical curiosities were numerous; the collection of old Flemish bindings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries contained some curious specimens. The souvenirs of the ancient university, seals, diplomas, medals, &c., were preciously guarded in cases. The old printed matters of the sixteenth century formed an extremely rare treasury; all the pieces, pamphlets, and placards on the reform of the Low Countries were kept together in a ""varia"" volume, thus constituting a unique ensemble. It was the same with a host of pieces relating to Jansenism.",-3.252689925,0.57452507
b5b201c40,,,"Warsaw, Dec. 5, (by Courier to Petrograd.)—I have wired you previously of the German force which advanced around Lodz and was cut off south and east of the town. This consisted of two army corps—the Twenty-fifth Corps and the Third Guard Corps. The isolated force turned north and endeavored to cut its way out through the small town of Breziziny. It was at Breziziny that final disaster overtook them.
The town and road lie in a hollow in the midst of wooded country, where the Germans were squeezed from the Vistula and pressed to the rear. They had fought a battle during the slow retirement of five days and were showing signs of being short of ammunition. On the fifth day they made their final attempt to pass through Breziziny. That was where that fine strategist and fighting man who held Ivangorod on the Vistula brought off the great dramatic coup for which he had been maneuvering.",-2.175943391,0.525536407
48af14a01,,,"To see it, our legendary and marvellous French basilica, to bid it farewell, before its fall and irremediable crumbling to dust, I had made my military auto make a detour of two hours on my return from completing a service mission.
The October morning was foggy and cold. The hillsides of Champagne were on that day deserted; with their vines with leaves of blackened brown, damp with rain, they seemed all clad in a sort of shining leather. We had also passed through a forest, keeping our eyes alert, our weapons ready, for the possibility of marauding Uhlans. And at last we had perceived the immense form of a church, far off in the mist, rising in all its great height above the plots of reddish squares, which must be the roofs of houses; evidently that was it.
The entrance to Rheims: defences of every kind, barriers of stone, trenches, spiked fences, sentinels with crossed bayonets. To pass, the uniform and accoutrements of a soldier are not enough. We must answer questions, give the passwords.",-2.096704127,0.47445993
f834c1b8f,,,"First, that any change that takes place will not affect the offices of the head of the Government or of the Foreign Secretary. They will continue to be held as they are now. 
The second is, there is absolutely no change of any kind in contemplation in the policy of the country in regard to the continued prosecution of the war with all possible energy, and by means of every available resource. 
The third and the last point—one of great importance, not only to my friends behind me, but also of importance no doubt to the Opposition—is this: Any reconstruction that may be made will be for the purpose of the war alone, and is not to be taken in any quarter as any reason for indicating anything in the nature of surrender or compromise on the part of any person or body of persons of their several political purposes and ideals.
That is really as far as I can go at the moment. Nothing definite has yet taken place. When and if an arrangement of this kind should become an accomplished fact the House will have the fullest opportunity of expressing itself, if it so desires, upon it.",-2.301775706,0.472086783
e392620b6,,,"Those are facts which speak for themselves, and they show the urgent necessity, not only for a loan, but for a national loan—a loan far larger in its scale, far broader in its basis, and far more imperious in its demand upon every class and every section of the community than any in our history.
For the first time in our financial experience no limit has been placed on the amount to be raised; and that means that every citizen in the country is invited to subscribe as much as he can to help us to a complete and speedy victory. I need not dwell on its attractiveness from the mere investor's point of view. Indeed, the only criticism which I have heard in or outside the House of Commons is that it is perhaps a little too generous in its terms. That is a fault, if it be a fault, upon the right side.",-1.260459089,0.459134454
79bd72801,,,"We have known you for a long time. We have known you since we Russians came to a communion with Western Europe and began to draw from the great spiritual treasury created by our brethren of Western Europe.
From generation to generation we have watched intently the life of England, and have stored away in our minds and our hearts everything brilliant, peculiar, and individual, that has impressed itself upon the English word, the English thought, and the English life.
We have always wondered at the breadth and the manifoldness of the English soul, in whose literature one finds, side by side, Milton and Swift, Scott and Shelley, Shakespeare and Byron. We have always been amazed by the incessant and constantly growing power of civic life in England; we have always known that the English people was the first among the peoples of the world to enter upon a struggle for civic rights, and that nowhere does the word freedom ring so proud and so triumphant as it does in England.",-2.224202112,0.498850359
0fcd87cda,,,"In recent years we have given Germany every assurance that no aggression upon her would receive any support from us. We withheld from her one thing—we would not give an unconditional promise to stand aside, however aggressive Germany herself might be to her neighbors. Last July, before the outbreak of the war, France was ready to accept a conference; Italy was ready to accept a conference; Russia was ready to accept a conference; and we know now that after the British proposal for a conference was made, the Emperor of Russia himself proposed to the German Emperor that the dispute should be referred to The Hague. Germany refused every suggestion made to her for settling the dispute in this way. On her rests now, and must rest for all time, the appalling responsibility for having plunged Europe into this war and for having involved herself and the greater part of the Continent in the consequences of it.",-1.188691585,0.497770456
07cfb6556,,,"All this I knew in England, but knew it from the reports of others. I did not, could not, know what the destitution, the desolation of Belgium was, what were the imperative needs of this people, until I got to Holland and to the borders of Belgian territory. Inside that territory I could not pass because I was a Britisher, but there I could see German soldiers, the Landwehr, keeping guard over what they call their new German province. Belgium a German province!
There at Maastricht I saw fugitives crossing the frontier into Holland with all their worldly goods on their shoulders or in their hands, or with nothing at all, seeking hospitality of a little land which itself feels, though it is neutral, the painful stress and cost of the war. There, on the frontier, I was standing between Dutch soldiers and German soldiers, so near the Germans that I could almost have touched them, so near three German officers that their conversation as they saluted me reached my ears.",-1.74357223,0.491366741
ef56d3674,,,"Well, gentlemen, this war has opened the eyes of some of us, and has confirmed the fears of others. Not one of us wanted to fight. Our hand was forced, so that we could not have abstained without national and personal dishonor.
Now, I do not think it is even yet realized that Germany's methods in trade have been, and are, as far as possible identical, with her methods in war. Let me rub this in. As long ago as 1903, at a meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry, under the Presidency of your fellow-citizen, Mr. Levinstein, I pointed out that under the German State there was a trade council, the object of which was to secure and keep trade for Germany. This council had practical control of duties, bounties, and freights; its members were representative of the different commercial interests of the empire; and they acted, as a rule, without control from the Reichstag. You can read what I said for yourselves, if you think it worth while, in The Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry for 1903.",-1.316680123,0.470362566
6a9acd4c1,,,"The labor involved in securing, in a comparatively short time, so large a number of statements from witnesses scattered all over the United Kingdom, made it necessary to employ a good many examiners. The depositions were in all cases taken down in this country by gentlemen of legal knowledge and experience, though, of course, they had no authority to administer an oath. They were instructed not to ""lead"" the witnesses or make any suggestions to them, and also to impress upon them the necessity for care and precision in giving their evidence.
They were also directed to treat the evidence critically, and as far as possible satisfy themselves, by putting questions which arose out of the evidence, that the witnesses were speaking the truth. They were, in fact, to cross-examine them, so far as the testimony given provided materials for cross-examination.
We have seen and conversed with many of these gentlemen, and have been greatly impressed by their ability and by what we have gathered as to the fairness of spirit which they brought to their task. We feel certain that the instructions given have been scrupulously observed.",-2.398856992,0.509672356
0e56041a7,,,"Birds are able sometimes to discriminate between protectors and persecutors, but seldom very well I should imagine; they do not view the face only, but the whole form, and our frequent change of dress must make it difficult for them to distinguish the individuals they know and trust from strangers. Even a dog is occasionally at fault when his master, last seen in black and grey suit, reappears in straw hat and flannels.
Nevertheless, if birds once come to know those who habitually protect them and form a trustful habit, this will not be abandoned on account of a little rough treatment on occasions. A lady at Worthing told me of her blackbirds breeding in her garden that they refused to be kept from the strawberries when she netted the ripening fruit. One or more of the birds would always manage to get under the net; and when she would capture the robber and carry him, screaming, struggling and pecking at her fingers, to the end of the garden and release him, he would immediately follow her back to the bed and set himself to get at the fruit again.",-1.883011322,0.491832162
25d9549d3,,,"As to the censorship of mails, Germany, as well as Great Britain, has pursued this course in regard to private letters falling into their hands. The unquestioned right to adopt a measure of this sort makes objection to it inadvisable.
It has been asserted that American mail on board of Dutch steamers has been repeatedly destroyed. No evidence to this effect has been filed with the Government, and therefore no representations have been made. Until such a case is presented in concrete form this Government would not be justified in presenting the matter to the offending belligerent. Complaints have come to the department that mail on board neutral steamers has been opened and detained, but there seem to be but few cases where the mail from neutral countries has not been finally delivered. When mail is sent to belligerent countries open and is of a neutral and private character it has not been tampered with so far as the department is advised.",-1.976942795,0.498307548
353a016ff,,,"By the terms of the Triple Alliance every member of it is bound to communicate at once to the other members all international diplomatic transactions which concern the alliance. Germany and Austria failed to do this during the earlier stages in July, when they were preparing for the war. Only after they had laid their train so surely that an explosion was almost inevitable did they communicate the documents to Italy and call upon her to take her place in the field with them. But Italy refused; because, after examining the evidence, she concluded that Germany and Austria were the aggressors. Now, the terms of the Triple Alliance bind its members to stand by each other only in case of attack.
Italy's verdict, therefore, threw the guilt of the war on Germany and Austria. She had testimony before her which does not appear even in the ""White Papers"" and other official diplomatic correspondence; and all the efforts of German zealots and casuists have not subtracted one iota from the meaning of her abstention. Germany and Austria were the aggressors—that is the Italian verdict which history will confirm.",-1.540664434,0.470737291
7adcfd7d9,,,"It warms my heart that you should give me such a reception, but it is not of myself that I wish to think tonight, but of those who have just become citizens of the United States. This is the only country in the world which experiences this constant and repeated rebirth. Other countries depend upon the multiplication of their own native people. This country is constantly drinking strength out of new sources by the voluntary association with it of great bodies of strong men and forward-looking women. And so by the gift of the free will of independent people it is constantly being renewed from generation to generation by the same process by which it was originally created. It is as if humanity had determined to see to it that this great nation, founded for the benefit of humanity, should not lack for the allegiance of the people of the world.",-1.021877213,0.464807601
6f312a434,,,"When I think of the flag that those ships carry, the only touch of color about them, the only thing that moves as if it had a settled spirit in it, in their solid structure, it seems to me I see alternate strips of parchment upon which are written the rights of liberty and justice and strips of blood spilt to vindicate those rights, and then, in the corner, a prediction of the blue serene into which every nation may swim which stands for these great things.
The mission of America is the only thing that a sailor or soldier should think about; he has nothing to do with the formulation of her policy; he is to support her policy, whatever it is—but he is to support her policy in the spirit of herself, and the strength of our policy is that we, who for the time being administer the affairs of this nation, do not originate her spirit; we attempt to embody it; we attempt to realize it in action we are dominated by it, we do not dictate it.",-0.925302513,0.478600539
d679f75a5,,,"In the first place, this Government has at no time and in no manner yielded any one of its rights as a neutral to any one of the present belligerents.
It has acknowledged, as a matter of course, the right of visit and search and the right to apply the rules of contraband of war to articles of commerce. It has, indeed, insisted upon the use of visit and search as an absolutely necessary safeguard against mistaking neutral vessels for vessels owned by any enemy and against mistaking legal cargoes for illegal. It has admitted also the right of blockade if actually exercised and effectively maintained.
These are merely the well-known limitations which war places upon neutral commerce on the high seas. But nothing beyond these has it conceded.
I call your Excellency's attention to this, notwithstanding it is already known to all the world as a consequence of the publication of our correspondence in regard to these matters with several of the belligerent nations, because I cannot assume that you have official cognizance of it.",-3.265157464,0.603982262
cab921482,,,"It was just at the dawn of a March morning when I got off a train at Gerbéviller, the little ""Martyr City"" that hides its desolation as it hid its existence in the foothills of the Vosges.
There was a dense fog. At 6 A.M. fog usually covers the valleys of the Meurthe and Moselle. From the station I could see only a building across the road. A gendarme demanded my credentials. I handed him the laisser-passer from the Quartier Général of the ""First French Army,"" which controls all coming and going, all activity in that region. The gendarme demanded to know the hour when I proposed to leave. I told him. He said it would be necessary to have the permit ""viséd for departure"" at the headquarters of the gendarmerie. He pointed to the hazy outlines of another building just distinguishable through the fog.",-1.973181441,0.460433137
9020ab3af,,,"For several weeks previous I had heard a story going the rounds of what is left of Paris life to the effect that if one wanted a regular old-fashioned thrill he really should go to the Opéra Comique on a day when Mlle. Chenal closed the performance by singing the French national hymn. I was told there would be difficulty in securing a seat.
I was rather skeptical. I also considered that I had had sufficient thrills since the beginning of the war, both old fashioned and new. I believed also that I had already heard the ""Marseillaise"" sung under the best possible circumstances to produce thrills. One of the first nights after mobilization 10,000 Frenchmen filled the street beneath the windows of The New York Times office, where I was at work. They sang the ""Marseillaise"" for two hours, with a solemn hatred of their national enemy sounding in every note. The solemnity changed to a wild passion as the night wore on. Finally, cuirassiers of the guard rode through the street to disperse the mob. It was a terrific scene.",-2.038591112,0.486552888
8838b1af6,,,"All members of the Cabinet maintain absolute silence regarding what step will follow the action of the Chamber. Former Ministers and other men prominent in public affairs declare, however, that the action of Parliament virtually was a declaration of war.
When the Chamber reassembled this afternoon after its long recess there were present 482 Deputies out of 500, the absentees remaining away on account of illness. The Deputies especially applauded were those who wore military uniforms and who had asked permission for leave from their military duties to be present at the sitting.
All the tribunes were filled to overflowing. No representatives of Germany, Austria, or Turkey were to be seen in the diplomatic tribune. The first envoy to arrive was Thomas Nelson Page, the American Ambassador, who was accompanied by his staff. M. Barrère, Sir J. Bennell Rodd, and Michel de Giers, the French, British, and Russian Ambassadors, respectively, appeared a few minutes later and all were greeted with applause, which was shared by the Belgian, Greek, and Rumanian Ministers. George B. McClellan, former Mayor of New York, occupied a seat in the President's tribune.",-2.20915345,0.483921473
9b4d96aa9,,,"In 1906, the Democratic Party, picking itself out of the wreckage of Parker's defeat, was yearning to reunite. ""Big business,"" assaulted and bruised and banged about by President Roosevelt, was ready to come into line. Roosevelt or his candidate could be defeated in 1908 only by Democratic harmony. Bryan was abroad, traveling, and somehow his distant figure looked less appalling than the near-by figure in the White House. The East did not ask him to recant his radicalism, but only not to talk about it. He arrived in New York, and business went to hear him make a harmony speech. If he made it, business would support him for President. He made the speech; he declared for Government ownership of railroads. Business, roaring with pain, fell back into the Republican arms, and Bryan was defeated for President. No, Bryan is not an opportunist—not in things that really matter.
William Bayard Hale once accurately described him as ""essentially a preacher, a high-class exhorter, a glorified circuit rider."" There are vast spaces of our country still populated by men and women of the old-fashioned kind; Chesterton describes them as ""full of stale culture and ancestral simplicity.""",-1.538150661,0.452440734
160abb9da,,,"Tuesday, 8 P.M., August 18th. -- Orders just gone round that there are to be no lights after dark, so I am hasting to write this.
We had a great send-off in Sackville Street in our motor-bus, and went on board about 2 P.M. From then till 7 we watched the embarkation going on, on our own ship and another. We have a lot of R.E. and R.F.A. and A.S.C., and a great many horses and pontoons and ambulance wagons: the horses were very difficult to embark, poor dears. It was an exciting scene all the time. I don't remember anything quite so thrilling as our start off from Ireland. All the 600 khaki men on board, and every one on every other ship, and all the crowds on the quay, and in boats and on lighthouses, waved and yelled. Then we and the officers and the men, severally, had the King's proclamation read out to us about doing our duty for our country, and God blessing us, and how the King is following our every movement.",-1.834087362,0.478286851
ce24d2a6e,,,"In former days the Somali have fought against the Government. Even lately the Marehan have fought against the Government. Now we have heard that the German Government have declared war on the English Government. Behold, our ""fitna"" against the English Government is finished. As the monsoon wind drives the sandhills of our coast into new forms, so does this news of German evildoing drive our hearts and spears into the service of the English Government. The Jubaland Somali are with the English Government. Daily in our mosques we pray for the success of the English armies. Day is as night and night is as day with us until we hear that the English are victorious. God knows the right. He will help the right. We have heard that Indian askaris have been sent to fight for us in Europe. Humbly we ask why should not the Somali fight for England also? We beg the Government to allow our warriors to show their loyalty. In former days the Somali tribes made fitna against each other.",-2.140026004,0.512448834
cb7665a67,,,"As our reporter entered Sir James Barrie's hotel room by one door, the next door softly closed. ""I was alone,"" writes our reporter. ""I sprang into the corridor and had just time to see him fling himself down the elevator. Then I understood what he had meant when he said on the telephone that he would be ready for me at 10:30.""
I returned thoughtfully to the room, where I found myself no longer alone. Sir James Barrie's ""man"" was there; a stolid Londoner, name of Brown, who told me he was visiting America for the first time.
""Sir James is very sorry, but has been called away,"" he assured me without moving a muscle. Then he added: ""But this is the pipe,"" and he placed a pipe of the largest size on the table.
""The pipe he smokes?"" I asked.
Brown is evidently a very truthful man, for he hesitated. ""That is the interview pipe,"" he explained. ""When we decided to come to America, Sir James said he would have to be interviewed, and that it would be wise to bring something with us for the interviewers to take notice of.""",-0.632470619,0.470856775
32923648c,,,"A few days ago I sat by the bedside of a wounded sapper—a reservist—and heard the story of life in a signal-box on a branch line in the North of England. The man was dying. I think he knew it. But the zest of his everyday life was still strong in him. He described the manner in which, on leaving the army originally, he had obtained his post on the railway. He told me that there were three trains each way in the day, and mentioned that on Winter nights the last train was frequently very late. This meant a late supper, but his wife saw to it that everything was kept hot. Sometimes his wife came to the box to meet him if it was a dry night.
In the next bed there was a young Scotsman from a Highland district which I know very well. We were friends so soon as he learned that I knew his home. He was a roadman, and we talked of his roads and the changes which had been wrought in them of late years by motor traffic.",-0.929451821,0.451381195
bec229c1c,,,"Nighttime is a period of continuous strain. The sentry peers into the darkness, imagining every bush to be an approaching enemy. Distant trees seem to change their position; bunches of grass, really quite close, seem to be men coming over the sky-line. One man questions another; the section commander is called upon. He in turn explains his fears to an officer. A single shot is ordered at the suspected object, and no sound is heard. So the night goes on. When we were new to the game a single shot was enough to alarm the whole line, and thousands of rounds were fired into the darkness. Now we know better. So also do the enemy. And it was satisfactory to find that our ammunition had not all been wasted, for a patrol recently discovered more than a hundred dead Germans in a wood in front of us. The ammunition had not been wasted that time. But, oh, what a wasteful war!",-0.554195149,0.493549171
e2ff6905f,,,"The fierce hatred of England in Germany is due in large measure to what the Germans call ""the shopkeepers' warfare"" of the English. They maintain that the English confiscation of German patents is a wholly unfair method of fighting, and it has caused the deepest resentment. When asked as to the future, they reply that they will do all in due time. After Belgium will come France, and then the turn of England will arrive. They are not discouraged by the failure to reach Paris, since the strategy adopted by the French would have rendered the possession of Paris of little value. It will still be taken.
With regard to England not much is said of an army of invasion, but German confidence is evidently reposed in her Zeppelins, of which a large number is being constructed with all possible speed. They are to be employed against England, whose part in the war is the least honorable of all. Belgium's attitude at the outset they can understand, France's desire for la revanche is natural, but England's only motive was jealousy of Germany's industrial development and the desire to cripple her trade and commercial prosperity. Therefore, Woe to England!",-2.342190435,0.511253167
398ababd9,,,"We have had a pretty rough time lately. Last night was the first for ten days that I have had a roof over my head. The weather has been atrocious—pouring rain and driving, cutting snow—but it did not get through my overcoat, which is richly caked with mud. We have had a fortnight's fighting and have marched back now from the firing line for a short rest to refit. It meant two days' marching through roads and fields ankle deep in clinging, porridgy mud, but we were all glad enough to put up with any hardship so long as we got away from the strain of flying shells and bullets. In the trenches we lost some more of our men, but not many. I just wish you could see our battalion now; what a change from the crowd that used to march through London. Every man, almost, has a beard, and you could not imagine the dirty, bedraggled crowd we are. The strain of watching through the night in the trenches is pretty awful. The nights were pitch black, and the rain came pouring down, making the trenches an awful mess.",0.211838498,0.476190805
d70a641ee,,,"I don't believe there is a man living who, when first interviewing an 11-inch howitzer shell, is not pink with funk. After the first ten, one gets quite used to them, but really, they are terrible! They hit a house. You can see the great shell—a black streak—just before it strikes, then, before you hear the explosion, the whole house simply lifts up into the air, apparently quite silently; then you hear the roar, and the whole earth shakes. In the place where the house was there is a huge fountain-spout of what looks like pink fluff. It is the pulverized bricks. Then a monstrous shoot of black smoke towering up a hundred feet or more, and, finally, there is a curious willow-like formation, and then—you duck, as huge pieces of shell, and house, and earth, and haystack tumble over your head. And yet, do you know, it is really remarkable how little damage they do against earth trenches. With a whole morning's shelling, not a single man of my company was killed, although not a single shell missed what it had aimed at by more than fifty yards.",-1.468835447,0.461412333
d85a0c0c6,,,"The Russians are making heavy sacrifices for the war, but in these historic days we must speed up our energies still more, we must double and treble our sacrifices. Let us not forget that despite all our sacrifices, despite all our sorrow and alarm we are not deprived of peaceful work, we have not been drawn into destruction as the people of Poland have been. Without further delay we have to hasten to their aid.
A widely organized social aid must be brought to the fleeing people. We must provide them with shelter and food. These victims are flocking to the central provinces of Russia, to Moscow, and they must be assisted up to the time when they shall be able to return to their country. It is necessary to ascertain the degree of their distress and to help to provide them with the necessities of life in places already cleared from the enemy by the aggressiveness of the Russian Army.",-1.308811409,0.472943156
092858ffc,,,"If the Bulgarian Government had left prejudices to one side and looked clearly at the events, they would not have been slow to understand that from the moment England stepped into the war and Italy abandoned her allies, the Austro-German alliance politically lost the game. Each passing day diminishes more and more the hopes of success of the Dual Alliance, and permits England and Russia to expand their inexhaustible forces. It is not difficult to foresee from now the terms of peace that England and Russia will impose. Any policy which expects to profit from the defeat of these two powers is doomed to failure, and because such is the policy of the Bulgarian Government, we think that it is against the interests of the country.
This policy, among its other disadvantages, opens forever a gap between little Bulgaria and great Russia, which power, even if defeated, will never cease to play an active part in the Balkans.",-2.195230618,0.487550421
849754b68,,,"Yesterday we had one man killed and two wounded, the first casualties for over a week. The story of one of the wounded is worth telling to show you the pluck of these men. He told me he noticed some new digging going on the side of the enemy in front of his firing post. One can see the spadefuls of earth coming up from below the ground level when new trenches are being dug. Although this was in broad daylight, our man thought he would go and see what the Germans were up to, so he hops over the side of his trench and runs forward thirty yards to a ditch and crawls along it some hundred yards or so. He then spots a large shell-hole in the field on one side of the ditch, so doubles off and gets into that and has a good look around. Not satisfied with the point of view, he sprints to a line of willows nearer still to the enemy—within 250 yards of them indeed—and proceeds to climb up one of them. While doing this he gets shot through the shoulder.",-0.74619518,0.470094071
6005f5be9,,,"Those were the early days at the end of the '80's, when Alec MacDonald was far from having attained the national fame which he has now achieved. He was a young but trusted member of the detective force, who had distinguished himself in several cases which had been entrusted to him. His tall, bony figure gave promise of exceptional physical strength, while his great cranium and deep-set, lustrous eyes spoke no less clearly of the keen intelligence which twinkled out from behind his bushy eyebrows. He was a silent, precise man with a dour nature and a hard Aberdonian accent.
Twice already in his career had Holmes helped him to attain success, his own sole reward being the intellectual joy of the problem. For this reason the affection and respect of the Scotchman for his amateur colleague were profound, and he showed them by the frankness with which he consulted Holmes in every difficulty.",-0.832042878,0.467423496
488ef7f62,,,"On the evening of Sept. 25 the railway and telegraph lines were destroyed on the Lovenjoul-Vertryck line.
Consequently the two above-mentioned places on the morning of Sept. 30 had to give an account and to furnish hostages.
In the future the communities in the vicinity of a place where such things happen (no matter whether or not they are accomplices) will be punished without mercy.
To this end hostages have been taken from all places in the vicinity of railroad lines menaced by such attacks, and at the first attempt to destroy the railroad tracks or the telegraph or telephone wires they will be immediately shot.
Furthermore, all troops in charge of the protection of the railroad lines have received orders to shoot any person approaching in a suspicious manner the railroad tracks or the telegraph or telephone lines.
The Governor General of Belgium,
(Signed) BARON VON DER GOLTZ,
Field Marshal.",-2.466019521,0.52545147
7178792b2,,,"You remember very well that on the 16th (29th) of July, when war was declared by Austria-Hungary, I came here and told you that the decision of the Government was to maintain strict neutrality.
One day before the closing of the extra session of Parliament I repeated the declarations of the Government, that no matter what kind of political combinations were formed around us the Government is resolved to maintain absolute neutrality to the end.
It was with pleasure that I heard at that time the assurances of all the party leaders that if I were to keep this attitude they would help me maintain the absolute neutrality of Bulgaria.
I do not know why after a few days there have been published various statements signed by the different party leaders.
Nothing in particular had been done on our side up to that time.",-1.645863449,0.503635192
ffe773ae0,,,"Men do not make laws. They do but discover them. Laws must be justified by something more than the will of the majority. They must rest on the eternal foundation of righteousness. That state is most fortunate in its form of government which has the aptest instruments for the discovery of laws. The latest, most modern, and nearest perfect system that statesmanship has devised is representative government. Its weakness is the weakness of us imperfect human beings who administer it. Its strength is that even such administration secures to the people more blessings than any other system ever produced. No nation has discarded it and retained liberty. Representative government must be preserved. 
Courts are established, not to determine the popularity of a cause, but to adjudicate and enforce rights. No litigant should be required to submit his case to the hazard and expense of a political campaign. No judge should be required to seek or receive political rewards. The courts of Massachusetts are known and honored wherever men love justice. Let their glory suffer no diminution at our hands. The electorate and judiciary cannot combine. A hearing means a hearing.",-1.433814223,0.462182884
2e96cda35,,,"On every side our eyes rested on ruin. Whole villages have been destroyed by bombardment or fire; towns formerly full of life are now nothing but deserts full of ruins; and, in visiting the scenes of desolation where the invader's torch has done its work, one feels continually as though one were walking among the remains of one of those cities of antiquity which have been annihilated by the great cataclysms of nature.
In truth it can be stated that never has a war carried on between civilized nations assumed the savage and ferocious character of the one which at this moment is being waged on our soil by an implacable adversary. Pillage, rape, arson, and murder are the common practice of our enemies; and the facts which have been revealed to us day by day at once constitute definite crimes against common rights, punished by the codes of every country with the most severe and the most dishonoring penalties, and which prove an astonishing degeneration in German habits of thought since 1870.",-2.081898765,0.480079242
8b851c890,,,"Information received from our fleet now in the Black Sea is as follows: From accounts of Russian sailors taken prisoners and from the presence of a mine-layer among the Russian fleet, evidence is gathered that the Russian fleet intended closing the entrance to the Bosphorus with mines and destroying entirely the imperial Ottoman fleet after having split it in two. Our fleet, believing that it had to face an unexpected attack, and supposing that the Russians had begun hostilities without a formal declaration of war, pursued the scattered Russian fleet, bombarded the port of Sebastopol, destroyed in the city of Novorosiysk fifty petroleum depots, fourteen military transports, some granaries, and the wireless telegraph station.
In addition to the above, our fleet has sunk in Odessa a Russian cruiser and damaged severely another. It is believed that this second boat was likewise sunk. Five other steamers full of cargoes lying in the same port were seriously damaged. A steamship belonging to the Russian volunteer fleet was also sunk, and five petroleum depots were destroyed.",-1.845326239,0.470574764
a5c477895,,,"For my part, nothing in this war since July 30 has at all surprised me, unless it be the foul cruelty with which Belgian civilians have been treated. Indeed, in January, 1913, I wrote a warning which reads now like a summary of events that have since happened. I was denounced as a senile alarmist by some who are now the loudest in calling to arms. Alas! too late is their repentance.
May I ask why our eminent academicians and scholars who still profess ""friendship and admiration"" for their German confrères never even suspected the huge conspiracy of which civilization has been the victim? Why did they accept the stars and crosses of Caligula-Attila? Why hob-nob with the docile creatures of his chancery, and spread at home and abroad the worship of Geist and Kultur? Are they fit to instruct us about politics, public law, and international relations, when they were so egregiously mistaken, so blind, so befooled, with regard to the most portentous catastrophe in the memory of living men? I am glad that they see their blindness now—but why this sentimental friendliness for those who hoodwinked them?",-2.546849825,0.496250228
22884c72c,,,"On the morning of the next day the Minister of Rumania brought to the palace a letter from the insurgents addressed to the representatives of the powers and announcing that the patience of the insurgents was exhausted, and that they were resolved to enter Durazzo by any means. An identical letter was addressed to the inhabitants of the city.
It was then that the Prince decided to abandon Durazzo.
The Ministers, having received the message of the insurgents and having been notified of the intention of the Prince to leave the place, met again in the palace in order to find a way of settlement of the vexing financial problem. At the same time the International Commission of Control decided to call on the insurgent camp at Shiak, (outside of Durazzo,) give them the news of the imminent departure of the Prince, and invite them to the city.",-1.989715956,0.518729235
2f108b0e3,,,"In the long list of new Russian taxes the income tax is the most interesting. It is still only a drafted bill. The Government hesitates to press it. Perhaps the Duma will take some steps to make this bill a law. Its main provisions are as follows:
All annual incomes of 1,000 rubles ($500) and above are to be assessed at a progressive rate ranging from 1-1/2 percent on 1,000 rubles to the maximum of 8 percent on incomes of 200,000 rubles ($100,000) and above. All persons engaged actively in the present war shall be exempt from this tax.
All persons freed from military service within the last four years are to pay an additional tax equal to 50 percent of their income tax, provided the incomes of the parents whose sons have been freed reach 2,000 rubles ($1,000).
All persons freed from military service having incomes below 1,000 rubles ($500) are to pay a uniform tax of 6 rubles ($3). A special war tax is to be levied in provinces where the whole population or certain groups of the population are freed from military service.",-2.538206658,0.487554667
1a1f543f9,,,"A delegation of the Moscow Merchants' Association, consisting of Messrs. N.N. Shustov, I.G. Volkov, and A.D. Liamin, will soon go to Petrograd to petition the Ministers of Finance, Commerce and Industry and of the Interior for measures against German ""oppression."" The delegation intends to ask for the revocation of all privileges (franchises) and patents granted to Austrian, German, and Turkish subjects and for the granting to the Moscow merchants of the right to admit foreigners to the Merchants' Association only at its own discretion.
Finally, the delegation intends to discuss with the Ministers the special fund created recently at the State Bank for the settlement of payments to foreign merchants belonging to the warring nations. With this fund Russian merchants are depositing money for their matured notes. Thus the payment for foreign goods is now better guaranteed than before. The German merchants are taking advantage of this arrangement, offering their goods to Russian consumers through their agents and branch houses and commercial agents located in neutral countries. Therefore the new arrangement helps rather than hurts the German trade in Russia.",-2.515962206,0.509243581
2f0568ada,,,"Of those investigated 502 factories employing 46,586 employees had to be closed down entirely, while 1,034 establishments with 435,000 wage-earners have cut down their working force to 319,000. Thus about one-third of the total industrial wage-earning force has felt the effects of the war either through total discharge or through diminished output.
The lack of trained labor power and the failure to obtain funds have affected 222 establishments with 58,000 workers. Lack of funds has been very severely felt in the Baltic provinces, (there, especially, in the chemical industry,) affecting fourteen establishments with 15,701 workers. Altogether 132 establishments with 50,000 employees have cut down their operations, and of these 30 percent employing 15,000 workers belonged to the chemical industry. Also twenty establishments of the metal working (fine machinery) industry with 11,000 employees had to curtail their volume of business. In other industries the lack of labor supply has not been felt. Evidently only the industries requiring highly qualified labor have suffered from this cause. The shortage of fuel forced 108 establishments with 49,000 workers to diminish their output, and eleven establishments with 3,000 workers had to close down altogether.",-2.387704029,0.554081284
318b5eac2,,,"The concessions offered by Count Tisza, the Hungarian Premier, in the hope of averting the coming storm, make no impression on the Rumanians either within or without the monarchy. He promises to allow the teaching of Rumanian in the schools, the use of the language in the public services, and increased Rumanian representation in the Hungarian Parliament. But the time for concessions has gone by. The Austrian advance into Serbia threatens to cut off Rumania from Southern and Western Europe and to prevent the arrival from the United States of the large supplies of stores and medicaments ordered there.
It is evident that neither Rumania nor Bulgaria can long maintain their present attitudes. It remains for the powers of the Entente to devise a means for securing the co-operation of both States.
Serbia recently inquired in Bucharest whether Rumania would oppose territorial concessions to a neighboring State, evidently indicating Bulgaria. Rumania replied that she would be happy to see all the quarrels of her neighbors arranged. The Government at Nish, appreciating the necessities of the situation, is now disposed toward a policy of concession. Serbia's only hope of maintaining an independent existence lies in the success of the Entente powers.",-2.679315729,0.504873328
c0f645ed1,,,"I walked one day back toward Antwerp, along that awful road which ran by Contich and Waerloos to Waelhem. Daily along that road the German shells fell nearer to the city, so that whenever one went out to the place that he had visited yesterday he was likely to find himself disagreeably surprised. One day I found myself, (I would not have been there had I known it,) perhaps a mile inside the range of the enemy's guns. A Red Cross car had dropped me and picked up wounded men instead, and there was nothing for it but to walk back along the road.
Along the road from the foremost trenches came a dozen Belgian soldiers, just relieved after twenty-four hours of what it is difficult to describe otherwise than as hell. Muddied from head to heel, they could hardly drag their feet along, and, glad of any company, I fell in and walked with the last straggler of the little band, while the shrapnel with its long-drawn scream—whew-ew-ew-ew-bang!—broke on either side of us.",-1.465205893,0.457653997
8f4b98469,,,"The Italian occupation of the rocky and desolate islet of Saseno which, from a strategic point of view, completely dominates the sea approaches to Avlona, is a logical consequence of the occupation of that town for the purpose of establishing a hospital and maintaining order. The islet itself was for some months in 1913 and 1914 a bone of contention between the Italians, who insisted on obtaining it for the Principality of Albania, and the Greeks, who were equally anxious to retain it in their own possession. With Saseno under the control of a foreign power, the possessor of Avlona could never make the town into a place of arms.
Saseno, as one of the Ionian Islands, became a British protectorate in virtue of the Treaty of Paris of Nov. 5, 1815, but was given to Greece by the Treaty of London of March 29, 1864.",-1.885562692,0.564767699
7283df62e,,,"The departure of the mobilized French soldiers who were in Bucharest has been the occasion for sympathetic manifestations toward France.
Among the population and in the streets there was not a single voice which was not heartily and enthusiastically for the Triple Entente in general and France in particular.
Certain personages, such as the General Pilot who in 1870 fought on the side of France, and certain newspaper editors who, yielding to national aspirations, have carried on since the first day of the war a violent campaign against Austria, are enthusiastically cheered by the public in the cafés and by the majority of the army officers who assisted in uniform at these scenes.
More than that, there were imposing manifestations in the streets; other meetings, still more effective, were held in secret, at which Generals and superior officers assisted. But notwithstanding this public sentiment the police are on the lookout; the orders they have received are particularly severe, as entire regiments are kept in readiness in the public parks and Government buildings. All those functionaries who are suspected of being openly hostile to Austria are closely followed and watched.",-2.629239827,0.526801593
479b31816,,,"The semi-official papers of the Rumanian Government have published the following statement with regard to the Treaty of Bucharest: The viewpoint of Rumania on the subject of the Treaty of Bucharest, and of its connection with the European war, has been discussed and established in a council of the Crown, held on the 21st of July, (Aug. 3, N.S.) In the Treaty of Bucharest the Rumanian interest was not bound to fixed frontier lines, except so long as these assured an equilibrium necessary to Rumania. Rumania was not obliged to protect this equilibrium in its actual form any longer than in her mind this could be possibly maintained.
If the European war, in its future consequences, should bring about certain modifications in the actual frontiers of one or the other of the Balkan States, the interest of Rumania requires that the Balkan equilibrium be established in accordance with the changes made to correspond with the purpose of maintaining the real equilibrium in its new form, no matter what the frontier lines will be in their final re-establishment.",-2.87336216,0.592532527
d9fc2dfdb,,,"Poles are compelled by necessity to fight in the Prussian, Austrian and Russian armies, against each other. Not the smallest attempt at emancipation has been made either in Prussian Posen or in the Russian ""Kingdom"" or in Austrian Galicia. We might even say that the dismemberment at present is going deeper than ever, as it is now cleaving the minds as well.
The only indication of a future union is the manifesto of the Grand Duke Nikolai, the Russian Field Marshal, to the Poles, issued in the middle of August. It began: ""Poles, the hour has struck in which the holy dream of your fathers and grandfathers may be fulfilled. Let the borders cutting asunder the Polish people be effaced; let them unite under the sceptre of the Czar. Under this sceptre Poland will regenerate, free in religion, language, and autonomy.""",-1.877797976,0.492166626
a213db1ad,,,"A Militarist is a person who believes that all real power is the power to kill, and that Providence is on the side of the big battalions. The most famous Militarist at present, thanks to the zeal with which we have bought and quoted his book, is General Friedrich von Bernhardi. But we cannot allow the General to take precedence of our own writers as a Militarist propagandist. I am old enough to remember the beginning of the anti-German phase of that very ancient propaganda in England. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 left Europe very much taken aback. Up to that date nobody was afraid of Prussia, though everybody was a little afraid of France; and we were keeping ""buffer States"" between ourselves and Russia in the east. Germany had indeed beaten Denmark; but then Denmark was a little State, and was abandoned in her hour of need by those who should have helped her, to the great indignation of Ibsen. Germany had also beaten Austria; but somehow everybody seems able to beat Austria, though nobody seems able to draw the moral that defeats do not matter as much as the Militarists think, Austria being as important as ever.",-2.249575147,0.530767707
2d8df805b,,,"To those who love peace there can be no other hope in the present conflict than the defeat, the utter discrediting of the German legend, the ending for good and all of the blood and iron superstition, of Krupp, flag-wagging Teutonic Kiplingism, and all that criminal, sham efficiency that centres in Berlin. Never was war so righteous as war against Germany now. Never has any State in the world so clamored for punishment.
But be it remembered that Europe's quarrel is with the German State, not with the German people; with a system, and not with a race. The older tradition of Germany is a pacific and civilizing tradition. The temperament of the mass of German people is kindly, sane, and amiable. Disaster to the German Army, if it is unaccompanied by any such memorable wrong as dismemberment or intolerable indignity, will mean the restoration of the greatest people in Europe to the fellowship of Western nations. The role of England in this huge struggle is plain as daylight. We have to fight. If only on account of the Luxemburg outrage, we have to fight.",-2.56608741,0.487642617
70417d880,,,"My Lords: The time has come for combined effort to stimulate and organize public opinion and public effort in the greatest conflict in which our people has ever been engaged.
No one who can contribute anything to the accomplishment of this supremely urgent task is justified in standing aside.
I propose, as a first step, that meetings should be held without delay, not only in our great centres of population and industry, but in every district, urban and rural, throughout the United Kingdom, at which the justice of our cause should be made plain, and the duty of every man to do his part should be enforced.
I venture to suggest to your lordships that the four principal cities over which you respectively preside should lead the way.
I am ready myself, so far as the exigencies of public duty permit, to render such help as I can, and I should be glad, with that object, to address my fellow-subjects in your cities.
I have reason to know that I can count upon the co-operation of the leaders of every section of organized political opinion.",-2.282976621,0.523709327
d6f4495e5,,,"Life meanwhile I had a good deal of at my side in the person of my brother Wilky, who, as I have had occasion elsewhere to say, contrived in those years to live, or to have every appearance of so doing, with an immediacy that left me far in the lurch. I was always still wondering how, while he had solved the question simply ambulando, which was for him but by the merest sociable stroll. This represented to me success—success of a kind, but such an assured kind—in a degree that was my despair; and I have never forgotten how, that summer, when the Herr Doctor did look in, did settle down a little to have the bristling page out with us, Wilky's share of the hour took on the spot the form of his turning at once upon our visitor the tables of earnest inquiry.",-2.754823687,0.526642552
a723851da,,,"What human insight and power could do to arm a people against the last extremities has been done with your patriotic help. The hostility which has been smoldering for a long time in the East and in the West has now burst into bright flames. The present situation did not proceed from transient conflicts of interest or diplomatic entanglements, it is the result of an ill will which has for many years been active against the strength and the prosperity of the German Empire. We are not incited by lust for conquest, we are inspired by the unyielding determination to keep for ourselves and all future generations the place which God has given us.
From the proofs which have been given you, you will see how my Government, and especially my Chancellor, strove up to the last moment to avert the worst. We grasp the sword in compulsory self-defense, with clean hands and a clean conscience.
To the peoples and races of the German Empire my call goes forth to defend with all their strength and in brotherly co-operation with our ally that which we have created by peaceful labor.",-2.712360513,0.546392134
1e04098af,,,"That task, we trust, will some day lie before us. When at last our victorious fleets and armies meet together, and the allied nations of East and West set themselves to restore the well-being of many millions of ruined homes, France and Great Britain will assuredly bring their large contributions of good-will and wisdom, but your country will have something to contribute which is all its own. It is not only because of your valor in war and your achievements in art, science, and letters that we rejoice to have you for allies and friends; it is for some quality in Russia herself, something both profound and humane, of which these achievements are the outcome and the expression.
You, like us, entered upon this war to defend a weak and threatened nation, which trusted you, against the lawless aggression of a strong military power; you, like us, have continued it as a war of self-defense and self-emancipation.",-1.746873455,0.47505471
739e1ece3,,,"On Aug. 22, 1914, the General commanding the Second Army, Herr von Bülow, imposed upon the City of Wavre a war levy of three million francs, to be paid before Sept. 1, as expiation for its unqualifiable behavior (contrary to the law of nations and the usages of war) in making a surprise attack on the German troops.
The General in command of the Second Army has just given to the General commanding this station of the Second Army the order to send in without delay, this contribution which it should pay on account of its conduct.
I order and command you to give to the bearer of the present letter the two first installments, that is to say, two million francs in gold.
Furthermore, I require that you give the bearer a letter, duly sealed with the seal of the city, stating that the balance, that is to say, one million francs, will be paid, without fail, on the 1st of September.",-2.76705717,0.556904547
018a010ed,,,"Following her remarkable success as a writer of short stories, Louisa M. Alcott was asked for a book. She said at first it was impossible, but repeated requests from her publishers brought from her the announcement that the only long story she could write would be about her own family. ""Little Women"" resulted, and, in erecting this House of Delight for young and old, Louisa Alcott built better than she knew. Her Jo has been the inspiration of countless girls, and the many-sidedness of her character is indicated by the widely diverging lines of endeavor which Jo's example has suggested to the girl readers of the story.
In the case of the two editors, both from early childhood found their inspiration in Jo. One, patterning after her idol, sought success in a stage career, beginning to ""act"" before a mirror, with a kitchen apron for a train and a buttonhook for a dagger. The other, always with a pencil in hand, first copied Jo by writing ""lurid tales"" for the weekly sensation papers, and later emerged into Newspaper Row.",-0.135336551,0.477352917
8d3b40b83,,,"After the death of the Princess Charlotte it was clearly important, for more than one reason, that the Duke of Kent should marry. From the point of view of the nation, the lack of heirs in the reigning family seemed to make the step almost obligatory; it was also likely to be highly expedient from the point of view of the Duke. To marry as a public duty, for the sake of the royal succession, would surely deserve some recognition from a grateful country. When the Duke of York had married, he had received a settlement of L25,000 a year. Why should not the Duke of Kent look forward to an equal sum? But the situation was not quite simple. There was the Duke of Clarence to be considered; he was the elder brother, and, if HE married, would clearly have the prior claim. On the other hand, if the Duke of Kent married, it was important to remember that he would be making a serious sacrifice: a lady was involved.",-0.63025114,0.48783248
a2fb656f7,,,"But the solidarity which you establish between German militarism and German culture, of which you and your colleagues claim to be the representatives, is a proof of the confusion of German conceptions.
To present Goethe, Beethoven, and Kant to the world you surround them with bayonets. In the same manner every tradesman and every merchant throughout Germany has got into the habit of saying: ""I have four million bayonets behind me!"" Your Emperor said to some tradesmen who complained of bad business: ""I must travel!"" And he went to Constantinople; he went to Tangier, after the speech at Bremen. In every one of his words, in each of his gestures, he affirmed the subordination of economic civilization to military civilization. He considered that it was his duty to open up markets and assert the value of German products with cannon and sword. Hence his formidable armaments, his perpetual threats which held all nations in a constant state of anxiety.
There is the deep and true cause of the war. And it is due entirely to your Emperor and his environment.",-2.624734335,0.549350392
77f123887,,,"But the question, Why are we at war? can be answered fairly well by anybody conversant with the facts of the European situation.
We are not at war because the Emperor, as war lord, has sent out word to his legions to begin a war of world-wide aggression, carrying into its vortex intellectual Germany, notwithstanding all her peaceful aspirations.
I may fairly claim to be a representative of that intellectual Germany which comes in now for a good deal of sympathy, but I must own that intellectual Germany, as far as I know about her, thoroughly approves of the Emperor's present policy.
She approves of it not on the principle merely ""Right or wrong, my country""; she does so because she knows that war has become inevitable, and that we must face that ordeal when we are ready for it, not at the moment most agreeable to our enemies.",-1.76263297,0.500423734
f674def91,,,"An army which has preserved the absurd parade schritt, an exercise which is painful to the bystander, as he feels that it is making fools of brave men, must have a tendency to throw back to earlier types. These Germans have been trained in peace and upon the theory of books. In all that vast host there is hardly a man who has stood at the wrong end of a loaded gun. They live on traditions of close formations, vast cavalry charges, and other things which will not fit into modern warfare. Braver men do not exist, but it is the bravery of men who have been taught to lean upon each other, and not the cold, self-contained, resourceful bravery of the man who has learned to fight for his own hand. The British have had the teachings of two recent campaigns fought with modern weapons—that of the Tirah and of South Africa. Now that the reserves have joined the colors there are few regiments which have not a fair sprinkling of veterans from these wars in their ranks.",-2.290895211,0.489210999
de5e426a8,,,"My children! My soldiers! No army in the history of the world was ever honored with a duty as sacred and as great as is yours. By fulfilling it, show that you are the worthy descendants of the Ottoman Armies that in the past made the world tremble, and make it impossible for any foe of our faith and country to tread on our ground, and disturb the peace of the sacred soil of Yemen, where the inspiring tomb of our prophet lies. Prove beyond doubt to the enemies of the country that there exist an Ottoman Army and Navy which know how to defend their faith, their country and their military honor, and how to defy death for their sovereign!
Right and loyalty are on our side, and hatred and tyranny on the side of our enemies, and therefore there is no doubt that the Divine help and assistance of the just God and the moral support of our glorious Prophet will be on our side to encourage us. I feel convinced that from this struggle we shall emerge as an empire that has made good the losses of the past and is once more glorious and powerful.",-1.642834699,0.485438398
f204303a7,,,"The German strategists are looking for a brief campaign. But they are mistaken. Even with the capture of Petrograd the war will have barely begun, for Petrograd is only the frontier of Russia.
Our troops are numerous and well equipped. The vastness of our country, her poor roads, and her severe climate are her defenses. The French frontier is strongly fortified. A quick surrender is unthinkable, and there is no reason for surrender, for the war will continue to the bitter end.
But a long campaign threatens Germany. She is a country with highly developed industry and with a tremendous foreign commerce, the breakdown of which cannot be compensated by any territorial conquest. A war of Germany against England, France, and Russia will stop her commerce entirely. It will be impossible for her to export her goods and to import foodstuffs. Her manufactures and her commerce will come to a deadlock, and unemployment will threaten her cities. All the victories of her army will be of no avail. If her enemies draw out the war for a year or two Germany will be exhausted.",-1.61345839,0.487205166
238ce2846,,,"Illustrious Sir: I have the honor to hand to your Royal Highness the letter by which his Majesty the Emperor of Russia has deigned to accredit me by his Majesty the King of Serbia.
My august master has charged me to express to you the vivid sympathy and the sincere admiration which his Majesty feels for the valiant people of Serbia, her heroic army, and her venerable chief.
Allow me to express to your Highness the joy that I feel in fulfilling the imperial commission today when your army has covered itself with immortal glory and has written in Serbian history the most beautiful page that a people may desire.
Separated by a long distance, but, attracted by the heart of her elder sister, Serbia may say that in this terrible struggle against an enemy, numerically stronger but morally weaker, she is not alone and will not be forsaken.
I pray that this conviction may double the unflinching courage of the Serbians and lead them always to new victories.",-2.63413666,0.483774283
d21637482,,,"An unprecedented situation has arisen for Russia. All the social classes of the empire are deeply interested in the repulse of the armies of the Kaiser. The working class is just as much interested in the existence of Russian industries as are the employers. The peasants are in no lesser degree interested in the development of agriculture; the killing of industries and agriculture like that committed by England in Ireland centuries ago is a gloomy prospect for all classes of society. If France and Belgium are threatened with a political oppression then Russia is threatened with an even more terrible economic subjugation. Such is the situation.
The poorest classes of the people are taking part in this fight with what they have, with their blood. It is but natural that they should expect that the material burdens of the war will fall not upon their shoulders, but upon big business.",-1.545126414,0.483250785
5fb11a4e9,,,"The Government has declared that during this war Greece is to remain neutral, but at the same time it did not conceal the fact that it has obligations toward one of the belligerents, Serbia, and that said obligation it was resolved to fulfill faithfully should the casus foederis arise.
Greece, however, wishes nothing more than that such an occasion should not arise, as it desires that the conflagration which is gradually enveloping Europe should not spread over the Balkans, whose peoples, after two wars, so much need rest.
So far as it depends upon the initiative of Greece, every one may be assured that the European conflagration will not spread in the Balkan Peninsula. And if its other peoples are inspired by the same thoughts, then we can feel sure that peace will be preserved in the Levant up to the end of the war.",-1.554428476,0.458488029
8d406094c,,,"I am sorry to hear that Bulgaria demands concessions from us. In exchange for her friendship she demands concessions in Macedonia. But in this case that cannot be called friendship.
Bulgaria demands this today because we are at war with Austria, and we cannot accordingly oppose her. But in doing this she simply betrays her weakness because it is a certain proof of weakness to strike one from behind while he is struggling with another. If Bulgaria is proud and strong she can measure herself with us as soon as the war with Austria is over. A strong Bulgaria must measure herself with the strong and not with the weak.
Why do people in Bulgaria today insist on concessions? Do you know how many difficulties there are today in the granting of such territorial concessions? You felt the pain of similar action. Silistria was taken from you while your army was victoriously marching on Constantinople. Do not insist on implanting deep in the Serbian heart a mortal hatred against yourselves.",-1.56567436,0.504831981
b5b6a8c91,,,"Then the causes of the war are summed up and the importance of the war for the industrial interests is outlined. The chief cause of the war is assigned to the irreconcilable economic conflict between the German and Russian interests created by commercial treaties favorable to Germany.
Victorious Russia should dictate her own economic programme to the defeated enemy. Without such a result all sacrifices made will be in vain, and will fall as a heavy and unbearable burden upon the shattered economic organization of the country.
The industrial interests desire a war to the finish, and they say:
""Let the Government know how to cultivate in the future among the people the conviction that the war will be brought to an end, then the task of finding the means for carrying on the campaign will be greatly facilitated; for no sacrifice is too great for us for the overthrow of the economic yoke of Germany and for the conquest of economic independence. Nothing but strong will and determination are needed.""",-2.467363877,0.511015194
cb3ba497c,,,"Four different loans are contemplated. Persons desiring to invest their savings at a small but sure interest rate will be able to buy the certificates at a 5 per cent. loan. These certificates will have a face value of 100 rubles, and they will sell at $90. The interest rate will not be changed within the next fifteen or twenty years. Therefore, the actual interest rate will be 5.56 per cent. on the original investment.
A 6 per cent. loan will cater to those investors who like to place their loans at shorter terms. The certificates of this loan will be sold at premiums. Five-year certificates will be sold at ninety-six for a hundred rubles face value, four-year certificates at ninety-seven, three-year certificates at ninety-eight, two-year certificates at ninety-nine, and one-year certificates at par. This loan will be free from the interest (coupon) tax, but not from the income and inheritance taxes. In case of success one billion worth of these certificates will be issued.",-2.292128032,0.507507964
844317999,,,"She broke off with a little shudder. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the room with a whirl of apologies for being late in making her appearance.
""I hope Vera has been amusing you?"" she said.
""She has been very interesting,"" said Framton.
""I hope you don't mind the open window,"" said Mrs. Sappleton briskly; ""my husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting, and they always come in this way. They've been out for snipe in the marshes today, so they'll make a fine mess over my poor carpets. So like you menfolk, isn't it?""
She rattled on cheerfully about the shooting and the scarcity of birds, and the prospects for duck in the winter. To Framton it was all purely horrible. He made a desperate but only partially successful effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic, he was conscious that his hostess was giving him only a fragment of her attention, and her eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window and the lawn beyond. It was certainly an unfortunate coincidence that he should have paid his visit on this tragic anniversary.",-0.528836259,0.462923888
a5bd668ac,,,"The reoccupation of Belgrade by the Serbians is one of those military feats which amount to historical phenomena. The Serbians not only contributed the greatest feat of the European war, as far as results are concerned, but won for themselves an immortal page in the world's history.
Greece alone has to show an analogous achievement, although greater, when she expelled the Persian invasion.
Only the achievements of Arhangelovatz, Ouzhitse, and Lazarevats can compare in a certain degree to the brilliancy of Marathon and Plateae. And the Serbian achievement appears all the more Hellenic if analogies are to be considered.
The Serbians, until yesterday a little people, with an army almost insignificant in face of the masses of the Austrian columns, submissive in times of peace, in the face of the most oppressive demands of Austrian diplomacy—considered like all the small peoples to be living at the mercy of the great—when the hour of supreme defense for altars and hearths struck, and in the face of an enemy threatening to swallow their country, they arose, terrible in their vengeance, and repeated the feat of the routing of Goliath by their small but invincible power.",-2.239869305,0.492306922
e1c477a9b,,,"Numerous trains bring hundreds of young wounded English, French, and Belgian soldiers. Many offices of the Red Cross are settled in the largest hotels of the city. Many citizens have asked to take some of the wounded into their homes. We are going to have several of them at our home. Mother is already preparing two rooms. She has moved Lili's bed into the kitchen. As for us, we are going to sleep in the armchairs. Lili talks of the war like a grown-up person, and so seriously! She also wants to take care of the wounded. She will divert them. She made dresses for all her dolls and put them to bed. She set on the table all the history books to interest the soldiers. Of course she will do the reading herself. Then she collected all the pieces of old sheets to make some lint out of them, but she will do that in the kitchen when the wounded are sleeping, so as not to worry them. If you were in Rouen now you would be proud of your god-child.",-0.565012179,0.475140355
b871693a9,,,"With the ending last year of a long and exhausting struggle which we conducted with incomparable self-denial, the Bulgarian people and my Government directed again their efforts toward the healing of the wounds of the recent past and the remodeling of the national forces, and likewise toward creating new resources and prosperity for the country.
Our common peaceful activity was interrupted by the breaking out of the greatest and most terrible of all wars that history has up to this day recorded. In face of this mighty struggle of the European nations my Government has deemed it its duty before the nation, and the course imposed on it, to declare the neutrality of Bulgaria and to maintain this attitude sternly and honestly according to international obligations and the interests of the fatherland.
Thanks to this process, my Government maintains good and friendly relations with all the great powers; has succeeded in giving to our relations with our neighbors a color of greater confidence, so necessary after the crisis of the last year, and in the midst of the events that lie heavy today on the whole of Europe.",-1.638582206,0.472898455
760ca04d2,,,"Our relations with Turkey have been strained for some months. But after the negotiations of Bucharest some agreement was reached regarding the refugees. Those in Europe will learn that the Greeks expelled two hundred thousand persons from Thrace and Asia Minor. One portion of them we have settled in the islands. Besides those there are about fifty thousand Turkish refugees—though not persecuted—in Macedonia. A mixed committee was to arrange the exchange of these refugees at the beginning of the war. As to the question of the ownership of the Aegean islands, the Hellenic Government considers the question settled from an international standpoint, not only by the treaties of London and Athens, but also by the unanimous decision of all the European powers.
The Government declared that it was ready to satisfy Turkey regarding this question, under the sine qua condition that the islands would continue to be occupied and administered by Greece in the same way as all the other provinces of the Hellenic Kingdom. After an exchange of views on the subject, it was decided that I should meet the Grand Vizier in Brussels, but the war prevented this.",-1.852132264,0.479963951
749fe0db5,,,"I employed all my efforts to prevent the second Balkan war, which, as is well known, was profitable to us. I repeatedly told the Bulgarians that they ought not to enter it because in that case we would enter it too. But I was not successful in my efforts.
During the second Balkan war I did all in my power to end it as quickly as possible. At the conference of Bucharest I made efforts, as Mr. Pashich and Mr. Venizelos know very well, to secure for beaten Bulgaria the best terms. My object was to obtain a new coalition of all the Balkan States, including Rumania. Had I succeeded in this the situation would be much better. No reasonable man will deny that the Balkan States are neutralizing each other at the present time, which in itself makes the whole situation all the more miserable.
In October, 1913, when I succeeded in facilitating the conclusion of peace between Greece and Turkey, I was pursuing the same object of the Balkan coalition.",-2.404343223,0.470685558
30399f8c6,,,"The following official statement on the tragic death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Duches [sic] Sophie of Hohenberg was issued tonight:
""As his imperial royal highness, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, with his consort, was proceeding this morning to a reception in the town hall of Sarajevo, a bomb was hurled at his motor car. His imperial royal highness warded off with his arm the bomb, which exploded after the archducal motor car had passed.
""Count Boos Waldeck and his aid-de-camp of the governor, Lieut. Col. Morizzi, who were in the next car, were wounded slightly.
""Of the public, six persons were injured, some slightly, some severely.
""The man who threw the bomb was arrested. He is a typographer named Cabrinovitch, from Trebinje.
""After the reception in the town hall the archduke continued with his consort on a drive through the town. A student, named Prinzip belonging to the highest class in the gymnasium and a native of Trahovo, fired several shots at the motor car with a Browning pistol.
""The archduke was hit in the face and the Duchess wounded by a shot in the abdomen. The archduke and duchess were taken to the governor's palace where they succumbed.",-2.18070991,0.480484414
bc891aeac,,,"He was very hungry, for he had not eaten all that day; so he did not waste much anger upon the tub, but took up the black loaf, and bit into it, and then spat out the bite, for the bread was hard and mouldy. Still he did not give way to his wrath, for he had not drunken these many hours; having a hope of heath beer or wine at his day's end, he had left the brooks untasted, to make his supper the more delightful. Now he put the jug to his lips, but he flung it from him straightway, for the water was bitter and ill-smelling. Then he gave the jug a kick, so that it broke against the opposite wall, and he took down the blanket to wrap it about him for the night. But no sooner did he touch it than it was alive with skipping fleas.",-0.961664543,0.450263092
59013983d,,,"At last the donkey grew so old that he was no longer of any use for work, and his master wished to get rid of him.
The donkey, fearing he might be killed, ran away.
He took the road to Bremen, where he had often heard the street band playing.
He liked music, so he thought he might join the band.
He had not gone far when he came upon an old dog.
The dog was panting, as if he had been running a long way.
""Why are you panting, my friend?"" asked the donkey.
""Ah,"" said the dog, ""I am too old for the hunt. My master wished to have me killed. So I ran away. But how I am to find bread and meat, I do not know.""
""Well,"" said the donkey, ""come with me. I am going to play in the band at Bremen. I think you and I can easily earn a living by music. I can play the lute, and you can play the kettledrum.""
The dog was quite willing, and so they be walked on.",0.573210593,0.507754599
20a9f9032,,,"The Government of the United States has viewed with growing concern the large number of vessels laden with American goods destined to neutral ports in Europe which have been seized on the high seas, taken into British ports, and detained sometimes for weeks by the British authorities. During the early days of the war this Government assumed that the policy adopted by the British Government was due to the unexpected outbreak of hostilities and the necessity of immediate action to prevent contraband from reaching the enemy.
For this reason it was not disposed to judge this policy harshly, or protest it vigorously, although it was manifestly very injurious to American trade with the neutral countries of Europe. This Government, relying confidently upon the high regard which Great Britain has so often exhibited in the past for the rights of other nations, confidently awaited amendment of a course of action which denied to neutral commerce the freedom to which it was entitled by the law of nations.",-1.391437764,0.499195409
cdb568fc5,,,"The strength of a student of men is to travel—to study men, their habits, character, mode of life, their behavior under varied conditions, their vices, virtues, and peculiarities. Begin with a careful observation of your fellow students and of your teachers; then, every patient you see is a lesson in much more than the malady from which he suffers. Mix as much as you possibly can with the outside world, and learn its ways. Cultivated systematically, the student societies, the students' union, the gymnasium, and the outside social circle will enable you to conquer the diffidence so apt to go with bookishness and which may prove a very serious drawback in after-life. I cannot too strongly impress upon the earnest and attentive men among you the necessity of overcoming this unfortunate failing in your student days. It is not easy for every one to reach a happy medium, and the distinction between a proper self-confidence and ""cheek,"" particularly in junior students, is not always to be made.",-1.942847944,0.483974972
9f8e4b6a8,,,"He was tall and broad; Hancock was small; yet he was sure there would be room. He sprang upon him like a wild animal. He felt the warm, thin throat yield and bend between his great hands ... then darkness, peace and rest, a nothingness that surely was the oblivion he had so long prayed for. He had accomplished his desire. He had secreted himself forever from persecution—inside the kindliest little man he had ever met—inside Hancock....
He opened his eyes and looked about him into a room he did not know. The walls were soft and dimly coloured. It was very silent. Cushions were everywhere. Peaceful it was, and out of the world. Overhead was a skylight, and one window, opposite the door, was heavily barred. Delicious! No one could get in. He was sitting in a deep and comfortable chair. He felt rested and happy. There was a click, and he saw a tiny window in the door drop down, as though worked by a sliding panel. Then the door opened noiselessly, and in came a little man with smiling face and soft brown eyes—Dr. Hancock.",-0.91332221,0.483585413
11160b307,,,"Yet Borrow was not actually born in East Dereham, but a mile and a half away, at the little hamlet of Dumpling Green, in what was then a glorious wilderness of common and furze bush, but is now a quiet landscape of fields and hedges. You will find the home in which the author of Lavengro first saw the light without much difficulty. It is a fair-sized farm-house, with a long low frontage separated from the road by a considerable strip of garden. It suggests a prosperous yeoman class, and I have known farm-houses in East Anglia not one whit larger dignified by the name of 'hall.' Nearly opposite is a pond. The trim hedges are a delight to us today, but you must cast your mind back to a century ago when they were entirely absent. The house belonged to George Borrow's maternal grandfather, Samuel Perfrement, who farmed the adjacent land at this time. Samuel and Mary Perfrement had eight children, the third of whom, Ann, was born in 1772.",-2.400624822,0.5282289
dda78146c,,,"In the presence of such dangers Thomas Lincoln spent his boyhood. He was born in 1778, and could not have been much more than four years old on that fatal day when in one swift moment his father lay dead beside him and vengeance had been exacted by his resolute boy brother. It was such experiences as these that made of the pioneers the sturdy men they were. They acquired habits of heroism. Their sinews became wiry; their nerves turned to steel. Their senses became sharpened. They grew alert, steady, prompt and deft in every emergency.
Of Mordecai Lincoln, the boy who had exhibited such coolness and daring on the day of his father's death, many stories are told after he reached manhood. ""He was naturally a man of considerable genius,"" says one who knew him. ""He was a man of great drollery. It would almost make you laugh to look at him. I never saw but one other man who excited in me the same disposition to laugh, and that was Artemus Ward.",-1.376693965,0.5108519
7d0ad080f,,,"Now that battle of Hook's Farm is, as I have explained, a simplification of the game, set out entirely to illustrate the method of playing; there is scarcely a battle that will not prove more elaborate (and eventful) than this little encounter. If a number of players and a sufficiently large room can be got, there is no reason why armies of many hundreds of soldiers should not fight over many square yards of model country. So long as each player has about a hundred men and three guns there is no need to lengthen the duration of a game on that account. But it is too laborious and confusing for a single player to handle more than that number of men.
Moreover, on a big floor with an extensive country it is possible to begin moving with moves double or treble the length here specified, and to come down to moves of the ordinary lengths when the troops are within fifteen or twelve or ten feet of each other.",-1.842262569,0.503967892
79426bd13,,,"If anybody looks at a picture by Claude Monet from the point of view of a Raphael, he will see nothing but a meaningless jargon of wild paint-strokes. And if anybody looks at a Raphael from the point of view of a Claude Monet, he will, no doubt, only see hard, tinny figures in a setting devoid of any of the lovely atmosphere that always envelops form seen in nature. So wide apart are some of the points of view in painting. In the treatment of form these differences in point of view make for enormous variety in the work. So that no apology need be made for the large amount of space occupied in the following pages by what is usually dismissed as mere theory; but what is in reality the first essential of any good practice in drawing. To have a clear idea of what it is you wish to do, is the first necessity of any successful performance. But our exhibitions are full of works that show how seldom this is the case in art.",-1.39689237,0.475001169
110d00bd7,,,"As he was grumbling at his lot, he kept wondering why it was that folks who had so much money were never satisfied but were always wanting more.
""Here,"" said he, ""is the master of this house—I know him well. He was always a good business man, and he made himself wondrously rich a long time ago. Had he been wise he would have stopped then. He would have turned over his business to some one else, and then he could have spent the rest of his life in ease. But what did he do instead? He built ships and sent them to sea to trade with foreign lands. He thought he would get mountains of gold.
""But there were great storms on the water; his ships were wrecked, and his riches were swallowed up by the waves. Now all his hopes lie at the bottom of the sea, and his great wealth has vanished.
""There are many such cases. Men seem to be never satisfied unless they gain the whole world.
""As for me, if I had only enough to eat and to wear, I would not want anything more.""
Just at that moment Fortune came down the street.",-0.554561822,0.488457533
c2013b87b,,,"Saint Augustin is now little more than a celebrated name. Outside of learned or theological circles people no longer read him. Such is true renown: we admire the saints, as we do great men, on trust. Even his Confessions are generally spoken of only from hearsay. By this neglect, is he atoning for the renewal of glory in which he shone during the seventeenth century, when the Jansenists, in their inveterate obstinacy, identified him with the defence of their cause? The reputation of sour austerity and of argumentative and tiresome prolixity which attaches to the remembrance of all the writers of Port-Royal, save Pascal—has that affected too the work of Augustin, enlisted in spite of himself in the ranks of these pious schismatics? And yet, if there have ever been any beings who do not resemble Augustin, and whom probably he would have attacked with all his eloquence and all the force of his dialectic, they are the Jansenists. Doubtless he would have said with contempt: ""The party of Jansen,"" even as in his own day, with his devotion to Catholic unity, he said: ""The party of Donatus.""",-2.578698123,0.566083201
a66fce0e1,,,"For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say ""I'm going to sleep."" And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between Francois I and Charles V. This impression would persist for some moments after I was awake; it did not disturb my mind, but it lay like scales upon my eyes and prevented them from registering the fact that the candle was no longer burning.",0.004845971,0.467796163
bc686ca91,,,"In turning over the old volumes of Punch it is surprising how many of the points made by du Maurier in his drawings and in the legends beneath them still hold good. As a mere ""joker"" he was perhaps the least able of the Punch staff. His influence began when he started inventing imaginary conversations. In many cases these do not represent the discussion of topical subjects at all, but deal with social aberrations, dated only in the illustration by the costume of the time.
In these imaginary conversations he is already a novelist. They record the strokes of finesse and the subterfuges necessary to the attainment of the vain ambitions which are the preoccupation of human genius in superficial levels of Society in all ages. We realise the waste of energy and diplomacy expended to score small points in the social game. His art is a mirror to weed-like qualities of human nature which enjoy a spring-time with every generation. But it also provides a remarkable record of the effect of the sudden replacement of old by new ideals in the world which it depicted.",-2.101864207,0.50343507
2eb7461d1,,,"No need to narrate the history of that voyage nor dwell upon the trivial particulars of our life on board. Suffice it to say that in mid-Atlantic our engines had a breakdown. The Peterhof came to a standstill.
If it has ever happened to you during a big voyage you will know that there is something portentous about the cessation of a steamer's machinery in mid-ocean. To be becalmed on a sailing ship may be boring: to be becalmed—if such an expression can be used on a steamer-is almost too odd to be boring. Day and night the engines have throbbed until their throbbing has penetrated into your very marrow, and when the throbbing abruptly dies you are sensible of a shock. When the Peterhof halted I ran up on deck as speedily as though we had had a collision. I saw, all round, nothing but sea, sea, sea, and it was far more amazing than if I had beheld an island or an iceberg or a raft of shipwrecked mariners, or any of the other picturesque phenomena which my fertile fancy had hastened to invent as an explanation for our stoppage.",-2.060765765,0.489807023
13819e702,,,"The Quadrangle Club, Chicago, September 30, '99. 
Your generous praise makes me rather shamefaced: you ought to keep it for something that counts. At least other people ought: you would find a bright ringing word, and the proportion of things would be kept. As for me, I am doing my best to keep the proportion of things, in the midst of no-standards and a dreary dingy fog-expanse of darkened counsel. Bah! here I am whining in my third sentence, and the purpose of this note was not to whine, but to thank you for heart new-taken. I take the friendly words (for I need them cruelly) and forget the inadequate occasion of them. I am looking forward with almost feverish pleasure to the new year, when I shall be among friendships which time and absence and half-estrangements have only made to shine with a more inward light; and when, so accompanied, I can make shift to think and live a little. Do not wait till then to say Welcome.
W.V.M.",-2.948082775,0.546932056
8ba9cbba5,,,"It was not a robust childhood. The new baby managed to go through the winter—a matter of comment among the family and neighbors. Added strength came, but slowly; ""Little Sam,"" as they called him, was always delicate during those early years.
It was a curious childhood, full of weird, fantastic impressions and contradictory influences, stimulating alike to the imagination and that embryo philosophy of life which begins almost with infancy. John Clemens seldom devoted any time to the company of his children. He looked after their comfort and mental development as well as he could, and gave advice on occasion. He bought a book now and then—sometimes a picture-book—and subscribed for Peter Parley's Magazine, a marvel of delight to the older children, but he did not join in their amusements, and he rarely, or never, laughed. Mark Twain did not remember ever having seen or heard his father laugh. The problem of supplying food was a somber one to John Clemens; also, he was working on a perpetual-motion machine at this period, which absorbed his spare time, and, to the inventor at least, was not a mirthful occupation.",-1.365825269,0.486391456
04917fcad,,,"I know of no savage custom or habit of thought which has not its mate in civilized countries. For every mischievous or absurd practice of the natural man I can name you one of ours that is essentially the same. And nearly every custom of our barbarian ancestors in historic times persists in some form today. We make ourselves look formidable in battle--for that matter, we fight. Our women paint their faces. We feel it obligatory to dress more or less alike, inventing the most ingenious reasons for doing so and actually despising and persecuting those who do not care to conform. Almost within the memory of living persons bearded men were stoned in the streets; and a clergyman in New York who wore his beard as Christ wore his, was put into jail and variously persecuted till he died.",-1.93576523,0.483318898
c03989140,,,"It was on the morning of the second day that the first link was forged in what was destined to form a chain of circumstances ending in a life for one then unborn such as has never been paralleled in the history of man.
Two sailors were washing down the decks of the Fuwalda, the first mate was on duty, and the captain had stopped to speak with John Clayton and Lady Alice.
The men were working backwards toward the little party who were facing away from the sailors. Closer and closer they came, until one of them was directly behind the captain. In another moment he would have passed by and this strange narrative would never have been recorded.
But just that instant the officer turned to leave Lord and Lady Greystoke, and, as he did so, tripped against the sailor and sprawled headlong upon the deck, overturning the water-pail so that he was drenched in its dirty contents.",-1.407267637,0.503465239
4444b764e,,,"But Edwin, suddenly stopped by what he saw, was drawing the bowstring on a fitted arrow. He had paused on the brink of a crevasse in the embankment. An ancient culvert had here washed out, and the stream, no longer confined, had cut a passage through the fill. On the opposite side, the end of a rail projected and overhung. It showed rustily through the creeping vines which overran it. Beyond, crouching by a bush, a rabbit looked across at him in trembling hesitancy. Fully fifty feet was the distance, but the arrow flashed true; and the transfixed rabbit, crying out in sudden fright and hurt, struggled painfully away into the brush. The boy himself was a flash of brown skin and flying fur as he bounded down the steep wall of the gap and up the other side. His lean muscles were springs of steel that released into graceful and efficient action. A hundred feet beyond, in a tangle of bushes, he overtook the wounded creature, knocked its head on a convenient tree-trunk, and turned it over to Granser to carry.",-1.38205048,0.467422474
939323ac0,,,"It was not, however, until the morning that we entered the harbor of Havre that I was able to shake off my gloom. Then the strange sights, the chatter in an unfamiliar tongue and the excitement of landing and passing the customs officials caused me to forget completely the events of a few days before. Indeed, I grew so light-hearted that when I caught my first sight of the train which was to take us to Paris, I enjoyed a hearty laugh. The toy-looking engine, the stuffy little compartment cars with tiny, old-fashioned wheels, struck me as being extremely funny. But before we reached Paris my respect for our train rose considerably. I found that the ""tiny"" engine made remarkably fast time, and that the old-fashioned wheels ran very smoothly. I even began to appreciate the ""stuffy"" cars for their privacy. As I watched the passing scenery from the car window it seemed too beautiful to be real. The bright-colored houses against the green background impressed me as the work of some idealistic painter.",-0.841382898,0.458997217
3acfca44f,,,"It must not be supposed that, in setting forth the memories of this half-hour between the moment my uncle left my room till we met again at dinner, I am losing sight of ""Almayer's Folly."" Having confessed that my first novel was begun in idleness--a holiday task--I think I have also given the impression that it was a much-delayed book. It was never dismissed from my mind, even when the hope of ever finishing it was very faint. Many things came in its way: daily duties, new impressions, old memories. It was not the outcome of a need--the famous need of self-expression which artists find in their search for motives. The necessity which impelled me was a hidden, obscure necessity, a completely masked and unaccountable phenomenon. Or perhaps some idle and frivolous magician (there must be magicians in London) had cast a spell over me through his parlour window as I explored the maze of streets east and west in solitary leisurely walks without chart and compass. Till I began to write that novel I had written nothing but letters, and not very many of these.",-2.911821912,0.512857812
cc1fbba1c,,,"As to the scene, it must be remembered that the Egypt of those days was not Egyptian as we understand the word, but rather Greek. Cleopatra herself was of Greek descent. The kingdom of Egypt had been created by a general of Alexander the Great after that splendid warrior's death. Its capital, the most brilliant city of the Greco-Roman world, had been founded by Alexander himself, who gave to it his name. With his own hands he traced out the limits of the city and issued the most peremptory orders that it should be made the metropolis of the entire world. The orders of a king cannot give enduring greatness to a city; but Alexander's keen eye and marvelous brain saw at once that the site of Alexandria was such that a great commercial community planted there would live and flourish throughout out succeeding ages. He was right; for within a century this new capital of Egypt leaped to the forefront among the exchanges of the world's commerce, while everything that art could do was lavished on its embellishment.",-0.802384727,0.463991552
1f67575c0,,,"Thus Wolsey is to be estimated by what he chose to do rather than by what he did. He was greater than his achievements. Yet Wolsey's greatness did not rise beyond the conditions of his own age, and he left no legacy of great thought or high endeavour. The age in which he lived was not one of lofty aspirations or noble aims; but it was one of large designs and restless energy. No designs were cast in so large a mould as were those of Wolsey; no statesman showed such skill as he did in weaving patiently the web of diplomatic intrigue. His resources were small, and he husbanded them with care. He had a master who only dimly understood his objects, and whose personal whims and caprices had always to be conciliated. He was ill supplied with agents. His schemes often failed in detail; but he was always ready to gather together the broken threads and resume his work without repining. In a time of universal restlessness and excitement Wolsey was the most plodding, the most laborious, and the most versatile of those who laboured at statecraft.",-2.483672957,0.54386488
7.88E+06,,,"After a winter in the town, to be dropped thus suddenly into the intense quiet of the country-side makes an almost ghostly impression upon one, as of an enchanted silence, a silence that listens and watches but never speaks, finger on lip. There is a spectral quality about everything upon which the eye falls: the woods, like great green clouds, the wayside flowers, the still farm-houses half lost in orchard bloom—all seem to exist in a dream. Everything is so still, everything so supernaturally green. Nothing moves or talks, except the gentle susurrus of the spring wind swaying the young buds high up in the quiet sky, or a bird now and again, or a little brook singing softly to itself among the crowding rushes.
Though, from the houses one notes here and there, there are evidently human inhabitants of this green silence, none are to be seen. I have often wondered where the countryfolk hide themselves, as I have walked hour after hour, past farm and croft and lonely door-yards, and never caught sight of a human face.",-1.560953864,0.497366767
99f325daa,,,"Frederick Fleet, who was lookout in the crow's nest of the Titanic when the giant liner smashed into the iceberg, made oath that not a single lookout on the Titanic was provided with marine glasses and declared that had his request for such glasses in Southampton not been refused the Titanic might yet be afloat. ""I could easily have sighted the iceberg with marine glasses in plenty of time to have the vessel steered out of the way."" said Fleet, and gave in detail the request he made in Southampton for them. Although all other liners are so provided, Fleet swore, his request was flatly refused and he was told there were no glasses for him.
Third Officer Pittman admitted that the Titanic had been warned that icebergs were prevalent, but said he did not see any on the Sunday of the disaster. He declared that in his 14 years' experience he had seen only one iceberg before.",-0.952408653,0.492455298
3689baf1b,,,"At 8:30 this morning, a brief wireless saying that the Titanic was still afloat and proceeding under her own steam was picked up. The White Star office in New York issued an official statement that it would be impossible for the Titanic to sink, no matter how badly she might have been injured. Shortly after 9 o'clock, a message was received that the Carpathia, the Parisian and the Virginian were ""standing by"" the stricken ship, and that the Baltic was coming up fast. Shortly afterwards came another message saying that the transfer of the passengers had been begun. The first boat loads were rowed to the Carpathia. The life boats of the Titanic represent the last word in safety. They are wide, and non-sinkable. Each can hold 50 passengers. Only 35 were taken at a time today, however. The work of transferring passengers at sea always is full of danger. It was less so today than usual. The wind had died down to nothing at all. The sea was comparatively quiet.",-0.115975286,0.478320906
ee51de65a,,,"When I was a child seven years old, my friends on a holiday filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children, and, being charmed with the sound of a whistle that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I then ran home and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers and sisters and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so much for my folly that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure. This, however, was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing on my mind; so that often when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, ""Don't give too much for the whistle"";' and I saved my money.",-0.396491431,0.478603147
0a78456fc,,,"When I was a little boy, I remember, one cold winter morning, I was accosted by a smiling man with an ax on his shoulder. ""My pretty boy,"" said he, ""has your father a grindstone?""
""Yes, sir,"" said I.
""You are a fine little fellow!"" said he. ""Will you, let me grind my ax on it?""
Pleased with the compliment of ""fine little fellow,"" ""Oh, yes, sir,"" I answered. ""It is down in the shop.""
""And will you, my man,"" said he, patting me on the head, ""get me a little hot water?""
How could I refuse? I ran, and soon brought a kettleful.
""How old are you - and what's your name?"" continued he, without waiting for a reply. ""I'm sure you are one of the finest lads that I have ever seen. Will you just turn a few minutes for me?""",0.145801428,0.51735634
848113fa7,,,"There is the national flag. He must be cold indeed who can look upon its folds, rippling in the breeze, without pride of country. If he be in a foreign land, the flag is companionship and country itself, with all its endearments. Its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes. It is because it represents all, that all gaze at it with delight and reverence. It is a piece of bunting lifted in the air; but it speaks sublimely, and every part has a voice. Its stripes of alternate red and white proclaim the original union of thirteen states to maintain the Declaration of Independence. Its stars of white on a field of blue proclaim that union of states constituting our national constellation, which receives a new star with every new state. The two together signify union past and present. The very colors have a language which was officially recognized by our fathers. White is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice; and all together, bunting, stripes, stars, and colors, blazing in the sky, make the flag of our country to be cherished by all our hearts, to be upheld by all our hands.",-1.849974037,0.490680569
d544d01c7,,,"There was once a very lazy boy. And when everybody else had planted out his paddy, he was only setting forth to plough. But the old man of the season, seeing him, said ""The season has gone; what are you ploughing for now? The paddy is all planted out, and it is late."" But the boy would not listen to him, and ploughed sturdily ahead, beating his cattle soundly as he went. And when the old man again and again questioned him, he cried, ""What sort of old man is this? Can he not see that I am busy? I know very well what I am about."" But the old man said gently, ""Nay, my son: but it is for your good that I would speak to you.""
And the boy said ""Speak quickly then, and have done with it."" And the old man said, ""My son, the season is gone; what avails it to plough now?"" And then the boy cried ""Where has it gone? And when has it gone? And why has it gone? And how shall I find it?"" But the old man of the season said, ""You should have ploughed when others did.""",-0.754267857,0.458384717
ed6292c31,,,"""Jimmy,"" our young black bear, was known to every child in the neighborhood. If a children's vote had been taken for the most popular animal in the county, Jimmy would have been unanimously elected. If the grown people had held the election, however, it is certain that there would have been some votes against him. For example, when one of our neighbors came home one night, got into bed in the dark, and unwittingly kicked a bear cub that had climbed in at a window earlier in the evening, of course he had his toes nipped. That man would never have voted for Jimmy. Neither would the farmer's wife he met one evening coming from the barn with a pail of new milk. The weather was warm, Jimmy was thirsty, and he was particularly fond of new milk. So he stood on his hind legs, threw his arms around the pail, and sucked up half the contents before the good woman had recovered from her astonishment. But with the children he was a great favorite. He was one of them, and they understood him.",-0.092494139,0.460312535
eecfb12bc,,,"They must, I think, be read in the light of this youthful explosion. In some psychological sense he had really been wronged. But he had only become conscious of his wrongs as his wrongs had been gradually righted. Similarly, it has often been found that a man who can patiently endure penal servitude through a judicial blunder will nevertheless, when once his cause is well asserted, quarrel about the amount of compensation or complain of small slights in his professional existence. These are the marks of the first literary action of Dickens. It has in it all the peculiar hardness of youth; a hardness which in those who have in any way been unfairly treated reaches even to impudence. It is a terrible thing for any man to find out that his elders are wrong. And this almost unkindly courage of youth must partly be held responsible for the smartness of Dickens, that almost offensive smartness which in these earlier books of his sometimes irritates us like the showy gibes in the tall talk of a school-boy.",-3.52967539,0.586590067
bbe7b53ea,,,"The cabin faced a level plain with no tree in sight. A mile away to the west stood a low stone house, and immediately in front of us opened a half-section of unfenced sod. To the north, as far as I could see, the land billowed like a russet ocean, with scarcely a roof to fleck its lonely spread. I cannot say that I liked or disliked it. I merely marveled at it; and while I wandered about the yard, the hired man scorched some cornmeal mush in a skillet, and this, with some butter and gingerbread, made up my first breakfast in Mitchell County. For a few days my brother and I had little to do other than to keep the cattle from straying, and we used our leisure in becoming acquainted with the region round about. To the south the sections were nearly all settled upon, for in that direction lay the county town; but to the north and on into Minnesota rolled the unplowed sod, the feeding ground of the cattle, the home of foxes and wolves, and to the west, just beyond the highest ridges, we loved to think the bison might still be seen.",-0.987045844,0.46566815
5687e706c,,,"Wendy was married in white with a pink sash. It is strange to think that Peter did not alight in the church and forbid the banns. Years rolled on again, and Wendy had a daughter. This ought not to be written in ink but in a golden splash. She was called Jane, and always had an odd inquiring look, as if from the moment she arrived on the mainland she wanted to ask questions. When she was old enough to ask them they were mostly about Peter Pan. She loved to hear of Peter, and Wendy told her all she could remember in the very nursery from which the famous flight had taken place. It was Jane's nursery now, for her father had bought it at the three per cents from Wendy's father, who was no longer fond of stairs. Mrs. Darling was now dead and forgotten. There were only two beds in the nursery now, Jane's and her nurse's; and there was no kennel, for Nana also had passed away.",-0.938611338,0.462434321
ceef3ac27,,,"Once, when I was returning from a hunt, with an empty gun (having used all my ammunition), a raging wild boar rushed at me. Well, you know how unpleasant such an encounter may be, so I am sure none of you will think me a coward for hastily climbing the nearest tree; it was a young birch which could hardly bear my weight. The boar made a dash for the tree, but was a moment too late, for I had just drawn my legs out of his reach. But so violent was his rush that his tusks went through the trunk of the tree and projected an inch through the other side. I slid down the tree, picked up a stone the size of my fist, and riveted down the projecting points of the tusks. You can imagine what a narrow escape I had when I tell you that the beast weighed five tons—a good deal for a wild boar.""",0.260860865,0.513073791
bb12c1dce,,,"When I was a boy, my grandfather frequently told a story concerning a dog which he knew, as an example of true fidelity. This animal was a mastiff that belonged to a friend, Mr. Prideaux, to whom it was a constant companion. Whenever Mr. Prideaux went out for a walk, Turk was sure to be near his heels. Street dogs would bark and snarl at the giant as his massive form attracted their attention, but Turk seldom noticed them. At night he slept outside his master's door, and no sentry could be more alert upon his watch than the faithful dog. One day Mr. Prideaux had a dinner party. The dog Turk was present, and stretched his huge form upon the hearthrug. It was a cold night in winter, and Mr. Prideaux's friends after dinner began to discuss the subject of dogs.",0.340046313,0.511747621
9cac2cf65,,,"About the middle of the afternoon we crossed a low, rocky ridge, and saw at our feet a basin, or round valley, of singular beauty. Its walls were formed by steep mountains. At its upper end lay a small lake, bordered on one side by a meadow of emerald green. The lake's other side marked the edge of the frowning pine forest which filled the rest of the valley. Beyond the lake the ground rose in a pass much frequented by game in bygone days, their trails lying along it in thick zigzags, each gradually fading out after a few hundred yards, and then starting again in a little different place, as game trails so often seem to do. We bent our steps toward these trails, and no sooner had we reached the first than the old hunter bent over it with a sharp exclamation of wonder. There in the dust, apparently but a few hours old, were the hoof-marks of a small band of bison. They were headed toward the lake. There had been half a dozen animals in the party; one a big bull, and two calves.",-0.712406469,0.47664846
b5944cff3,,,"No boy can afford to neglect his work, and, with a boy, work as a rule means study. A boy should work, and should work hard, at his lessons—in the first place, for the sake of what he will learn, and in the next place, for the sake of the effect upon his own character of resolutely settling down to learn it. Shiftlessness, slackness, indifference in studying are almost certain to mean inability to get on in other walks of life. I do not believe in mischief-doing in school hours, or in the kind of animal spirits that results in making bad scholars; and I believe that those boys who take part in rough, hard play outside of school will not find any need for horseplay in school. While they study they should study just as hard as they play football. It is wise to obey the homely old adage, ""Work while you work; play while you play.""",-0.621882387,0.475650689
295ac0a69,,,"To this the mason made no objection. So, being hoodwinked, he was led by the stranger through various rough lanes and winding passages until they stopped before the portal of a house. The stranger then applied a key, turned a creaking lock, and opened what sounded like a ponderous door. They entered; the door was closed and bolted, and the mason was conducted through an echoing corridor and a spacious hall to an interior part of the building. Here the bandage was removed from his eyes, and he found himself in a court dimly lighted by a single lamp. In the center was the dry basin of an old fountain, under which the stranger requested him to form a small vault, bricks and mortar being at hand for the purpose. He worked all night, but without finishing the job. Just before daybreak the stranger put a piece of gold into his hand, and having again blindfolded him, conducted him back to his dwelling.",-1.319814571,0.446459806
7a170ca45,,,"The widow ran away like a lively schoolgirl. All the sisters watched her get into the sleigh with the deacon, and resumed the previous discussion with greatly increased interest. But little recked the widow and less recked the deacon. He had bought a new horse and he wanted the widow's opinion of it, for the Widow Stimson was a competent judge of fine horseflesh. If Deacon Hawkins had one insatiable ambition it was to own a horse which could fling its heels in the face of the best that Squire Hopkins drove. In his early manhood the deacon was no deacon by a great deal. But as the years gathered in behind him he put off most of the frivolities of youth and held now only to the one of driving a fast horse. No other man in the county drove anything faster except Squire Hopkins, and him the deacon had not been able to throw the dust over. The deacon would get good ones, but somehow never could he find one that the squire didn't get a better.",-1.215729655,0.459230242
e073edd52,,,"I've plucked the berry from the bush, the brown nut from the tree, But heart of happy little bird ne'er broken was by me. I saw them in their curious nests, close couching, slyly peer with their wild eyes, like glittering beads, to note if harm were near; I passed them by, and blessed them all; I felt that it was good to leave unmoved the creatures small whose home was in the wood. And here, even now, above my head, a lusty rogue doth sing; He pecks his swelling breast and neck, and trims his little wing. He will not fly; he knows full well, while chirping on that spray, I would not harm him for a world, or interrupt his lay. Sing on, sing on, blithe bird! and fill my heart with summer gladness; It has been aching many a day with measures full of sadness!",-2.665929152,0.508038655
67a624b4a,,,"The wintry sharpness of the air was tempered now by a sun that topped the wooded ridges and blazed with a luxurious warmth upon the world of lake and forest below; loons flew skimming through the sparkling spray that the wind lifted; divers shook their dripping heads to the sun and popped smartly out of sight again; and as far as eye could reach rose the leagues of endless, crowding bush, desolate in its lonely sweep and grandeur, untrodden by foot of man, and stretching its mighty and unbroken carpet right up to the frozen shores of Hudson Bay. Simpson, who saw it all for the first time as he paddled hard in the bows of the dancing canoe, was enchanted by its austere beauty. His heart drank in the sense of freedom and great spaces just as his lungs drank in the cool and perfumed wind. Behind him in the stern seat, singing fragments of his native chanties, Défago steered the craft of birch bark like a thing of life, answering cheerfully all his companion's questions.",-1.638060996,0.481336514
ac80c7a70,,,"Our drill, that provided for lowering the boats with only half-complements in them, will not serve. We pass orders to lower away in any condition, however overcrowded. The way is off the ship, and it is with some apprehension we watch the packed boats that drop away from the davit heads. The shrill ring of the block-sheaves indicates a tension that is not far from breaking-point. Many of the life-boats reach the water safely with their heavy burdens, but the strain on the tackles — far beyond their working load — is too great for all to stand to it. Two boats go down by the run. The men in them are thrown violently to the water, where they float in the wash and shattered planking. A third dangles from the after fall, having shot her manning out at parting of the forward tackle. Lowered by the stern, she rights, disengages, and drifts aft with the men clinging to the life-lines. We can make no attempt to reach the men in the water.",-1.888094473,0.457945836
fd2db0ba0,,,"There was one thing which Flambeau, with all his dexterity of disguise, could not cover, and that was his singular height. If Valentin's quick eye had caught a tall apple-woman, a tall grenadier, or even a tolerably tall duchess, he might have arrested them on the spot. But all along his train there was nobody that could be a disguised Flambeau, any more than a cat could be a disguised giraffe. About the people on the boat he had already satisfied himself; and the people picked up at Harwich or on the journey limited themselves with certainty to six. There was a short railway official travelling up to the terminus, three fairly short market gardeners picked up two stations afterwards, one very short widow lady going up from a small Essex town, and a very short Roman Catholic priest going up from a small Essex village. When it came to the last case, Valentin gave it up and almost laughed.",-1.415263484,0.474479549
5fb16607b,,,"Without being actually afraid of mice, Theodoric classed them among the coarser incidents of life, and considered that Providence, with a little exercise of moral courage, might long ago have recognized that they were not indispensable, and have withdrawn them from circulation. As the train glided out of the station Theodoric's nervous imagination accused himself of exhaling a weak odor of stable yard, and possibly of displaying a moldy straw or two on his unusually well-brushed garments. Fortunately the only other occupation of the compartment, a lady of about the same age as himself, seemed inclined for slumber rather than scrutiny; the train was not due to stop till the terminus was reached, in about an hour's time, and the carriage was of the oId-fashioned sort that held no communication with a corridor, therefore no further traveling companions were likely to intrude on Theodoric's semiprivacy. And yet the train had scarcely attained its normal speed before he became reluctantly but vividly aware that he was not alone with the slumbering lady; he was not even alone in his own clothes.",-2.955537104,0.612663778
f76edaa28,,,"Amory is that science of which the rules and the laws govern the use, display, meaning, and knowledge of the pictured signs and emblems appertaining to shield, helmet, or banner. Heraldry has a wider meaning, for it comprises everything within the duties of a herald; and whilst Armory undoubtedly is Heraldry, the regulation of ceremonials and matters of pedigree, which are really also within the scope of Heraldry, most decidedly are not Armory. ""Armory"" relates only to the emblems and devices. ""Armoury"" relates to the weapons themselves as weapons of warfare, or to the place used for the storing of the weapons. But these distinctions of spelling are modern. The word ""Arms,"" like many other words in the English language, has several meanings, and at the present day is used in several senses. It may mean the weapons themselves; it may mean the limbs upon the human body. Even from the heraldic point of view it may mean the entire achievement, but usually it is employed in reference to the device upon the shield only.",-2.042323075,0.480501425
501311b2c,,,"For a moment Vashti felt lonely. Then she generated the light, and the sight of her room, flooded with radiance and studded with electric buttons, revived her. There were buttons and switches everywhere — buttons to call for food, for music, for clothing. There was the hot-bath button, by pressure of which a basin of (imitation) marble rose out of the floor, filled to the brim with a warm deodorized liquid. There was the cold-bath button. There was the button that produced literature, and there were of course the buttons by which she communicated with her friends. The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world. Vashti's next move was to turn off the isolation switch, and all the accumulations of the last three minutes burst upon her. The room was filled with the noise of bells, and speaking-tubes. What was the new food like? Could she recommend it? Has she had any ideas lately? Might one tell her one's own ideas? Would she make an engagement to visit the public nurseries at an early date — say this day month?",-1.243428618,0.496277102
c7d75f3b3,,,"I remember one splendid morning, all blue and silver, in the summer holidays when I reluctantly tore myself away from the task of doing nothing in particular, and put on a hat of some sort and picked up a walking-stick, and put six very bright-coloured chalks in my pocket. I then went into the kitchen (which, along with the rest of the house, belonged to a very square and sensible old woman in a Sussex village), and asked the owner and occupant of the kitchen if she had any brown paper. She had a great deal; in fact, she had too much; and she mistook the purpose and the rationale of the existence of brown paper. She seemed to have an idea that if a person wanted brown paper he must be wanting to tie up parcels; which was the last thing I wanted to do; indeed, it is a thing which I have found to be beyond my mental capacity.",-0.102268805,0.499562355
c7597befb,,,"All morning there had been a little gathering of people outside the gate. The funeral coach came, and a very small thing was placed in it and covered with flowers. One plant of the wallflower in the garden would have covered it. The coach took the road to Dorking, followed by a few others, and in a moment or two all seemed silent and deserted, the cottage, the garden, and Box Hill. The cottage was not deserted, as they knew who now trooped into the round in front of it, their eyes on the closed door. They were the mighty company, his children, — Lucy and Clara and Rhoda and Diana and Rose and old Mel and Roy Richmond and Adrian and Sir Willoughby and a hundred others, and they stood in line against the box-wood, waiting for him to come out. Each of his women carried a flower, and the hands of all his men were ready for the salute.",-0.739039881,0.446990529
1f872b544,,,"An oil painting caught and held him. A heavy surf thundered and burst over an outjutting rock; lowering storm-clouds covered the sky; and, outside the line of surf, a pilot-schooner, close-hauled, heeled over till every detail of her deck was visible, was surging along against a stormy sunset sky. There was beauty, and it drew him irresistibly. He forgot his awkward walk and came closer to the painting, very close. The beauty faded out of the canvas. His face expressed his bepuzzlement. He stared at what seemed a careless daub of paint, then stepped away. Immediately all the beauty flashed back into the canvas. ""A trick picture,"" was his thought, as he dismissed it, though in the midst of the multitudinous impressions he was receiving he found time to feel a prod of indignation that so much beauty should be sacrificed to make a trick. He did not know painting. He had been brought up on chromos and lithographs that were always definite and sharp, near or far. He had seen oil paintings, it was true, in the show windows of shops, but the glass of the windows had prevented his eager eyes from approaching too near.",-1.494777161,0.46108872
273a8a326,,,"At 9 o'clock the President, Kid Mullaly, paced upon the floor with a lady on his arm. As the Loreleys was her hair golden. Her ""yes"" was softened to a ""yah,"" but its quality of assent was patent to the most Milesian ears. She stepped upon her own train and blushed, and—she smiled into the eyes of Kid Mullaly. And then, as the two stood in the middle of the waxed floor, the thing happened to prevent which many lamps are burning nightly in many studies and libraries. Out from the circle of spectators in the hall leaped Fate in a green silk skirt, under the nom de guerre of ""Liz."" Her eyes were hard and blacker than jet. She did not scream or waver. Most surprisingly, she cried out one oath—the Kid's own favorite oath—and in his own deep voice; and then while the Small Hours Social Club went frantically to pieces, she made good her boast to Tommy, the waiter—made good as far as the length of her knife blade and the strength of her arm permitted. And next came the primal instinct of self-preservation—or was it self-annihilation, the instinct that society has grafted on the natural branch?",-2.097133615,0.511955213
79eb821f1,,,"This valley, two or three miles broad, stretches unbroken between low hills, softly undulating, crowned with oaks, maples, and birches. Although strewn with wild-flowers in the spring, it looks severe, grave, and sometimes even sad. The green grass imparts to it a monotony like that of stagnant water. Even on fine days one is conscious of a hard, cold climate. The sky seems more genial than the earth. It beams upon it with a tearful smile; it constitutes all the movement, the grace, the exquisite charm of this delicate tranquil landscape. Then when winter comes the sky merges with the earth in a kind of chaos. Fogs come down thick and clinging. The white light mists, which in summer veil the bottom of the valley, give place to thick clouds and dark moving mountains, but slowly scattered by a red, cold sun. Wanderers ranging the uplands in the early morning might dream with the mystics in their ecstasy that they are walking on clouds.",-1.413449161,0.473859601
9a9f08677,,,"Thus I was not alone; here was good company and plenty of it. I never lack a companion in the woods when I can pick up a trail. The 'possum and I ate together. And this was just the fellowship I needed, this sharing the persimmons with the 'possum. I had broken bread, not with the 'possum only, but with all the out-of-doors. I was now fit to enter the woods, for I was filled with good-will and persimmons, as full as the 'possum; and putting myself under his gentle guidance, I got down upon the ground, took up his clumsy trail, and descended toward the swamp. Such an entry is one of the particular joys of the winter. To go in with a fox, a mink, or a 'possum through the door of the woods is to find yourself at home. Any one can get inside the out-of-doors, as the grocery boy or the census man gets inside our houses. You can bolt in at any time on business. A trail, however, is Nature's invitation.",-1.671130915,0.473728002
95ab43828,,,"The Northern forests are silent enough in winter time, but the silence of the Barren Grounds is far more profound. Even in the depths of midwinter the North-Western bush has voices and is full of animal life. The barking cry of the crows (these birds are the greatest imaginable nuisance to the trapper, whose baits they steal even before his back is turned) is still heard; the snow-birds and other small winged creatures are never quiet between sunset and sunrise; the jack-rabbit, whose black bead-like eye betrays his presence among the snow-drifts in spite of his snow-white fur, is common enough; and the childlike wailing of the coyotes is heard every night. But with the exception of the shriek of the snow-owl or the yelping of a fox emerged from his lair, there is no sound of life during seven or eight or nine months of winter on the Barren Grounds; unless the traveller is able to hear the rushing sound—some can hear it, others cannot—of the shifting Northern lights.
In May, however, when the snows melt and the swamps begin to thaw, the Barren Grounds become full of life.",-1.265389818,0.477276556
85af75ab8,,,"At the man's heels trotted a dog, a big native husky, the proper wolf-dog, gray-coated and without any visible or temperamental difference from its brother, the wild wolf. The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold. It knew that it was no time for travelling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment. In reality, it was not merely colder than fifty below zero; it was colder than sixty below, than seventy below. It was seventy-five below zero. Since the freezing-point is thirty-two above zero, it meant that one hundred and seven degrees of frost obtained. The dog did not know anything about thermometers. Possibly in its brain there was no sharp consciousness of a condition of very cold such as was in the man's brain. But the brute had its instinct. It experienced a vague but menacing apprehension that subdued it and made it slink along at the man's heels, and that made it question eagerly every unwanted movement of the man as if expecting him to go into camp or to seek shelter somewhere and build a fire.",-1.093147648,0.473896447
69dd3889b,,,"A brown little face, with whiskers. A grave round face, with the same twinkle in its eye that had first attracted his notice. Small neat ears and thick silky hair. It was the Water Rat! Then the two animals stood and regarded each other cautiously. ""Hullo, Mole!"" said the Water Rat. ""Hullo, Rat!"" said the Mole. ""Would you like to come over?"" enquired the Rat presently. ""Oh, its all very well to TALK,"" said the Mole, rather pettishly, he being new to a river and riverside life and its ways.The rat said nothing, but stooped and unfastened a rope and hauled on it; then lightly stepped into a little boat which the mole had not observed. It was painted blue outside and white within, and was just the size for two animals; and the mole's whole heart went out to it at once, even though he did not yet fully understand its uses.",-0.526481968,0.496746366
4b383dfae,,,"When sleeplessness can be directly traced to mental causes, the Emmanuel treatment, if experiments made both in Boston and Northampton are to be trusted, is as surely a specific as quinine for malaria. If in any instance medical diagnosis can find no physical reason for the sleeplessness, Emmanuel treatment is at once in order. The sufferer is admitted to the Rector's study. The very atmosphere encourages frank speaking. Concealment of any fact or circumstance which bears upon the case is prejudicial to improvement. I have once after three treatments refused again to see a patient who had failed to give me her whole confidence, until she was willing to speak out with greater freedom. The physical habits are invariably considered and corrected whenever there is need. Deep breathing is prescribed. Dr. Learned's method is sometimes suggested, and always Dr. Noble's. Drugs are from the first withheld. Tea, coffee, and all other stimulants which act directly on the brain are banished from the evening meal.",-2.224234664,0.52098702
a1c026e10,,,"There was once a man, who, although he was very rich, was also very stingy. In the winter when the peasants brought him wood to buy, he would give them only half their price. One day, as he was purchasing a large bundle of wood from a poor man, a priest came by. He saw the few pennies that the rich man had thrown at the poor man's feet, and he could not help saying, ""My rich brother, can you not be more generous than this? Do you not see that this poor woodsman has brought you a large bundle of wood, and you are sending him away with only a penny or two? How can he buy bread enough to keep himself and his family from starving with such small wages?"" But the rich man was greatly vexed at the priest's words. ""What is it to me that the man is poor?"" he cried, and he drove both the poor man and the priest from his door. That very night, this same bundle of sticks caught fire and the rich man's house and barn burned to the ground.",-0.124706122,0.488684613
61ee5eb51,,,"This problem of education, started in 1838, went on for three years, while the baby grew, like other babies, unconsciously, as a vegetable, the outside world working as it never had worked before, to get his new universe ready for him. Often in old age he puzzled over the question whether, on the doctrine of chances, he was at liberty to accept himself or his world as an accident. No such accident had ever happened before in human experience. For him, alone, the old universe was thrown into the ash-heap and a new one created. He and his eighteenth-century, troglodytic Boston were suddenly cut apart -- separated forever -- in act if not in sentiment, by the opening of the Boston and Albany Railroad; the appearance of the first Cunard steamers in the bay; and the telegraphic messages which carried from Baltimore to Washington the news that Henry Clay and James K. Polk were nominated for the Presidency. This was in May, 1844; he was six years old ; his new world was ready for use, and only fragments of the old met his eyes.",-2.270804192,0.497015815
ff49f1c7a,,,"In the interest of meeting the other guests, and what of my unfavorable impression, I forgot all about the working-class philosopher, though once or twice at table I noticed him—especially the twinkle in his eye as he listened to the talk first of one minister and then of another. He has humor, I thought, and I almost forgave him his clothes. But the time went by, and the dinner went by, and he never opened his mouth to speak, while the ministers talked interminably about the working class and its relation to the church, and what the church had done and was doing for it. I noticed that my father was annoyed because Ernest did not talk. Once father took advantage of a lull and asked him to say something; but Ernest shrugged his shoulders and with an ""I have nothing to say"" went on eating salted almonds. But father was not to be denied. After a while he said: ""We have with us a member of the working class. I am sure that he can present things from a new point of view that will be interesting and refreshing. I refer to Mr. Everhard.""",-1.787245347,0.491452085
445016ca7,,,"A clear fire burned in a tall fireplace, and an elderly man standing with his back to it, in evening dress and with a chain round his neck, glanced up from the newspaper he was holding spread out in both hands before his calm and severe face. He didn't move; but another lackey, in brown trousers and claw-hammer coat edged with thin yellow cord, approaching Mr. Verloc listened to the murmur of his name, and turning round on his heel in silence, began to walk, without looking back once. Mr. Verloc, thus led along a ground-floor passage to the left of the great carpeted staircase, was suddenly motioned to enter a quite small room furnished with a heavy writing-table and a few chairs. The servant shut the door, and Mr. Verloc remained alone. He did not take a seat. With his hat and stick held in one hand he glanced about, passing his other podgy hand over his uncovered sleek head.",-1.036649589,0.456906288
22413123f,,,"One morning, bright and early, a sheep and a curly-tailed pig started out through the world to find a home. For the thing they both wanted more than anything was a house of their own. ""We will build us a house,"" said the sheep and the curly-tailed pig, ""and there we will live together."" So they traveled a long, long way, over the fields, and down the lanes, and past the orchards, and through the woods, until they came, all at once, upon a rabbit. ""Where are you going?"" asked the rabbit of the two. ""We are going to build us a house,"" said the sheep and the pig. ""May I live with you?"" asked the rabbit. ""What can you do to help?"" asked the sheep and the pig. The rabbit scratched his leg with his left hind foot for a minute, and then he said: ""I can gnaw pegs with my sharp teeth; I can put them in with my paws."" ""Good!"" said the sheep and the pig; ""you may come with us.""",0.966852238,0.565925107
73a5a03c8,,,"It was dark night, and there was no one near to ask for water, so the little girl took her tin dipper and started out alone to the spring to bring her mother a drink. She went a long way through the woods, and she ran so that she grew very tired, being such a tiny girl; but she filled her tin dipper at the spring and started home. Sometimes the water spilled, because it was not easy to carry, and sometimes the little girl stumbled over the stones in the dark road. All at once she felt a warm touch upon her hand, and she stopped. It was a little dog who had been following her, for he, too, was nearly dying of thirst, and he had touched her hand with his hot tongue. The little girl looked at her dipper. There was only a very little water in it, but she poured a few drops into her hand, and let the thirsty dog lap them. He seemed as refreshed as if he had been to the river to drink. And a wonderful thing happened to the tin dipper—although the little girl did not see.",-0.005660594,0.482265399
cf014ad6c,,,"The child ran out of the house, and across the garden, and down to the woods as fast as her feet could carry her. As she hurried on, a red squirrel jumped across her path and the little girl said to him: ""Red Squirrel, you don't have to work, do you? You may just play, and eat nuts from morning till night. Isn't that all?"" ""Not work!"" chattered the red squirrel. ""Why, I am working now, and I worked all day yesterday, and all of the day before. I have a family living in the old oak tree, and I must store away nuts for the winter. I have no time to stop and play."" Just then a bee came buzzing by and the little girl said: ""Little Bee, do you have any work to do?"" ""Work!"" buzzed the bee. ""Why, I am always working, gathering sweets and making the honeycomb for you. I have not time for play."" The little girl walked along very slowly, for she was thinking, and she saw an ant, down in the path, carrying a very large crumb of bread. ""That crumb of bread is too heavy for you, Ant,"" said the little girl.",0.944228368,0.53042945
3fdffab6d,,,"""Madam,"" said the white rooster, bowing very low, ""your trouble is my own, — that is, I'm hungry, too. But we might be worse off. We might be in a box on our way to market. It is true that we haven't had anything to eat today, but we at least have room enough to stretch our wings."" ""Why, that is a fact,"" clucked the brown hen. And all the feathered family — even the smallest chickens — stretched their wings, and looked a little more cheerful. ""Now, then,"" went on the rooster, ""suppose we have a little music to cheer us and help pass the hours until roosting time. Let us all crow. There, I beg your pardon, ladies; I am sorry you can't crow. Let us sing a happy song. Will you be kind enough to start a merry tune, Mrs. Brown Hen?"" The brown hen shook herself proudly, tossed her head back and began, — ""Ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca!"" In less than two minutes every one in the henhouse had joined her. The white rooster was the loudest of all, and the little bantam rooster stretched his neck and did the best he could.",-0.206824252,0.486814123
1b94fb095,,,"The Spanish officer made a peremptory gesture that the ship come to anchor in the shelter given by an immense angle of the mainland, of which the fort's point was the western extreme. The Russians, as befitted the peaceful nature of their mission, obeyed without delay. Before their resting place, and among the sand hills a mile from the beach, was a quadrangle of buildings some two hundred feet square and surrounded by a wall about fourteen feet high and seven feet thick. This they knew to be the Presidio. They saw the officers that had hailed them gallop over the hill behind the fort to the more ambitious enclosure, and, in the square, confer with another group that seemed to be in a corresponding state of excitement. A few moments later a deputation of officers, accompanied by a priest in the brown habit of the Franciscan order, started on horseback for the beach. Rezanov ordered Lieutenant Davidov and Dr. Langsdorff to the shore as his representatives.",-2.311167262,0.508030411
7cb5c2106,,,"So he said good-bye to his family, and drove away.
When he had travelled half-way, he met a merchant whom he knew, and they put up at the same inn for the night. They had some tea together, and then went to bed in adjoining rooms.
It was not Aksionov's habit to sleep late, and, wishing to travel while it was still cool, he aroused his driver before dawn, and told him to put in the horses.
Then he made his way across to the landlord of the inn (who lived in a cottage at the back), paid his bill, and continued his journey.
When he had gone about twenty-five miles, he stopped for the horses to be fed. Aksionov rested awhile in the passage of the inn, then he stepped out into the porch, and, ordering a samovar to be heated, got out his guitar and began to play.",-0.362456896,0.484748101
4485ee440,,,"There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. There were the butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the waste of the plants, that would be dumped into old barrels in the cellar and left there. Under the system of rigid economy which the packers enforced, there were some jobs that it only paid to do once in a long time, and among these was the cleaning out of the waste barrels. Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water – and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public's breakfast. Some of it they would make into ""smoked"" sausage – but as the smoking took time, and was therefore expensive, they would call upon their chemistry department, and preserve it with borax and color it with gelatin to make it brown.",-0.932491813,0.474932835
24a74e4fc,,,"No doubt, much to the disappointment and grief of his father, who wished him as an only son to carry on the traditions of the family, though he had written two engineering essays of utmost promise, the engineering was given up, and he consented to study law. He had already contributed to College Magazines, and had had even a short spell of editing one; of one of these he has given a racy account. Very soon after his call to the Bar articles and essays from his pen began to appear in Macmillan's, and later, more regularly in the Cornhill. Careful readers soon began to note here the presence of a new force. He had gone on the Inland Voyage and an account of it was in hand; and had done that tour in the Cevennes which he has described under the title Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, with Modestine, sometimes doubting which was the donkey, but on that tour a chill caught either developed a germ of lung disease already present, or produced it; and the results unfortunately remained.",-2.008061222,0.458317467
ab86cc8e8,,,"It was asserted that these escapes were organised by a band of Englishmen, whose daring seemed to be unparalleled, and who, from sheer desire to meddle in what did not concern them, spent their spare time in snatching away lawful victims destined for Madame la Guillotine. These rumours soon grew in extravagance; there was no doubt that this band of meddlesome Englishmen did exist; moreover, they seemed to be under the leadership of a man whose pluck and audacity were almost fabulous. Strange stories were afloat of how he and those aristos whom he rescued became suddenly invisible as they reached the barricades and escaped out of the gates by sheer supernatural agency.
No one had seen these mysterious Englishmen; as for their leader, he was never spoken of, save with a superstitious shudder. Citoyen Foucquier-Tinville would in the course of the day receive a scrap of paper from some mysterious source; sometimes he would find it in the pocket of his coat, at others it would be handed to him by someone in the crowd, whilst he was on his way to the sitting of the Committee of Public Safety.",-2.612573884,0.517223183
3e25d516f,,,"It is marvelous how much one can see out of the corner of the eye, while seeming to view mere scenery.
The driver looked down, as he drove safely off the bridge, and shook his head at the swirl of water that rushed and eddied, dark and muddy, close up under the rotten planking; then he cracked his whip, and the horses sturdily attacked the little hill.
Thick, overhanging trees on either side now dimmed the light again, and the two plump matrons once more glared past the opposite shoulders, profoundly unaware of each other. The husbands took on the politely surly look required of them. The blonde son's eyes still sought the brunette daughter, but it was furtively done and quite unsuccessfully, for the daughter was now doing a little glaring on her own account. The blonde matron had just swept her eyes across the daughter's skirt, estimating the fit and material of it with contempt so artistically veiled that it could almost be understood in the dark.",-0.699655758,0.490175369
bf24448fb,,,"Anywhere there is a frontier, where there are new and hard conditions to be met, tasks to be done, you may find this Susan B. Anthony kind of womanliness.
It is the homespun, dyed-in-the-wool brand, as distinguished from the boudoir, beauty-doctored brand.
Let me show her to you in her rocking chair.
It is not without determined effort and much expense of strenuosity that I can do it, for Susan B. Anthony is the liveliest girl of 85 that I ever pursued.
Although eighty-five are her birthdays, she has not reached the chimney-corner age.
You cannot say to yourself, when I have finished this, that and the other — attended to the more pressing affairs — I will drop in on Miss Anthony. She is 85, and sure to be at home.
On the contrary, you will get up, as I did, earlier than your wont, and if you're wise and would save time and travel you will start before breakfast — as I did not, alas!",-1.866238347,0.510911146
f668c926d,,,"Although he had been rather extravagant and something of a dandy, he was able to say that he could account for every sixpence he spent after the age of twenty-one. On leaving Oxford he settled down to the life of a country parson with conscientious thoroughness, and was reputed the best magistrate in the South Hams. Farming his own glebe, as he did, with skill and knowledge, perpetually occupied, as he was, with clerical or secular business, he found the Church of England, not then disturbed by any wave of enthusiasm, at once necessary and sufficient to his religious sense. His horror of Nonconformists was such that he would not have a copy of The Pilgrim's Progress in his house. He upheld the Bishop and all established institutions, believing that the way to heaven was to turn to the right and go straight on. There were many such clergymen in his day.",-1.934350681,0.457912665
0852e8d60,,,"There was now a fine, cold drizzle falling, and the wind had risen from its uncertain puffs into a steady blow. The few foot passengers astir in that quarter hurried dismally and silently along with coat collars turned high and pocketed hands. And in the door of the hardware store the man who had come a thousand miles to fill an appointment, uncertain almost to absurdity, with the friend of his youth, smoked his cigar and waited.
About twenty minutes he waited, and then a tall man in a long overcoat, with collar turned up to his ears, hurried across from the opposite side of the street. He went directly to the waiting man.
""Is that you, Bob?"" he asked, doubtfully.
""Is that you, Jimmy Wells?"" cried the man in the door.
""Bless my heart!"" exclaimed the new arrival, grasping both the other's hands with his own. ""It's Bob, sure as fate. I was certain I'd find you here if you were still in existence. Well, well, well! — twenty years is a long time. The old restaurant's gone, Bob; I wish it had lasted, so we could have had another dinner there.""",-0.260550387,0.455557463
cfcdf34b9,,,"The company pairs off quickly, and the whole room is soon in motion. Apparently nobody knows how to waltz, but that is nothing of any consequence—there is music, and they dance, each as he pleases, just as before they sang. Most of them prefer the ""two-step,"" especially the young, with whom it is the fashion. The older people have dances from home, strange and complicated steps which they execute with grave solemnity. Some do not dance anything at all, but simply hold each other's hands and allow the undisciplined joy of motion to express itself with their feet. Among these are Jokubas Szedvilas and his wife, Lucija, who together keep the delicatessen store, and consume nearly as much as they sell; they are too big to dance, but they stand in the middle of the floor, holding each other fast in their arms, rocking slowly from side to side and grinning seraphically, a picture of toothless and perspiring ecstasy.",-0.699703008,0.472866225
762f73b7e,,,"I had now seen all the birds, but none of them were as fine as the blackbirds. I did not want to be like any of these birds; I longed to be a blackbird, a real blackbird. That was not possible. So I made up my mind to be content with my lot, as I had the heart of a blackbird even if I were not black.
A great flock of blackbirds lived on the edge of a cornfield. I went to them and asked them to let me be their helper.
""I am only a white blackbird,"" I said, ""but I have the heart of a true blackbird.""
They let me stay. I waited on them early and late, bringing straw to make nests and tender little worms for the baby blackbirds. The old birds were kind to me, and I began to be happy.
Hard work did me good. I soon grew strong, and when the crows tried to drive us away, I led the blackbirds to victory. My sight was keen, and I was the first to find out that the scarecrow was not a man. I caught more worms, too, than any of the blackbirds.",0.474791758,0.504510325
5cf26d3b7,,,"One morning a little rabbit sat on a bank.
He pricked his ears and listened to the trit-trot, trit-trot of a pony.
A gig was coming along the road; it was driven by Mr. McGregor, and beside him sat Mrs. McGregor in her best bonnet.
As soon as they had passed, little Benjamin Bunny slid down into the road, and set off—with a hop, skip, and a jump—to call upon his relations, who lived in the wood at the back of Mr. McGregor's garden.
That wood was full of rabbit holes; and in the neatest, sandiest hole of all lived Benjamin's aunt and his cousins—Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.
Old Mrs. Rabbit was a widow; she earned her living by knitting rabbit-wool mittens and muffatees (I once bought a pair at a bazaar). She also sold herbs, and rosemary tea, and rabbit-tobacco (which is what we call lavender).
Little Benjamin did not very much want to see his Aunt.
He came round the back of the fir-tree, and nearly tumbled upon the top of his Cousin Peter.
Peter was sitting by himself. He looked poorly, and was dressed in a red cotton pocket-handkerchief.",-0.1977973,0.45496487
bf530fcb7,,,"The relationship, between reader and writer, of son and father, may have existed in Queen Elizabeth's time, but is much too close to be true for ours. The utmost that any writer could hope of his readers now is that they should consent to regard themselves as nephews, and even then he would expect only a more or less civil refusal from most of them. Indeed, if he had reached a certain age, he would have observed that nephews, as a social class, no longer read at all, and that there is only one familiar instance recorded of a nephew who read his uncle. The exception tends rather to support the rule, since it needed a Macaulay to produce, and two volumes to record it. Finally, the metre does not permit it. One may not say: ""Who reads me, when I am ashes, is my nephew in wishes.",-1.311346131,0.463604184
ee3d4e77c,,,"One of the birds fell to singing, and the other bird said, ""Who told you to sing?""
He answered, ""The flowers and the bees told me. The blue sky told me, and you told me.""
""When did I tell you to sing?"" asked his mate.
""Every time you brought in tender grass for the nest,"" he replied. ""Every time your soft wings fluttered off again for hair and feathers to line it.""
Then his mate asked, ""What are you singing about?""
""I am singing about everything,"" he answered. ""I sing because I am happy.""
By and by five little speckled eggs were in the nest, and the mother bird asked, ""Is there anything in all the world as pretty as my eggs?""
A week or two afterward, the mother said, ""Oh, what do you think has happened? One of my eggs has been peeping and moving.""
Soon another egg moved, then another, and another, till five eggs were hatched.
The little birds were so hungry that it kept the parents busy feeding them. Away they both flew. The moment the little birds heard them coming back, five yellow mouths flew open wide.
""Can anybody be happier?""",0.120219521,0.493812883
4ba8e0311,,,"Bull, John, a fine, fat, American-beef fed individual who inhabits a suffragette-infested island somewhere in the North Atlantic. Born several hundred years ago and is beginning to show his age. Is fond of the sea and is said to have a fine fleet. This has had off years, notably 1812. B. has had trouble with a son who wishes to leave the paternal protection. Is fearless except when faced by a hunger strike, the Pankhurst family, and thoughts of Germany. Patronizes a costly social organization known as the Royal Family, or a reception committee for American heiresstocracy, which also dedicates buildings, poses for stamps, post-cards, motion pictures and raises princesses of Wales for magazine articles and crowning purposes. B. is a monitor of English style; wears a monocle, spats, 'i 'at, cane, pipe, awful accent, and never makes his appearance without a cawld bawth. He detests the word ""egotism."" Is a celebrated humorist, seeing through all jokes but himself. Ambition: 'Ome sweet 'Ome. Recreation: Tea, Week Ends. Address: Hingland. Clubs: Policemen's, Golf, Jockey, and Suffrage. Epitaph: See Emperor William Again.",-3.403929754,0.599597894
bd76a2c46,,,"The missionary was young and she was from the North. Her brows were straight, her nose was rather high, and her eyes were clear and gray. The upper lip of her little mouth was so short that the teeth just under it were never quite concealed. It was the mouth of a child and it gave the face, with all its strength and high purpose, a peculiar pathos that no soul in that little mountain town had the power to see or feel. A yellow mule was hitched to the rickety fence in front of her and she stood on the stoop of a little white frame-house with an elm switch between her teeth and gloves on her hands, which were white and looked strong. The mule wore a man's saddle, but no matter—the streets were full of yellow pools, the mud was ankle-deep, and she was on her way to the sick-bed of Becky Day.",-0.422689384,0.477957808
0fca6ad03,,,"There was dust everywhere; it was a red-hot world of dust. It lay upon the roads where the labouring wheel tracks marked them out; but the whole long plain was dust as well. Neither grass nor any green thing showed, and dead, dry salt-bush, eaten by the sheep till it looked like broken peasticks, was dust colour to the dancing horizon of that world of thirst. For seven months and a week, by Wilson's almanac, there had been no rain, and what dew had fallen the hot air drank when the fierce sun rose. And now not even the little fenced garden at Warribah showed any sign of verdure. Water was precious, and each day the north wind drank the water-holes drier and drier yet.
But, though the world of desolate Warribah was brown, in the roots of grass and the mere sticks of salt-bush was sufficient nourishment to keep life in the sheep who moved across the burnt paddocks of the station; what they needed, and what they began to suffer for was water, and the cloudless sky, luminous and terrible, bent over their world and breathed fire upon them.",-1.765622063,0.492791904
3586e4c55,,,"A very tall and strong man, dressed in rich garments, came down to meet Theseus. On his arms were golden bracelets, and round his neck a collar of jewels; and he came forward, bowing courteously, and held out both his hands, and spoke:
""Welcome, fair youth, to these mountains; happy am I to have met you! For what greater pleasure to a good man than to entertain strangers? But I see that you are weary. Come up to my castle, and rest yourself awhile.""
""I give you thanks,"" said Theseus; ""but am in haste to go up the valley.""
""Alas! you have wandered far from the right way, and you cannot reach your journey's end to-night, for there are many miles of mountain between you and it, and steep passes, and cliffs dangerous after nightfall. It is well for you that I met you, for my whole joy is to find strangers, and to feast them at my castle, and hear tales from them of foreign lands. Come up with me, and eat the best of venison, and drink the rich red wine, and sleep upon my famous bed, of which all travellers say that they never saw the like.",-0.839549349,0.480132467
f74e0ac76,,,"Even in the days before my teacher came, I used to feel along the square stiff boxwood hedges, and, guided by the sense of smell would find the first violets and lilies. There, too, after a fit of temper, I went to find comfort and to hide my hot face in the cool leaves and grass. What joy it was to lose myself in that garden of flowers, to wander happily from spot to spot, until, coming suddenly upon a beautiful vine, I recognized it by its leaves and blossoms, and knew it was the vine which covered the tumble-down summer-house at the farther end of the garden! Here, also, were trailing clematis, drooping jessamine, and some rare sweet flowers called butterfly lilies, because their fragile petals resemble butterflies' wings. But the roses—they were loveliest of all. Never have I found in the greenhouses of the North such heart-satisfying roses as the climbing roses of my southern home.",-0.908395465,0.472824532
5d15769f1,,,"ALL that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts. In a justly ordered universe, where loss of equipoise would mean total destruction, individual responsibility must be absolute. A man's weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own, and not another man's; they are brought about by himself, and not by another; and they can only be altered by himself, never by another. His condition is also his own, and not another man's. His suffering and his happiness are evolved from within. As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.
A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition.",-1.1121191,0.458053234
138431178,,,"Gluck was very much puzzled by the behaviour of his guest; it was such a strange mixture of coolness and humility. He turned away at the string meditatively for another five minutes.
""That mutton looks very nice,"" said the old gentleman, at length. ""Can't you give me a little bit?""
""Impossible, sir,"" said Gluck.
""I'm very hungry,"" continued the old gentleman; ""I've had nothing to eat yesterday, nor today. They surely couldn't miss a bit from the knuckle!""
He spoke in so very melancholy a tone that it quite melted Gluck's heart. ""They promised me one slice today, sir,"" said he; ""I can give you that, but not a bit more.""
""That's a good boy,"" said the old gentleman again.
Then Gluck warmed a plate and sharpened a knife. ""I don't care if I do get beaten for it,"" thought he. Just as he had cut a large slice out of the mutton, there came a tremendous rap at the door. The old gentleman jumped off the hob, as if it had suddenly become inconveniently warm. Gluck fitted the slice into the mutton again, with desperate efforts at exactitude, and ran to open the door.",-0.770024372,0.500859504
e4f4670ec,,,"Horatio Bridge, my father's college friend, was a purser in the navy and lived in Augusta, Maine, his official residence being at Portsmouth. He had kept in closer touch with the romancer than any of his other friends had since their graduating days, and he had been from the first a believer in his coming literary renown. So, when The Scarlet Letter shone eminent in the firmament of book-land, it was his triumphant ""I-told-you-so"" that was among the earliest to be heard.
And when my father cast about for a more congenial place than Salem to live in, it was to Bridge that he applied for suggestions. He stipulated that the place should be somewhere along the New England sea-coast.
Had this wish of his been fulfilled it might have made great differences. Hawthorne had always dwelt within sight and sound of the Atlantic, on which his forefathers had sailed so often between the Indies and Salem port, and Atlantic breezes were necessary to his complete well-being. At this juncture physical health had for the first time become an object to him; he was run down by a year of suffering and hard work, and needed nature's kindest offices.",-2.077954975,0.494434248
08cd4e120,,,"Bobby was not quite sure that he was awake, but when he opened his eyes there was the blue sky, with the soft, white clouds drifting across it, the big pine waving its spicy branches over his head, and beyond, the glint of sunshine on the waters of the pond. Presently Bobby heard voices talking softly.
""This is a good specimen,"" said one voice. ""See how stout and strong he looks!""
""I wonder who that is, and what he has found,"" thought Bobby. ""I wish it wasn't such hard work to keep my eyes open."" He made a great effort, however, and raised his heavy lids. At first he could see nothing. Then he caught a glimpse of a mossy log, with a row of frogs and toads sitting upon it. They were looking solemnly at him. Bobby felt a little uncomfortable under that steady gaze.
""The toads are making their spring visit to the pond to lay their eggs,"" thought the boy. ""I forgot that they were due this week.""
""He must have done a good deal of mischief in his day,"" said an old bull-frog, gravely. A chill crept over Bobby. ""In his day.""—What did that mean?",-0.129388122,0.48809953
e37859b75,,,"The forests were bright with birds of many colors, and the sea was the home of wonderful sea-creatures. ""My children will love the prairies, the forests, and the seas,"" he thought, ""but the mountains look dark and cold. They are very dear to me, but how shall I make my children go to them and so learn to love them?""
Long the Great Spirit thought about the mountains. At last, he made many little shining stones. Some were red, some blue, some green, some yellow, and some were shining with all the lovely colors of the beautiful rainbow. ""All my children will love what is beautiful,"" he thought, ""and if I hide the bright stones in the seams of the rocks of the mountains, men will come to find them, and they will learn to love my mountains.""
When the stones were made and the Great Spirit looked upon their beauty, he said, ""I will not hide you all away in the seams of the rocks. Some of you shall be out in the sunshine, so that the little children who cannot go to the mountains shall see your colors.""",-0.436284817,0.463922164
3e3b558a6,,,"To what an extent strange condiments, herbs, and other seasonings were employed, as well as to what a task the human stomach was subjected, will be apparent from a recipe, given by the same authority, for a thick sauce for a boiled chicken: ""Put the following ingredients into a mortar: anise-seed, dried mint, and lazer-root (similar to asafœtida); cover them with vinegar; add dates; pour in garum, oil, and a small quantity of mustard-seeds; reduce all to a proper thickness with red wine warmed; and then pour this same over your chicken, which should previously be boiled in anise-seed water.""
With regard to the olden wines, let us be duly grateful for the progress of viniculture, and thankful that we may read of them, rather than have to partake of them, to rue the Katzenjammer of the following morning. For if one must have a headache on rare occasions as the penalty of dining, it were assuredly less to be deplored if obtained through a grand vintage of the Marne or the Médoc than from a wine mixed with sea-water or spices, or old Falernian cloyed with honey from Mount Hymettus.",-2.793698803,0.529496762
36e210ee0,,,"The Canadian Dominion government is very oppressive. Mining laws are very arbitrary and strictly enforced. A person wishing to prospect for gold must first procure a miner's license, paying ten dollars for it. If anything is discovered, and he wishes to locate a claim, he visits the recorder's office, states his business, and is told to call again. In the meantime, men are sent to examine the locality and if anything of value is found, the man wishing to record the claim is told that it is already located. The officials seize it. The man has no way of ascertaining if the land was properly located, and so had no redress. If the claim is thought to be poor, he can locate it by the payment of a fifteen dollar fee.
One half of all mining land is reserved for the crown, a quarter or more is gobbled by corrupt officials, and a meager share left for the daring miners who, by braving hardship and death, develop the mines and open up the country.",-0.861131622,0.448003876
8779be41b,,,"Miss Lydia was a plump, little old maid of thirty-five, with smoothly drawn, tightly twisted hair that made her look still older. Old-fashioned, too, she was; but antebellum glory did not radiate from her as it did from the Major. She possessed a thrifty common sense, and it was she who handled the finances of the family, and met all comers when there were bills to pay. The Major regarded board bills and wash bills as contemptible nuisances. They kept coming in so persistently and so often. Why, the Major wanted to know, could they not be filed and paid in a lump sum at some convenient period—say when the Anecdotes and Reminiscences had been published and paid for? Miss Lydia would calmly go on with her sewing and say, ""We'll pay as we go as long as the money lasts, and then perhaps they'll have to lump it.""",-1.532197091,0.474630195
c38382a68,,,"At Denver there was an influx of passengers into the coaches on the eastbound B. & M. Express. In one coach there sat a very pretty young woman dressed in elegant taste and surrounded by all the luxurious comforts of an experienced traveler. Among the newcomers were two young men, one of handsome presence with a bold, frank countenance and manner; the other a ruffled, glum-faced person, heavily built and roughly dressed. The two were handcuffed together.
As they passed down the aisle of the coach the only vacant seat offered was a reversed one facing the attractive young woman. Here the linked couple seated themselves. The young woman's glance fell upon them with a distant, swift disinterest; then with a lovely smile brightening her countenance and a tender pink tingeing her rounded cheeks, she held out a little gray-gloved hand. When she spoke her voice, full, sweet, and deliberate, proclaimed that its owner was accustomed to speak and be heard.
""Well, Mr. Easton, if you will make me speak first, I suppose I must. Don't you ever recognize old friends when you meet them in the West?""",-0.474787405,0.476833057
7d553a313,,,"There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.
In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name ""Mr. James Dillingham Young.""
The ""Dillingham"" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called ""Jim"" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della.",-1.583809005,0.458214203
60fae6c9b,,,"His wife made no reply. She was watching the mysterious movements of a man outside, who, peering in an undecided fashion at the house, appeared to be trying to make up his mind to enter. In mental connection with the two hundred pounds, she noticed that the stranger was well dressed, and wore a silk hat of glossy newness. Three times he paused at the gate, and then walked on again. The fourth time he stood with his hand upon it, and then with sudden resolution flung it open and walked up the path. Mrs. White at the same moment placed her hands behind her, and hurriedly unfastening the strings of her apron, put that useful article of apparel beneath the cushion of her chair.
She brought the stranger, who seemed ill at ease, into the room. He gazed at her furtively, and listened in a preoccupied fashion as the old lady apologised for the appearance of the room, and her husband's coat, a garment which he usually reserved for the garden. She then waited as patiently as her temper would permit, for him to broach his business, but he was at first strangely silent.",-1.155976378,0.450536698
59d7381bc,,,"Peter was most dreadfully frightened; he rushed all over the garden, for he had forgotten the way back to the gate.
He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and the other shoe amongst the potatoes.
After losing them, he ran on four legs and went faster, so that I think he might have got away altogether if he had not unfortunately run into a gooseberry net, and got caught by the large buttons on his jacket. It was a blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new.
Peter gave himself up for lost, and shed big tears; but his sobs were overheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew to him in great excitement, and implored him to exert himself.
Mr. McGregor came up with a sieve, which he intended to pop upon the top of Peter; but Peter wriggled out just in time, leaving his jacket behind him.
And rushed into the tool-shed, and jumped into a can. It would have been a beautiful thing to hide in, if it had not had so much water in it.",-0.118755341,0.448986706
9218d8e68,,,"I have purchases to make, business to settle, and I must go hither and thither about the town. Sirocco, of course, dusks everything to cheerless grey, but under any sky it is dispiriting to note the changes in Naples. Lo sventramento (the disembowelling) goes on, and regions are transformed. It is a good thing, I suppose, that the broad Corso Umberto I. should cut a way through the old Pendino; but what a contrast between that native picturesqueness and the cosmopolitan vulgarity which has usurped its place! ""Napoli se ne va!"" I pass the Santa Lucia with downcast eyes, my memories of ten years ago striving against the dulness of today. The harbour, whence one used to start for Capri, is filled up; the sea has been driven to a hopeless distance beyond a wilderness of dust-heaps. They are going to make a long, straight embankment from the Castel dell'Ovo to the Great Port, and before long the Santa Lucia will be an ordinary street, shut in among huge houses, with no view at all.",-3.16421232,0.542391111
bc7b89fb2,,,"The immense bonfires where fifty or a hundred cords of peeled, split, smashed wood has been piled around some old giant by a single stroke of lightning is another grand sight in the night. The light is so great I found I could read common print three hundred yards from them, and the illumination of the circle of onlooking trees is indescribably impressive. Other big fires, roaring and booming like waterfalls, were blazing on the upper sides of trees on hillslopes, against which limbs broken off by heavy snow had rolled, while branches high overhead, tossed and shaken by the ascending air current, seemed to be writhing in pain. Perhaps the most startling phenomenon of all was the quick death of childlike Sequoias only a century or two of age. In the midst of the other comparatively slow and steady fire work one of these tall, beautiful saplings, leafy and branchy, would be seen blazing up suddenly, all in one heaving, booming, passionate flame reaching from the ground to the top of the tree, and fifty to a hundred feet or more above it, with a smoke column bending forward and streaming away on the upper, free-flowing wind.",-1.609204517,0.465503722
c9a24aebe,,,"After two years of training he went to sea, and entering the regions so well known to his imagination, found them strangely barren of adventure. He made many voyages. He knew the magic monotony of existence between sky and water: he had to bear the criticism of men, the exactions of the sea, and the prosaic severity of the daily task that gives bread—but whose only reward is in the perfect love of the work. This reward eluded him. Yet he could not go back, because there is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea. Besides, his prospects were good. He was gentlemanly, steady, tractable, with a thorough knowledge of his duties; and in time, when yet very young, he became chief mate of a fine ship, without ever having been tested by those events of the sea that show in the light of day the inner worth of a man, the edge of his temper, and the fibre of his stuff; that reveal the quality of his resistance and the secret truth of his pretences, not only to others but also to himself.",-0.817092833,0.485185942
44535abb0,,,"After marching for about a quarter of an hour, the army halted before an ant-hill, the home of a colony of small, black ants. These swarmed out to meet the red ones, and, to Huber's surprise, a combat, short but fierce, took place at the foot of the hill.
A small number of the blacks fought bravely to the last, but the rest soon fled, panic-stricken, through the gates farthest from the battle-field, carrying away some of their young. They seemed to know it was the young ants that the invaders were seeking. The red warriors quickly forced their way into the tiny city and returned, loaded with children of the blacks.
Carrying their living booty, the kidnappers left the pillaged town and started toward their home, whither Huber followed them. Great was his astonishment when, at the threshold of the red ants' dwelling, he saw numbers of black ants come forward to receive the young captives and to welcome them—children of their own race, doomed to be bond-servants in a strange land.
Here, then, was a miniature city, in which strong red ants lived in peace with small black ones.",-1.499107861,0.508374563
701d0ecf7,,,"He took her to the wicket-gate, said good-bye and went away. After that she heard his sedate voice the whole day; and on closing her eyes she instantly had a vision of his dark beard. She took a great liking to him. And evidently he had been impressed by her, too; for, not long after, an elderly woman, a distant acquaintance, came in to have a cup of coffee with her. As soon as the woman was seated at table she began to speak about Pustovalov—how good he was, what a steady man, and any woman could be glad to get him as a husband. Three days later Pustovalov himself paid Olenka a visit. He stayed only about ten minutes, and spoke little, but Olenka fell in love with him, fell in love so desperately that she did not sleep the whole night and burned as with fever. In the morning she sent for the elderly woman. Soon after, Olenka and Pustovalov were engaged, and the wedding followed.
Pustovalov and Olenka lived happily together.",-1.16090423,0.458137137
d28f49d8c,,,"A week had passed since they had made acquaintance. It was a holiday. It was sultry indoors, while in the street the wind whirled the dust round and round, and blew people's hats off. It was a thirsty day, and Gurov often went into the pavilion, and pressed Anna Sergeyevna to have syrup and water or an ice. One did not know what to do with oneself.
In the evening when the wind had dropped a little, they went out on the groyne to see the steamer come in. There were a great many people walking about the harbour; they had gathered to welcome some one, bringing bouquets. And two peculiarities of a well-dressed Yalta crowd were very conspicuous: the elderly ladies were dressed like young ones, and there were great numbers of generals.
Owing to the roughness of the sea, the steamer arrived late, after the sun had set, and it was a long time turning about before it reached the groyne. Anna Sergeyevna looked through her lorgnette at the steamer and the passengers as though looking for acquaintances, and when she turned to Gurov her eyes were shining.",-2.337213633,0.497704467
eabf391b9,,,"The necessity of confining one's attention to study alone, leads to the selection of one or more of the sons of a family as the recipient of an education. The one who is chosen is clothed in the best style which his family circumstances will allow, his little cue neatly tied with a red string, and he is provided, as we have seen, with a copy of the Hundred Surnames and of the Trimetrical Classic. This young Confucianist is the bud and prototype of the adult scholar. His twin brother, who has not been chosen to this high calling, roams about the village all summer in the costume of the garden of Eden, gathering fuel, swimming in the village mud-hole, busy when he must be busy, idle when he can be idle. He may be incomparably more useful to his family than the other, but so far as education goes he is only a ""wild"" lad.
If the student is quick and bright, and gives good promise of distinguishing himself, he stands an excellent chance of being spoiled through thoughtless praises.",-2.577482006,0.527928744
e7fc43329,,,"What Buddhism failed to give, Shintoism offered in abundance. Such loyalty to the sovereign, such reverence for ancestral memory, and such filial piety as are not taught by any other creed, were inculcated by the Shinto doctrines, imparting passivity to the otherwise arrogant character of the samurai. Shinto theology has no place for the dogma of ""original sin."" On the contrary, it believes in the innate goodness and God-like purity of the human soul, adoring it as the adytum from which divine oracles are proclaimed. Everybody has observed that the Shinto shrines are conspicuously devoid of objects and instruments of worship, and that a plain mirror hung in the sanctuary forms the essential part of its furnishing. The presence of this article, is easy to explain: it typifies the human heart, which, when perfectly placid and clear, reflects the very image of the Deity. When you stand, therefore, in front of the shrine to worship, you see your own image reflected on its shining surface, and the act of worship is tantamount to the old Delphic injunction, ""Know Thyself.""",-2.743860438,0.533510154
54163d93f,,,"One evening as I was lying flat on the deck of my steamboat, I heard voices approaching—and there were the nephew and the uncle strolling along the bank. I laid my head on my arm again, and had nearly lost myself in a doze, when somebody said in my ear, as it were: 'I am as harmless as a little child, but I don't like to be dictated to. Am I the manager—or am I not? I was ordered to send him there. It's incredible.' ... I became aware that the two were standing on the shore alongside the forepart of the steamboat, just below my head. I did not move; it did not occur to me to move: I was sleepy. 'It is unpleasant,' grunted the uncle. 'He has asked the Administration to be sent there,' said the other, 'with the idea of showing what he could do; and I was instructed accordingly.",-0.728201731,0.472273487
3992c344c,,,"He was the only man of us who still ""followed the sea."" The worst that could be said of him was that he did not represent his class. He was a seaman, but he was a wanderer, too, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a sedentary life. Their minds are of the stay-at-home order, and their home is always with them — the ship; and so is their country — the sea. One ship is very much like another, and the sea is always the same. In the immutability of their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful ignorance; for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny. For the rest, after his hours of work, a casual stroll or a casual spree on shore suffices to unfold for him the secret of a whole continent, and generally he finds the secret not worth knowing.",-0.860671205,0.479392156
1005380ca,,,"Our blades had no sooner crossed than I knew that in this last encounter I should need every whit of my skill, all my wit, audacity, and strength. I had met my equal, and he came to it fresh and I jaded. I clenched my teeth and prayed with all my heart; I set her face before me, and thought if I should fail her to what ghastly fate she might come, and I fought as I had never fought before. The sound of the surf became a roar in my ears, the sunshine an intolerable blaze of light; the blue above and around seemed suddenly beneath my feet as well. We were fighting high in the air, and had fought thus for ages. I knew that he made no thrust I did not parry, no feint I could not interpret. I knew that my eye was more quick to see, my brain to conceive, and my hand to execute than ever before; but it was as though I held that knowledge of some other, and I myself was far away, at Weyanoke, in the minister's garden, in the haunted wood, anywhere save on that barren islet.",-1.908988292,0.449997497
6d7c845a3,,,"The normal and characteristic occupations of the class in this mature phase of its life history are in form very much the same as in its earlier days. These occupations are government, war, sports, and devout observances. Persons unduly given to difficult theoretical niceties may hold that these occupations are still incidentally and indirectly ""productive""; but it is to be noted as decisive of the question in hand that the ordinary and ostensible motive of the leisure class in engaging in these occupations is assuredly not an increase of wealth by productive effort. At this as at any other cultural stage, government and war are, at least in part, carried on for the pecuniary gain of those who engage in them; but it is gain obtained by the honourable method of seizure and conversion. These occupations are of the nature of predatory, not of productive, employment. Something similar may be said of the chase, but with a difference. As the community passes out of the hunting stage proper, hunting gradually becomes differentiated into two distinct employments.",-3.320428525,0.576591238
12fd9c2cc,,,"A clever invention, which originated in France, is a life-saving buoy that has been used on the River Seine in Paris. Persons falling into the water at night often lose their lives because it is impossible to ascertain their whereabouts; or, if a life-saving apparatus of any kind is thrown to them in the darkness, they frequently drown before they can find it. This small apparatus consists of a combination of a buoy with an electric light; when the buoy is thrown into the water the light is lighted automatically. In connection with this invention the life-savers in Paris use a grappling-hook which we illustrate. This has an electric light near the end in the oval space; this light makes it possible to grapple for persons who may have gone down beneath the water.
We have also received from France the account of an invention in the shape of a bicycle lamp in which acetylene is burned. The great difficulty with the use of acetylene has heretofore been that the gas will not burn unless under high pressure, and the receptacles in which the gas is generated could not be so made as to insure them against exploding.",-1.559778494,0.529676807
5b4b2c146,,,"The system of using locks allows the water in different parts of the canal to be at different levels. This is done by closing both ends of each section of the canal with gates; a second pair of gates is placed a short distance beyond, and the space between these is called a ""lock."" If a vessel is to be taken into a section of the canal higher than that from which she has come, she goes into the lock; water is then let into this lock from the higher level by opening a water-gate until enough has entered to float the vessel up to the level of the higher section of the canal; the gates before the vessel are then opened and she passes out into the new section. If she is to be taken to a lower section, the reverse of this operation accomplishes this: the water is let out until she is on the lower level.",-0.275191768,0.475503228
4a94fedd7,,,"Several vessels have been in course of construction for Brazil and Chile, and now that they are almost completed, it is said that the Spanish Government, by agreeing to pay immense sums, is attempting to secure them. It does not seem likely that Chile would give up a battle-ship just now, as the relations between that country and the Argentine Republic are very strained. There is no doubt, however, but that Spain is increasing the efficiency of her navy, which is beginning to assume very formidable proportions.
The United States is also busy putting the older ships in good order, and rushing the work on those being constructed. The Government, it is reported, has the details of construction of many boats now building on the other side. One report was that the United States had an option on every ship being built in Europe, except, of course, vessels being built for Spain. This report, however, has not been confirmed. For the United States to have the option on a ship means that no other nation will be allowed to buy that ship unless the United States decides that she does not wish to have it herself.",-1.286254435,0.462577267
eb8cb615b,,,"Among the English expeditions, those of most importance to us in America were Henry Hudson's. He made his first voyage in 1607, representing the Muscovy Company of England. He explored the coast of Greenland on this voyage, and again in 1608; while on his third voyage he explored the coasts of North America and discovered the Hudson River. At this time he was in the employ of the Dutch East India Company. Again, in 1610, his efforts were crowned with success, and he discovered what is known as Hudson Bay.
From that time voyage after voyage was made, largely by Englishmen, and the knowledge of geography grew every year, each captain bringing back some new items of information.
Meanwhile the Russians, who had acquired Siberia, sought a Northeast Passage and explored the northern coast of their vast new territory, which reaches into the Polar regions. Although many efforts were made to pass through to China in this way, it was not accomplished until 1879, when a Russian explorer reached Bering Strait and the Pacific from the West.",-0.641284526,0.473165144
764ff4139,,,"The cruiser Columbia, which was disabled in a collision off Long Island, is being rapidly repaired in the Brooklyn Navy-Yard. If she had not been very strong there is little doubt but that the Foscolia would have cut her in two; the frames of the vessel, however, are so well constructed that these, with the protective deck, prevented more serious damage. Naval officers are very much pleased to find how well the vessel withstood the collision; they say that if the Columbia had been a ship like the large ocean liners, nothing would have prevented her sinking with the ship that struck her. When the officer on the Columbia saw that a collision was inevitable, he gave the order ""Full speed ahead""; it is very fortunate that he did so, as otherwise the Foscolia would have hit her amidships; and the damage must then have been very serious, as the water compartments in that part of the vessel are large, and when filled might have caused her to capsize. The damage proves to be much less severe than was at first thought; after two or three weeks it is thought she will be on duty again.",-1.127962135,0.468588182
f644926c8,,,"Early in Revolutionary times, each colony had its own flag, and they were very varied in design, and some had strange designs. The colony of Massachusetts had a pine-tree on its flag. South Carolina had a rattlesnake on a yellow flag, and underneath the snake the motto: ""Don't tread on me."" New York had a white flag with a beaver on it; and Rhode Island a white flag with a blue anchor.
Many variations of the ""stars and stripes"" are found in the flags used during the first years of the Revolution. Some have red and white stripes, with the field (where the stars are in the flag we all know) like the field of the British flag—red, white, and blue lines crossing one another. This design in the corner of a flag is called its ""jack,"" and is often used alone.
In 1777, Congress declared that the flag should have thirteen horizontal stripes and thirteen white stars on a blue field, each representing one of the thirteen States.",0.281559715,0.503731368
6c91d6df0,,,"""The General's Double,"" by Captain King, and ""Trooper Ross and Signal Butte,"" by the same author, come to us from the press of J. B. Lippincott Company. The former is a capital story of the Civil War, the plot being based upon the remarkable likeness existing between two men in the Union army. It has all of the charm of the works of this favorite author.
The second book contains two stories, the heroes of both being boys. The first, ""Trooper Ross,"" describes the adventures of an officer's son, his exciting experiences with native americans on the plains as a little chap, taking his part at boarding-school later; then, failing to obtain his admission to West Point, he works his way through the ranks to his commission. ""Signal Butte"" covers a series of exciting adventures in Arizona, in which two boys are the central figures.",-1.655468725,0.49849297
e9e59ffa2,,,"The men were glad enough to get ashore, for they have been cooped on the transports most of the time since April 22nd, knocking about on the ocean. In that hot climate it is not over-agreeable to be on ship-board, even with ample room to move about in; but when crowded as the men on transports are, there is no end of discomfort.
All Friday afternoon and evening the men worked away at their camp, and were tired enough when they were ordered to turn in for the night.
Every precaution was taken to guard against a surprise, although no attack was expected. Saturday the men continued their work, which was getting along finely and almost completed, when late in the afternoon, while a large number of men were hauling water up the hill, and others, who had been working hard all day, were taking a swim in the bay, there was suddenly heard the sharp crack of Mauser rifles, and the men knew that the Spaniards were there.",-1.039734313,0.455611415
b3881ff46,,,"The lid of the piano was raised and the music lying ready was opened. Ekaterina Ivanovna sat down and banged on the piano with both hands, and then banged again with all her might, and then again and again; her shoulders and bosom shook. She obstinately banged on the same notes, and it sounded as if she would not leave off until she had hammered the keys into the piano. The drawing-room was filled with the din; everything was resounding; the floor, the ceiling, the furniture.... Ekaterina Ivanovna was playing a difficult passage, interesting simply on account of its difficulty, long and monotonous, and Startsev, listening, pictured stones dropping down a steep hill and going on dropping, and he wished they would leave off dropping; and at the same time Ekaterina Ivanovna, rosy from the violent exercise, strong and vigorous, with a lock of hair falling over her forehead, attracted him very much. After the winter spent at Dyalizh among patients and peasants, to sit in a drawing-room, to watch this young, elegant, and, in all probability, pure creature, and to listen to these noisy, tedious but still cultured sounds, was so pleasant, so novel....",-1.320275767,0.503723426
ab9d15b8f,,,"It was Saturday evening; the sun was setting, the workpeople were coming in crowds from the factory to the station, and they bowed to the carriage in which Korolyov was driving. And he was charmed with the evening, the farmhouses and villas on the road, and the birch-trees, and the quiet atmosphere all around, when the fields and woods and the sun seemed preparing, like the workpeople now on the eve of the holiday, to rest, and perhaps to pray....
He was born and had grown up in Moscow; he did not know the country, and he had never taken any interest in factories, or been inside one, but he had happened to read about factories, and had been in the houses of manufacturers and had talked to them; and whenever he saw a factory far or near, he always thought how quiet and peaceable it was outside, but within there was always sure to be impenetrable ignorance and dull egoism on the side of the owners, wearisome, unhealthy toil on the side of the workpeople, squabbling, vermin, vodka.",-1.212478027,0.466393037
c5497ad0d,,,"The origin of the hatred between Colonna and Orsini is unknown, for the archives of the former have as yet thrown no light upon the subject, and those of the latter were almost entirely destroyed by fire in the last century. In the year 1305, Pope Clement the Fifth was elected Pope at Perugia. He was a Frenchman, and was Archbishop of Bordeaux, the candidate of Philip the Fair, whose tutor had been a Colonna, and he was chosen by the opposing factions of two Orsini cardinals because the people of Perugia were tired of a quarrel that had lasted eleven months, and had adopted the practical and always infallible expedient of deliberately starving the conclave to a vote. Muratori calls it a scandalous and illicit election, which brought about the ruin of Italy and struck a memorable blow at the power of the Holy See. Though not a great man, Philip the Fair was one of the cleverest that ever lived. Before the election he had made his bishop swear upon the Sacred Host to accept his conditions, without expressing them all; and the most important proved to be the transference of the Papal See to France.",-2.641667307,0.518459572
fadb3fe58,,,"After a time the polished rocky sides of the shaft grew to be of a solemn sameness. Clewe ceased to take notes. He tried to imagine what he would come to when he reached the bottom; it would be some sort of a cave, he thought, in which his shell had made an opening. He began to imagine what sort of a cave it would be, and how high the roof was from the floor. Clewe then suddenly wondered whether his gardener had remembered what he had told him about the flower-beds in front of the house; he wished certain changes made which Margaret had suggested. He tried to keep his mind on the flower-beds, but it drifted away to the cave below. He thought of the danger of coming into some underground body of water, where he would be drowned; but he knew that was a silly idea. If the shell had gone through subterranean reservoirs, the water of these would have run out, and before it reached the bottom of the shaft would have dissipated into mist.",-1.826667527,0.504740333
464d6bd5c,,,"Then came the night of the first falling star. It was seen early in the morning, rushing over Winchester eastward, a line of flame high in the atmosphere. Hundreds must have seen it, and taken it for an ordinary falling star. Albin described it as leaving a greenish streak behind it that glowed for some seconds. Denning, our greatest authority on meteorites, stated that the height of its first appearance was about ninety or one hundred miles. It seemed to him that it fell to earth about one hundred miles east of him.
I was at home at that hour and writing in my study; and although my French windows face towards Ottershaw and the blind was up (for I loved in those days to look up at the night sky), I saw nothing of it. Yet this strangest of all things that ever came to earth from outer space must have fallen while I was sitting there, visible to me had I only looked up as it passed. Some of those who saw its flight say it travelled with a hissing sound.",-0.799008211,0.454586585
9f4d68402,,,"Of no author can it be more truly said than of Louisa Alcott that her works are a revelation of herself. She rarely sought for the material of her stories in old chronicles, or foreign adventures. Her capital was her own life and experiences and those of others directly about her; and her own well-remembered girlish frolics and fancies were sure to find responsive enjoyment in the minds of other girls.
It is therefore impossible to understand Miss Alcott's works fully without a knowledge of her own life and experiences. By inheritance and education she had rich and peculiar gifts; and her life was one of rare advantages, as well as of trying difficulties. Herself of the most true and frank nature, she has given us the opportunity of knowing her without disguise; and it is thus that I shall try to portray her, showing what influences acted upon her through life, and how faithfully and fully she performed whatever duties circumstances laid upon her. Fortunately, I can let her speak mainly for herself.",-1.4872966,0.482727376
1c0e7636c,,,"The race was about half a mile and return, the first and last quarters being upon the ice. The course, after leaving the ice, led up from the river by a long, easy slope to the level above; and at the further end, curved somewhat sharply around the Old Fort. The only condition attaching to the race was, that the teams should start from the scratch, make the turn of the Fort, and finish at the scratch. There were no vexing regulations as to fouls. The man making the foul would find it necessary to reckon with the crowd, which was considered sufficient guarantee for a fair and square race. Owing to the hazards of the course, the result would depend upon the skill of the drivers quite as much as the speed of the teams. The points of hazard were at the turn round the Old Fort, and at a little ravine which led down to the river, over which the road passed by means of a long, log bridge or causeway.",-1.25140093,0.464566131
e5c34d611,,,"A typewriting machine can write much more quickly than any penman—and the work it does has the advantage of being easy to read, whereas very few people write a clear and legible hand.
In office work much of the writing to be done is making entries in books and copying into ledgers.
All this has had to be done by hand, and it has of course taken a much longer time to do.
By means of this new invention books can be kept and entries copied with the same neatness and speed of an ordinary typewriter.
The great difficulty in making a machine to do this work properly was that it was not possible to have the paper move back and forth as it does in typewriting machines generally. For bound books the paper must remain still, and the type moves over the page in the same manner that the pen does.
The new book typewriter has mastered this difficulty. The page is held firmly in a kind of frame, and the type moves with each letter or word that it writes.",0.079093893,0.49606738
179dd034c,,,"Another ingenious postal device which has just been put on trial is the scheme for registering letters yourself.
The first thing to do is to put a ten-cent piece in the slot. The coin opens a small registering window, and reveals a pad on which you write the address of the registered letter, and also an aperture through which the letter is to be dropped. The letter must first have been stamped with a two-cent stamp.
After the letter is mailed, the sender pulls a handle until a gong rings and a receipt is then pushed out toward the sender. This receipt is in fact the second half of the order which he himself has written. As soon as the receipt is given the machine locks itself, and nothing will unlock it but a fresh dime in the slot.
Worn coins, or those that are not full size and weight, are instantly rejected by the machine.
The coin, after entering the machine, passes over a very delicate balance, and if it is found to be light or bad when it is weighed, the machine throws it out on the floor in front of the would-be registerer.",-1.304138548,0.495159847
08777adc7,,,"There is sad news from the Philippine Islands. A cyclone and tidal wave have visited the island of Leyte, which is one of the Philippine group, and have done a great deal of damage, sweeping over a vast tract of country and killing thousands of people.
A tidal wave, or, more properly speaking, an earthquake wave, is an extraordinarily high wave, supposed to be formed by the disturbance caused by an earthquake in the bed of the sea.
The action of the earthquake causes the waters to retreat from the shores, and gather themselves into a mighty mass, which suddenly turns and advances upon the shore in one huge wave of enormous height. This wave sweeps on over the land until it has spent its force, when the waters rush back to the sea once more.
The force of such a wave is so great that it destroys everything in its path, tearing up rocks and boulders, and carrying them along inland with it.",0.024740431,0.494143589
66d9b13a3,,,"This is an idea that will find favor with all women who have long hair and dread the long, tedious process of drying, and the misery and tangles that are a part of the first combing after the hair is dry.
It is an electric hair-dryer, partly comb and partly brush. It is connected with an electric wire which heats a sliding plate in the inside. The dryer is passed over the hair, smoothing it and removing the tangles, and drying it at the same time by means of the heated plate inside.
It can be easily adapted to every house where electricity is used, as a small wire attached to the lights will do the work required.
The hair-dryer is carefully insulated, and there is no danger of the user receiving an electric shock.
The dryer should become a favorite toilet article. The softness and silkiness of the hair is greatly enhanced by constant washing, and yet there are many women to whom the dangling of damp locks means a sure cold in the head and sore throat.",-0.502556048,0.488795843
ae7995172,,,"If any of our boys and girls have found their bicycle saddles as uncomfortable as your editor has found his, they will be delighted to learn that there is to be had a sensible as well as most comfortable saddle. The pleasure of riding your wheel for miles without feeling your saddle can only be appreciated by those who happen to have a saddle which fits; the great trouble is that very few people fit the average saddle; and as the saddle cannot be adjusted, perfect comfort is not obtainable. With this new saddle the case is different, for it can be adjusted to fit a large or small person exactly. It also has a contrivance which permits the parts to move up and down so that there is no friction whatever. Our attention was called to it by one of the officers of the navy, who has proved himself an expert in wheel contrivances, and a careful test bears out all of his statements.",-1.519120403,0.491361281
f68dee408,,,"We have received a very attractive little book called ""Uncle Robert's Visit,"" which is the third part of the series of books called ""Uncle Robert's Geography."" It is published by the Messrs. Appleton in their series of Home-Reading Books, and presents nature study and geographical knowledge in the most attractive form, being woven in a story of ""Uncle Robert's Visit"" to the farm. This particular uncle, like some others we have known, was a fund of information and a source of delight to the nephews and nieces. He went about with them in the fields and woods, and, without forcing it on them in any way, so ordered the conversation that they learned much of nature on each trip. These uncles are treasures, and to those who cannot have them always with them, to read of some one else's uncle in this attractive form is charming.",-1.101336442,0.466022672
7a354d603,,,"It was in the year 450 B.C., in the early summer, and Phidias, who had been working all the day, strolled quietly along the streets of Athens.
As he passed by the Agora (or market-place), he chanced to look up, and he saw a young girl of about thirteen years sitting near him. Her face was of the purest beauty; her head was gracefully poised on her shoulders; her expression was sadness itself. She looked poor and in distress. She came forward and begged for help; and there was something in her manner, as well as in her face, which made Phidias pause and listen to her.
""My father lies ill,"" she said plaintively, ""and he cannot do his work, and so we can get no food: nothing to make him well and strong again. If I could only do his work for him I should not mind; and then I should not beg. He does not know I came out to beg—he would never forgive me; but I could not bear to see him lying there without food.""",-0.295551613,0.473669864
3f5f4778c,,,"In what does this noble disregard for appearances which characterizes American men originate? Our climate, as some suggest, or discouragement at not all being millionaires? It more likely comes from an absence with us of the military training that abroad goes so far toward licking young men into shape.
I shall never forget the surprise on the face of a French statesman to whom I once expressed my sympathy for his country, laboring under the burden of so vast a standing army. He answered:
""The financial burden is doubtless great; but you have others. Witness your pension expenditures. With us the money drawn from the people is used in such a way as to be of inestimable value to them. We take the young hobbledehoy farm-hand or mechanic, ignorant, mannerless, uncleanly as he may be, and turn him out at the end of three years with his regiment, self-respecting and well- mannered, with habits of cleanliness and obedience, having acquired a bearing, and a love of order that will cling to and serve him all his life. We do not go so far,"" he added, ""as our English neighbors in drilling men into superb manikins of 'form' and carriage.""",-3.075393325,0.57581576
38da5163a,,,"A year or so ago the Croton water, which is in use in New York City, was found to be impure.
A commission was appointed to go and examine the Croton Water-Shed. This meant that they were to examine the little streams, and brooks, and rivers, and lakes, which supplied the water to our aqueduct, and see what the trouble was.
They found that along the banks of these streams and lakes, in villages and out in the country, a great many dwelling-houses and shanties had been built, the occupants of which were in the habit of throwing all sorts of rubbish into the water, making it unfit for drinking.
In consequence of this, all of the houses were ordered to be torn down or moved away, and one small village of shanties was destroyed. Among others, the inhabitants of Katonah were ordered to move, that the banks of the stream might be cleared of dwellings.",-0.006220477,0.478883125
d7e61f52f,,,"There has lately been patented in England a system for making buttons, combs, brush-handles, billiard balls, and such like articles out of milk.
The bone buttons and articles of that kind, which we have been using up to the present time, have been made of refuse from the slaughter-houses. This new process will only require milk.
Any one who knows anything about dairy work knows what loppered milk is. It is the thick soured milk that one finds under the butter cream.
This loppered milk is made into cottage cheese, and many people, in making their cottage cheese, stand it for a moment on the fire to thicken.
Woe to the dairy wife who lets it stay too long!
It becomes like little knobs of rubber, that nothing will soften. When one tries to bite it one's teeth rebound. It is the toughest kind of material.
Mr. Callander, the Englishman who invented the milk buttons, must have had an encounter with some of this cottage cheese, and his trouble in chewing it must have made him wonder whether it wasn't intended for something else instead of food.",-1.369069343,0.524298701
38965bb7f,,,"Blondin, the celebrated tight-rope walker, has just died in London, at the age of seventy-three.
The performance which made him famous was the crossing of Niagara Falls on the tight-rope.
Blondin was a Frenchman, his father having been one of Napoleon's soldiers.
A story is told of him that when he was five years old he saw an acrobat performing on a tight-rope.
He was so pleased with what he saw, that when he got home he stretched a rope between two posts, and, as soon as his mother was out of the way, took his father's fishing-rod, and, using it as a balancing pole, made his first appearance as a tight-rope walker.
He was trained for an acrobat and tight-rope walking, and came to this country with a troup of pantomimists.
While here he visited Niagara Falls, and the idea at once struck him that, if he dared to cross those terrible waters on a rope, his fortune would be made. He made up his mind to try it, and stayed in the village of Niagara for weeks, until he had learned just how it would be possible for him to perform the feat.",-1.052443255,0.466558005
7d2dd3148,,,"In the first place, it looks like an ordinary pair of scissors. But when you open them to cut anything, you get the first surprise: one of the blades is marked off in inches, half-inches, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths.
Then when you are prepared for the wonders these shears have to show, you find that on one handle is a hammer-head, and that they can be used as a hammer. Close to the hammer-head a screw-driver is arranged. At the point of the shears is an awl for boring holes; and, most practical of all, the scissors when they are opened out form a perfect carpenter's square.
This wonderful tool was invented by Benjamin Ford, of Newcastle, Maine. Any boy who has such a pair of shears, and a paper of screws in his pocket, can build and make to his heart's content, and the happy mother who has this tool on her work-table is done forever with breaking her back over the tool-chest, to find some particularly elusive screw-driver or gimlet.",-0.67755485,0.465821017
3f4605870,,,"A country is different from an individual in the fact that there are certain expenses that are not exactly necessary, and yet which must be provided for, for the honor of the country. A man who is in money difficulties can cut down his expenses to the mere cost of food, house, and clothes. In this way a man is better off than a country. But, on the other hand, a man can only earn just so much money; he cannot force people to buy his goods, or pay him better prices; he has to do the best he can with what he can earn; while a country can, by taxes, force people to give it the money it needs, and so it is better off than an individual.
Some of the expenses of a country that must be met are the salaries of all the officers who preserve law and order, the judges, soldiers, sailors, and the police; the pensions of the old soldiers, and of their families; the building of forts and warships, and of the guns to arm them; the making and issuing of money, and the handling and delivering of letters.",-1.384305523,0.496892016
2b9b07eb9,,,"Terrible floods are reported from the Mississippi Valley. A section of the country equal in size to the whole State of Missouri is now under water, and steamboats are hurrying over what were once farm lands, rescuing the unfortunate families who have been caught by the floods.
The Mississippi, the largest river on our continent, flows through what is known as the Gulf Coast Plain.
The Gulf Coast Plain is formed by the valley lying between the great mountain ranges which make the framework of our country.
The Mississippi with its tributaries drains the whole of the enormous tract of land lying between these three main mountain ranges.
This great river forms the highway for the interior of our country, and winds through the plain for about a thousand miles. Every year when the heavy spring rains fall, and the snows melt in the north, the river overflows its bed, and floods the lowlands around it.",0.06914782,0.523845639
e9088a4cc,,,"A book has been invented for carrying fish-hooks, and it promises to be of great use to all those who find pleasure in the gentle art of angling.
It is a book arranged somewhat like a wallet. At one end is a strong leather pocket for flies, then stretched across it are four ledges. Each ledge has a number of slits in it. At the end opposite the pocket is the first ledge, and into the slits in this ledge the hooks are placed. The short line attached to the hook is carried to the next ledge, and carefully slipped into a slit opposite to the one which holds the hook. The line is carried over another ledge to be finally anchored in the one nearer the pocket. When the book is closed the ledges fit into each other, and the fish-hooks are kept in place and therefore cannot get tangled.",-0.73580158,0.45961179
4b1f5c8f6,,,"By the second day it was clearly visible to any decent instrument, as a speck with a barely sensible diameter, in the constellation Leo near Regulus. In a little while an opera glass could attain it.
On the third day of the new year the newspaper readers of two hemispheres were made aware for the first time of the real importance of this unusual apparition in the heavens. ""A Planetary Collision,"" one London paper headed the news, and proclaimed Duchaine's opinion that this strange new planet would probably collide with Neptune. The lead writers enlarged upon the topic; so that in most of the capitals of the world, on January 3rd, there was an expectation, however vague of some imminent phenomenon in the sky; and as the night followed the sunset round the globe, thousands of men turned their eyes skyward to see—the old familiar stars just as they had always been.
Until it was dawn in London and Pollux setting and the stars overhead grown pale. The Winter's dawn it was, a sickly filtering accumulation of daylight, and the light of gas and candles shone yellow in the windows to show where people were astir.",-2.18172358,0.455842522
4f3a219cc,,,"I was in Athens when the coming of age of Crown Prince George, the brave, handsome young Greek of whom we hear so much, was celebrated.
The streets, from the palace to the church where the ceremonies were to take place, were most beautiful with triumphal arches. Rich tapestries floated from the windows all along the way, and the flags of all nations—among them our own dear Stars and Stripes—swung merrily to the breeze.
The city was full of soldiers. Among them were the Greek mountaineers in their picturesque costume of white linen, consisting of tunics with long, flowing sleeves, and kilted skirts so full and so starched that they stood out like the skirts of a circus rider.
Their long, pointed shoes, which turned up at the toes like a toboggan, had large red rosettes on the very points. Their caps were brightly colored, and a long tassel fell from the crown to their shoulders.
Not a very good fighting costume, you will probably think; but if you had looked into their keen eyes and determined faces, you would have forgotten the costume—especially if they had come to fight you.",-0.615923701,0.459892546
14a022a50,,,"Eighteen hundred and ninety-seven is the centennial year of Franz Schubert, the great composer, who was born in Vienna on the 31st of January, 1797. He was of humble lineage. His father, who also bore the name of Franz, was the son of a peasant, who studied in Vienna, and became assistant to his brother, a schoolmaster. He married Elizabeth Vitz, who had been in service as a cook in Vienna. Franz Peter Schubert was the thirteenth of a family of fourteen children. His love of music was apparent when he was very young. A relative often took him to visit a pianoforte warehouse, and there, and on an old worn-out piano at home, the child studied his first exercises without a master. At the age of seven he had a teacher, Michael Holzer, who used to cry out, ""When I wish to teach him anything, he always knows it already.""",-1.0129139,0.457370156
1c2312a79,,,"There had been a full moon the night when the squad of soldiers marched out from town it was still shining brightly through the mists, although it was past five o'clock. It lighted a plain two miles in extent broken by ridges and gullies and covered with thick, high grass and with bunches of cactus and palmetto. In the hollow of the ridges the mist lay like broad lakes of water, and on one side of the plain stood the walls of the old town. On the other rose hills covered with royal palms that showed white in the moonlight, like hundreds of marble columns. A line of tiny camp fires that the sentries had built during the night stretched between the forts at regular intervals and burned brightly.
But as the light grew stronger, and the moonlight faded, these were stamped out, and when the soldiers came in force the moon was a white ball in the sky, without radiance, the fires had sunk to ashes, and the sun had not yet risen.",-0.486463823,0.494751227
4b313c0aa,,,"The day had become misty and overcast. Heavy, wet clouds hung in the east. I heard the surf thundering against the cliffs, and the gray gulls squealed as they tossed and turned high in the sky. The tide was creeping across the river sands, higher, higher, and I saw the seaweed floating on the beach, and the lancons springing from the foam, silvery threadlike flashes in the gloom. Curlew were flying up the river in twos and threes; the timid sea swallows skimmed across the moors toward some quiet, lonely pool, safe from the coming tempest. In every hedge field birds were gathering, huddling together, twittering restlessly.
When I reached the cliffs I sat down, resting my chin on my clenched hands. Already a vast curtain of rain, sweeping across the ocean miles away, hid the island of Groix. To the east, behind the white semaphore on the hills, black clouds crowded up over the horizon. After a little the thunder boomed, dull, distant, and slender skeins of lightning unraveled across the crest of the coming storm.",-0.909047164,0.499853581
3299b1723,,,"The Shakespeare society of New York, which is really about the only useful literary organization in this country, is making vigorous efforts to redress an old wrong and atone for a long neglect. Sunday, Sept. 22, it held a meeting at the Poe cottage on Kingsbridge road near Fordham, for the purpose of starting an organized movement to buy back the cottage, restore it to its original condition and preserve it as a memorial of Poe. So it has come at last. After helping build monuments to Shelley, Keats and Carlyle we have at last remembered this man, the greatest of our poets and the most unhappy. I am glad that this movement is in the hands of American actors, for it was among them that Poe found his best friends and warmest admirers. Some way he always seemed to belong to the strolling Thespians who were his mother's people.",-0.899950808,0.452308672
6b5a73c9c,,,"All who ride have been troubled at times what to do with the bicycles when they are standing still.
It may be there is damp grass, which would make it impossible to lay the precious wheel down; or there may be a thousand other little inconveniences.
Some one has come to the aid of the bicyclist, and invented a bicycle support, which can be secured to the machine, and raised at will, so as not to interfere with the wheel when in motion. It is just the thing all bicyclists have been longing for.
Another busy brain has been at work in anticipation of the summer, and the glorious time in store, riding along the country roads.
An umbrella support is the result. It consists of an attachment composed of portions which can be connected or removed at will.
What a boon it will be, on a hot summer's day, to have an umbrella comfortably held over one's head, while the hands are free to guide the wheel!",-0.835897448,0.519656386
3fba18c1f,,,"March 4th, William McKinley was duly inaugurated as Chief Officer of our country.
For once the weather was perfect, and everybody was in the best of good humor, and up early to see the sights. At about ten o'clock Major McKinley was escorted from his hotel to the White House by a company of soldiers.
Here he was received by Mr. Cleveland, who up to the very last moment was busy writing and attending to the final duties of his office.
The members of Mr. Cleveland's Cabinet also came to pay their respects to the President-elect. After the greetings were over, Mr. Cleveland and Major McKinley walked out on the porch side by side, ready to make their journey to the Capitol.
As they passed down the steps through the crowd that was waiting to see them, every hat came off, and the spectators stood bareheaded as the two most important men in the country passed before them.
The state carriage, drawn by four horses, was waiting for them; stepping into it, they started on their trip to the Capitol.",-0.522537934,0.496840771
225003311,,,"Juno was about a year older, I think, when there was a death in her family. The one little kitten that she loved with all her mother heart died and left her desolate. It was a very sad occasion, I remember, but we had a great funeral. We dug the grave at the end of the garden. Johnny's express wagon was the hearse, and Johnny drew it, and was very serious indeed. We borrowed Mrs. Martin's baby carriage, and that was the mourning coach. Juno rode in it, with Ned and Gimps walking one on each side and holding her in. I pushed the coach, while a long procession of the neighbors' children came behind, crying with all their might. We sung a hymn at the grave, and did everything we could to soothe Juno's grief.
But Juno would not be reconciled. She drooped around and mewed so pitifully for several days that we could not endure it; so we went to a neighbor's cat that had more kittens than she needed, and borrowed one of them for Juno.",-0.313097629,0.450820105
5fc17664e,,,"This game may be played by four, six, or eight players. Two players toss up for the first choice of partners; the winner also has the right for his side to be ""call"" or to ""reply.""
After sides are chosen, the winner of the toss consults with his side, and they decide whether they will ""call"" or ""reply."" ""Call"" is considered the better position.
The game is played with a map of the United States made of perfectly plain pasteboard with each State a separate piece, and without names or marks of any kind on the pieces.
This map should be large enough to have Rhode Island about one inch long, and the game should be played around a table with the sides named North, South, East, and West.
The side which ""calls"" takes all of the States in a box.",-1.009308845,0.470036006
53fb1b2ac,,,"An inventor in Boston has just perfected an excellent coat-hanger.
At the first glance it looks like the ordinary hangers we have been using for so many years, but this invention obviates the one objection which attaches to all the other hangers we have come across—it adapts itself to the size of the place in which it is to be used.
Those who live in small houses or apartments with meagre cupboard-room know that the old hanger is out of the question for them, two coats or waists taking up the entire length of the wardrobe.
The new hanger is adjustable. Its arms work on a spring. It can stretch them out to the fullest extent where space is no object, but when used in a cupboard where every inch counts, the accommodating arms will fold together, and taking one sleeve of the coat or waist on each arm, lay them together in the same position they would be in if folded in a drawer.",-0.555041377,0.475876059
30d04088f,,,"The central picture in Old English life—the great event of the day—was Noon-meat, or dinner in the great hall. A little before three, the chief and all his household, with any stray guests who might have dropped in, met in the hall, which stood in the centre of its encircling bowers—the principal apartment of every Old English house. Clouds of wood smoke, rolling up from a fire which blazed in the middle of the floor, blackened the carved rafters of the arched roof before they found their way out of the hole above which did duty as a chimney.
Tapestries, dyed purple, or glowing with variegated pictures of saints and heroes, hung, and if the day was stormy, flapped upon the chinky walls. In palaces and in earls' mansions coloured tiles, wrought into a mosaic, formed a clean and pretty pavement; but the common flooring of the time was clay, baked dry with the heat of winter evenings and summer noons. The only articles of furniture always in the hall were wooden benches; some of which, especially the high settle or seat of the chieftain, boasted cushions, or at least a rug.",-1.872513112,0.526533646
ad91fe6a9,,,"The family had no idea how long they and their forefathers before them had owned and lived upon the farm. If they ever thought of it at all, they probably thought they had been there always. Really, it must have been a very, very long time—they were so thoroughly settled, so well acquainted with the land and everything on it; then they were so numerous and knew so much. It must have taken a tremendous length of time to learn all about farming and dairy work, about building, and weaving, and making things,—to have found out so much about the stars, the coming and going of the moon, the years and months which it makes,—to have so many set customs, and a religion with prayers and worship,—and lastly, to have invented writing and no end of useful arts, requiring skill and long practice.",-0.857402754,0.495543436
fe5babaff,,,"One day the children were out in the fields, running races, picking flowers, and making daisy-chains!
When they began to feel tired and hungry, they got milk and cake out of mother's basket, and had a long rest on the dry, warm grass.
'How these buttercups shine!' said Dora; 'they look like gold!'
'Gold-cups, they ought to be called, not butter-cups,' said Harry. 'They look like cups, don't they?'
'But they would not hold water like real cups. Look at this one; it is in five pieces.'
'Five? Oh yes! And look underneath. There is another sort of cup with five leaves in it.'
'Only it is not bright and golden, but green and hairy.''
Now, you found that out, and I found the five yellow leaves. It is my turn again. I can see yellow threads standing up in a ring all round the middle of the cup, and their tops are thick.'
 'It is my turn now! In the very middle there is a green heap. It looks as if the yellow threads were taking care of it.'",0.071064667,0.486230916
c2b70247e,,,"A little pine tree was in the woods.
It had no leaves. It had needles.
The little tree said, ""I do not like needles. All the other trees in the woods have pretty leaves. I want leaves, too. But I will have better leaves. I want gold leaves.""
Night came and the little tree went to sleep. A fairy came by and gave it gold leaves.
When the little tree woke it had leaves of gold.
It said, ""Oh, I am so pretty! No other tree has gold leaves.""
Night came.
A man came by with a bag. He saw the gold leaves. He took them all and put them into his bag.
The poor little tree cried, ""I do not want gold leaves again. I will have glass leaves.""
So the little tree went to sleep. The fairy came by and put the glass leaves on it.
The little tree woke and saw its glass leaves.
How pretty they looked in the sunshine! 'No other tree was so bright.
Then a wind came up. It blew and blew.
The glass leaves all fell from the tree and were broken.",0.566480493,0.559053491
509adac58,,,"A painful and ghastly spectacle has just risen before my eyes. I tore down the curtain which concealed mankind's corruption. This word in my mouth is at least secure from the suspicion that it contains a moral charge against mankind. It is—I would fain emphasise this again—free from moralic acid: to such an extent is this so, that I am most thoroughly conscious of the corruption in question precisely in those quarters in which hitherto people have aspired with most determination to ""virtue"" and to ""godliness."" As you have already surmised, I understand corruption in the sense of decadence. What I maintain is this, that all the values upon which mankind builds its highest hopes and desires are decadent values. I call an animal, a species, an individual corrupt, when it loses its instincts, when it selects and prefers that which is detrimental to it. A history of the ""higher feelings,"" of ""human ideals""—and it is not impossible that I shall have to write it—would almost explain why man is so corrupt.",-2.950134962,0.560971826
5d28cfec5,,,"Within the big valves of the door—which were open and broken—we found, instead of the customary hall, a long gallery lit by many side windows. At the first glance I was reminded of a museum. The tiled floor was thick with dust, and a remarkable array of miscellaneous objects was shrouded in the same grey covering. Then I perceived, standing strange and gaunt in the centre of the hall, what was clearly the lower part of a huge skeleton. I recognised by the oblique feet that it was some extinct creature after the fashion of the Megatherium. The skull and the upper bones lay beside it in the thick dust, and in one place, where rain-water had dropped through a leak in the roof, the thing itself had been worn away. Further in the gallery was the huge skeleton barrel of a Brontosaurus. My museum hypothesis was confirmed. Going towards the side I found what appeared to be sloping shelves, and clearing away the thick dust, I found the old familiar glass cases of our own time. But they must have been air-tight to judge from the fair preservation of some of their contents.",-1.737087807,0.478944175
11210ce55,,,"Jupiter had two brothers, both of them terrible fellows, but not nearly so great as himself. The name of one of them was Neptune, or Poseidon, and he was the king of the sea. He had a glittering, golden palace far down in the deep sea-caves where the fishes live and the red coral grows; and whenever he was angry the waves would rise mountain high, and the storm-winds would howl fearfully, and the sea would try to break over the land; and men called him the Shaker of the Earth.
The other brother of Jupiter was a sad pale-faced being, whose kingdom was underneath the earth, where the sun never shone and where there was darkness and weeping and sorrow all the time. His name was Pluto, or Aidoneus, and his country was called the Lower World, or the Land of Shadows, or Hades. Men said that whenever any one died, Pluto would send his messenger, or Shadow Leader, to carry that one down into his cheerless kingdom; and for that reason they never spoke well of him, but thought of him only as the enemy of life.",-0.353889334,0.47533583
ab6c4f23d,,,"Things might have gone on very happily indeed, and the Golden Age might really have come again, had it not been for Jupiter. But one day, when he chanced to look down upon the earth, he saw the fires burning, and the people living in houses, and the flocks feeding on the hills, and the grain ripening in the fields, and this made him very angry.
""Who has done all this?"" he asked.
And some one answered, ""Prometheus!""
""What! That young Titan!"" he cried. ""Well, I will punish him in a way that will make him wish I had shut him up in the prison-house with his kinsfolk. But as for those puny men, let them keep their fire. I will make them ten times more miserable than they were before they had it.""
Of course it would be easy enough to deal with Prometheus at any time, and so Jupiter was in no great haste about it. He made up his mind to distress mankind first; and he thought of a plan for doing it in a very strange, roundabout way.",-0.840372913,0.463683824
ed8aaee0e,,,"Neddy was much ashamed, and told the man his aunt would pay for all the broken things. Then he took his naughty pet, and started to go home and tie him up, for it was plain this monkey was not to be trusted. But as soon as they got out, Jocko ran up a tree and dropped on to a load of hay passing underneath. Here he danced and pranced, and had a fine time, throwing off the man's coat and rake, and eating some of the dinner tied up in a cloth. The crusts of bread and the bones he threw at the horse; this new kind of whip frightened the horse, and he ran away down a steep hill, and upset the hay and broke the cart. Oh, such a time! It was worse than the candy scrape; for the man swore, and the horse was hurt, and people said the monkey ought to be shot, he did so much mischief. Jocko didn't care a bit; he sat high up in a tree, and chattered and scolded, and swung by his tail, and was so droll that people couldn't help laughing at him.",-0.245285845,0.462422864
a5219d250,,,"The rector had gone away for the day, being a man who disliked the sight of changes. He did not mean to return till the evening, when the new school-teacher would have arrived and settled in, and everything would be smooth again. The blacksmith, the farm bailiff, and the schoolmaster himself were standing in perplexed attitudes in the parlour before the instrument. The master had remarked that even if he got it into the cart he should not know what to do with it on his arrival at Christminster, the city he was bound for, since he was only going into temporary lodgings just at first. A little boy of eleven, who had been thoughtfully assisting in the packing, joined the group of men, and as they rubbed their chins he spoke up, blushing at the sound of his own voice: ""Aunt has got a great fuel-house, and it could be put there, perhaps, till you've found a place to settle in, sir.""",-1.060387139,0.460905634
b322b06d3,,,"One day he was sitting on the balcony after evening tea, reading. At the same time, in the drawing-room, Tanya taking soprano, one of the young ladies a contralto, and the young man with his violin, were practising a well-known serenade of Braga's. Kovrin listened to the words—they were Russian—and could not understand their meaning. At last, leaving his book and listening attentively, he understood: a maiden, full of sick fancies, heard one night in her garden mysterious sounds, so strange and lovely that she was obliged to recognise them as a holy harmony which is unintelligible to us mortals, and so flies back to heaven. Kovrin's eyes began to close. He got up, and in exhaustion walked up and down the drawing-room, and then the dining-room. When the singing was over he took Tanya's arm, and with her went out on the balcony.",-1.040422903,0.475186348
1bf226f78,,,"And there she is! all eyes are turned to where she lies, dimly discernible through the gathering fog of the early winter afternoon; every finger is pointed in the same direction; and murmurs of interest and admiration—as ‘How beautiful she looks!' ‘How trim she is!'—are heard on every side. Even the lazy gentleman with his hat on one side and his hands in his pockets, who has dispensed so much consolation by inquiring with a yawn of another gentleman whether he is ‘going across'—as if it were a ferry—even he condescends to look that way, and nod his head, as who should say, ‘No mistake about that:' and not even the sage Lord Burleigh in his nod, included half so much as this lazy gentleman of might who has made the passage (as everybody on board has found out already; it's impossible to say how) thirteen times without a single accident! There is another passenger very much wrapped-up, who has been frowned down by the rest, and morally trampled upon and crushed, for presuming to inquire with a timid interest how long it is since the poor President went down.",-2.165763445,0.515126383
953bca512,,,"The man called Evans came swaying along the canoe until he could look over his companion's shoulder. The paper had the appearance of a rough map. By much folding it was creased and worn to the pitch of separation, and the second man held the discoloured fragments together where they had parted. On it one could dimly make out, in almost obliterated pencil, the outline of the bay. ""Here,"" said Evans, ""is the reef, and here is the gap."" He ran his thumb-nail over the chart. ""This curved and twisting line is the river—I could do with a drink now!—and this star is the place."" ""You see this dotted line,"" said the man with the map; ""it is a straight line, and runs from the opening of the reef to a clump of palm-trees. The star comes just where it cuts the river. We must mark the place as we go into the lagoon."" ""It's odd,"" said Evans, after a pause, ""what these little marks down here are for. It looks like the plan of a house or something; but what all these little dashes, pointing this way and that, may mean I can't get a notion.""",-1.007234375,0.493839163
706058a68,,,"Nobody but Americans could govern America. The people were too intelligent, too active, too various-minded, too full of native quality and genius to be ruled from abroad. If they were to fall under foreign subjection, they would become a dead weight in the world, instead of a source of life; as Adams said, every increase in population would be but an increase of slaves. And that they preferred death to slavery was every day becoming increasingly manifest. They felt that the future was in them, and that they must have space and freedom to bring it forth; and it is one of the paradoxes of history that England, to whom they stood in blood-relationship, from whom they derived the instinct for liberty, should have attempted to reduce them to the most absolute bondage anywhere known, except in the colonies of Spain. She was actuated partly by the pride of authority, centered in George III, and from him percolating into his creatures in the ministry and Parliament; and partly by the horde of office-seekers and holders whose aim was sheer pecuniary gain at any cost of honor and principle.",-1.789305774,0.485056097
9f399e78c,,,"But why she liked him she could not explain satisfactorily to herself when she partly attempted to do so. She could discover in him none of those brilliant and promising traits which Gaston, her husband, had often assured her that he possessed. On the contrary, he sat rather mute and receptive before her chatty eagerness to make him feel at home and in the face of Gaston's frank and wordy hospitality. His manner was as courteous toward her as the most exacting woman could require; but he made no direct appeal to her approval or even esteem.
Once settled at the plantation he seemed to like to sit upon the wide portico in the shade of one of the big Corinthian pillars, smoking his cigar lazily and listening attentively to Gaston's experience as a sugar planter.
""This is what I call living,"" he would utter with deep satisfaction, as the air that swept across the sugar field caressed him with its warm and scented velvety touch. It pleased him also to get on familiar terms with the big dogs that came about him, rubbing themselves sociably against his legs.",-1.825820602,0.486349336
a789c559d,,,"There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul. She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window. She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.",-1.254648581,0.492526381
33864b08f,,,"She had not spoken to her son Henri for ten years because he had married an American girl from Prytania street. She would not permit green tea to be introduced into her house, and those who could not or would not drink coffee might drink tisane of fleur de Laurier for all she cared. Nevertheless, the children seemed to be having it all their own way that day, and the organ-grinders were let loose. Old madame, in her retired corner, could hear the screams, the laughter and the music far more distinctly than she liked. She rocked herself noisily, and hummed ""Partant pour la Syrie."" She was straight and slender. Her hair was white, and she wore it in puffs on the temples. Her skin was fair and her eyes blue and cold. Suddenly she became aware that footsteps were approaching, and threatening to invade her privacy — not only footsteps, but screams! Then two little children, one in hot pursuit of the other, darted wildly around the corner near which she sat.",-1.14153601,0.489580408
4f3d94050,,,"Now, what strange novelties worthy of note I observed during the time of my abode there, I will relate unto you. The first is, that they are not begotten of women, but of mankind: for they have no other marriage but of males: the name of women is utterly unknown among them: until they accomplish the age of five and twenty years, they are given in marriage to others: from that time forwards they take others in marriage to themselves: for as soon as the infant is conceived the leg begins to swell, and afterwards when the time of birth is come, they give it a lance and take it out dead: then they lay it abroad with open mouth towards the wind, and so it takes life: and I think thereof the Grecians call it the belly of the leg, because therein they bear their children instead of a belly. I will tell you now of a thing more strange than this.",-2.375846218,0.512742868
10ca1e259,,,"Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a little, and then on the night of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to the Council Rock—a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where a hundred wolves could hide. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, from badger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone to young black three-year-olds who thought they could. The Lone Wolf had led them for a year now. He had fallen twice into a wolf trap in his youth, and once he had been beaten and left for dead; so he knew the manners and customs of men. There was very little talking at the Rock. The cubs tumbled over each other in the center of the circle where their mothers and fathers sat, and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a cub, look at him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet.",-0.45676182,0.48181576
450a06ea3,,,"It was a blazing hot day in August. Baker Street was like an oven, and the glare of the sunlight upon the yellow brickwork of the house across the road was painful to the eye. It was hard to believe that these were the same walls which loomed so gloomily through the fogs of winter. Our blinds were half-drawn, and Holmes lay curled upon the sofa, reading and re-reading a letter which he had received by the morning post. For myself, my term of service in India had trained me to stand heat better than cold, and a thermometer at ninety was no hardship. But the morning paper was uninteresting. Parliament had risen. Everybody was out of town, and I yearned for the glades of the New Forest or the shingle of Southsea. A depleted bank account had caused me to postpone my holiday, and as to my companion, neither the country nor the sea presented the slightest attraction to him. He loved to lie in the very centre of five millions of people, with his filaments stretching out and running through them, responsive to every little rumour or suspicion of unsolved crime.",-0.510812498,0.467420131
637bc5bb0,,,"""I'll tell you what I know about Effie's history. She was a widow when I met her first, though quite young—only twenty-five. Her name then was Mrs. Hebron. She went out to America when she was young, and lived in the town of Atlanta, where she married this Hebron, who was a lawyer with a good practice. They had one child, but the yellow fever broke out badly in the place, and both husband and child died of it. I have seen his death certificate. This sickened her of America, and she came back to live with a maiden aunt at Pinner, in Middlesex. I may mention that her husband had left her comfortably off, and that she had a capital of about four thousand five hundred pounds, which had been so well invested by him that it returned an average of seven per cent. She had only been six months at Pinner when I met her; we fell in love with each other, and we married a few weeks afterwards.",-0.104264817,0.482908915
35226504b,,,"Your slippers are new,"" he said. ""You could not have had them more than a few weeks. The soles which you are at this moment presenting to me are slightly scorched. For a moment I thought they might have got wet and been burned in the drying. But near the instep there is a small circular wafer of paper with the shopman's hieroglyphics upon it. Damp would of course have removed this. You had, then, been sitting with your feet outstretched to the fire, which a man would hardly do even in so wet a June as this if he were in his full health.""
Like all Holmes's reasoning the thing seemed simplicity itself when it was once explained. He read the thought upon my features, and his smile had a tinge of bitterness.
""I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain,"" said he. ""Results without causes are much more impressive. You are ready to come to Birmingham, then?""
""Certainly. What is the case?""
""You shall hear it all in the train. My client is outside in a four-wheeler. Can you come at once?""",-1.074707578,0.461937829
915863fcb,,,"I looked at the clock. It was a quarter to twelve. This could not be a visitor at so late an hour. A patient, evidently, and possibly an all-night sitting. With a wry face I went out into the hall and opened the door. To my astonishment it was Sherlock Holmes who stood upon my step.
""Ah, Watson,"" said he, ""I hoped that I might not be too late to catch you.""
""My dear fellow, pray come in.""
""You look surprised, and no wonder! Relieved, too, I fancy! Hum! You still smoke the Arcadia mixture of your bachelor days then! There's no mistaking that fluffy ash upon your coat. It's easy to tell that you have been accustomed to wear a uniform, Watson. You'll never pass as a pure-bred civilian as long as you keep that habit of carrying your handkerchief in your sleeve. Could you put me up to-night?""
""With pleasure.""",-0.200083077,0.496910056
04fe69def,,,"He was a Northumbrian by birth, ""and knew the Northumbrian coast,"" says one of his North-Country friends, ""like his mother's face."" His birthplace was at Cresswell, a little village near Morpeth, where he was born in August, 1852, so that he was not quite thirty-nine when he finally wore himself out with his ceaseless exertions. He had a true North-Country education, too, among the moors and cliffs, and there drank in to the full that love of nature, and especially of the sea, which forms so conspicuous a note in his later writings. Heather and wave struck the keynotes. A son of the people, he went first, in his boyhood, to the village school at Ellington; but on his eleventh birthday he was removed from the wild north to a new world at Greenwich. There he spent two years in the naval school; and straightway began his first experiences of life on his own account as a pupil teacher at North Shields Ragged School, not far from his native hamlet.",-2.744457798,0.530158129
6fa71e03e,,,"It seemed to Babette a very long time to wait; for the leaves upon the trees were tender yet, and the figs were like little hard, green marbles. But warm rains came along and plenty of strong sunshine, and though Maman-Naiaine was as patient as the statue of la Madone, and Babette as restless as a hummingbird, the first thing they both knew it was hot summertime. Every day Babette danced out to where the fig-trees were in a long line against the fence. She walked slowly beneath them, carefully peering between the gnarled, spreading branches. But each time she came disconsolate away again. What she saw there finally was something that made her sing and dance the whole long day.
When Maman-Nainaine sat down in her stately way to breakfast, the following morning, her muslin cap standing like an aureole about her white, placid face, Babette approached. She bore a dainty porcelain platter, which she set down before her godmother. It contained a dozen purple figs, fringed around with their rich, green leaves.",-1.884352312,0.475552411
8eb7aefc7,,,"The little one awoke in his arms and began to cry for ""Dada."" That was as much as she could do or say. Some people thought she might have strayed there of her own accord, for she was of the toddling age. The prevailing belief was that she had been purposely left by a party of Texans, whose canvas-covered wagon, late in the day, had crossed the ferry that Coton Mais kept, just below the plantation. In time Madame Valmonde abandoned every speculation but the one that Désirée had been sent to her by a beneficent Providence to be the child of her affection, seeing that she was without child of the flesh. For the girl grew to be beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere,—the idol of Valmonde. It was no wonder, when she stood one day against the stone pillar in whose shadow she had lain asleep, eighteen years before, that Armand Aubigny riding by and seeing her there, had fallen in love with her. That was the way all the Aubignys fell in love, as if struck by a pistol shot.",-1.231130424,0.469084726
99aae94fc,,,"Jenny set the table for the tea party under a big oak. There was a flat place on one of the round roots that rose out of the moss, which was the very thing for a table. So there she spread the little white and gold plates and cups and saucers, with the meat dish (every bit as large as your hand), in the middle, full of candy. The milk, of course, was put in the pot for coffee, and set on three dead leaves to boil; and Jenny allowed Donee to fill the jam dishes herself, with her own hands. Donee could hardly get her breath as she did it.
When they were all ready they sat down. The sun shone, and the wind was blowing, and the water of the mill-race flashed and gurgled as it went by, and a song-sparrow perched himself on the fence close to them and sang, and sang, just as if he knew what was going on.
""He wants to come to the party!"" said Betty, and then they all laughed. Donee laughed too.",0.544241454,0.522939068
8e4b1bbd5,,,"That evening we almost had a visit from one of the animals we were after. Several times we had heard at night the musical calling of the bull elk—a sound to which no writer has as yet done justice. This particular night, when we were in bed and the fire was smoldering, we were roused by a ruder noise—a kind of grunting or roaring whine, answered by the frightened snorts of the ponies. It was a bear which had evidently not seen the fire, as it came from behind the bank, and had probably been attracted by the smell of the horses. After it made out what we were, it stayed round a short while, again uttered its peculiar roaring grunt, and went off; we had seized our rifles and had run out into the woods, but in the darkness could see nothing; indeed it was rather lucky we did not stumble across the bear, as he could have made short work of us when we were at such a disadvantage.",-0.405497904,0.439920679
727c9e1f9,,,"The parties in Switzerland are fortunately not divided by questions of race or religion, but the pasteur owned that the Catholics were a difficult element, and had to be carefully managed. They include the whole population of the Italian cantons, and part of the French and German. In Geneva and other large towns the labor question troublesomely enters, and the radicals, like our Democrats, are sometimes the retrograde party.
The pasteur spoke with smiling slight of the Père Hyacinthe and the Döllinger movements, and he confessed that the Protestants were cut up into too many sects to make progress among the Catholic populations. The Catholics often keep their children out of the public schools, as they do with us, but these have to undergo the State examinations, to which all the children, whether taught at home or in private schools, must submit. He deplored the want of moral instruction in the public schools, but he laughed at the attempts in France to instil non-religious moral principles: when I afterwards saw this done in the Florentine ragged schools I could not feel that he was altogether right.",-1.711812473,0.507636394
0feaa7c39,,,"When she got up at eleven o'clock every morning, Olga Ivanovna played the piano or, if it were sunny, painted something in oils. Then between twelve and one she drove to her dressmaker's. As Dymov and she had very little money, only just enough, she and her dressmaker were often put to clever shifts to enable her to appear constantly in new dresses and make a sensation with them. Very often out of an old dyed dress, out of bits of tulle, lace, plush, and silk, costing nothing, perfect marvels were created, something bewitching — not a dress, but a dream. From the dressmaker's Olga Ivanovna usually drove to some actress of her acquaintance to hear the latest theatrical gossip, and incidentally to try and get hold of tickets for the first night of some new play or for a benefit performance. From the actress's she had to go to some artist's studio or to some exhibition or to see some celebrity — either to pay a visit or to give an invitation or simply to have a chat.",-0.987073566,0.463660208
d2ec578f0,,,"One night — it was on the twentieth of March, 1888 — I was returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their own story. He was at work again.",-1.052467727,0.498236692
2552e9c6b,,,"There is a quality which one never sees in Nature until she has been rough-handled by man and has outlived the usage. It is the picturesque. In the deep recesses of the primeval forest, along the mountain-slope, and away up the tumbling brook, Nature may be majestic, beautiful, and even sublime; but she is never picturesque. This quality comes only after the axe and the saw have let the sunlight into the dense tangle and have scattered the falling timber, or the round of the water-wheel has divided the rush of the brook. It is so here. Some hundred years ago, along this quiet, silvery stream were encamped the troops of the struggling colonies, and, later, the great estates of the survivors stretched on each side for miles. The willows that now fringe these banks were saplings then; and they and the great butternuts were only spared because their arching limbs shaded the cattle knee-deep along the shelving banks.",-1.594132675,0.474324087
7ded376a2,,,"Any individual recollection of the journey to Holland, aside from what has been told me, is getting into the traveling carriage, a little green leather Bajazzo dressed in red and white given to me by a relative, and the box of candies bestowed to take on the trip by a friend of my mother. Of our reception in the Belgian capital at the house of Adolphe Jones, the husband of my aunt Henriette, a sister of my mother, I retain many recollections.
Our pleasant host was a painter of animals, whom I afterward saw sharing his friend Verboeckhoven's studio, and whose flocks of sheep were very highly praised. At that time his studio was in his own house, and it seems as if I could still hear the call in my aunt's shrill voice, repeated countless times a day, ""Adolphe!"" and the answer, following promptly in the deepest bass tones, ""Henriette!"" This singular freak, which greatly amused us, was due, as I learned afterward, to my aunt's jealousy, which almost bordered on insanity. In later years I learned to know him as a jovial artist, who in the days of his youth very possibly might have given the strait-laced lady cause for anxiety.",-2.536215683,0.474960752
d5b2fcc3b,,,"For several weeks trouble has been brewing in the Coeur d'Alene mines between the mine owners and the Miners Union. It originated over some differences as to the amount to be paid car men. The miners insisted that as these men were miners they should have full miners wages and the mine owners said they would not pay this amount. It seems that the Miners Union is under control of certain parties who are running the organization in a way that is not for the real interest of the miners. The mine owners aver they will not employ any man who is a member of the union. They say if the men will withdraw from the union they will employ them, but they absolutely refuse to be dictated to by the union. Recently seventy-eight scab miners were shipped in from Michigan. It was feared then that trouble would be had and perhaps bloodshed but the miners maintained their determination to keep within the law. Some two hundred injunction papers were served on different members of the Miners Union to prevent them from interfering with the men who were about to commence work on the mines.",-1.203183046,0.461799899
50618e1e0,,,"There is a moment in the life of every serious soul, when things, which were before unseen and unheard in the world around him become visible and audible. This startling moment comes to some sooner, to others later, but to all, who are not totally given up to the service of self, at sometime surely. From that moment a change passes over such an one, for more and more he hears mysterious voices, and clearer and more clear he sees apparitional forms floating up from the depths above which he kneels. Whence come they, what mean they? He leans over the abyss, and lo! The sounds to which he hearkens are the voices of human weeping and the forms at which he gazes are the apparitions of human woe; they beckon to him, and the voices beseech him in multitudinous accent and heartbreak: ""Come over, come down, oh! friend and brother, and help us."" Then he straightway puts away the things and the thoughts of the past and girding himself with the things, and the thoughts of the divine OUGHT and the almighty MUST, he goes over and down to the rescue.",-2.269067163,0.490540752
a3a7e58a2,,,"The youth had now journeyed considerably beyond the furthest domains of the Abbey. He was the more surprised therefore when, on coming round a turn in the path, he perceived a man clad in the familiar garb of the order, and seated in a clump of heather by the roadside. Alleyne had known every brother well, but this was a face which was new to him—a face which was very red and puffed, working this way and that, as though the man were sore perplexed in his mind. Once he shook both hands furiously in the air, and twice he sprang from his seat and hurried down the road. When he rose, however, Alleyne observed that his robe was much too long and loose for him in every direction, trailing upon the ground and bagging about his ankles, so that even with trussed-up skirts he could make little progress. He ran once, but the long gown clogged him so that he slowed down into a shambling walk, and finally plumped into the heather once more.",-1.742900661,0.46968608
62d3e2443,,,"Now and then there are truths of a higher kind than these in Franklin, and Sainte-Beuve, the great French critic, quotes, as an example of his occasional finer moods, the saying, ""Truth and sincerity have a certain distinguishing native luster about them which cannot be counterfeited; they are like fire and flame that cannot be painted."" But the sage who invented the Franklin stove had no disdain of small utilities; and in general the last word of his philosophy is well expressed in a passage of his Autobiography: ""Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune, that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day; thus, if you teach a poor young man to shave himself and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas.""",-2.862860648,0.550629637
5eb8b3743,,,"What a vision we were: the chest of an athlete, the hands of a dandy, and the forehead of a child. We were a whole fancy dress ball, in English trousers, a Parisian waistcoat, a North American overcoat, and a Spanish bullfighter's hat. The Indian circled about us, mute, and went to the mountaintop to christen his children. The black, pursued from afar, alone and unknown, sang his heart's music in the night, between waves and wild beasts. The campesinos, the men of the land, the creators, rose up in blind indignation against the disdainful city, their own creation. We wore epaulets and judge's robes, in countries that came into the world wearing rope sandals and Indian headbands. The natural people, driven by instinct, blind with triumph, overwhelmed their gilded rulers. No Yankee or European book could furnish the key to the Hispano-American enigma. So the people tried hatred instead, and our countries amounted to less and less each year.",-1.963136047,0.452877355
5a024402e,,,"During this winter of 1887-8 his friends first perceived that a change had come over him. They did not realize that his life was drawing to a close; it was difficult to do so when so much of the former elasticity remained; when he still proclaimed himself 'quite well' so long as he was not definitely suffering. But he was often suffering; one terrible cold followed another. There was general evidence that he had at last grown old. He, however, made no distinct change in his mode of life. Old habits, suspended by his longer imprisonments to the house, were resumed as soon as he was set free. He still dined out; still attended the private view of every, or almost every art exhibition. He kept up his unceasing correspondence--in one or two cases voluntarily added to it; though he would complain day after day that his fingers ached from the number of hours through which he had held his pen.",-0.785718989,0.475640822
f536ae255,,,"As soon as she had gone, Lady Windermere returned to the picture-gallery, where a celebrated political economist was solemnly explaining the scientific theory of music to an indignant virtuoso from Hungary, and began to talk to the Duchess of Paisley. She looked wonderfully beautiful with her grand ivory throat, her large blue forget-me-not eyes, and her heavy coils of golden hair. Or pur they were — not that pale straw colour that nowadays usurps the gracious name of gold, but such gold as is woven into sunbeams or hidden in strange amber; and gave to her face something of the frame of a saint, with not a little of the fascination of a sinner. She was a curious psychological study. Early in life she had discovered the important truth that nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion; and by a series of reckless escapades, half of them quite harmless, she had acquired all the privileges of a personality. She had more than once changed her husband; indeed, Debrett credits her with three marriages; but as she had never changed her lover, the world had long ago ceased to talk scandal about her.",-1.821397193,0.464007161
b38cef398,,,"In the morning, with a patter of soft feet, the converts, the doubtful, and the open scoffers, troop up to the verandah. You must be infinitely kind and patient, and, above all, clear-sighted, for you deal with the simplicity of childhood, the experience of man, and the subtlety of the deceiptful. Your congregation have a hundred material wants to be considered; and it is for you, as you believe in your personal responsibility to your Maker, to pick out of the clamouring crowd any grain of spirituality that may lie therein. If to the cure of souls you add that of bodies, your task will be all the more difficult, for the sick and the maimed will profess any and every creed for the sake of healing, and will laugh at you because you are simple enough to believe them.
As the day wears and the impetus of the morning dies away, there will come upon you an overwhelming sense of the uselessness of your toil.",-2.601497993,0.512170941
e38a53eed,,,"I am afraid of nothing,"" the man interrupted with another oath, and sprang to the ground. The two then joined the others at the door, which one of them had already opened with some difficulty, caused by rust of lock and hinge. All entered. Inside it was dark, but the man who had unlocked the door produced a candle and matches and made a light. He then unlocked a door on their right as they stood in the passage. This gave them entrance to a large, square room that the candle but dimly lighted. The floor had a thick carpeting of dust, which partly muffled their footfalls. Cobwebs were in the angles of the walls and depended from the ceiling like strips of rotting lace making undulatory movements in the disturbed air. The room had two windows in adjoining sides, but from neither could anything be seen except the rough inner surfaces of boards a few inches from the glass. There was no fireplace, no furniture; there was nothing: besides the cobwebs and the dust, the four men were the only objects there which were not a part of the structure.",-1.133677933,0.486154366
3a5fbbb4d,,,"It is only the writer who takes the material on which he writes direct out of his own head that is worth reading. Book manufacturers, compilers, and the ordinary history writers, and others like them, take their material straight out of books; it passes into their fingers without its having paid transit duty or undergone inspection when it was in their heads, to say nothing of elaboration. (How learned many a man would be if he knew everything that was in his own books!) Hence their talk is often of such a vague nature that one racks one's brains in vain to understand of what they are really thinking. They are not thinking at all. The book from which they copy is sometimes composed in the same way: so that writing of this kind is like a plaster cast of a cast of a cast, and so on, until finally all that is left is a scarcely recognisable outline of the face of Antinous.",-1.858831637,0.473238171
c2d353907,,,"An Indian Department was made with a large number of agents and other officials drawing large salaries — then came the beginning of trouble; these men took care of themselves but not of us. It was very hard to deal with the government through them — they could make more for themselves by keeping us back than by helping us forward. We did not get the means for working for our lands; the few things they gave us did little good. Our rations began to be reduced; they said we were lazy. That is false. How does any man of sense suppose that so great a number of people could get work at once unless they were once supplied with the means to work and instructors enough to teach them? Our ponies were taken away from us under the promise that they would be replaced by oxen and large horses; it was long before we saw any, and then we got very few. We tried with the men we had, but on one pretext or another, we were shifted from one place to another, or were told that such a transfer was coming.",-1.392789957,0.473180339
9a9812d57,,,"Up from the street, while the crew of the truck company were labouring with the heavy extension ladder that at its longest stretch was many feet too short, crept four men upon long, slender poles with cross-bars, iron-hooked at the end. Standing in one window, they reached up and thrust the hook through the next one above, then mounted a story higher. Again the crash of glass, and again the dizzy ascent. Straight up the wall they crept, looking like human flies on the ceiling, and clinging as close, never resting, reaching one recess only to set out for the next; nearer and nearer in the race for life, until but a single span separated the foremost from the boy. And now the iron hook fell at his feet, and the fireman stood upon the step with the rescued lad in his arms, just as the pent-up flames burst lurid from the attic window, reaching with impotent fury for their prey. The next moment they were safe upon the great ladder waiting to receive them below. Then such a shout went up! Men fell on each other's necks, and cried and laughed at once.",-1.502067537,0.467680254
0f00d6a1f,,,"The union of a royal title with priestly duties was common in ancient Italy and Greece. At Rome and in other cities of Latium there was a priest called the Sacrificial King or King of the Sacred Rites, and his wife bore the title of Queen of the Sacred Rites. In republican Athens the second annual magistrate of the state was called the King, and his wife the Queen; the functions of both were religious. Many other Greek democracies had titular kings, whose duties, so far as they are known, seem to have been priestly, and to have centered round the Common Hearth of the state. Some Greek states had several of these titular kings, who held office simultaneously. At Rome the tradition was that the Sacrificial King had been appointed after the abolition of the monarchy in order to offer the sacrifices which before had been offered by the kings. A similar view as to the origin of the priestly kings appears to have prevailed in Greece.",-1.797681344,0.481704466
63a3b0945,,,"When he woke up, the room looked so funny. The sun was shining into part of it, and yet all the rest was quite dark and shady. So Jack jumped up and dressed himself and went to the window. And what do you think he saw? Why, the beans his mother had thrown out of the window into the garden had sprung up into a big beanstalk which went up and up and up till it reached the sky. So the man spoke truth after all.
The beanstalk grew up quite close past Jack's window, so all he had to do was to open it and give a jump onto the beanstalk which ran up just like a big ladder. So Jack climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed till at last he reached the sky. And when he got there he found a long broad road going as straight as a dart. So he walked along, and he walked along, and he walked along till he came to a great big tall house, and on the doorstep there was a great big tall woman.",0.500062235,0.510074599
89bcf0db2,,,"As they entered they saw Dorian Gray. He was seated at the piano, with his back to them, turning over the pages of a volume of Schumann's ""Forest Scenes."" ""You must lend me these, Basil,"" he cried. ""I want to learn them. They are perfectly charming.""
""That entirely depends on how you sit today, Dorian.""
""Oh, I am tired of sitting, and I don't want a life-sized portrait of myself,"" answered the lad, swinging round on the music stool in a willful, petulant manner. When he caught sight of Lord Henry, a faint blush coloured his cheeks for a moment, and he started up. ""I beg your pardon, Basil, but I didn't know you had anyone with you.""
""This is Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian, an old Oxford friend of mine. I have just been telling him what a capital sitter you were, and now you have spoiled everything.""
""You have not spoiled my pleasure in meeting you, Mr. Gray,"" said Lord Henry, stepping forward and extending his hand. ""My aunt has often spoken to me about you. You are one of her favourites, and, I am afraid, one of her victims also.""",-0.537186659,0.434138091
ca0234c0f,,,"Yet the promises of Eleonora were not forgotten; for I heard the sounds of the swinging of the censers of the angels; and streams of a holy perfume floated ever and ever about the valley; and at lone hours, when my heart beat heavily, the winds that bathed my brow came unto me laden with soft sighs; and indistinct murmurs filled often the night air, and once— oh, but once only! I was awakened from a slumber, like the slumber of death, by the pressing of spiritual lips upon my own. But the void within my heart refused, even thus, to be filled. I longed for the love which had before filled it to overflowing. At length the valley pained me through its memories of Eleonora, and I left it forever for the vanities and the turbulent triumphs of the world.
I found myself within a strange city, where all things might have served to blot from recollection the sweet dreams I had dreamed so long in the Valley of the Many-Colored Grass. The pomps and pageantries of a stately court, and the mad clangor of arms, and the radiant loveliness of women, bewildered and intoxicated my brain.",-2.709285623,0.503277147
390a404cf,,,"It was in 1613 that our philosopher published at Rome another work, entitled ""L'Istoria e Dimostrazione Intorno alle Macchie Solari."" It was, generally speaking, well received, though he drew a conclusion in favour of the Earth's rotation on its axis.
The controversy, however, became still keener on the all-important point of the interpretation of Scripture. Now that we can look back on the events of that day with all judicious calmness, we may well blame Galileo for having let himself fall into so dangerous a snare; but there was some excuse for him, attacked as he was on this very ground of the supposed incompatibility of his hypothesis with the teaching of Scripture; and so he unfortunately committed a grave error of judgment in grappling himself with a religious difficulty which, if wise, he would have left entirely to theologians. It may be said that this is not what we should naturally expect.",-2.788857384,0.517357382
f3c036df6,,,"Harriet Beecher Stowe was born June 14, 1811, in the characteristic New England town of Litchfield, Conn. Her father was the Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, a distinguished Calvinistic divine, her mother Roxanna Foote, his first wife. The little new-comer was ushered into a household of happy, healthy children, and found five brothers and sisters awaiting her. The eldest was Catherine, born September 6, 1800. Following her were two sturdy boys, William and Edward; then came Mary, then George, and at last Harriet. Another little Harriet born three years before had died when only one month old, and the fourth daughter was named, in memory of this sister, Harriet Elizabeth Beecher. Just two years after Harriet was born, in the same month, another brother, Henry Ward, was welcomed to the family circle, and after him came Charles, the last of Roxanna Beecher's children.",0.049295932,0.463219037
b0113640e,,,"Some men of letters, not necessarily the greatest, have an indescribable charm to which we give our hearts. Thackeray is the young man's first love. Of living authors, none perhaps bewitches the reader more than Mr. Stevenson, who plays upon words as if they were a musical instrument. To follow the music is less difficult than to place the musician. A friend of mine, who, like Mr. Grant Allen, reviews 365 books a year, and 366 in leap years, recently arranged the novelists of today in order of merit. Meredith, of course, he wrote first, and then there was a fall to Hardy. ""Haggard,"" he explained, ""I dropped from the Eiffel Tower; but what can I do with Stevenson? I can't put him before 'Lorna Doone.'"" So Mr. Stevenson puzzles the critics, fascinating them until they are willing to judge him by the great work he is to write by and by when the little books are finished. Over ""Treasure Island"" I let my fire die in winter without knowing that I was freezing. But the creator of Alan Breck has now published nearly twenty volumes.",-2.314187741,0.493488286
ea3a59f42,,,"Hard necessity has kept some great writers from doing their best work, but Mr. Stevenson is at last so firmly established that if he continues to be versatile it will only be from choice. He has attained a popularity such as is, as a rule, only accorded to classic authors or to charlatans. For this he has America to thank rather than Britain, for the Americans buy his books, the only honor a writer's admirers are slow to pay him. Mr. Stevenson's reputation in the United States is creditable to that country, which has given him a position here in which only a few saw him when he left. Unfortunately, with popularity has come publicity. All day the reporters sit on his garden wall.
No man has written in a finer spirit of the profession of letters than Mr. Stevenson, but this gossip vulgarizes it. The adulation of the American public and of a little band of clever literary dandies in London, great in criticism, of whom he has become the darling, has made Mr. Stevenson complacent, and he always tended perhaps to be a thought too fond of his velvet coat.",-2.64902363,0.512895516
8a5be50cc,,,"Lord Rosebery is forty-one years of age, and has missed many opportunities of becoming the bosom friend of Lord Randolph Churchill. They were at Eton together and at Oxford, and have met since. As a boy, the Liberal played at horses, and the Tory at running off with other boys' caps. Lord Randolph was the more distinguished at the university. One day a proctor ran him down in the streets smoking in his cap and gown. The undergraduate remarked on the changeability of the weather, but the proctor, gasping at such bravado, demanded his name and college. Lord Randolph failed to turn up next day at St. Edmund Hall to be lectured, but strolled to the proctor's house about dinner-time. ""Does a fellow, name of Moore, live here?"" he asked. The footman contrived not to faint. ""He do,"" he replied, severely; ""but he are at dinner."" ""Ah! take him in my card,"" said the unabashed caller. The Merton books tell that for this the noble lord was fined ten pounds.",-1.780304797,0.521807341
54b281e10,,,"Now, there was a man who was well off in the world, and who had three sons; the first was named Peter, and the second was named Paul. Peter and Paul thought themselves as wise as anybody in all the world, and their father thought as they did.
As for the youngest son, he was named Boots. Nobody thought anything of him except that he was silly, for he did nothing but sit poking in the warm ashes all of the day.
One morning Peter spoke up and said that he was going to the town to have a try at befooling the king, for it would be a fine thing to have a princess in the family. His father did not say no, for if anybody was wise enough to befool the king, Peter was the lad.
So, after Peter had eaten a good breakfast, off he set for the town, right foot foremost. After a while he came to the king's house and — rap! tap! tap! — he knocked at the door.
Well, what did he want?
Oh! he would only like to have a try at befooling the king.",-0.107939666,0.500368856
530c32ae0,,,"Well, one day a stranger came to that town from over the hills and far away. With him he brought a painted picture, but it was all covered with a curtain so that nobody could see what it was.
He drew aside the curtain and showed the picture to the young king and it was a likeness of the most beautiful princess in the whole world; for her eyes were as black as a crow's wing, her cheeks were as red as apples, and her skin as white as snow. Moreover, the picture was so natural that it seemed as though it had nothing to do but to open its lips and speak.
The young king just sat and looked and looked. ""Oh me!"" said he, ""I will never rest content until I have such a one as that for my own.""
""Then listen!"" said the stranger, ""this is a likeness of the princess that lives over beyond the three rivers. A while ago she had a wise bird on which she doted, for it knew everything that happened in the world, so that it could tell the princess whatever she wanted to know.",-0.359866877,0.455813253
c8dcc98a2,,,"Mr. Jacob saw them coming down the road, and was ready for them this time too. He took two pots and filled them with pitch, and over the top of the pitch he spread gold and silver money, so that if you had looked into the pots you would have thought that there was nothing in them but what you saw on the top. Then he took the pots off into the little woods back of the house. Now in the woods was a great deep pit, and all around the pit grew a row of bushes, so thick that nothing was to be seen of the mouth of the hole.
By and by came the priest and the mayor and the provost to Mr. Jacob's house, puffing and blowing and fuming.
Rap! Rap! Tap! They knocked at the door, but nobody was there but Mr. Jacob's wife.
Was Mr. Jacob at home? That was what they wanted to know, for they had a score to settle with him.
Oh, Mr. Jacob's wife did not know just where he was, but she thought that he was in the little woods back of the house yonder, gathering money.",-0.460316546,0.494656507
de80fa5f1,,,"It is the part of wise parents to repress these squibs and crackers of juvenile contention, and to enforce that slowly learned lesson, that in this world one must often ""pass over"" and ""put up with"" things in other people, being oneself by no means perfect. Also that it is a kindness, and almost a duty, to let people think and say and do things in their own way occasionally.
But even if Mr. and Mrs. Skratdj had ever thought of teaching all this to their children, it must be confessed that the lesson would not have come with a good grace from either of them, since they snapped and snarled between themselves as much or more than their children in the nursery.
The two elders were the leaders in the nursery squabbles. Between these, a boy and a girl, a ceaseless war of words was waged from morning to night. And as neither of them lacked ready wit, and both were in constant practice, the art of snapping was cultivated by them to the highest pitch.
It began at breakfast, if not sooner.
""You've taken my chair.""
""It's not your chair.""",-1.871824065,0.45557728
5e854dab8,,,"He was a very selfish Giant.
The poor children had now nowhere to play. They tried to play on the road, but the road was very dusty and full of hard stones, and they did not like it. They used to wander round the high wall when their lessons were over, and talk about the beautiful garden inside. ""How happy we were there,"" they said to each other.
Then the Spring came, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds. Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was still winter. The birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom. Once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass, but when it saw the notice-board it was so sorry for the children that it slipped back into the ground again, and went off to sleep. The only people who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost. ""Spring has forgotten this garden,"" they cried, ""so we will live here all the year round."" The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver.",-0.057944357,0.504742829
072ffa613,,,"At the gate of the Castle the Prince was waiting to receive her. He had dreamy violet eyes, and his hair was like fine gold. When he saw her he sank upon one knee, and kissed her hand.
""Your picture was beautiful,"" he murmured, ""but you are more beautiful than your picture""; and the little Princess blushed.
""She was like a white rose before,"" said a young Page to his neighbour, ""but she is like a red rose now""; and the whole Court was delighted.
For the next three days everybody went about saying, ""White rose, Red rose, Red rose, White rose""; and the King gave orders that the Page's salary was to be doubled. As he received no salary at all this was not of much use to him, but it was considered a great honour, and was duly published in the Court Gazette.
When the three days were over the marriage was celebrated. It was a magnificent ceremony, and the bride and bridegroom walked hand in hand under a canopy of purple velvet embroidered with little pearls.",-0.536029213,0.476289649
01731e2cd,,,"""Come over here and listen to a story,"" said the aunt, when the bachelor had looked twice at her and once at the communication cord.
The children moved listlessly towards the aunt's end of the carriage. Evidently her reputation as a storyteller did not rank high in their estimation.
In a low, confidential voice, interrupted at frequent intervals by loud, petulant questionings from her listeners, she began an unenterprising and deplorably uninteresting story about a little girl who was good, and made friends with every one on account of her goodness, and was finally saved from a mad bull by a number of rescuers who admired her moral character.
""Wouldn't they have saved her if she hadn't been good?"" demanded the bigger of the small girls. It was exactly the question that the bachelor had wanted to ask.
""Well, yes,"" admitted the aunt lamely, ""but I don't think they would have run quite so fast to her help if they had not liked her so much.""
""It's the stupidest story I've ever heard,"" said the bigger of the small girls, with immense conviction.
""I didn't listen after the first bit, it was so stupid,"" said Cyril.",-1.324551328,0.462368561
38b059144,,,"At first Hidesato could not help feeling alarmed at the sight of this horrible reptile lying in his path, for he must either turn back or walk right over its body. He was a brave man, however, and putting aside all fear went forward dauntlessly. Crunch, crunch! he stepped now on the dragon's body, now between its coils, and without even one glance backward he went on his way.
He had only gone a few steps when he heard some one calling him from behind. On turning back he was much surprised to see that the monster dragon had entirely disappeared and in its place was a strange-looking man, who was bowing most ceremoniously to the ground. His red hair streamed over his shoulders and was surmounted by a crown in the shape of a dragon's head, and his sea-green dress was patterned with shells. Hidesato knew at once that this was no ordinary mortal and he wondered much at the strange occurrence. Where had the dragon gone in such a short space of time?",-0.136892383,0.474811042
39a7e9ce5,,,"It had been a bright day, but the evening was chilly; and, as she watched the glowing logs that were blazing on her hearth, she wished that all the lighted part of them would turn to gold.
She was very much in the habit—this little wife—of building castles in the air, particularly when she had nothing else to do, or her husband was late in coming home to his supper. Just as she was thinking how late he was there was a tap at the door, and an old man walked in, who said:
""Mistress, will you give a poor man a warm at your fire?""
""And welcome,"" said the young woman, setting him a chair.
So he sat down as close to the fire as he could, and spread out his hands to the flames.
He had a little knapsack on his back, and the young woman did not doubt that he was an old soldier.
""Maybe you are used to the hot countries,"" she said.
""All countries are much the same to me,"" replied the stranger. ""I see nothing to find fault with in this one.""",0.255460541,0.475090033
1d1e73e05,,,"During the winter of 1879, when I was in London, it was my fortune to attend, a social meeting of literary men at the rooms of a certain eminent publisher. The rooms were full of tobacco-smoke and talk, amid which were discernible, on all sides, the figures and faces of men more or less renowned in the world of books. Most noticeable among these personages was a broad-shouldered, sturdy man, of middle height, with a ruddy countenance, and snow-white tempestuous beard and hair. He wore large, gold-rimmed spectacles, but his eyes were black and brilliant, and looked at his interlocutor with a certain genial fury of inspection. He seemed to be in a state of some excitement; he spoke volubly and almost boisterously, and his voice was full-toned and powerful, though pleasant to the ear. He turned himself, as he spoke, with a burly briskness, from one side to another, addressing himself first to this auditor and then to that, his words bursting forth from beneath his white moustache with such an impetus of hearty breath that it seemed as if all opposing arguments must be blown quite away.",-1.198928071,0.438084052
fdbacf1d4,,,"Rosy went on her way, and forgot all about it. But she never forgot to be kind; and soon after, as she was looking in the grass for strawberries, she found a field-mouse with a broken leg.
""Help me to my nest, or my babies will starve,"" cried the poor thing.
""Yes, I will; and bring these berries so that you can keep still till your leg is better, and have something to eat.""
Rosy took the mouse carefully in her little hand, and tied up the broken leg with a leaf of spearmint and a blade of grass. Then she carried her to the nest under the roots of an old tree, where four baby mice were squeaking sadly for their mother. She made a bed of thistledown for the sick mouse, and put close within reach all the berries and seeds she could find, and brought an acorn-cup of water from the spring, so they could be comfortable.
""Good little Rosy, I shall pay you for all this kindness some day,"" said the mouse, when she was done.",1.289275816,0.643264307
8ac958dc2,,,"Standing on the steps to receive them was an old woman, neatly dressed in black silk, with a white cap and apron. This was Mrs. Umney, the housekeeper, whom Mrs. Otis, at Lady Canterville's earnest request, had consented to keep in her former position. She made them each a low curtsey as they alighted, and said in a quaint, old-fashioned manner, ""I bid you welcome to Canterville Chase."" Following her, they passed through the fine Tudor hall into the library, a long, low room, panelled in black oak, at the end of which was a large stained glass window. Here they found tea laid out for them, and, after taking off their wraps, they sat down and began to look round, while Mrs. Umney waited on them. 
Suddenly Mrs. Otis caught sight of a dull red stain on the floor just by the fireplace, and, quite unconscious of what it really signified, said to Mrs. Umney, ""I am afraid something has been spilt there.""
""Yes, madam,"" replied the old housekeeper in a low voice, ""blood has been spilt on that spot.""",-0.621972263,0.454016379
904f13201,,,"He stayed at the station, helped in the kitchen, cut firewood, kept the yard clean, and swept the platform. In a fortnight's time his wife arrived, and Semyon went on a hand-trolley to his hut. The hut was a new one and warm, with as much wood as he wanted. There was a little vegetable garden, the legacy of former track-walkers, and there was about half a dessiatin of ploughed land on either side of the railway embankment. Semyon was rejoiced. He began to think of doing some farming, of purchasing a cow and a horse.
He was given all necessary stores—a green flag, a red flag, lanterns, a horn, hammer, screw-wrench for the nuts, a crow-bar, spade, broom, bolts, and nails; they gave him two books of regulations and a time-table of the train. At first Semyon could not sleep at night, and learnt the whole time-table by heart.",-0.911057055,0.445905009
bd153d81a,,,"But only a small proportion of all the reading that is done, is oral reading. It is silent reading that is universally employed as an instrument of study, of business, of amusement. As a rule, however, very little provision is made for the acquirement of a facility in silent reading; this, it is thought, will result as a by-product of the regular training in oral reading. Almost the reverse of this is true. Ease and flexibility of articulation, quickness in catching the drift of ideas, and readiness in varying the tones of the voice in the utterance of words so as impressively to portray their latent sentiment,—all this is possible with those alone to whom difficult word-forms, complex sentence-structures, and the infinite variety and play of thought and emotion, are more or less familiar through such a wide range of reading as only the silent prosecution of it makes possible.",-1.580970414,0.486242759
90d7ec34f,,,"Throughout the longest period of human history—one calls it the prehistoric period—the value or non-value of an action was inferred from its consequences; the action in itself was not taken into consideration, any more than its origin; but pretty much as in China at present, where the distinction or disgrace of a child redounds to its parents, the retro-operating power of success or failure was what induced men to think well or ill of an action. Let us call this period the pre-moral period of mankind; the imperative, ""Know thyself!"" was then still unknown.—In the last ten thousand years, on the other hand, on certain large portions of the earth, one has gradually got so far, that one no longer lets the consequences of an action, but its origin, decide with regard to its worth: a great achievement as a whole, an important refinement of vision and of criterion, the unconscious effect of the supremacy of aristocratic values and of the belief in ""origin,"" the mark of a period which may be designated in the narrower sense as the MORAL one: the first attempt at self-knowledge is thereby made.",-2.360009235,0.494408868
8391e14df,,,"Once there was a little girl, named Kitty, who never wanted to do what people asked her. She said ""I won't"" and ""I can't,"" and did not run at once pleasantly, as obliging children do.
One day her mother gave her a pair of new shoes; and after a fuss about putting them on, Kitty said, as she lay kicking on the floor,--
""I wish these were seven-leagued boots, like Jack the Giant Killer's, then it would be easy to run errands all the time. Now, I hate to keep trotting, and I don't like new shoes, and I won't stir a step.""
Just as she said that, the shoes gave a skip, and set her on her feet so suddenly that it scared all the naughtiness out of her. She stood looking at these curious shoes; and the bright buttons on them seemed to wink at her like eyes, while the heels tapped on the floor a sort of tune.",0.375587404,0.517445285
3b0c66915,,,"One morning, Grandma had two loaves of ""riz bread,"" and some election cakes, rising, and was intending to bake them in about an hour, when they should be sufficiently light. What should Mrs. Dorcas do, but mix up sour milk bread and some pies with the greatest speed, and fill up the oven, before Grandma's cookery was ready!
Grandma sent Ann out into the kitchen to put the loaves in the oven and lo and behold! the oven was full. Ann stood staring for a minute, with a loaf of election cake in her hands; that and the bread would be ruined if they were not baked immediately, as they were raised enough. Mrs. Dorcas had taken Thirsey and stepped out somewhere, and there was no one in the kitchen. Ann set the election cake back on the table. Then, with the aid of the tongs, she reached into the brick oven and took out every one of Mrs. Dorcas' pies and loaves. Then she arranged them deliberately in a pitiful semicircle on the hearth, and put Grandma's cookery in the oven.",-0.698302533,0.445827188
1a075fd39,,,"Mr. Matt Pike was a bachelor of some thirty summers, a foretime clerk consecutively in each of the two stores of the village, but latterly a trader on a limited scale in horses, wagons, cows, and similar objects of commerce, and at all times a politician. His hopes of holding office had been continually disappointed until Mr. John Sanks became sheriff, and rewarded with a deputyship some important special service rendered by him in the late very close canvass. Now was a chance to rise, Mr. Pike thought. All he wanted, he had often said, was a start. Politics, I would remark, however, had been regarded by Mr. Pike as a means rather than an end. It is doubtful if he hoped to become governor of the state, at least before an advanced period in his career. His main object now was to get money, and he believed that official position would promote him in the line of his ambition faster than was possible to any private station, by leading him into more extensive acquaintance with mankind, their needs, their desires, and their caprices.",-1.6071607,0.451005067
aa91b51db,,,"As soon as he got home, Utterson sat down and wrote to Jekyll, complaining of his exclusion from the house, and asking the cause of this unhappy break with Lanyon; and the next day brought him a long answer, often very pathetically worded, and sometimes darkly mysterious in drift. The quarrel with Lanyon was incurable. ""I do not blame our old friend,"" Jekyll wrote, ""but I share his view that we must never meet. I mean from henceforth to lead a life of extreme seclusion; you must not be surprised, nor must you doubt my friendship, if my door is often shut even to you. You must suffer me to go my own dark way. I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name. If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also. I could not think that this earth contained a place for sufferings and terrors so unmanning; and you can do but one thing, Utterson, to lighten this destiny, and that is to respect my silence.""",-1.55135919,0.448570563
221722f91,,,"For a long time there was none, beyond the voice of a weak bird singing a trite old evening song that might doubtless have been heard on the hill at the same hour, and with the self-same trills, quavers, and breves, at any sunset of that season for centuries untold. But as they approached the village sundry distant shouts and rattles reached their ears from some elevated spot in that direction, as yet screened from view by foliage. When the outlying houses of Weydon-Priors could just be described, the family group was met by a turnip-hoer with his hoe on his shoulder, and his dinner-bag suspended from it. The reader promptly glanced up.
""Any trade doing here?"" he asked phlegmatically, designating the village in his van by a wave of the broadsheet. And thinking the labourer did not understand him, he added, ""Anything in the hay-trussing line?""
The turnip-hoer had already begun shaking his head. ""Why, save the man, what wisdom's in him that 'a should come to Weydon for a job of that sort this time o' year?""",-1.923365193,0.472649063
a357353c6,,,"It is, as a rule, after losing heavily at cards or after a drinking-bout when an attack of dyspepsia is setting in that Stepan Stepanitch Zhilin wakes up in an exceptionally gloomy frame of mind. He looks sour, rumpled, and dishevelled; there is an expression of displeasure on his grey face, as though he were offended or disgusted by something. He dresses slowly, sips his Vichy water deliberately, and begins walking about the rooms.
""I should like to know what b-b-beast comes in here and does not shut the door!"" he grumbles angrily, wrapping his dressing-gown about him and spitting loudly. ""Take away that paper! Why is it lying about here? We keep twenty servants, and the place is more untidy than a pot-house. Who was that ringing? Who the devil is that?""
""That's Anfissa, the midwife who brought our Fedya into the world,"" answers his wife.
""Always hanging about ... these cadging toadies!""
""There's no making you out, Stepan Stepanitch. You asked her yourself, and now you scold.""",-2.427809564,0.531960439
0b296ec7a,,,"""The Kentons"" have been a great comfort to me. I have been in my chamber, with a slight attack of illness, for two or three weeks, and I received them one morning. I could not have had kinder or more entertaining visitors, and I was sorry when, after two or three days, I had to say Goodbye to them. They are very ""natural"" people, ""just Western."" I am grateful to you for making me acquainted with them.
""Just Western"" is the acme of praise. I think I once told you what pleasure it gave me as a compliment. Several years ago at the end of one of our Christmas Eve receptions, a young fellow from the West, taking my hand and bidding me Goodnight, said with great cordiality, ""Mr. Norton, I've had a delightful time; it's been just Western""!
""The Kentons"" is really, my dear Howells, an admirable study of life, and as it was read to me my chief pleasure in listening was in your sympathetic, creative imagination, your insight, your humour, and all your other gifts, which make your stories, I believe, the most faithful representations of actual life that were ever written.",-1.522596145,0.495685812
eb6d9f3ac,,,"When it was found that the Griffin showed no sign of going away, all the people who were able to do so left the town. The canons and the higher officers of the church had fled away during the first day of the Griffin's visit, leaving behind only the Minor Canon and some of the men who opened the doors and swept the church. All the citizens who could afford it shut up their houses and traveled to distant parts, and only the working people and the poor were left behind. After some days these ventured to go about and attend to their business, for if they did not work they would starve. They were getting a little used to seeing the Griffin; and having been told that he did not eat between equinoxes, they did not feel so much afraid of him as before.
Day by day the Griffin became more and more attached to the Minor Canon. He kept near him a great part of the time, and often spent the night in front of the little house where the young clergyman lived alone.",-0.727885057,0.445024115
8f94f3334,,,"Then, however, something happened which made every mouth mute and every eye fixed. In the meantime, of course, the rope-dancer had commenced his performance: he had come out at a little door, and was going along the rope which was stretched between two towers, so that it hung above the market-place and the people. When he was just midway across, the little door opened once more, and a gaudily-dressed fellow like a buffoon sprang out, and went rapidly after the first one. ""Go on, halt-foot,"" cried his frightful voice, ""go on, lazy-bones, interloper, sallow-face!—lest I tickle thee with my heel! What dost thou here between the towers? In the tower is the place for thee, thou shouldst be locked up; to one better than thyself thou blockest the way!""—And with every word he came nearer and nearer the first one. When, however, he was but a step behind, there happened the frightful thing which made every mouth mute and every eye fixed—he uttered a yell like a devil, and jumped over the other who was in his way.",-1.551526394,0.468942855
9151b9872,,,"It was a strange figure that crept along the road that cheery May morning. It was tall and gaunt, and had been for thirty years or more. The long head, bald on top, covered behind with iron-gray hair, and in front with a short tangled growth that curled and kinked in every direction, was surmounted by an old-fashioned stove-pipe hat, worn and stained, but eminently impressive. An old-fashioned Henry Clay cloth coat, stained and threadbare, divided itself impartially over the donkey's back and dangled on his sides. This was all that remained of the elder's wedding suit of forty years ago. Only constant care, and use of late years limited to extra occasions, had preserved it so long. The trousers had soon parted company with their friends. The substitutes were red jeans, which, while they did not well match his court costume, were better able to withstand the old man's abuse, for if, in addition to his frequent religious excursions astride his beast, there ever was a man who was fond of sitting down with his feet higher than his head, it was this selfsame Elder Brown.",-1.298340818,0.468981142
b4e124f35,,,"Simon approached the stranger, looked at him, and saw that he was a young man, fit, with no bruises on his body, only evidently freezing and frightened, and he sat there leaning back without looking up at Simon, as if too faint to lift his eyes. Simon went close to him, and then the man seemed to wake up. Turning his head, he opened his eyes and looked into Simon's face. That one look was enough to make Simon fond of the man. He threw the felt boots on the ground, undid his sash, laid it on the boots, and took off his cloth coat.
""It's not a time for talking,"" said he. ""Come, put this coat on at once!"" And Simon took the man by the elbows and helped him to rise. As he stood there, Simon saw that his body was clean and in good condition, his hands and feet shapely, and his face good and kind. He threw his coat over the man's shoulders, but the latter could not find the sleeves. Simon guided his arms into them, and drawing the coat well on, wrapped it closely about him, tying the sash round the man's waist.",-0.365093118,0.471837743
28865b1a8,,,"The endless trough conveyer is one of the latest applications of link-belting, consisting primarily of a heavy chain belt carried over a pair of wheels, and in the intermediate space a truck on which the train runs. This chain or belt is provided with pans which, as they overlap, form an endless trough. Power being applied to revolve one of the wheels, the whole belt is thereby set in motion and at once becomes an endless trough conveyer. The accompanying engraving illustrates a section of this conveyer. A few of the pans are removed, to show the construction of the links; and above this a link and coupler are shown on a larger scale. As will be seen, the link is provided with wings, to form a rigid support for the pan to be riveted to it. To reduce friction each link is provided with three rollers, as will be seen in the engraving. This outfit makes a fireproof conveyer which will handle hot ore from roasting kiln to crusher, and convey coal, broken stone, or other gritty and coarse material.",-2.416530915,0.50606093
6f74f0c26,,,"An item has appeared recently in several papers, stating that New York is a highly magnetized city--that the elevated railroad, Brooklyn Bridge cables, etc., are all highly magnetized. As this might convey to the general reader the impression that the magnetism thus exhibited was peculiar to New York city, and as many of your subscribers look anxiously for your answers to numerous questions put for the elucidation of apparent, scientific mysteries, I have thought that perhaps a statement in plain language of experiments made at various times, to elucidate this subject, might, in conjunction with a diagram, serve to explain even to those who have not made a special study of science a few of the interesting phenomena connected with terrestrial magnetism.
Some of the first experiments I made, while professor at the Indiana State University, were detailed in the March and August numbers, 1872, of the Journal of the Franklin Institute, and I think showed conclusively that the earth, by induction, renders all articles of iron, steel, or tinned iron magnetic; possessing for the time being polarity, after they have been in a settled position for a short time.",-1.901919437,0.476314798
a0efdcd1d,,,"The annular space between the two vessels is filled with water to the same level as the solution in the receiver, and the latter is provided with suitable pipes or coils, in which steam is caused to circulate for the purpose of raising the solution of the desired temperature, and effecting the digesting process. At the same time any steam generated collects in the upper part of the boiler, and maintains an equal pressure within the whole apparatus. The arrangement is shown clearly. Within the boiler is placed the receiver, of pottery, lead, or other material, leaving an annular space between it and the boiler; this space is filled with water. The receiver is furnished with a series of pipes, in which steam or hot water circulates, to heat the charge to the desired temperature. These pipes may be arranged either in coils or vertically. The latter are provided with inner return pipes, so that any condensed water accumulating at the bottom may be forced up the inner pipes by the steam pressure and escape at the top.",-3.101971906,0.53893729
27defc386,,,"In the five-barrel gun the cartridge feeder contains 100 cartridges, in five Vertical rows of 20 cartridges each, and these are kept supplied, when firing, from supplementary holders. One image shows the portable rest manufactured by the Gardner Gun Company. It consists of two wrought iron tubes, placed at right angles to each other; the front bar can be easily unlocked, and placed in line with the trail bar, from which project two arms, each provided with a screw that serves for the lateral adjustment of the gun. These screws are so arranged as to allow for an oscillating motion of the gun through any distance up to 15 deg. The tripod mounting, used for naval as well as land purposes which illustrates the two barrel gun complete. The five barrel gun is shown mounted on a similar tripod. The length of this weapon over all is 53.5 inches, the barrels (Henry system) are 33 inches long, with seven grooves of a uniform twist of one turn in 22 inches.",-2.585908359,0.51111648
7257ef363,,,"Some improvements have recently been made by Mr. Alexander Glegg and the inventor in the well-known Jamieson grapnel, used for raising submerged submarine cables. The chief feature of the grapnel is that the flukes, being jointed at the socket, bend back against a spring when they catch a rock, until the grapnel clears the obstruction, but allow the cable to run home to the crutch between the fluke and base. In the older form the cable was liable to get jammed, and cut between the fixed toe or fluke and the longer fluke jointed into it. This is now avoided by embracing the short fluke within the longer one. The shank, formerly screwed into the boss, is now pushed through and kept up against the collar of the boss, by the volute spring, which at the same time presses back the hinged flukes after being displaced by a rock. The shank can now freely swivel round, whereas before it was rigidly fixed. The toes or flukes are now made of soft cast steel, which can be straightened if bent, and the boss is made of cast steel or gun-metal.",-2.246007796,0.504453574
6efbd9c25,,,"There are cases where a long screw must be rotated with a traversing nut or other threaded piece traveling on its thread a limited and variable distance. At one time the threaded nut or piece may be required to go almost the entire length of the screw, and at another time a much shorter traverse would be required. In many instances the use of side check nuts is inconvenient, and in some it is impossible. One way of utilizing the nut as a set collar is to drill through its side for a set screw, place it on its screw, pour a little melted Babbitt metal, or drop a short, cold plug of it into the hole, tap the hole, and the tap will force the Babbitt into the threads.
Insert the set screw, and when it acts on the Babbitt metal it will force it with great friction on to the thread without injuring the thread; and when the set screw tension is released, the nut turns freely. A similar and perhaps a better result may be obtained by slotting the hole through the nut as though for the reception of a key.",-2.608282048,0.490839903
383d85fc8,,,"Ordinary casts taken in plaster vary somewhat, owing to the shrinkage of the plaster; but it has hitherto not been possible to regulate this so as to produce any desired change and yet preserve the proportions. Hoeger, of Gmuend, has, however, recently devised an ingenious method for making copies in any material, either reduced or enlarged, without distortion.
The original is first surrounded with a case or frame of sheet metal or other suitable material, and a negative cast is taken with some elastic material, if there are undercuts; the inventor uses agar-agar. The usual negative or mould having been obtained as usual, he prepares a gelatine mass resembling the hektograph mass, by soaking the gelatine first, then melting it and adding enough of any inorganic powdered substance to give it some stability. This is poured into the mould, which is previously moistened with glycerine to prevent adhesion. When cold, the gelatine cast is taken from the mould, and is, of course, the same size as the original. If the copy is to be reduced, this gelatine cast is put in strong alcohol and left entirely covered with it. It then begins to shrink and contract with the greatest uniformity.",-2.187431065,0.492339844
f6172c6a5,,,"In a system of arc lighting, however, we have to deal with entirely different conditions; for, while in the incandescent system the adding of a lamp, which diminishes the resistance, requires no increase of electromotive force, the contrary is the case in the arc light system. Here every additional lamp added to the circuit means an increase in resistance, and consequent increase in electromotive force or potential. Taking for example a well known system of arc lighting, we find that the lamps require individually an electromotive force of 40 volts with a current of 10 amperes. In other words, the difference in potential at the two terminals of every such lamp is 40 volts. Consequently, if the circuit were touched in two places, including between them only one lamp, no injurious effects would ensue. If we touch the circuit so as to include two lamps between us, the effect would be greater, since the potential between those two points is 2 x 40 volts.",-2.882630345,0.532794034
62d4de831,,,"A mature egg-bearing oyster lays about one million of eggs, so that during the breeding season there are upon our oyster beds at least 2,200,000,000,000 young oysters, which surely would suffice to transform the entire extent of the sea-flats into an unbroken oyster bed; for if such a number of young oysters should be distributed over a surface 74 kilometers long by 22 broad, 1,351 oysters would be allotted to every square meter. But this sum of 2,200,000,000,000 young oysters is undoubtedly less than that in reality hatched out, for not only do those full-grown oysters which are over six years of age spawn, but they begin to propagate during their second or third year, although it is true that the young ones have fewer eggs than those which are fully developed. At a very moderate estimation, the total number of three to six year old oysters which lie upon our beds will produce three hundred billions of eggs. This number added to that produced by the five millions of full grown oysters would give for every square meter of surface not merely 1,351 young oysters, but at least 1,535.",-2.54349878,0.523970533
d6ee79246,,,"From September 26, 1882, to September 1, 1883, night and day uninterruptedly, a watch was kept, in which the officers took part, so that the observations might be regularly made and recorded. Every four hours a series of direct magnetic and meteorological observations was made, from hour to hour meteorological notes were taken, the rise and fall of the sea recorded, and these were frequently multiplied by observations every quarter of an hour; the longitude and latitude were exactly determined, a number of additions to the catalogue of the fixed stars for the southern heavens made, and numerous specimens in natural history collected.
The apparatus employed by the expedition for the registration of the magnetic elements was devised by M. Mascart, by which the variations of the three elements are inscribed upon a sheet of paper covered with gelatine bromide, inclination, vertical and horizontal components, with a certainty which is shown by the 330 diurnal curves brought back from the Cape.",-1.944704673,0.481639188
32e3b2efe,,,"The primary object of a launch, in the modern sense of the word, lies in the conveyance of passengers on rivers and lakes, less than for the transport of heavy goods; therefore, it may not be out of place to consider the conveniences arising from the employment of a motive power which promises to become valuable as time and experience advance. In a recent paper before the British Association at Southport, I referred to numerous experiments made with electric launches; now it is proposed to treat this subject in a wider sense, touching upon the points of convenience in the first place; secondly, upon the cost and method of producing the current of electricity; and thirdly, upon the construction and efficiency of the propelling power and its accessories.
Whether it is for business, pleasure, or war purposes a launch should be in readiness at all times, without requiring much preparation or attention. The distances to be traversed are seldom very great, fifty to sixty miles being the average.
Nearly the whole space of a launch should be available for the accommodation of passengers, and this is the case with an electrically propelled launch.",-2.348231172,0.490056934
2dc904d3c,,,"The refuse which has to be dealt with, observed Captain Galton, whether in towns or in barracks or in camp, falls under the following five heads: 1, ashes; 2, kitchen refuse; 3, stable manure; 4, solid or liquid ejections; and 5, rainwater and domestic waste water, including water from personal ablutions, kitchen washing up, washings of passages, stables, yards, and pavements. In a camp you have the simplest form of dealing with these matters. The water supply is limited. Waste water and liquid ejection are absorbed by the ground; but a camp unprovided with latrines would always be in a state of danger from epidemic disease. One of the most frequent causes of an unhealthy condition of the air of a camp in former times has been either neglecting to provide latrines, so that the ground outside the camp becomes covered with filth, or constructing the latrines too shallow, and exposing too large a surface to rain, sun, and air. The Quartermaster-General's regulations provide against these contingencies; but I may as well here recapitulate the general principles which govern camp latrines.",-2.311410774,0.503321836
ca26a62a4,,,"Mr. T.R. Cramton, who at the Southampton meeting of the British Association suggested a method of tunneling which, under certain conditions, seems of excellent promise, brought forward a suggestion at Southport for the construction of three-way tunnels. Now, the undoubted aim of all engineers is economy of construction and the securing of permanent advantages. Mr. Crampton maintains that the suggested system will give these, that three tunnels of, say, 17 ft. diameter, can be constructed cheaper than one of 30 ft. diameter. After describing Sir J. C. Hawkshaw's scheme for the ventilation of long tunnels, the three-way scheme was discussed. Three separate tunnels of 17 ft. diameter each, or 227 ft. area, are to be connected by large passages about midway of their length. These passages are without valves; in fact, free air passages. Between these midway connections and the ends, say again midway between, is formed a branch at right angles either above or below with separate openings from the branch into the other tunnels, such openings being provided with doors or valves quite clear of the main tunnel, any two of which may be closed, thus separating at this point the corresponding tunnels from the third.",-2.760374038,0.543695915
99a602911,,,"The soil most suitable for the full development of I. glandulosa is a strong, clayey, retentive loam; it does not thrive well in the light shallow soils in the neighborhood of London, except in shady positions. I. Hookeri is a free-flowering perennial, with pointed lanceolate leaves, of a delicate texture, bright green, and very finely toothed. The flowers, which are sweet-scented, are not so large as those of I. glandulosa, and are produced singly, the ray florets being, however, much more numerous, rarely numbering less than thirty. It is found in abundance in rocky places in Sikkim, where it replaces the nearly allied I. grandiflora, a dwarfer species, with much shorter, shining leaves; both are very desirable plants either for rockery or flower border work. The Elecampane (I. Helenium) is an imposing, robust-growing species, having large, broad leaves a foot or more in length. It grows from four feet to five feet in height, and its thick, shaggy branches are crowned with large yellow flowers.",-3.53168686,0.595652702
efb89de3f,,,"Windows there are none in our houses: for the light comes to us alike in our homes and out of them, by day and by night, equally at all times and in all places, whence we know not. It was in old days, with our learned men, an interesting and oft-investigated question, ""What is the origin of light?"" and the solution of it has been repeatedly attempted, with no other result than to crowd our lunatic asylums with the would-be solvers. Hence, after fruitless attempts to suppress such investigations indirectly by making them liable to a heavy tax, the Legislature, in comparatively recent times, absolutely prohibited them. I—alas, I alone in Flatland—know now only too well the true solution of this mysterious problem; but my knowledge cannot be made intelligible to a single one of my countrymen; and I am mocked at—I, the sole possessor of the truths of Space and of the theory of the introduction of Light from the world of three Dimensions—as if I were the maddest of the mad! But a truce to these painful digressions: let me return to our houses.'",-3.415781255,0.5692808
91653f748,,,"Meanwhile, the Eskdale pioneer did not forget his mother. For years he had constantly written to her, in print hand, so that the letters might be more easily read by her aged eyes; he had sent her money in full proportion to his means; and he had taken every possible care to let her declining years be as comfortable as his altered circumstances could readily make them. And now, in the midst of this great and responsible work, he found time to ""run down"" to Eskdale (very different ""running down"" from that which we ourselves can do by the London and North Western Railway), to see his aged mother once more before she died. What a meeting that must have been, between the poor old widow of the Eskdale shepherd, and her successful son, the county surveyor of Shropshire, and engineer of the great and important Ellesmere Canal!",-1.832601247,0.464975938
ee5598bed,,,"You are boasting, moreover, when you undertake to be angry against everyone and everything. You could not. You are weak before sorrow, like all affectionate people. The strong are those who do not love. You will never be strong, and that is so much the better. You must not live alone any more; when strength returns you must really live and not shut it up for yourself alone.
For my part, I am hoping that you will be reborn with the springtime. Today we have rain which relaxes, tomorrow we shall have the animating sun. We are all just getting over illnesses, our children had very bad colds, Maurice quite upset by lameness with a cold, I taken again by chills and anemia: I am very patient and I prevent the others as much as I can from being impatient, there is everything in that; impatience with evil always doubles the evil. When shall we be wise as the ancients understood it?",-2.33969165,0.505419636
ed634f405,,,"The first glimpse of Mont St. Michel is strange and weird in the extreme. A vast ghostlike object of a very pale pinkish hue suddenly rises out of the bay, and one's first impression is that one has been reading the ""Arabian Nights,"" and that here is one of those fairy palaces which will fly off, or gradually fade away, or sink bodily through the water. Its solemn isolation, its unearthly color, and its flamelike outline fill the mind with astonishment.
Mont St. Michel is by far the most perfect example of a mediæval fortified abbey in existence, with its surrounding town and dependencies, all quite perfect; just, in fact, as if time had stood still with them since the fifteenth century. The great granite rock rises to the height of two hundred and thirty feet out of the bay; it is twice an island and twice a peninsula in the course of twenty-four hours. The only approach is at low water, by driving or walking across the sands. When, however, one arrives within a few yards of the solitary gate to the ""town,"" walking or driving has to be abandoned, and here the commercial industries of the inhabitants commence.",-1.121301841,0.484485014
3138a5d15,,,"The first well was put down about eight years ago, but more has been accomplished in the last two years than in all the time previous. One well which we visited has produced 130,000 barrels in the last three years, and is still yielding. There have been no very large wells, the best being 250 per day, and the average being about 90 barrels, but they keep up their production, with scarcely any diminution from year to year. Drilling has been found difficult, as a great portion of the rock is broken shale lying obliquely. The tools slip to one side very easily, and a number of ""crooked holes"" have resulted. One driller lost his tools altogether in a well, and finished it with new ones. The cost of putting down a well is from $5,000 to $7,000, depending upon depth, etc. Most of the wells are from 1,200 to 1,500 feet, but some have yielded at a much less depth. One well of 270 feet depth produced 40 barrels per day for about three years, has been deepened, and is now yielding even more.",-1.115069379,0.471439869
c744465b7,,,"These enemies of our agriculture were scarcely to be regarded as injurious not very many years ago, for the reason that their sources of development were wanting. Lucern and clover are comparatively recent introductions into France, at least as forage plants. Other cultures are often sorely tried by the dodder, and what is peculiar is that there are almost always species that are special to such or such a plant, so that the botanist usually knows beforehand how to determine the parasite whose presence is made known to him. Thus, the Cuscuta of flax, called by the French Bourreau du Lin (the flax's executioner), and by the English, flax dodder, grows only upon this textile plant, the crop of which it often ruins. On account of this, botanists call this species Cuscuta epilinum. Others, such as C. Europæa, attack by preference hemp and nettle. Finally, certain species are unfortunately indifferent and take possession of any plant that will nourish them. Of this number is the one that we are about to speak of.
Attempts have sometimes been made out of curiosity to cultivate exotic species.",-3.346191939,0.554325616
9e5dc15f5,,,"The first French exploration, which was an experimental trip, was made in 1880 by the Travailleur in the Gulf of Gascogne. Its unhoped for results had so great an importance that the following year the government decided to continue its researches, and the Travailleur was again put at the disposal of Mr. Alph. Milne Edwards and the commission over which he presided. Mr. Edwards traversed the Gulf of Gascogne, visited the coast of Portugal, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, and explored a great portion of the Mediterranean. In 1882 the same vessel undertook a third mission to the Atlantic Ocean, and as far as to the Canary Islands. The Travailleur, however, being a side-wheel advice-boat designed for doing service at the port of Rochefort, presented none of those qualities that are requisite for performing voyages that are necessarily of long duration. The quantity of coal that could be stored away in her bunkers was consumed in a week, and, after that, she could not sail far from the points where it was possible for her to coal up again.",-1.942116474,0.50387128
209478cd7,,,"We measure weights or forces by comparison with some generally known and accepted unit standard weights, lengths, areas, and volumes, by comparison with a unit length, resistance by a standard ohm, and so forth. In the same way currents could be measured by comparison with a standard current: but this would be a troublesome process, not only on account of the apparatus necessary, but also because it would be a matter of some difficulty to have a standard current always ready for use. In general, measurement by direct comparison with a standard unit is discarded for the more indirect method of measuring not the current itself, but its chemical, mechanical, or magnetic effect. The chemical method is very accurate if a proper density of current through the surface of the electrodes be used, but since it requires a considerable time, and, above all, an absolutely constant current, its use is almost entirely restricted to laboratory work and to the calibration of other instruments. For practical ready use, instruments employing the mechanical or magnetic effect of the current are alone suitable. We weigh, so to speak, the current against the force of a magnet, of a spring, or of gravity.",-2.068389326,0.470061711
ea6d18550,,,"The province of Minas Geraes ocupies a vast extent in the empire of Brazil, its superficies being about 900,000 square kilometers, representing nearly a third of the total surface.
The population is relatively small and is disseminated throughout a much broken country, where the means of communication are very few. So it is necessary to succeed in producing what iron is needed by means that are simple and that require but quickly erected works built of such material as may be at hand. The iron ore is found in very great abundance in this region and is very easily mined.
In the center of a mass of quartzites that seem to constitute the upper level of the eruptive grounds of the province, there are found strata of an ore of iron designated as itabirite--a mixture of oxide of iron and quartz. These strata are of great thickness, and have numerous outcrops that permit of their being worked by quarrying.
These itabirites present themselves under two very distinct aspects and offer a certain difference in their composition.",-3.052081257,0.55934747
7f4cfd2b8,,,"The establishment of advanced courses of special instruction in the principal branches of mechanical engineering may, if properly ""dovetailed"" into the organization, be made a means of somewhat relieving the pressure that must be expected to be felt in the attempt to carry out such a course as is outlined below. The post-graduate or other special departments of instruction, in which, for example, railroad engineering, marine engineering, and the engineering of cotton, woolen, or silk manufactures, are to be taught, may be so organized that some of the lectures of the general course may be transferred to them, and the instructors in the latter course thus relieved, while the subjects so taught, being treated by specialists, may be developed more efficiently and more economically.
Outlines of these advanced courses, as well as of the courses in trade instruction comprehended in the full scheme of mechanical engineering courses laid out by the writer a dozen years ago, and as since recast, might be here given, but their presentation would occupy too much space, and they are for the present omitted.",-2.816911847,0.524199011
6a548181f,,,"M. Leclerc du Sablon has published some of his results in his work on the opening of fruits. The influences which act upon fruit are external and internal. The external cause of dehiscence is drying. We can open or shut a fruit by drying or wetting it. The internal causes are related to the arrangement of the tissues, and we may say that the opening of fruit can be easily explained by the contraction of the ligneous fibers under drying influences. M. Leclerc shows by experiment that the fibers contract more transversely than longitudinally, and that the thicker fibers contract the most. This he finds is connected with the opening of dry fruits.
Herr Hoffman has recently made some interesting experiments upon the cultivation of fruits.
It is well known that many plants appear to select certain mineral soils and avoid others, that a number of plants which prefer calcareous soils are grouped together as calcicoles, and others which shun such ground as calcifuges. Herr Hoffman has grown the specimen which has been cited by many authors as absolutely calcifugic.",-2.742465489,0.503407014
d6a93ce07,,,"The air in an oven or enclosed space heated by flames inside is similar in character to highly superheated steam. It contains a large proportion of moisture, and yet has the power of drying any substance which is heated to near its own temperature. A mass of cold metal placed in the oven is instantly bedewed with moisture, which dries up as the temperature of the metal rises. This is, for many purposes, an objection, and the remedy is to close the bottom of the oven and place burners underneath. If for drying purposes and a current of air is necessary, the simplest way is to place in the bottom of oven the a number of tubes hanging downward in such a position that the heat of the flame acts both on the bottom of the oven and the sides of the tubes, which, of course, must be long enough for the lower opening to be well below the level of the flame. The exit may be at any level, but for drying purposes it is better at the top, and it should be controlled by a damper to prevent cooling by excessive currents of air.",-2.017839895,0.541235427
2f0fc97cb,,,"In some frames used at the School of Mines for making large blue prints a similar device has been in use for several years. Instead, however, of the heavy and cumbrous back used by Mr. Parsons, a light, somewhat flexible back of one-quarter inch pine is employed, covered with heavy Canton flannel and several thicknesses of newspaper. The pressure is applied by light pressure strips of ash somewhat thicker at the middle than at the ends, which give a fairly uniform pressure across the width of the frame sufficient to hold the back firmly against the glass at all points. This system has been used with success for frames twenty-seven by forty-two inches, about half as large as the one described by Mr. Parsons. A frame of this size can be easily handled without mechanical aids. Care should be taken to avoid too great thickness and too much spring in the pressure strips, or the plate glass may be broken by excessive pressure. The strips used are about five-eighths of an inch thick at the middle, and taper to about three-eighths of an inch at the ends.",-1.84306115,0.447817507
0751844bc,,,"The author asks in the first place - what is the cause of the different specific gravities of one and the same metal according as it has been cast, rolled, drawn into wire, or hammered? Does the difference observed prove a real condensation of the matter under the action of pressure, or is it merely due to the expulsion by pressure of gases which have been occluded when the ingot was cast? According to well-known researches, metals such as platinum, gold, silver, and copper, which have been proved to occlude gases on fusion, and to let them escape, incompletely, on solidification, are precisely those which are most increased in their specific gravity by pressure. The author has submitted to pressures of about 20,000 atmospheres metals which possess this property, either not at all, or to a very trifling extent, and he finds that though a first pressure produces a slight permanent increase of density, its repetition makes little difference. Their density is found to have reached a maximum. Hence the density of solids, like that of liquids, is only really modified by temperature. Pressure effects no permanent condensation of solid bodies, except they are capable of assuming an allotropic condition of greater density.",-2.321029886,0.510378584
8662922c7,,,"A first-class boat will be of about the following dimensions: Length over all, 45 ft. to 50 ft.; breadth (extreme), 9 ft. to 10 ft. 3 in.; depth (inside), 3ft. 10 in. to 4 ft. The keel is of oak 6 in. by 3½ in. The stem and stern posts are also of oak. The planking is generally of oak or walnut—the latter preferred—and is 3 in. thick, the width of the planks being 4½ in. Many boats are now constructed of hard wood to the water line and Norway pine above.
The fastenings are galvanized nails 4½ in. long. The mast-partners and all the thwarts are of oak 1½ in. thick and 8 in. wide; the latter are fastened in with iron knees. Lee-board and rudder are of oak, walnut, or chestnut; the rudder extends 3½ ft. to 4 ft. below the keel, and, in giving lateral resistance, balances the lee-board, which is thrust down forward under the lee-bow. The rig consists of two lags, the smaller one forward right in the eyes of the boat; the mainmast being amidships.",-3.236543305,0.582070347
240b89006,,,"The steam is supplied by two circular return tube boilers, 9 feet 6 inches in diameter and 10 feet long, with two furnaces in each. The boilers, which are of steel throughout, except the tubes, are placed longitudinally, and are fitted with two pairs of the Martyn-Roberts patent safety valves. They have one steam dome between them. The total heating surface is 1,700 square feet, the total steam space is 330 cubic feet, and the working pressure 100 lb. per square inch.
The fire pump is a Wilson's ""Excelsior,"" with 10 inch steam cylinder and 8 inch water barrel. This powerful pump is in a special compartment of the fore hold, and will draw water from the bilge, sea, or either hold. A steam windlass and a double-handle winch are on deck as shown. On trial trip the engines of the Churchill indicated a maximum of 645.5 horse power, driving the vessel 10.495 knots per hour. The vessel is remarkable for diversity of uses, for heavy engine power in a small hull, and for general compactness of arrangement.",-3.309177688,0.550579801
4bbfe4ed6,,,"We noticed, however, one machine at the exhibition which seemed to give all that could be desired without any gearing or chains at all. This was a direct action tricycle shown by the National Cycle Company, of Coventry, in which the pressure from the foot is made to bear directly upon the main axle, and so transmitted without loss to the driving wheels on each side, the position of the rider being arranged so that just sufficient load is allowed to fall on the back wheel as to obtain certainty in steerage. The weight of this machine is much less than when gearing is used, and the friction is also considerably reduced, trials with the dynamometer having shown that on a level, smooth road, a pull of 1 lb. readily moved it, while with a rider in the seat 4 lb. was sufficient. On this tricycle any ordinary hill can, it is stated, be ascended with great ease, and as a proof of its power it was exhibited at the Stanley show climbing over a piece of wood 8 in. high, without any momentum whatever.",-2.422319978,0.495194236
84c6aac68,,,"The lethargy in the malting trade, and in all matters relating to malting processes, induced by two centuries of restrictive legislation, is being gradually shaken off by the malting industry under the new law. For many years nearly all improvements in malting processes originated abroad, as numberless Acts of Parliament fettered every process and the use of every implement requisite in a malt-house in this country. The entire removal of these legislative restrictions gives an opportunity for improved processes, which promises to open up a considerable field for engineering work, and to develop a very backward art by the application of scientific principles. The present time is, therefore, one of more material change than malting has ever experienced.
Of the numerous improvements effected in the past few years, those made by M. Galland in France, and more recently by M. Saladin, are by far the most prominent. M. Galland originated what is known as the pneumatic system eight or nine years ago. This system is carried out at the Maxéville brewery, near Nancy.
Since that time further improvements have been made by M. Galland; but more recently great advances have been made in the system by M. Saladin.",-3.25298965,0.543037708
da7609c17,,,"About fifty miles from the mouth of the Atbara, and, of course, on the eastern bank of the Nile, stand the pyramids of Meroe. They consist of three groups, and there are, in all, about eighty pyramids. The presumption is that they represent the old sepulchers of the kings of Meroe. Candance, Queen of the Ethiopians, mentioned in Acts, chap. viii., v. 27, is supposed to have belonged to Meroe, that being the name also of the capital, which is understood to have been somewhere not far distant from the sepulchers. These pyramids of Meroe possess one marked feature, distinguishing them from the pyramids of Egypt proper--that is, they have an external doorway or porch. As there is no entrance to the pyramid at these porticoes, it is quite possible that they were temples for worship or making offerings to the dead. By comparing them with the pyramids of Ghizeh, it will be seen that they are also taller in proportion to their base. Another important point in these porches or temples is the existence of the arch; and that, too, an arch in principle, with a keystone.",-2.095160981,0.500236439
ee7d40251,,,"We have frequent inquiries as to the best means of removing a gelatino-bromide negative from its glass support so that it can be used either as a direct or reversed negative, and it does not appear to be very generally known that about two years ago Mr. Plener described a method which answers well under all circumstances, whether a substratum has been used or not.
If a negative is immersed in extremely dilute hydrofluoric acid contained in an ebonite dish, say half a teaspoonful to half a pint of water, the film very soon becomes loosened, and floats off the glass, this circumstance being due to the solvent action which the acid exercises upon the surface of the plate as soon as it has penetrated the film. If the floating film be now caught upon a plate which has been slightly waxed, and it is allowed to dry on this plate, it will become quite flat and free from wrinkles. To wax the plate, it should be held before the fire until it is moderately hot, after which it is rubbed over with a lump of wax, and the excess is polished off with a piece of flannel.",-3.585369303,0.588952164
fa9a5ca4e,,,"The total length of this railway, which extended from the Eiskeller in the Schwimmschul-Allee to the northern entrance of the Rotunda, was 1528.3 meters; the gauge was 1 meter, and 60 percent of the length consisted of tangents, the remaining 40 percent being mostly curves of 250 meters radius. The gradients, three in number, were very small, averaging about 1:750.
Two generating dynamos were used, which were coupled in parallel circuit, but in such a manner that the difference of potential in both machines remained the same at all times. This was accomplished by the well known method of coupling introduced by Siemens and Halske, in which the current of one machine excites the field of the other.
Although the railroad was not built with a view of obtaining a high efficiency, an electro-motive force of only 150 volts being used, a mechanical efficiency of 50 percent was nevertheless obtained, both with one generator and one car with thirty passengers, as well as with two generators and two cars with sixty passengers; while with two generators and three cars (two of them having motors) the same result was shown.",-2.341073206,0.503390904
d35944194,,,"The principal floor of this design is elevated three feet above the surface of the ground, and is approached by the front steps leading to the platform. The height of the first floor is eleven feet, the second ten feet, and the cellar six feet six inches in the clear. The porch is so constructed that it can be put on either the front or side of the house, as it may suit the owner. The rooms, eight in number, are airy and of convenient size. The kitchen has a range, sink, and boiler, and a large closet, to be used as a pantry. The windows leading out to the porch will run to the floor, with heads running into the walls. In the attic the chambers are 10x10 feet, 13x14 feet, 12x13 feet, 10x10½ feet, and a hall 6 feet wide, with large closets and cupboards for each chamber. The building is so constructed that an addition can be made to the rear any time by using the present kitchen as a dining room and building a new kitchen.",-1.638644093,0.468096982
69124eeaa,,,"Experiments have been recently made by Mr. Sanson with a view to settling the question whether oats have or have not the excitant property that has been attributed to them. The nervous and muscular excitability of horses was carefully observed with the aid of graduated electrical apparatus before and after they had eaten a given quantity of oats, or received a little of a certain principle which Mr. Sanson succeeded in isolating from oats. The chief results of the inquiry are as follows: The pericarp of the fruit of oats contains a substance soluble in alcohol and capable of exciting the motor cells of the nervous system. This substance is not (as some have thought) vanilline or the odorous principle of vanilla, nor at all like it. It is a nitrogenized matter which seems to belong to the group of alkaloids; is uncrystallizable, finely granular, and brown in mass. The author calls it ""avenine."" All varieties of cultivated oats seem to elaborate it, but they do so in very different degrees. The elaborated substance is the same in all varieties.",-2.327443133,0.499804673
cf2eab6a6,,,"Of all orchids no genus we can just now call to mind is more distinct or is composed of species more widely divergent in size, form, structure, and color than is this one of Masdevallia. It was founded well nigh a century ago by Ruiz and Pavon on a species from Mexico, M. uniflora. which, so far as I know, is nearly if not quite unknown to present day cultivators. When Lindley wrote his ""Genera and Species"" in 1836, three species of Masdevallias only were known to botanists but twenty-five years later, when he prepared his ""Folio Orchidaceæ,"" nearly forty species were; known in herbaria, and today perhaps fully a hundred kinds are grown in our gardens, while travelers tell us of all the gorgeous beauties which are known to exist high up on the cloud-swept sides of the Andes and Cordilleras of the New World. The Masdevallia is confined to the Western hemisphere alone, and as in bird and animal distribution, so in the case of many orchids we find that when any genus is confined to one hemisphere, those who look for another representative genus in the other are rarely disappointed.",-2.518638411,0.518765243
d7ac787c6,,,"This ceremony at the Pantheon was concluded by all visitors writing their names on two albums which had been placed near Victor Emmanuel's tomb and Raphael's tomb. The commemoration in the hall of the Horatii and Curiatii in the Capitol was a great success, their Majesties, the Ministers, the members of the diplomatic body, and a distinguished assembly being present. Signor Quirino Leoni read an admirable discourse on Raphael and his times.
The ancient city of Urbino, Raphael's birthplace, has fallen into decay, but has remembered its historic renown upon this occasion. The representatives of the Government and municipal authorities, and delegates of the leading Italian cities went in procession to visit the house where Raphael was born. Commemoration speeches were pronounced in the great hall of the ducal palace by Signor Minghetti and Senator Massarani. The commemoration ended with a cantata composed by Signor Rossi. The Via Raffaelle was illuminated in the evening, and a gala spectacle was given at the Sanzio Theater. Next day the exhibition of designs for a monument to Raphael was inaugurated at Urbino, and at night a great torchlight procession took place.",-2.129030307,0.496581054
9e899e2c2,,,"It is well known that the water of different lakes and rivers differs in color. The Mediterranean Sea is indigo blue, the ocean sky blue, Lake Geneva is azure, while the Lake of the Four Forest Cantons and Lake Constance, in Switzerland, as well as the river Rhine, are chrome green, and Kloenthaler Lake is grass green.
Tyndall thought that the blue color of water had a similar cause as the blue color of the air, being blue by reflected light and red by transmitted light. W. Spring has recently communicated to the Belgian Academy the results of his investigations upon the color of water. He proved that perfectly pure water in a tube 10 meters long had a distinctly blue color, while it ought, according to Tyndall, to look red. Spring also showed that water in which carbonate of lime, silica, clay, and salts were suspended in a fine state of division offered a resistance to the passage of light that was not inconsiderable.",-1.41070113,0.44973281
26d8c5606,,,"The exciting moment in boring a well is when a drill is penetrating the upper covering of sand rock which overlies the oil. The force with which the compressed gas and petroleum rushes upward almost surpasses belief. Drill, jars, and sinker bar are sometimes shot out along with debris, oil, and hissing gas. Sometimes this gas and oil take fire, and last summer one of the wells thus ignited burned so fiercely that a number of days elapsed before the flames could be extinguished. More often the tankage provided is insufficient, and thousands of barrels escape. Two or three years ago, at the height of the oil production of the Bradford region, 8,000 barrels a day were thus running to waste. But those halcyon days of Bradford have gone forever. Although nineteen-twentieths of the wells sunk in this region ""struck"" oil and flowed freely, most of them now flow sluggishly or have to be ""pumped"" two or three times a week.",-1.054182004,0.461645842
fd22f6f1b,,,"The villa of which we give a perspective drawing is intended as a country residence, being designed in a quiet and picturesque style of domestic Gothic, frequently met with in old country houses. It is proposed to face the external walls with red Suffolk bricks and Corsham Down stone dressings, the chimneys to be finished with molded bricks. The attic gables, etc., would be half-timbered in oak, and the roof covered with red Fareham tiles laid on felt. Internally, the hall and corridors are to be laid with tiles; the wood finishing on ground floor to be of walnut, and on first floor of pitch pine. The ground floor contains drawing-room, 23 ft. by 16 ft., with octagonal recess in angle (which also forms a feature in the elevation), and door leading to conservatory. The morning-room, 16 ft. by 16 ft., also leads into conservatory. Dining-room, 20 ft. by 16 ft., with serving door leading from kitchen. The hall and principal staircase are conveniently situated in the main part of the house, with doors leading to the several rooms, and entrances to garden.",-2.373624272,0.509798134
afeb324bd,,,"On the morning of the 20th of March, a long series of earthquakes spread alarm throughout all the cities and numerous villages that are scattered over the sides of Mt. Etna. The shocks followed each other at intervals of a few minutes; dull subterranean rumblings were heard; and a catastrophe was seen to be impending. Toward evening the ground cracked at the lower part of the south side of the mountain, at the limit of the cultivated zone, and at four kilometers to the north of the village of Nicolosi. There formed on the earth a large number of very wide fissures, through which escaped great volumes of steam and gases which enveloped the mountain in a thick haze; and toward night, a very bright red light, which, seen from Catania, seemed to come out in great waves from the foot of the mountain, announced the coming of the lava.",0.401052549,0.481889398
9bca45412,,,"The path of the earth through space is spiral, so that it is all the time advancing into new regions along with the sun. She is on a boundless voyage of discovery, and her human crew are born and die in widely separated tracts of space. Think of the distance over which the travels of the sun have borne the earth only since the beginning of human history! Six thousand years ago the earth and sun were about a million millions of miles further from the stars in Hercules than they are today. Columbus and his contemporaries lived when the earth was in a region of the universe more than sixty billion of miles from the place where it is now, so that since his time the whole human race has been making a voyage through space, in comparison with which his longest voyage was as the footstep of a fly.
Thus the great events in the history of the world may be said to have occurred in different parts of the universe.",-1.676793243,0.464483036
23ff6b3c9,,,"I do not presume that all people over three score years of age are so entirely ignorant as I am, but probably there are some. I have lived more than sixty years almost in the woods, and I never observed, and never heard any other person speak of, the blooming, seeding, and maturing of the water maple. I have a beautiful low of water maple shade trees along the street in front of my house. In March, 1882, I observed that they were in bloom, and many bees were swarming about them. After the bees left them I noticed the seed (specimens enclosed of this spring's growth) in millions. As the leaves put out in April the little knife blade seeds fell off, so thick as to almost cover the ground. My grandson picked up three or four hat-fulls, and I sent the seed to my farm and had them drilled in like wheat, when I planted corn.",-2.113772662,0.494736207
bd8003c58,,,"We now come to the paper process, and most effective enlargements can be made by it also; indeed, as a basis for coloring, nothing could well be better. Artists all over the country have told me that after a few trials they prefer it to anything else, while excellent and effective plain enlargements are easily made by it if only carefully handled. A very good enlargement is made by vignetting the picture, as I have just done, with the opal, and then squeezing it down on a clean glass, and afterward framing it with another glass in front, when it will have the appearance almost equal to an opal. To make sure of the picture adhering to the glass, however, and at the same time to give greater brilliancy, it is better to flow the glass with a 10 or 15 grain solution of clear gelatine before squeezing it down.",-1.876345467,0.514450287
5edebeded,,,"We have here strings, bridge, and sound-board, or belly, as it is technically called, indispensable for the production of the tone, and indivisible in the general effect. The proportionate weight of stringing has to be met by a proportionate thickness and barring of the sound-board, and a proportionate thickness and elevation of the bridge.
The tension of the strings is met by a framing, which has become more rigid as the drawing power of the strings has been gradually increased. In the present concert grands of Messrs. Broadwood, that drawing power may be stated as starting from 150 lb. for each single string in the treble, and gradually increasing to about 300 lb. for each of the single strings in the bass. I will reserve for the historical description of my subject some notice of the different kinds of framing that have been introduced. It will suffice, at this stage, to say that it was at first of wood, and became, by degrees, of wood and iron; in the present day the iron very much preponderating.",-2.198923199,0.500888956
94e30510c,,,"The crude gum cut in irregular strips is passed five or six times between two strong rolls sixteen inches in diameter, and making two or three revolutions per minute. These rolls are kept wet by water trickling on them. This broad strip of gum is perforated with foreign substances and looks like a sieve. It is next put in the cutting machine, a horizontal drum provided with an axle having knives on it. So much heat is produced by this cutting that the water would soon boil if it were not renewed. A second machine of this kind completes the cutting and subdividing, and expels the air and water from it. The mass is then pressed in round or quadrangular blocks.
The vulcanization of thin articles from one twenty-fifth to one-sixteenth inch thick, is done by Parkes' patented process, that is, dipping it in carbon disulfhide for a short time, to which chloride or bromide of sulfur has been added, and when the solvent has evaporated the sulphur remains behind. Balls, ornamental articles, and surgical apparatus are dipped into melted sulfur at 275° or 300° Fahr.",-2.80187364,0.527367203
d50dcf690,,,"the paper has the following advantages:
First. The sensitive coating is regular, and its thickness is uniform throughout the entire surface of each sheet.
Second. It can be exposed for a luminous impression in any kind of slide as usually constructed.
Third. It can be developed and fixed as easily as a negative on glass.
Fourth. The negative obtained dries quite flat on blotting paper.
Fifth. The film which constitutes the negative can be detached or peeled from its support or backing easily and readily by the hand, without the assistance of any dissolving or other agent. Thus this invention does away with all sensitive preparations on glass, which latter is both a brittle and relatively heavy material, thus diminishing the bulk and weight of amateur and scientific photographers' luggage when traveling; it produces photographic negatives as fine and as transparent as those on glass, in so much that the film does not contain any grain; and, lastly, it admits of printing from either face of the film, as regards the production of positives on paper or other material, as well as plates for phototypy and photo-engraving, which latter processes require a negative to be reversed.",-2.515143914,0.504184204
2c3f966f9,,,"In building such a dam as this the difficulties to be contended against were unusually great. It was required to make it as near perfectly tight as possible and be, of course, always submerged. Allowing for water used by canal and slide and the leakage there should be a depth on the crest of the dam in low water of 2.50 feet and in high of about 10 feet. These depths turned out ultimately to be correct. The river reaches its highest about the middle of May, and its lowest in September. It generally begins to rise again in November. Nothing could be done except during the short low water season, and some years nothing at all. Even at the most favorable time the amount of water to be controlled was large. Then the depth at the site varied in depth from 2 to 14 feet, and at one place was as much as 23 feet. The current was at the rate of from 10 to 12 miles an hour. Therefore, failures, losses, etc., could not be avoided, and a great deal had to be learned as the work progressed.",-1.776978164,0.477136563
3974b08a4,,,"In compound lenses the matter is complicated by the relative foci of its constituents and their distance apart; but these items, in an ordinary photographic objective, would so slightly affect the result that for all practical purposes they may be ignored.
What we propose to do--what we have indeed done--is to make two of these terms constant in connection with a diagram, here given, so that a mere inspection may indicate, with its aid, the focus of a lens. All that is required in making use of it is to plant the camera perfectly upright, and place in front of it, at exactly fifteen feet from the center of the lens, a two foot rule, also perfectly upright and with its center the same height from the floor as the lens, and then, after focusing accurately with as large a diaphragm as will give sharpness, to note the size of the image and refer it to the diagram.",-2.014503916,0.519803274
3d52b6d6b,,,"The current is conveyed under the gaps by means of an insulated copper cable carried in wrought-iron pipes, placed at a depth of 18 inches. At the passing places, which are situated on inclines, the conductor takes the inside, and the car ascending the hill also runs on the inside, while the car descending the hill proceeds by gravity on the outside lines.
From the brushes the current is taken to a commutator worked by a lever, which switches resistance frames placed under the car, in or out, as may be desired. The same lever alters the position of the brushes on the commutator of the dynamo machine, reversing the direction of rotation, in the manner shown by the electrical hoist. The current is not, as it were, turned full on suddenly, but passes through the resistances, which are afterward cut out in part or altogether, according as the driver desires to run at part speed or full speed.",-2.383689042,0.477282366
fc08493bf,,,"My method of testing olive oil is as follows:
First, the so-called elaidine test is made, and then the test with nitric acid. About 5 c. c. (a teaspoonful) of the oil is mixed in a test tube with its own volume of nitric acid, spec. gr. 1.30, and shaken violently for one minute. At the expiration of this time the oils will have acquired the following colors: Olive oil, pale green; cotton seed oil, yellowish brown; sesame, white; sun flower, dirty white; peanut, rape, and castor oils, pale pink or rose.
As soon as the color has been observed, the test glass is put in a water bath at the full boiling temperature and left there five minutes. It was found that the action of nitric acid upon cotton seed and sesame oil was the most violent, sometimes so violent as to throw the oil out of the glass. At the end of another five minutes after the test tube is taken out of the water bath, the following colors are seen: olive and rapeseed oils are red; castor oil is golden yellow; sun flower oil, reddish yellow; sesame and peanut, brownish yellow; cotton seed, reddish brown.",-1.480732779,0.462179133
c5f7b1717,,,"The French brass castings and articles of sheet brass are made of cheap, light colored brass, and possess a fine golden color which is not produced by gold varnish, but by a coating of copper. This gives them a finer appearance, so that they sell better.
This golden color can be easily produced at very little expense and with but little trouble by the following process. Fifty grammes of caustic soda and 40 grammes of milk sugar are dissolved in a liter of water and boiled for a quarter of an hour. The solution is clear as water at first, but acquires a dark yellow color. The vessel is next taken from the fire, placed on a wooden support, and 40 grammes of a cold concentrated solution of blue vitriol stirred in. A red precipitate of suboxide of copper is at once formed, and by the time the mixture cools to 167° Fahr., the precipitate will have settled.",-1.666457149,0.502727791
bf2b536b7,,,"He was unspeakably happy with her. She governed his household with such clever economy that they seemed to live in luxury. She lavished the most delicate attentions on her husband, coaxed and fondled him; and so great was her charm that six years after their marriage, Monsieur Lantin discovered that he loved his wife even more than during the first days of their honeymoon.
He found fault with only two of her tastes: Her love for the theatre, and her taste for imitation jewelry. Her friends (the wives of some petty officials) frequently procured for her a box at the theatre, often for the first representations of the new plays; and her husband was obliged to accompany her, whether he wished it or not, to these entertainments which bored him excessively after his day's work at the office.
After a time, Monsieur Lantin begged his wife to request some lady of her acquaintance to accompany her, and to bring her home after the theatre. She opposed this arrangement, at first; but, after much persuasion, finally consented, to the infinite delight of her husband.",-1.076314585,0.4693944
694fd5ea9,,,"The hydrochloric acid gas passes into a vessel of suitable material provided with a perforated false bottom. From under this false bottom a pipe connects with a second similar vessel connected itself with a vacuum pump having a let-off pipe. As soon as the maximum vacuum is attained, the gas is turned on through a three-way cock at a pressure of 40 mm. mercury. The gas fills the first vessel and saturates the cloth. The warmth set free (about 500 calories per kilo, gas) is taken up by the combined water in the wool, as, owing to the low pressure, a quantity of vapor is formed sufficient to take up the heat. This vapor streams through the second vessel at a temperature of 35° Cent., penetrates the material, and passes out through the pump. After saturating the contents of the first vessel the gas passes into the second. AS soon as this is one-quarter or one-third saturated the first vessel is taken out and replaced by a third, which receives the overplus from No. 2 in like manner, and so on. This plan of working prevents gas passing through and damaging the pump.",-3.463880769,0.593890538
3321a48a6,,,"I have found that when I used blood charcoal or bone coal in place of wood coal it was still more efficient; but it must be mentioned that when they are used they must be purified as follows before using: Charcoal from blood contains potash and hence it is necessary to wash it with distilled water and dry it before using it. Bone coal (also called bone black, animal charcoal, etc.) contains on an average 10 per cent. of nitrogenous and hydrogenated carbon, 8 per cent. of carbonate of lime, 78 per cent. of phosphate of lime, besides phosphate of magnesia, sulphate of lime, soluble salts, etc. Before using, it should be treated with dilute hydrochloric acid until it does not effervesce any more. The bone coal is then left to stand for 24 or 30 hours and at the end of this time is washed with distilled water until the wash water no longer reddens a blue piece of litmus paper, i.e., until every trace of hydrochloric acid has been removed from the bone coal. Wood charcoal may be treated in like manner.",-2.308546397,0.542565024
d025059c2,,,"""At first the lizard was freely handled by those in charge at Regent's Park, and being a lizard, was regarded as harmless. It was certainly dull and inactive, a result probably due to its long voyage and to the want of food. Thanks, however, to the examination of Dr. Gunther, of the British Museum, and to actual experiment, we now know that Heloderma will require in future to be classed among the deadly enemies of other animals. Examining its mouth, Dr. Gunther found that its teeth formed a literal series of poison fangs. Each tooth, apparently, possesses a poison gland; and lizards, it may be added, are plentifully supplied with these organs as a rule. Experimenting upon the virulence of the poison, Heloderma was made to bite a frog and a guinea pig. The frog died in one minute, and the guinea-pig in three. The virus required to produce these effects must be of singularly acute and powerful nature. It is to be hoped that no case of human misadventure at the teeth of Heloderma may happen. There can be no question, judging from the analogy of serpent-bite, that the poison of the lizard would affect human.""",-1.660478773,0.510178636
5b9dc0b5d,,,"Throughout the third great geological Time--the Mesozoic--these rivers grew in importance, and the lowest portions of the Missouri began to form a tributary of some size. Still the Ohio had not united with the Mississippi, and both of these rivers emptied into an arm of the Mexican Gulf, which then reached to a short distance above what is now their junction.
In point of time, the Ohio is probably older than the Mississippi, but the latter river grew and eventually absorbed the Ohio as a tributary.
In the early part of the fourth great geological Time--the Cenozoic--nearly the whole continent was above water. Still the Gulf of Mexico covered a considerable portion of the extreme Southern States, and one of its bays extended as far north as the mouth of the Ohio, which had not yet become a tributary of the Mississippi. The Missouri throughout its entire length was at this time a flowing river.",-1.19023444,0.463371813
ced008e99,,,"The forms of hats that are least injurious are: for Winter, soft hats of light weight, having an open structure, or pierced with numerous holes; for Summer, light straws, also of open structure.
As regards the head-covering of women, the fashions have been for several years favorable to proper form. The bonnet and hat have become quite small, and cover but little of the head. This beneficial condition, however, is in part counterbalanced by the weight of false curls, switches, puffs, etc., by the aid of which women dress the head. These, by interfering with evaporation of the secretions, prevent proper regulations of the temperature of the scalp, and likewise lead to the retention of a certain amount of excrementitious matter, both of which are prolific sources of rapid thinning and loss of hair in women.
False hair has likewise sometimes been the means of introducing parasites, which give rise to obstinate affections of the scalp.",-1.461231114,0.532954094
56f49dd99,,,"A few years ago it was decided to whitewash the walls and ceiling of a small cellar to make it lighter. For this purpose a suitable quantity of lime was slaked. A workman who had to carry a vessel of common salt for some other purpose stumbled over the lime cask and spilled some of his salt into it. To conceal all traces of his mishap he stirred in the salt as quickly as possible. The circumstance came to my knowledge afterward, and this unintentional addition of salt to the lime excited my liveliest curiosity, for the whitewash was not only blameless, but hard as cement, and would not wash off.
After this experience I employed a mixture of milk of lime and salt (about three parts of stone lime to one part of salt), for a court or light well. To save the trouble and expense of a scaffold to work on, I had it applied with a hand fire engine (garden syringe?) to the opposite walls. The results were most satisfactory. For four years the weather has had no effect upon it, and I have obtained a good and cheap means of lighting the court in this way.",-1.168033005,0.467936961
20758ef4a,,,"The deepest and most regularly worked was the Kimberley mine. The next deepest was De Beer's, which, however, was very unevenly worked. Then followed Du Toit's Pan and Bultfontein. The Du Toit's Pan mine ranked next in importance to Kimberley mine. Diamonds were first discovered in 1867 by Mr. O'Reilley, a trader and hunter, who visited a colonist named van Niekirk, residing in Griqua. The first diamond, on being sent to the authorities, was valued at 500-l. Considerable excitement was caused throughout the colony, and the indigenous Americans commenced to look for diamonds, and many were found, among which was one of eighty-three and a half carats, valued at 15,000-l. In 1868 many enterprising colonists made their way up the Vaal River, and were successful in finding a good number of diamonds. The center of the river diggings on the Transvaal side was Klipdrift, and on the opposite side Pniel. In all there were fourteen river diggings. Du Toit's Pan and Bultfontein mines were discovered in 1870 at a distance of twenty-four miles from the river diggings.",-2.217568481,0.481423438
60debfd15,,,"Having just made the trip from Salt Lake City to this place on the Denver & Rio Grande line, I cannot write you on any other subject at present. There is not in the world a railroad journey of thirty hours so filled with grand and beautiful views. I should perhaps qualify this statement by deducting the hours of darkness; yet this is really a fortunate enhancement of the traveler's enjoyment; it seems providential that there is one part of the way just long enough and uninteresting enough to permit one to go to sleep without the fear of missing anything sublime. Leaving Salt Lake City at noon, we sped through the fertile and populous Jordan Valley, past the fresh and lovely Utah Lake, and up the Valley of Spanish Fork. All the way the superb granite walls and summits of the Wahsatch accompanied us on the east, while westward, across the wide valley, were the blue outlines of the Oquirrh range.",-1.215503634,0.477644467
bb3a568de,,,"The very high proportion of water contained in the sample is very remarkable. It was so loosely combined, that even at ordinary temperature it gradually escaped, the coal crumbling to small pieces. The large amount as well as the high percentage of oxygen characterize the so called coal as a lignite, with which conclusion the physical characters of the sample are in perfect harmony.
The resin to which I have referred has not been further analyzed. It was found to be insoluble in all ordinary menstrua, such as alcohol, ether, carbon disulphide, benzene, or chloroform, and neither attacked by boiling alcoholic potash nor by fusing alkali. On heating it swells up considerably and undergoes decomposition, but does not fuse.
The coal may be valuable as a gas coal and for local consumption, but the large proportions of water and of oxygen militate against its use as a steam producer, only 58 percent of it being really combustible.",-2.510224011,0.517364542
9d6cbb6d0,,,"When tinned iron serves for containing alimentary matters, it is essential that the tin employed should be free from lead. The latter metal is rapidly oxidized on the surface and is dissolved in this form in the neutral acids of vegetables, meat, etc. The most exact method of demonstrating the presence of lead consists in treating the alloy--so-called tin--with aqua regia containing relatively little nitric acid. The whole dissolves; the excess of acid is driven off by evaporation at a boiling heat, and the residue, diluted with water, is saturated with hydrogen sulphide. The iron remains in solution, while the mixed lead and tin sulphides precipitated are allowed to digest for a long time in an alkaline sulphide. The tin sulphide only dissolves; it is filtered off and converted into stannic acid, while the lead sulphide is transformed into sulphate and weighed as such.",-2.706857232,0.513564275
28c7386e7,,,"The crust of the clayish earth is covered with a reddish brown covering of about half a millimeter in thickness. This covering proves to be composed, under the microscope, of cellular filaments and various shaped bodies of various composition. They are made up of cells with densely and coarsely granulated reddish colored contents--shape, size, and composition are very variable. The cellular bodies make up the essential organic part of the clayish substance, and, without any doubt, if anything of the organic compounds of the substance is in genetical connection with the disease, these bodies would have this role. The structure and coloration of cell contents exhibit the closest alliance to the characteristics of the division of Chroolepideæ and of this small division of Chlorophyllaceous Algæ, nearest to Gongrosira--a genus whose five to six species are inhabitants of fresh water, mostly attached to various minute aquatic Algæ and mosses. Each cell of all the plants of this genus produces a large number of mobile cells--zoospores.",-2.183355813,0.468276194
6aafcb83d,,,"And that birch sap contains sugar is known, the peasants of many countries, especially Russia, being well acquainted with the art of making birch wine by fermenting its saccharine juice.
But I find no hourly or daily record of the amount of sugar-bearing sap which can be drawn from the birch, or from any tree, before it has acquired its great digesting or rather developing and transpiring apparatus--its leaf system. And I do not know of any extended chemical analysis of sap either of the birch, or other tree.
Besides sugar, which is present in this sap to the extent of 616 grains--nearly an ounce and a half--per gallon, there are present a mere trace of mucilage; no starch; no tannin; 3½ grains per gallon of ammoniacal salts yielding 10 percent of nitrogen; 3 grains of albuminoid matter yielding 10 percent of nitrogen; a distinct trace of nitrites; 7.4 grains of nitrates containing 17 percent of nitrogen; no chlorides, or the merest trace; no sulphates; no sodium salts; a little of potassium salts; much phosphate and organic salts of calcium; and some similar magnesian compounds.",-2.618078358,0.49647225
035e92ff6,,,"The inhabitants--five men, one woman and two children, according to the eclipse census--are natives of Tahiti. The houses are one story structures with clapboard sides, probably cut out in California and brought out in ships, to be erected on this island. The island on which they are built is about three-fourths of a mile in diameter and nearly circular in outline. The edge, which rises from five to twenty inches from the water, according to the tide's phase, goes down under the water to an even table of coral running out many feet into the sea; and is impossible to step on it with bare feet. At the end of this table the reef goes down perpendicularly, a sheer precipice, into the unfathomable sea. No vessel can anchor here, and to make a landing was an exciting matter. The island was approached in small boats on the side sheltered from the wind, and here, with the luck which characterized the trip, was found the only opening in this barrier of coral.",-1.081911016,0.475104624
18af5aaa3,,,"The mounds of earth here were known to cover some ancient city, for some sphinxes and statues had already been found; but what city it could be, archaeologists were at a loss to determine; though some, with Professor Lepsius at their head, believed it to be none other than the Rameses or ""Raamses,"" which the Children of Israel built for Pharaoh, and whence they started on their final Exodus. Any identification, however, of the sites of the Biblical cities in Egypt was so far merely speculative. Practically nothing definite was known as to the geography of the Israelite sojourn, except that the Land of Goshen was undoubtedly in the eastern part of the Delta, and that Zoan was Tanis, whose immense mounds are to form the next subject of the society's operations. The route of the Exodus was as uncertain as everything else connected with Israel's sojourn in Egypt. What sea they crossed, and where, and by what direction they journeyed to it, remained vexed questions, although Dr. Brugsch had set up a plausible theory, in which the ""Serbonian Bog"" played an important part.",-2.500023894,0.496036204
d53823f84,,,"Nothing in nature could surpass the affection which the female kangaroo manifests for her young. There is something absolutely touching in the anxious solicitude displayed by the dam while the young ones are at play. On the least alarm the youngster instantly ensconces himself in the pouch of his gentle mother, and should he, in the exuberance of his joy, thrust his head out from his place of refuge, it is instantly thrust back by his dam. I have, on several occasions, by hard riding, pressed a doe to dire extremity, and it has only been when hope had entirely forsaken her, or when her capture was inevitable, that she has reluctantly thrown out the fawn. Their method of warfare has often reminded me of the style of two practiced pugilists, the aim of each being to firmly gripe his opponent by the shoulder, upon accomplishing which, the long hind leg, with its horny blade projecting from its toe, comes into formidable play.",-1.370184186,0.457758598
82abc37fa,,,"The next important but oft neglected precaution is to have a good damp course over the whole of the walls, internal as well as external. I know that for the sake of saving a few pounds (most likely that they may be frittered away in senseless, showy features) it often happens, that if even a damp course is provided in the outer walls, it is dispensed with in the interior walls. This can only be done with impunity on really dry ground, but in too many cases damp finds its way up, and, to say the least, disfigures the walls. Here I would pause to ask: What is the primary reason for building houses? I would answer that, in this country at least, it is in order to protect ourselves from wind and weather. After going to great expense and trouble to exclude cold and wet by means of walls and roofs, should we not take as much pains to prevent them using from below and attacking us in a more insidious manner? Various materials may be used as damp courses. Glazed earthenware perforated slabs are perhaps the best, when expense is no object.",-2.433276992,0.56442785
8e11eb352,,,"There exists a large mining and manufacturing industry in Austria, that of ozokerite, or earth-wax, which has nothing like it in any other part of the known world, an industry that supplies Europe with a part of its beeswax, without the aid of the bees. It may not be generally known that the mining of petroleum was a profitable industry in Austria long before it was in this country. In 1852, a druggist near Tarnow distilled the oil and had an exhibit of it in the first World's Fair in London. In America, the first borings were made in 1859. Indeed, the use of petroleum as an illuminator was common at a very early age in the world's history. In Persia at Baku, in India on the Irawada, also in the Crimea, and on the river Kuban in Russia, petroleum has been used in lamps for thousands of years. At Baku the fire worshipers have a never-ceasing flame, which has burned from time immemorial. The mines of ozokerite are located in Austrian Poland, now known as Galicia.",-1.666339889,0.478334707
b83072bdb,,,"In making a gelatine emulsion with zinc it must be decidedly acid or it fogs. I prefer nitric acid for the purpose. I also found that some samples of the bromide behaved in a very peculiar way. All went on well until it came to the washing, when the bromide of silver washed out slowly, rendering the washing water slightly milky; this continued until the whole of the bromide of silver was discharged from the gelatine, and the latter rendered perfectly transparent as in the first instance. I remember a gentleman mentioning at one of the meetings of the South London Photographic Society that he was troubled in the same way as I was at that time. I think if a few experiments were made in this direction with the zinc salt and worked out, it would be a great advantage.",-2.857672989,0.518689
a61c4b2c3,,,"It is stated in the Gewerbeblatte fur Hessen that paint can be renewed and refreshed in the following manner:
When cracks and checks appear in the paint on wooden articles, this usually indicates that the varnish has cracked. If this is the case, the article can easily be prepared for a fresh coat by sponging it over with strong ammonia water, and two or three minutes later scraping off the varnish with the broad end of a spatula before the ammonia has dried up.
In this way the first coat is removed. If it is necessary to remove the next coating, the same operation is repeated. After the last coat has been scraped off that is to be removed, it must be washed with sufficient water to render the ammonia inactive, and then the surface is rubbed with pulverized pumice to make it smooth. Any desired paint or varnish can be applied to a surface prepared in this way.",-1.625672262,0.453278875
aa018e487,,,"Mr. Perkin, an English chemist, and Messrs. Graebe and Liebermann, German chemists, almost simultaneously applied for patents in 1869, in England, and as their methods were nearly identical they arranged priorities by the exchanging of licenses. The German license became the property of the Badische Aniline Company, and the English license became the property of the predecessors of the North British Alizarine Company. These patents expire in about two months, and the lecturer explained that an attempt made by the German manufacturers to further monopolize this industry (even after the expiry of the patent) proved abortive. He also stated that alizarine, 20 percent quality, is sold today at 2s 6d. per lb., but that if the price were reduced by one-half there will still be a handsome profit to makers, and that the United Kingdom is the largest consumer, absorbing one-third of the entire production, and that England possesses advantages over all other countries for manufacturing alizarine--first, by having a splendid supply of the raw material, anthracine; secondly, cheaper caustic soda in England than in Germany by fully £4 per ton; thirdly, cheaper fuel; fourthly, large consumption at our own doors; and, fifthly, special facilities for exporting.",-2.526353628,0.514665587
2077be0a9,,,"St. Blaise, the property of Sir Frederick Johnstone, was bred by Lord Alington, and is by Hermit from Fusee. This is an unexceptionable pedigree, for Hermit is now as successful and fashionable a sire as was even Stockwell in his palmiest days, while Fusee was far more than an average performer on the turf, and won several Queen's Plates and other races over a distance of ground. St. Blaise is by no means a big colt, standing considerably under sixteen hands. His color is about his worst point, as he is a light, washy chestnut, with a bald face and three white heels. He has a good head and neck, and very powerful back and muscular quarters, added to which his legs and feet are well shaped and thoroughly sound. His first appearance was made in the Twenty-fourth Stockbridge Biennial at the Bibury Club Meeting, when he won easily enough; but there were only four moderate animals behind him. A walk-over for the Troy Stakes followed, and then Macheath beat him easily enough for the Hurstbourne Stakes, though he finished in front of Adriana and Tyndrum.",-2.764440437,0.543050434
364009a31,,,"Within the last few decades the sponge industry of the Bahama Islands has increased at such a rate that today it is the second in importance on the island. Although the product is not of such excellent quality as that from the Mediterranean, it sells well and is in demand both in England and in America.
For sponge fishing little boats of ten tons burden are employed and manned by from six to twelve men. The sponges that are washed upon the rocks and reefs are taken with iron rakes fastened to long poles, or are brought to the surface by divers and spread out on the deck of the vessel. This kills their soft, slimy organisms, which are black as tar. The sponges are then repeatedly beaten with sticks to remove this black slime, and afterward well washed.
The sponges are then sorted and softened for several hours in lime water, dried in the sun, and bleached. They are finally pressed by machinery into 100 lb. balls and then packed for shipping.",-0.054006613,0.476731348
ddb1f0f0a,,,"If fertilized fish ova are placed in a 50 percent solution of wine vinegar [any ordinary vinegar will probably be found to answer just as well] the embryo, even during the very first stages of development, will become apparent to the eye lying on the transparent yelk. The acetic acid contained in the mixture, one part water to one part wine vinegar, causes the material of the embryo proper to coagulate, while the yelk remains clear.
A short time after the ova are laid in this mixture, and during the first week after impregnation, a white circle at one pole of the egg should become apparent, and in the course of the second week a cylindrical white streak running from the edge of the circle toward its center should be evident. If these features are not developed by the test, the eggs have not been fertilized, and are, therefore, worthless.",-2.116463269,0.487409392
d9827fb0f,,,"In September, 1881, a national competition was opened by the central executive committee for the monument, and by the unanimous voice of the committee the premium plans of the architect, Don Cayetano Buigas Monraba, were adopted. From these plans, which we find in La Ilustracion Española, we give an engraving. Richness, grandeur, and expression, worthily combined, are the characteristics of these plans. The landing structure is divided into three parts, a central and two laterals, each of which extends forward, after the manner of a cutwater, in the form of the bow of a vessel of the fifteenth century, bringing to mind the two caravels, the Pinta and Niña; two great lights occupy the advance points on each side; a rich balustrade and four statues of celebrated persons complete the magnificent frontage. A noble monument, surmounted by a statue of the discoverer, is seen on the esplanade.",-1.998301479,0.463618687
0e3215f98,,,"The machine now illustrated is one we have recently seen in operation in a Salford finishing works. It is an improved form of another stretching machine which had been turned out in considerable numbers by Mr. Archibald Edmeston, engineer, of Salford, who makes a specialty of calico printers' and finishers' machinery. The improvements consist mainly of a simplification of the working parts and thoroughly substantial construction of the machine. The principle adopted is a well-known one. The selvages of the cloth, or more strictly the two edges of the cloth, of a width of about two inches, are caused to pass over and at the same time are held by the rims of two diverging pulleys. The rims are further apart where the cloth leaves them than where they seize it, hence the stretching is gradually, certainly, and uniformly performed. The cloth is gripped by the pressure of an endless belt acting against the lower half of each pulley, the edges being held between them. In the engraving these stretching pulleys are indicated by the letters AA; the endless leather band passes over the pulleys, CC, of which there are a set of four provided for each stretching pulley.",-2.254569968,0.496029189
847925d38,,,"The mill shown in the perspective view is one of twenty-six saws 4½ feet long, sash 38 inches wide in the clear, and stroke 20 inches, capable of making 230 strokes per minute. The crank shaft is nine inches in diameter, of the best forged iron. The main pillow block has a base 6½ feet long by 21 inches bearing, weighing 2,800 pounds. The cap is secured by two forged bolts 3½ inches in diameter, and by this arrangement no unequal strain upon the cap is possible. A disk crank is used with suitable counterbalance, expressly adapted to the weight and speed of sash; a hammered steel wrist pin five inches in diameter, and a forged pitman of the most approved pattern, with best composition boxes. The iron drive pulley is 4 to 4½ feet in diameter and 24 inches face; the fly-wheel six feet in diameter, and weighing 4,700 pounds, turned off at rim. When a wider and heavier sash is required, a proportionate increase is made in all these parts.",-3.000127312,0.557908423
b2873737b,,,"The gas producer is a cylinder of brickwork inclosed in a casing of malleable iron. It is 7 ft. 6 in. deep, and 3 ft. in diameter, which becomes reduced to 20 in. above, where it is closed by means of a cast-iron lid, which is continuous with the floor of the retort house. There are no firebars at the bottom, so that the fuel rests on a floor of firebrick. At the bottom of the walls of the producer there are several holes about 1 ft. in length by 6 in. in height. By means of these openings any clinker that may form and the ashes of the spent fuel can readily be withdrawn. They also allow of the admission of air to maintain the combustion in the lower portion of the mass of fuel; and at each opening there is a malleable iron tube for delivering a jet of steam direct from a steam boiler. We shall subsequently explain the functions performed by the steam.",-2.736007299,0.540249022
193123f45,,,"There are many other conditions which Mr. Booer, after consultation with practical bakers and others, set himself to fulfill, the observance of which lends to the present Blackfriars experiment much of its interesting character. Thus it was observed that, while it is not difficult to build an oven in a given spot, and bake bread in it, this cannot truly be called a baker's oven. By this term must be understood in particular an oven in an ordinary bakehouse, set in the usual style and worked by a man with his living to get by it. Before the problem of extending gas to bakers' ovens could be considered solved, it had to be attacked from this aspect. Mr. Booer, to do him full credit, seems to have early appreciated this fact in all its bearings. He not only saw that it was necessary to save gas, as much as possible, by putting it inside the oven; but he was told that, in order to meet with any general success, the cost of converting an oven to the gas system must be rigidly kept down to about ten or twelve guineas.",-2.757737747,0.587263823
b95aae066,,,"These houses are situated in a pleasant part of Headingley, which is the favorite residential suburb in the locality of Leeds. As regards accommodation, the ground-floor of each house comprises good-sized drawing and dining rooms, each with bay windows; well-lighted entrance halls, opening upon wooden verandas; kitchen, pantry, and scullery; on first floor are three good bedrooms, a bathroom, and other necessary accommodation; on second floor are two additional bedrooms. The basement contains coal-place and larder.
In these houses an attempt has been made to produce conveniently-planned and well-arranged habitations, combined with a pleasing and picturesque exterior, without involving a large outlay of money. The materials used are brick of a deep red color for facings, red terra-cotta from Messrs. Wilcock & Co., of Burmantofts, for moulded strings, sills, etc., and a very sparing use of stone from the Harehills Quarries.",-1.713551786,0.510198492
cbbdfc7ab,,,"It is not only the crowded condition of the poor quarters that is such a standing menace to the health of the city, but also the shocking state of the rooms, which the unhappy lodgers are obliged to put up with. The owners of the property are, as happens in other places besides Paris, unscrupulous and grasping to the last degree, and have not only divided and subdivided the accommodation wherever possible, but have even raised the rental in nearly all cases. Whole families are crowded into a small apartment, icy cold in winter, an oven in summer, the only air and daylight which reaches the interior coming from a window which looks on to a dirty staircase or a still fouler court reeking with sewage. There are at the present time in Paris 3,000 lodgings which have neither stove nor chimney; over 5,000 lighted only by a skylight; while in 4,282 rooms there are four children in each below 14 years of age; 7,199 with three children; and 1,049 with four beds in each. The Parisian population has augmented only 15 percent.",-1.755899818,0.499338044
8a0f3a870,,,"Koenig has also found out the laws of the resultant sounds produced by other intervals than the octave, and has extended his researches to intervals differing by any number of vibrations, as may be seen from the above table.
His conclusion is that beats and resultant sounds are one and the same phenomenon.
Thus, for example, the lowest number of vibrations capable of producing a musical sound is 32 per second; in like manner, a clear musical sound is produced by two simple notes of sufficient intensity which produce 32 beats per second.
Koenig also made a very ingenious modification of the siren for the purpose of enabling Seebeck to sound simultaneously notes whose vibrations had any given ratio. It is furnished for this purpose with eight disks, each of which contains a given number of circles of holes arranged at different angular distances. A description of this instrument, which is also the property of the Stevens Institute, and of Seebeck's experiments is thus given in a letter by Koenig himself.",-2.556878206,0.500044205
7131fbf96,,,"It occurs in small quantity in association with iron in meteoric stones; with this exception it is not found native. The metal may be obtained by the reduction of its sesquioxide by carbon at an extreme heat.
Manganese forms no less than six different oxides--viz., protoxide, sesquioxide the red oxide, the binoxide or peroxide, manganic acid, and permanganic acid. The protoxide occurs as olive-green powder, and is obtained by igniting carbonate of manganese in a current of hydrogen. Its salts are colorless, or of a pale rose color, and have a strong tendency to form double salts with the salts of ammonia. The carbonate forms the mineral known as manganese spar. The sulphate is obtained by heating the peroxide with sulphuric acid till there is faint ignition, dissolving the residue in water and crystallizing. It is employed largely in calico printing. The silicate occurs in various minerals.",-2.541124121,0.509395834
048ee8fb8,,,"The resolution of the Government of South Australia to encourage ostrich breeding came in very opportunely for the Cape dealers, and one or two cargoes of birds have been shipped for Adelaide. The climate of the two colonies is very similar, and the locality selected for the imported birds (the Musgrave Ranges) resembles in dryness and temperature their native habitat.
The first sketch opposite represents the ostriches bidding farewell to their South African home. ""The dear old farm where we were reared, goodbye!""
One of the boxes, while being slung from the cart to the hold, got into a slanting position. This frightened one of the two inmates, a fine cock. He kicked so hard that he burst open the door of his cage, which was, of course, instantly lowered on deck. Fortunately there was there a gentleman who understood how to handle ostriches. He instantly seized him before he could do himself or the bystanders any injury, and after a brief struggle prevailed on him to re-enter his box. When released in the hold he became quite quiet, and ate his first meal on board ship with a relish.",-1.936371534,0.484589041
51d407f43,,,"An ordinary weathercock provided with datum points may, in the majority of cases, suffice for the observation of the wind during the day; but recourse has to be had to different means to obtain an automatic transmission of the indications of the vane to the inside of a building. The different systems employed for such a purpose consist of gearings, or are accompanied by a friction that notably diminishes the sensitiveness of the apparatus, especially when the rod has to traverse several stories. Mr. Emile Richard, inspector of the Versailles waterworks, has just devised an ingenious system which, while considerably reducing the weight of the movable part, allows the weathercock to preserve all its sensitiveness. This apparatus consists of two principal parts--one fixed and the other movable. The stationary part is designated in the accompanying figure by the letters A and B and by cross-hatchings. This forms the rod or support. An iron tube, T, with clamps, P, at its lower extremity forms the base of the apparatus, and is hidden, after the mounting of the apparatus, by the ornamental zinc covering, Z.",-3.394874047,0.575624439
791a613e9,,,"In 1861 I used a horse fork for the first time. The haying season was not a bright one, and our clover was drawn a little greener than usual, and went into the mow in large and compact forkfuls. The result was intense heating, and consequently very rapid evaporation and sweating of the mow. On a bay holding ordinarily twenty tons we put at least thirty tons, as every load at the top seemed to make room for another. The barn was rather open, which allowed quite free evaporation on all sides as well as at the top. The result was that I had very bright and excellent hay at the bottom, top, and sides of that mow, but severals tons in the center were as completely charred as though burned in a coal pit. What prevented combustion has always been a mystery to me. Since that escape from a conflagration, I have not deemed it prudent to put clover in so green as to cause intense heating, or to fill a mow too rapidly.",-1.429361395,0.485598957
00f023a86,,,"This beautiful Agave is now in blossom in the garden here, and I am happy to be able to send you photographs of it. This is the first time it has ever blossomed in cultivation, and it has never been seen in flower in a wild state. It is a mature native-grown specimen, dense in habit, and perfectly semi-spherical in form, and the leaves are arranged in spiral fashion with as much regularity as those of a screw pine. The circumference of the plant is 5 ft. 1 in., and it has 268 leaves. Its flower-stem appeared about the middle of June, grew rather fast till it was 7 ft. high, then rather slowly till it reached its full development. The scape is now 10 ft. 4 in. high above the plant, 6½ in. in circumference at the base, or 5¼ in. at a foot above the base; from there it tapers very gradually till near the apex. The flower-spike is exceedingly dense, and 5 ft. 8 in. long; the lower or naked portion, 4 ft. 8 in. long, is prominently marked by abortive flower buds, with, near the base, some bristle-like scales 3½ in. to 4 in. long.",-2.162795917,0.508012082
ab579f45f,,,"The edifice known as the Pantheon, in Rome, is one of the best preserved specimens of Roman architecture. It was erected in the year 26 B.C., and is therefore now about one thousand nine hundred years old. It was consecrated as a Christian church in the year 608. Its rotunda is 143 ft. in diameter and also 143 ft. high. Its portico is remarkable for the elegance and number of its Corinthian columns.
Señor Felipe Poey, a famous ichthyologist of Cuba, has recently brought out an exhaustive work upon the fishes of Cuban waters, in which he describes and depicts no fewer than 782 distinct varieties, although he admits some doubts about 105 kinds, concerning which he has yet to get more exact information. There can be no question, however, he claims, about the 677 species remaining, more than half of which he first described in previous works upon this subject, which has been the study of his life.",-1.716466096,0.464753921
10c26bcf2,,,"According to the Greek engineer, there were several kinds of puppet shows. The oldest and simplest consisted of a small stationary case, isolated on every side, in which the stage was closed by doors that opened automatically several times to exhibit the different tableaux. The programme of the representation was generally as follows: The first tableau showed a head, painted on the back of the stage, which moved its eyes, and lowered and raised them alternately. The door having been closed, and then opened again, there was seen, instead of the head, a group of persons. Finally, the stage opened a third time to show a new group, and this finished the representation. There were, then, only three movements to be made, that of the doors, that of the eyes, and that of the change of background.
As such representations were often given on the stages of large theaters, a method was devised later on of causing the case to start from the scenes behind which it was bidden from the spectators, and of moving automatically to the front of the stage, where it exhibited in succession the different tableaux; after which it returned automatically behind the scenes.",-1.580363857,0.495327886
e5a1e4603,,,"The torpedo is placed in a tube situated in the fore part of the torpedo boat, and whence it is driven out by means of compressed air. Once fired, it makes its way under the surface to the spot where the shock of its point is to bring about an explosion, and the torpedo boat is thus enabled to operate at a distance and avoid the dangers of an immediate contact with the enemy. Unfortunately this advantage is offset by grave drawbacks; for, in the first place, each of the Whitehead torpedoes costs about ten thousand francs, without counting the expense of obtaining the right to use the patent, and, in the second place, its action is very uncertain, since currents very readily change its direction. However this may be, the inventor has realized a considerable sum by the sale of his secret to the different maritime powers, most of whom have adopted his system.
All our ports are provided with flotillas and torpedo boats, and with schools in which the officers and men charged with this service are trained by frequent exercises.",-1.617873847,0.44814968
7d755c8e5,,,"The friction of water against the polished surfaces of the vessel's sides has not as yet been directly measured, but some indirect experiments permit us to consider the resistances due thereto as small. The entire power expended for the progress of the vessel is, then, utilized solely in displacing certain masses of water and in giving them a certain amount of acceleration. The masses of water set in motion depend upon the surface submerged, and their acceleration depends upon the speed of the vessel. Mr. Pictet has studied a form of vessel in which the greatest part possible of the masses of water set in motion shall be given a vertical acceleration, and the smallest part possible a horizontal one; and this is the reason why: All those masses of water which shall receive a vertical acceleration from the keel will tend to move downward and produce a vertical reaction in an upward direction applied to the very surface that gives rise to the motion.",-2.925890992,0.518905409
0caf33b2b,,,"As the volume comprised between the two pistons varies with the position of the latter, annoying counter-pressures might result therefrom had not care been taken to put the chamber in communication with a reservoir of ten times greater capacity, and which is formed by the interior of the frame. This brings about an almost constant counter-pressure.
The type of motor under consideration, which we represent in the accompanying plate, is possessed of remarkable simplicity. The number of parts is reduced to the extremest limits; it works at high speed without perceptible wear; it does not require those frequent repairs that many other cheap engines do; and the expansion of the steam is utilized without occasioning violent shocks in the parts which transmit motion. Finally, the plainness of the whole apparatus is perfectly in accordance with the uses for which it was devised.",-2.45685538,0.520796538
4626100d8,,,"The commutator is peculiar, consisting of only three segments of a copper ring, while in the simplest of other continuous current generators several times that number exist, and frequently 120! segments are to be found. These three segments are made so as to be removable in a moment for cleaning or replacement. They are mounted upon a metal support, and are surrounded on all sides by a free air space, and cannot, therefore, lose their insulated condition. This feature of air insulation is peculiar to this system, and is very important as a factor in the durability of the commutator. Besides this, the commutator is sustained by supports carried in flanges upon the shaft, which flanges, as an additional safeguard, are coated all over with hard rubber, one of the finest known insulators. It may be stated, without fear of contradiction, that no other commutator made is so thoroughly insulated and protected. The three commutator segments virtually constitute a single copper ring, mounted in free air, and cut into three equal pieces by slots across its face.",-3.676267773,0.623621211
6e1348e12,,,"As soon as the armature is attracted, the spring, R, which is fixed to it presses against the fixed metallic rod, T, and thus gives the electricity a shorter travel than it would take by preference. The current ceases, then, to pass through the bobbins, demagnetization occurs, and the spring that holds the armature separates anew. The current now passes for a second time into the bobbins and produces a new action, and so on. There is no longer, then, any interruption of the current, and the motions of the hammer are brought about by the change in direction of the current, which alternately traverses and leaves the bobbins.
In a communication that he has addressed to us on the subject of these bells, Mr. Lippens adds a few details in regard to the mode of applying the ground pile to micro-telephone stations.",-2.944232724,0.551351542
1fef593cf,,,"The nature of the developer used has, of course, some influence on the sensitiveness of the plates; but in the above cases it is assumed that oxalate developer, without any addition, is used; or pyro., to which ammonia is added at intervals of about thirty seconds, so as to produce a slight tendency to fog; the time of development being from three to four minutes. The numbers are supposed to be read after fixation, the plate being held against the sky.
Schumann's statement that a gelatino bromide plate is less sensitive when developed at 30° C. than when developed at 5°, is contested; the more recent investigations of Dr. Eder serving to demonstrate that a developer at a moderate high temperature acts very much more rapidly than when the temperature is low; but when a sufficient time is allowed for each developer to thoroughly penetrate the film, the difference becomes less apparent.",-2.814961881,0.5585375
35214a762,,,"The demand for good carpet designs far exceeds the supply, and American manufactures are sending to Europe, particularly England and France, for hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of designs yearly. If the same quality of designs could be made in this country the manufacturers would gladly patronize home talent. One carpet firm alone pays $100,000 a year for its designing department, and of this sum several thousands of dollars go to foreign markets. More technical knowledge is required for carpet designing than for any other industrial design. It is necessary to have a fair knowledge of the looms, runnings of color, and manner of weaving. Hitherto this knowledge has been very difficult, if not impossible, for women to obtain. But now there are a few places where competent instruction in this branch of industrial art is given.
There are several kinds of work connected with this business that may be done at home by those who wish, and at very fair prices. The price of copying an ingrain design is from $3 to $6 per sheet. The price for an original design of the same size is from $10 to $20.",-0.611789473,0.447076623
286f9237a,,,"The Pintsch gas is prepared by the distillation of heavy oils in a furnace composed of two superposed retorts. The oil to be volatilized is contained in a vertical reservoir, which carries a bent pipe that enters the upper retort. The flow of the oil is regulated in this conduit by means of a micrometer screw which permits of varying the supply according to the temperature of the retorts. In order to facilitate the vaporization, the flow of oil starts from a cast-iron trough, and from thence spreads in a thin and uniform layer in the retort. The residua of distillation remain almost entirely in the reservoir, from whence they are easily removed. The vapor from the oil which is disengaged in the vessel goes to the lower retort, in which the transformation of the matter is thoroughly completed. On leaving the latter, the gas enters the drum at the lower part of the furnace. To prevent the choking up of the pipe, the latter is provided with a joint permitting of dilatation. The gas on leaving goes to the condenser, where it is freed from its tar.",-3.335810315,0.556906128
3d800ce36,,,"There are, however, three fundamental principles to be borne in mind if we would follow the explanation clearly from step to step, and these three principles must be laid down at the very outset.
1. The first principle is that the existence of the energy of electric currents, and also the energy of magnetic attractions, must be sought for not so much in the wire that carries the current, or in the bar of steel or iron that we call a magnet, as in the space that surrounds the wire or the bar.
2. The second fundamental principle is that the electric current is, in one sense, quite as much a magnetic fact as an electrical fact; and that the wire which carries a current through it has magnetic properties (so long as the current flows) and can attract bits of iron to itself as a steel magnet does.
3. The third principle to be borne in mind is that to do work of any kind, whether mechanical or electrical, requires the expenditure of energy to a certain amount.",-1.769661427,0.456715046
14872afdb,,,"In somewhat similar manner the tidal wave produced by the moon is the means whereby a part of the energy stored in the earth is compelled to expend itself in work. Let me illustrate this by a comparison between the earth rotating on its axis and the fly-wheel of an engine: The fly wheel is a sort of reservoir, into which the engine pours its power at each stroke of the piston. The various machines in the mill merely draw off the power from the store accumulated in the fly-wheel. The earth is like a gigantic fly-wheel detached from the engine, though still connected with the machines in the mill. In that mighty fly-wheel a stupendous quantity of energy is stored up, and a stupendous quantity of energy would be given out before that fly-wheel would come to rest. The earth's rotation is a reservoir from whence the tides draw the energy they require for doing work. Hence it is that though the tides are caused by the moon, yet whenever they require energy they draw on the supply ready to hand in the rotation of the earth.",-2.211636229,0.502375071
ea6f427c6,,,"The tube that communicates with the vessel, F, is put in communication, after the latter has been completely filled with water, with the point of the cock, B. Then the latter is opened, as is also the pinch cock on the rubber tubing, and water is allowed to enter the burette through the bottom until the level is at the zero of the graduation. There are then 100 cubic centimeters in the burette. The superfluous gas has escaped through the cock, A, and passed through the water in the funnel. The cock, A, is afterward closed by turning it 90°. To cause the absorbing liquid to pass into the burette, the water in the graduated cylinder is made to flow by connecting the rubber tube, S, of the bottle, S, with the point of the burette. The cock is opened, and suction is effected with the mouth of the tube, R. When the water has flowed out to nearly the last drop, B is closed and the suction bottle is removed.",-2.937519464,0.582837344
0df4de67e,,,"The problem as to how the refuse of coal shall be utilized has been solved in the manufacture from it of an agglomerated artificial fuel, which is coming more and more into general use on railways and steamboats, in the industries, and even in domestic heating.
The qualities that a good agglomerating machine should present are as follows:
1. Very great simplicity, inasmuch as it is called upon to operate in an atmosphere charged with coal dust, pitch, and steam; and, under such conditions, it is important that it may be easily got at for cleaning, and that the changing of its parts (which wear rapidly) may be effected without, so to speak, interrupting its running.
2. The compression must be powerful, and, that the product may be homogeneous, must operate progressively and not by shocks. It must especially act as much as possible upon the entire surface of the conglomerate, and this is something that most machines fail to do.
3. The removal from the mould must be affected easily, and not depend upon a play of pistons or springs, which soon become foul, and the operation of which is very irregular.",-3.276238011,0.595884398
035eeeb2a,,,"It will not be overstating the case to say that this coke breaker is by far the simplest, strongest, and most economical appliance of its kind now manufactured. That it does its work well is proved by experience; and the advantages of its construction are immediately apparent upon comparison of its simple drum and single spindle with the flying hammers or rocking jaws, or double drums with toothed gearing which characterize some other patterns of the same class of plant. It should be remarked, as already indicated, lest exception should be taken to the size of the machine chosen here for illustration, that it can be made of any size down to hand power. On the whole, however, as a few tons of broken coke might be required at short notice even in a moderate sized works, it would scarcely be advisable to depend upon too small a machine; since the regular supply of the fuel thus improved may be trusted in a short time to increase the demand.",-2.518195158,0.518678864
4a06e22c0,,,"The black and foully-smelling liquid popularly known as soft water is so rich in carbonaceous and organic constituents as to be of very limited use to the photographer; but by taking the precaution of fitting up a simple automatic shunt for diverting the stream until the roofs have been thoroughly washed, it becomes possible to insure a good supply of clean and serviceable soft water, even in London. Several forms of shunt have been devised, some of these being so complex as to offer every prospect of speedy disorganization; but a simple and efficient apparatus is figured in Engineering by a correspondent who signs himself ""Millwright,"" and as we have thoroughly proved the value of an apparatus which is practically identical, we reproduce the substance of his communication.
A gentleman of Newcastle, a retired banker, having tried various filters to purify the rain-water collected on the roof of his house, at length had the idea to allow no water to run into the cistern until the roof had been well washed. After first putting up a hard-worked valve, the arrangement as sketched below has been hit upon.",-2.194476549,0.582340975
2b10b4e23,,,"One of the principal disadvantages of furnaces for revivifying animal charcoal has been that they possessed no automatic drier for drying the black on its exit from the washer. It was for the purpose of remedying this that Mr. Schreiber was led to invent the automatic system of drying shown at the upper part of the furnace, and which is formed of two pipes of undulating form, like the retorts, with openings throughout their length for the escape of steam. Between these pipes there is a closed space into which enters the waste heat and products of combustion from the furnace. These latter afterward escape through the chimney at the upper part.
In order that the black may be put in bags on issuing from the furnace, it must be cooled as much as possible. For this purpose there are arranged on each side of the furnace two pieces of cast iron tubes of rectangular section, forming a prolongation of the retorts and making with them an angle of about 45 degrees. The extremities of these tubes terminate in hollow rotary cylinders, which permit of regulating the flow of the black into a car running on rails.",-2.385984476,0.544282439
997f8b53d,,,"Wrap the tub or barrel well up in blankets or sheepskins, and put away for a week in some warm dry place, during which the mixture slowly turns into soap, giving a produce of about 120 pounds of excellent potash soap. If this soap is made with tallow or grease it will be nearly as hard as soda soap. When made by farmers or householders tallow or grease will generally be taken, as it is the cheapest, and ready to hand on the spot. For manufacturers, or for making laundry soap, nothing could be better than cotton seed oil. A magnificent soap can be made with this article, lathering very freely. When made with oil it is better to remelt in a kettle the potash soap, made according to the above directions, with half its weight of water, using very little heat, stirring constantly, and removing the fire as soon as the water is mixed with and taken up by the soap. A beautifully bright soap is obtained in this way, and curiously the soap is actually made much harder and stiffer by this addition of water than when it is in a more concentrated state previously to the water being added.",-1.172236203,0.438580926
7a5d19db7,,,"At the end of the last century Humphry Davy observed that, on placing a very fine wire gauze over a flame, the latter was cooled to such a point that it could not traverse the meshes. This phenomenon, which he attributed to the conductivity and radiating power of the metal, he soon utilized in the construction of a lamp for miners.
Some years afterward Chevalier Aldini, of Milan, conceived the idea of making a new application of Davy's discovery in the manufacture of an envelope that should permit a man to enter into the midst of flames. This envelope, which was made of metallic gauze with 1-25th of an inch meshes, was composed of five pieces, as follows: (1) a helmet, with mask, large enough, to allow a certain space between it and the internal bonnet of which I shall speak; (2) a cuirass with armlets; (3) a skirt for the lower part of the belly and the thighs; (4) a pair of boots formed of a double wire gauze; and (5) a shield five feet long by one and a half wide, formed of metallic gauze stretched over a light iron frame.",-2.953939103,0.602322842
87b87e466,,,"Among the attractions of the fête was an apparatus for the concentration and utilization of solar heat, and, though the sun was not very brilliant, I saw this apparatus set in motion a printing machine which printed several thousand copies of a specimen newspaper entitled the Soleil Journal.
The sun's rays are concentrated in a reflector, which moves at the same rate as the sun and heats a vertical boiler, setting the motive steam-engine at work. As may be supposed, the only object was to demonstrate the possibility of utilizing the concentrated heat of the solar rays; but I closely examined it, because the apparatus seems capable of great utility in existing circumstances. Here in France, indeed, there is a radical drawback--the sun is often overclouded.
Thousands of years ago the idea of utilizing the solar rays must have suggested itself, and there are still savage tribes who know no other mode of combustion; but the scientific application has hitherto been lacking. This void this apparatus will fill up.",-2.407964427,0.514421208
9e9eacb49,,,"The tree is dioecious, bearing male catkins on one plant, female on another. All the female trees in Europe are believed to have originated from a tree near Geneva, of which Auguste Pyramus de Candolle secured grafts, and distributed them throughout the Continent. Nevertheless, the female tree is rarely met with, as compared with the male; but it is quite possible that a tree which generally produces male flowers only may sometimes bear female flowers only. We have no certain evidence of this in the case of the Gingkgo, but it is a common enough occurrence in other dioecious plants, and the occurrence of a fruiting specimen near Philadelphia, as recently recorded by Mr. Meehan, may possibly be attributed to this cause.
The tree of which we give a figure is growing at Broadlands, Hants, and is about 40 feet in height, with a trunk that measures 7 feet in girth at 3 feet from the ground, with a spread of branches measuring 45 feet. These dimensions have been considerably exceeded in other cases. In 1837 a tree at Purser's Cross measured 60 feet and more in height.",-3.636833783,0.606822448
69a3b865e,,,"The most interesting change of which the Census gives account is the increase in the number of farms. The number has virtually doubled within twenty years. The population of the country has not increased in like proportion. A large part of the increase in number of farms has been due to the division of great estates. Nor has this occurred, as some may imagine, exclusively in the Southern States and the States to which immigration and migration have recently been directed. It is an important fact that the multiplication of farms has continued even in the older Northern States, though the change has not been as great in these as in States of the far West or the South. In New York there has been an increase of 25,000, or 11.5 percent, in the number of farms since 1870; in New Jersey the increase has been 12.2 percent, and in Pennsylvania 22.7 percent, though the increase in population, and doubtless in the number of persons engaged in farming, has been much smaller.",-1.16733657,0.447568901
1aee30059,,,"It stands to reason that were our summers warmer we should be able to grow grapes successfully on open walls; it is therefore probable that a new grape bag, the invention of M. Pelletier, 20 Rue de la Banque, Paris, intended to serve a double purpose, viz., protecting the fruit and hastening its maturity, will, when it becomes known, be welcomed in this country. It consists of a square of curved glass so fixed to the bag that the sun's rays are concentrated upon the fruit, thereby rendering its ripening more certain in addition to improving its quality generally. The glass is affixed to the bag by means of a light iron wire support. It covers that portion of it next the sun, so that it increases the amount of light and warms the grapes without scorching them, a result due to the convexity of the glass and the layer of air between it and the bag. M. Pelletier had the idea of rendering these bags cheaper by employing plain squares instead of curved ones, but the advantage thus obtained was more than counterbalanced by their comparative inefficacy.",-2.281196002,0.495080366
a78d0ed39,,,"On August 15 ""Jack"" Shedd, the original discoverer of the Robinson mine in Colorado, was prospecting on the south branch of the north fork of the Perche River, when he made the first great strike in the district. On the summit of a heavily timbered ridge he found some small pieces of native silver, and then a lump of ore containing very pure silver in the form of sulphides, weighing 150 pounds, and afterward proved to be worth on the average $11 a pound. All this was mere float, simply lying on the surface of the ground. Afterward another block was found, weighing 87 pounds, of horn silver, with specimens nearly 75 percent silver. The strike was kept a secret for a few days. Said a mining man: ""I went up to help bring the big lump down. We took it by a camp of prospectors who were lying about entirely ignorant of any find. When they saw it they instantly saddled their horses, galloped off, and I believe they prospected all night."" A like excitement was created when the news of this and one or two similar finds reached Lake Valley.",-1.119710491,0.473820654
a21bfa111,,,"Finally, we claim, by the use of this invention, to be able to spin any fibrous material which can be drawn by draught-rolls, of any required degree of softness of twist, such as can be spun by any mule whatever, and to do this with the attention only of children of from twelve to fourteen years of age.
We also claim an increased production, owing to less breakage of ends, from the yarn not being overstrained in spinning, and an improvement in the quality of the yarn from the same cause, which will increase the production from the loom, and finally eradicate other objectionable features of the labor question, which so often disturb the peaceful harmony between labor and capital.
Mr. Goulding asked if it had been demonstrated whether more or less power was required for the same numbers than by other methods, and Col. Webber replied that no more power was required to move the rings than was saved by friction on the ring and the saving of weight of the bobbins. He thought it required no more power than the old way.",-2.463242714,0.490009409
b10f60b6b,,,"When the gas is lighted at the burner, and the glass closed, the burner begins to act at once, although some minutes are necessarily required to elapse before its full brilliancy is gained. The cold air passes in through the tubes provided for it, and when these are heated to the fullest extent on their outside, by the hot fumes from the burner, they so readily part with their heat to the air that a temperature of 1,000° to 1,200° Fahr. is easily obtained in the air when it arrives inside, and commences in turn to heat the burner-tubes. The air-tubes are placed so as to intercept the hot gases as completely as possible; and also, of course, obtain heat by conduction from the sides of the annular body. It is evident that the number and dimensions of these tubes might be increased so as to abstract almost all the heat from the escaping fumes, but for the limitations imposed, first, by a consideration of the actual quantity of air required to support combustion, and, secondly, by the obligation to let sufficient ascensional power remain in the gases which are left to pass out through the upper chimney.",-2.201092557,0.476197163
918940da6,,,"About a year ago Dr. Quinlan had seen the chewed leaves of the Plantago lanceolata successfully used to stop a dangerous hemorrhage from leech bites in a situation where pressure could not be employed. He had searched out the literature of the subject, and found that, although this herb is highly spoken of by Culpepper and other old writers as a styptic, and alluded to as such in the plays of Shakespeare, its employment seems to have died out. Professor Quinlan described the suitable varieties of plantain, and exhibited preparations which had been made for him by Dr. J. Evans, of Dublin, State apothecary. They dried leaves and powdered leaves, conserved with glycerine, for external use; the juice preserved by alcohol, as also by glycerine, for internal use; and a green extract. He gave an account of the chemistry of the juice, from which it appeared that it was not a member of the tannin series; and also described its physiological effect in causing a tendency to stasia in the capillaries of the tail of a goldfish, examined with a microscopic power of 400 X. He regarded its styptic power as partly mechanical and partly physiological.",-2.665885396,0.490433533
d213a48d8,,,"When it becomes a question of practical lighting, it is very certain that the best electric lamp will be the one that is most simple and requires the fewest mechanical parts. It is to such simplicity that is due all the success of the Jablochkoff candle and the Reynier-Werdermann lamp. Yet, in the former of these lamps, it is to be regretted that the somewhat great and variable resistance opposed to the current in its passage through two carbons that keep diminishing in length, in measure as they burn, proves a cause of loss of light and of variation in it. And it is also to be regretted that the duration of combustion of the carbons is not longer; and, finally, it is allowable to believe that the power employed in volatilizing the insulator placed between the carbons is prejudicial to the economical use of this system. In order to obviate this latter inconvenience, an endeavor has been made in the Wilde candle to do away with the insulator, but the results obtained have scarcely been encouraging.",-2.050123173,0.520816776
ed03a7129,,,"Clambering up the steep end of the range among trees and grapevines, the wooded summit is gained, at an elevation of nearly 150 feet. Passing along the top, the woods soon disappear, and the visitor emerges on a wild waste of delicately tinted saffron, rising from the slate-colored beach in gentle undulation, and sleepily falling on the other side down to green pastures and into the cedar woods. The whole surface of this gradually undulating mountain desert is ribbed by little wavelets a few inches apart, but the general aspect is one of perfect smoothness. The sand is almost as fine as flour, and contains no admixture of dust. The foot sinks only an inch or two in walking over it; children roll about on it and down its slopes, and, rising, shake themselves till their clothing loses every trace of sand. Occasionally gusts stream over the wild waste, raising a dense drift to a height of a foot or two only, and streaming like a fringe over the steep northern edge. Though the sun is blazing down on the glistening wilderness there is little sensation of heat, for the cool lake breeze is ever blowing.",-2.321692814,0.466153396
dc0b5a7a3,,,"Somewhat similar in appearance to coral is the conch jewelry, sets of which have been sold for $300. The tint is exquisite, but liable to fade when exposed to the sun. It is made from the great conch, common in Southern Florida and the West Indies. The shells are imported into Europe by thousands, and cut up into studs, sleeve-buttons, and various articles of ornament. These conches are supposed to be the producers of pink pearls, but I have opened hundreds of them and failed to find a single pearl. The conch shell is used by the cameo cutter. Rome and Paris are the principal seats of the trade, and immense numbers of shell cameos are imported by England and America, and mounted in rings, brooches, etc. The one showing a pale salmon-color upon an orange ground is much used. In 1847, 300 persons worked upon these shells in Paris alone, the number of shells used being immense. In Paris 300,000 helmet-shells were used in one year, valued at $40,000 of the bull's mouth, $80,000, averaging a little over a shilling apiece, equal to $34,000. Eight thousand black helmets were used, valued at $9,000.",-1.266761046,0.468217333
4169649f2,,,"Air, like every other gas or combination of gases, possesses weight; some persons who have been taught that the air exerts a pressure of 14.7 lb. per square inch, cannot, however, be got to realize the fact that a cubic foot of air at the same pressure and at a temperature of 62 deg. weighs the thirteenth part of a pound, or over one ounce; 13.141 cubic feet of air weigh one pound. In round numbers 30,000 cubic feet of air weigh one ton; this is a useful figure to remember, and it is easily carried in the mind. A hall 61 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 17 feet high will contain one ton of air.
The work to be done by a fan consists in putting a weight--that of the air--in motion. The resistances incurred are due to the inertia of the air and various frictional influences; the nature and amount of these last vary with the construction of the fan. As the air enters at the center of the fan and escapes at the circumference, it will be seen that its motion is changed while in the fan through a right angle.",-1.759131575,0.497072774
1e63c192d,,,"With pure wax the solution remains clear white; when ceresine and paraffine are present, they will float on the surface of the alkali solution as an oily layer, and on cooling they will appear lighter in color than the saponified mass, and thus they may be quantitatively estimated. The author likewise gives a superficial method for the determination of the purity of beeswax. It depends on the formation of wax crystals when the fused wax solidifies. These crystals form on the surface on cooling, and are still visible after solidification when examining the surface from the side. The test succeeds best when the liquid wax is poured into a shallow tin mould. After cooling another peculiar property of the wax becomes apparent. While the beeswax fills a smaller volume, that is, separates from the sides of the mould, the Japanese wax, without separating from the sides, becomes covered with cracks on cooling which have a depth corresponding to the thickness of the wax.",-2.862763453,0.547963557
c85db4cc7,,,"Another striking difference between monkeys and men is that the former never walk with ease in an erect posture, but always use their arms in climbing or in walking on all-fours like most quadrupeds. The monkeys that we see in the streets dressed up and walking erect, only do so after much drilling and teaching, just as dogs may be taught to walk in the same way; and the posture is almost as unnatural to the one animal as it is to the other. The largest and most man-like of the apes--the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orangutan--also walk usually on all-fours; but in these the arms are so long and the legs so short that the body appears half erect when walking; and they have the habit of resting on the knuckles of the hands, not on the palms like the smaller monkeys, whose arms and legs are more nearly of an equal length, which tends still further to give them a semi-erect position.",0.004187281,0.481514296
5160a9801,,,"The moths emerged from the beginning of March till the 13th of August, at intervals of some duration, or in batches of males or females. I obtained a pairing of Selene on the 30th of June, 1881, and the worms commenced to hatch on the 13th of July. The larvæ in first stage are of a fine brown-red, with a broad black band in the middle of the body. The second stage commenced on the 20th of July; larvæ, of a lighter reddish color, without the black band; tubercles black. Third stage commenced on the 28th of July; larvæ green; the first four tubercles yellow, with a black ring at the base; other tubercles, orange yellow. Fourth stage commenced on the 6th of August; larvæ green; first four tubercles golden-yellow, the others orange-red. Fifth stage commenced on the 19th of August; first four tubercles yellow, with a black ring at the base; other tubercles yellow, slightly tinged with orange-red; lateral band brown and greenish yellow; head and forelegs dark-brown. As stated before, the larvæ were reared on a nut-tree in the garden, till the last stage.",-1.472442259,0.459845926
3e7c9cead,,,"A novelty in canal boats lies in Charles River, near the foot of Chestnut street, which is calculated to attract considerable attention. It is called a pneumatic canal boat and was built at Wiscasset, Me., as devised by the owner, Mr. R.H. Tucker, of Boston, who claims to hold patents for its design in England and the United States. The specimen shown on Charles River, which is designed to be used on canals without injuring the banks, is a simple structure, measuring sixty-two feet long and twenty wide. It is three feet in depth and draws seventeen inches of water. It is driven entirely by air, Root's blower No. 4 being used, the latter operated by an eight-horse-power engine. The air is forced down a central shaft to the bottom, where it is deflected, and, being confined between keels, passes backward and upward, escaping at the stern through an orifice nineteen feet wide, so as to form a sort of air wedge between the boat and the surface of the water. The force with which the air strikes the water is what propels it.",-1.770700571,0.496486906
e1038716c,,,"Very naturally, I first examined the printing frame used in ordinary photography. This frame is extremely simple, and is very well adapted to its use. It is, undoubtedly, the best frame for blue process printing, when the area of the glass is not too large. The glass is set in an ordinary wooden frame, while the backboard is stiff and divided into two parts. A flat, bow-shaped spring is attached by a pivot to the center of each half of the backboard. The two halves of the backboard are hinged together by ordinary butts. Four lugs are fastened to the back of the frame, and, when the backboard is placed in position, the springs may be swung around, parallel to the line of the hinges, and pressed under the lugs, so that the back of the backboard is pressed most severely at the center of each half, while the glass is prevented from springing away from the backboard by the resistance of the frame at its edges.",-1.147913854,0.4768672
f8aeb3b98,,,"L. Clemandot has devised a new method of treating metals, especially steel, which consists in heating to a cherry red, compressing strongly and keeping up the pressure until the metal is completely cooled. The results are so much like those of tempering that he calls his process tempering by compression. The compressed metal becomes exceedingly hard, acquiring a molecular contraction and a fineness of grain such that polishing gives it the appearance of polished nickel. Compressed steel, like tempered steel, acquires the coercitive force which enables it to absorb magnetism. This property should be studied in connection with its durability; experiments have already shown that there is no loss of magnetism at the expiration of three months. This compression has no analogue but tempering. Hammering and hardening modify the molecular state of metals, especially when they are practiced upon metal that is nearly cold, but the effect of hydraulic pressure is much greater. The phenomena which are produced in both methods of tempering may be interpreted in different ways, but it seems likely that there is a molecular approximation, an amorphism from which results the homogeneity that is due to the absence of crystallization.",-2.223363508,0.554221985
5323d5c29,,,"From among a cloud of proposals, experiments, and inventions, two great systems at length disentangled themselves. They were the English construction of built-up wrought iron coils, and the Prussian construction of solid steel castings. Wrought-iron, as you are all aware, is nearly pure iron, containing but a trace of carbon. Steel, as used for guns, contains from 0.3 to 0.5 per cent of carbon; the larger the quantity of carbon, the harder the steel. Since the early days of which I am now speaking, great improvement has taken place in the qualities of both materials, but more especially in that of steel. Still the same general characteristics were to be noted, and it may be broadly stated, that England chose confessedly the weaker material, as being more under control, cheaper, and safer to intrust with the lives of men; while Prussia selected the stronger but less manageable substance, in the hope of improving its uniformity, and rendering it thoroughly trustworthy. The difference in strength, when both are sound, is great. Roughly, gun steel is about twice as strong as wrought iron.",-2.39059848,0.50587488
f65cf1018,,,"Differences obtained in the estimation of nitrogen in the above substances are frequently the source of much annoyance. The cause of these discrepancies is chiefly due to the lack of uniformity in the material, and from its not being in a sufficiently fine state during the combustion. The hair which is found in commerce for the manufacture of fertilizers, is generally mixed with sand and dust. Wool dust often contains old buttons, pieces of wood, shoe pegs, and all sorts of things. The flesh fertilizers are composed of light particles of flesh mixed with the heavier bone dust. Even after taking all possible precautions to finely comminute these substances by mechanical means, still only imperfect results are obtained, for the impurities, that is to say, the sand, can never be so intimately mixed with the lighter particles that a sample of 0.5 to 0.8 gramme, such as is used in the determination of nitrogen, will correspond to the correct average contents. In substances such as dried blood, pulverization is very tedious.",-2.66580066,0.485468669
e7628c7cf,,,"During the present autumn the woods and roadsides in this neighborhood (New Bloomfield) present a singular appearance in consequence of the ravages of the black and yellow larva of the above species. It is more abundant, so I am informed, than it has ever been before. In some places hardly any trees of the two species to which its attack is here limited have escaped. These are the black or yellow oak (Q. tinctoria) with its variety (coccinea), the scarlet oak and, the scrub oak (Q. ilicifolia). These trees appear brown on the hill-sides from a distance, in consequence of being altogether stripped of their leaves. The sound of the falling frass from the thousands of caterpillars resembles a shower of rain. They crawl in thousands over the ground, ten or twelve being sometimes seen on a square yard. The springs and pools are crowded with drowned specimens. They are equally abundant in all parts of the county which I have visited during the past week or two--the central and southeastern.",-2.552533902,0.505829608
b9f0de9f7,,,"A copper wire passes down to the bottom of the cell and makes connection with the mercury; this wire is covered with gutta-percha, except where immersed in the mercury. The pores of the carbon plates are filled with paraffin wax. This battery was first employed for the purpose of utilizing waste solution from bichromate batteries, a great quantity of which is thrown away before having been completely exhausted. This waste is unavoidable, in consequence of the impossibility of permitting such batteries, when employed for telegraphic purposes, to run until complete exhaustion or reduction of the solutions has been effected; therefore some valuable chemicals have to be sacrificed to insure constancy in working. The fragments of zinc in this cell were also the remains of amalgamated zinc plates from the bichromate batteries, and the mercury which is employed for securing good metallic connection is soon augmented by that remaining after the dissolution of the zinc. It will therefore be seen that not only the solution, but also the zinc and mercury remnants of bichromate batteries are utilized, and at the same time a considerable quantity of electricity is generated.",-2.497270881,0.492838818
d6e807c7c,,,"He who feels, ‘I am in possession of the truth'—how many possessions does he not renounce in order to save this feeling! What would he not throw overboard in order to stay ‘on top'—that is, above the others who lack ‘the truth'! The state in which we hurt others is certainly seldom as agreeable, in an unadulterated way, as that in which we benefit others; it is a sign that we are still lacking power, or it betrays a frustration in the face of this poverty; it brings new dangers and uncertainties to the power we do possess and clouds our horizon with the prospect of revenge, scorn, punishment, failure. Only to the most irritable and covetous adherents of the feeling of power—to those for whom the sight of those who are already subjected (the objects of benevolence) is a burden and boredom—might it be more pleasurable to imprint the seal of power on the reluctant. It depends on how one is accustomed to spice one's life; it is a matter of taste whether one prefers the slow or the sudden, the safe or the dangerous and daring increase in power—one always this or that spice according to one's temperament.",-2.719395904,0.495121539
84d86d648,,,"The nature of incrustation and the evils resulting therefrom having been stated, it now remains to consider the methods that have been devised to overcome them. These methods naturally resolve themselves into two kinds, chemical and mechanical. The chemical method has two modifications; in one the design is to purify the water in large tanks or reservoirs, by the addition of certain substances which shall precipitate all the scale-forming ingredients before the water is fed into the boiler; in the other the chemical agent is fed into the boiler from time to time, and the object is to effect the precipitation of the saline matter in such a manner that it will not form solid masses of adherent scale. Where chemical methods of purification are resorted to, the latter plan is generally followed as being the least troublesome. Of the many substances used for this purpose, however, some are measurably successful; the majority of them are unsatisfactory or objectionable.",-2.519764895,0.538096161
29fee0f5a,,,"Monsieur Sauvage caught the first gudgeon, Monsieur Morissot the second, and almost every moment one or other raised his line with a little, glittering, silvery fish wriggling at the end; they were having excellent sport. They slipped their catch gently into a close-meshed bag lying at their feet; they were filled with joy—the joy of once more indulging in a pastime of which they had long been deprived. The sun poured its rays on their backs; they no longer heard anything or thought of anything. They ignored the rest of the world; they were fishing. But suddenly a rumbling sound, which seemed to come from the bowels of the earth, shook the ground beneath them: the cannon were resuming their thunder. Morissot turned his head and could see toward the left, beyond the banks of the river, the formidable outline of Mont-Valerien, from whose summit arose a white puff of smoke.The next instant a second puff followed the first, and in a few moments a fresh detonation made the earth tremble.",-1.814917438,0.506396217
0ffc29ec0,,,"In or about the year 1872, the burghers of the Republic elected Mr. Burgers their President. This remarkable man was a native of the Cape Colony, and passed the first sixteen or seventeen years of his life, he once informed me, on a farm herding sheep. He afterwards became a clergyman noted for the eloquence of his preaching, but his ideas proving too broad for his congregation, he resigned his cure, and in an evil moment for himself took to politics. President Burgers was a man of striking presence and striking talents, especially as regards his oratory, which was really of a very high class, and would have commanded attention in our own House of Commons. He possessed, however, a mind of that peculiarly volatile order, that is sometimes met with in conjunction with great talents, and which seems to be entirely without ballast. His intellect was of a balloon-like nature, and as incapable of being steered.",-1.988615783,0.550352811
bca4c9763,,,"For an easy and striking lecture experiment, I employ a tube open at both ends and bent like a W. The two open arms are short and the platinum wires are fixed at the highest bend. The tube is filled with hot mercury--one of the ends being closed by a caoutchouc stopper for the purpose--and a dry mixture of 5 volumes of air and 2 volumes of carbonic oxide is introduced into the bent tube over the mercury. A little phosphoric oxide is passed up one arm. After a few minutes the gases may be submitted to the spark without exploding. A little water may then be introduced through a pipette into the other arm; and if the spark is passed directly the gases ignite in the wet and not in the dry arm of the tube. The admixture of the inert nitrogen renders a larger quantity of aqueous vapor necessary for the explosion than when only carbonic oxide and oxygen in proper proportion are present.",-1.683489623,0.481550875
99204e583,,,"No one but a chemist can appreciate the full significance of the brief message which came to us a month ago without warning—""Wöhler is dead!"" What need be added to it? No chemist was better known or more honored than Wöhler, and none ever deserved distinction and honor more than he. His life was made up of a series of brilliant successes, which not only compelled the admiration of the world at large, but directed the thoughts of his fellow workers, and led to results of the highest importance to science. It is impossible in a few words to give a correct account of the work of Wöhler, and to show in what way his life and work have been of such great value to chemistry. Could he himself direct the preparation of this notice, the writer knows that his advice would be, ""Keep to the facts."" So far as any one phrase can characterize the teachings of Wöhler, that one does it; and though enthusiasm prompts to eulogy, let us rather recall the plain facts of his life, and let them, in the main, speak for themselves.",-1.76392627,0.497531545
3f0141064,,,"James Prescott Joule was born at Salford, on Christmas Eve of the year 1818. His father and his grandfather before him were brewers, and the business, in due course, descended to Mr. Joule and his elder brother, and by them was carried on with success till it was sold, in 1854. Mr. Joule's grandfather came from Elton, in Derbyshire, settled near Manchester, where he founded the business, and died at the age of fifty-four, in 1799. His father, one of a numerous family, married a daughter of John Prescott of Wigan. They had five children, of whom James Prescott Joule was the second, and of whom three were sons--Benjamin, the eldest, James, and John--and two daughters--Alice and Mary. Mr. Joule's mother died in 1836 at the age of forty-eight; and his father, who was an invalid for many years before his death, died at the age of seventy-four, in the year 1858.",-1.179981502,0.450756692
a52bf84c5,,,"At a recent meeting of the London Physical Society, Prof. Rowland, of Baltimore, exhibited a number of his new concave gratings for giving a diffraction spectrum. He explained the theory of their action. Gratings can be ruled on any surface, if the lines are at a proper distance apart and of the proper form. The best surface, however, is a cylindrical or spherical one. The gratings are solid slabs of polished speculum metal ruled with lines equidistant by a special machine of Prof. Rowland's invention. An account of this machine will be published shortly. The number of lines per inch varied in the specimens shown from 5,000 to 42,000, but higher numbers can be engraved by the cutting diamond. The author has designed an ingenious mechanical arrangement for keeping the photographic plates in focus. In this way photographs of great distinctness can be obtained. Prof. Rowland exhibited some 10 inches long, which showed the E line doubled, and the large B group very clearly.",-2.793213392,0.527687015
80691eaa7,,,"Bacteria, whether significant of disease or decline of health, are found more or less numerous in everything we eat and drink. The germs or spores of many kinds, known as termo, lineola, tenue, spirillum, vibriones, etc, exist in almost infinite numbers; some of the smallest are too small to be seen by the highest powers, which, being lodged in all vegetable and animal substances, spring into life and develop very rapidly under favorable circumstances. They develop most rapidly when decomposition commences, and seem to indicate the degree or activity of that decomposition, also hastening the same. They are found most numerous in the feces, and usually fully developed in the fresh evacuations of persons of all ages. They may be seen plainly under a thin glass with high powers with strong or clear light, when the material is much diluted with water. These bacteria appear almost as numerously, yet more slowly, in urine, either upon exposure to air or when freshly evacuated, when the general health of the individual is declining, or any tendency to decomposition.",-1.696484052,0.497561454
4c791e0cc,,,"Most animal-tissue decomposes with great rapidity, and plant tissue, when not protected, soon decays. This decay is essentially oxidation, since its final result is the restoration to the atmosphere of carbonic acid, which is broken up in plant-growth by the appropriation of its carbon. Hence it is a kind of combustion, although this term is more generally applied to very rapid oxidation, with the evolution of sensible light and heat. But, whether the process goes on rapidly or slowly, the same force is evolved that is absorbed in the growth of plant-tissue; and by accelerating and guiding its evolution, we are able to utilize this force in the production at will of heat, light, and their correlatives, chemical affinity, motive power, electricity, and magnetism. The decomposition of plants may, however, be more or less delayed, and it then takes the form of a destructive distillation, the constituents reacting upon each other, and forming temporary combinations, part of which are evolved, and part remain behind. Water is the great extinguisher of this as of the more rapid oxidation that we call combustion; and the decomposition of plant-tissue under water is extremely slow, from the partial exclusion of oxygen.",-2.846160809,0.497381702
9eedd990c,,,"Man is prone to idealization. He cannot accept as final the phenomena of the sensible world, but looks behind that world into another which rules the sensible one. From this tendency of the human mind, systems of mythology and scientific theories have equally sprung. By the former the experiences of volition, passion, power, and design, manifested among ourselves, were transplanted, with the necessary modifications, into an unseen universe from which the sway and potency of those magnified human qualities were exerted. ""In the roar of thunder and in the violence of the storm was felt the presence of a shouter and furious strikers, and out of the rain was created an Indra or giver of rain."" It is substantially the same with science, the principal force of which is expended in endeavoring to rend the veil which separates the sensible world from an ultra-sensible one. In both cases our materials, drawn from the world of the senses, are modified by the imagination to suit intellectual needs.",-2.559770934,0.517701591
284eaa5ad,,,"As to surface-slope its measurement—from nearly 600 trials—was found to be such a delicate operation that the result would be of doubtful utility. This would affect the application of all formulas into which it entered. The water surface was ascertained, on the average of its oscillations, to be sensibly level across, not convex, as supposed by some writers. There were 565 sets of vertical velocity measurements combined into forty-six series. The forty-six average curves were all very flat and convex downstream—except near an irregular bank—and were approximately parabolas with horizontal axes; the data determined the parameters only very roughly; the maximum velocity line was usually below the service, and sank in a rectangular channel, from the center outward down to about mid-depth near the banks. Its depression seemed not to depend on the depth, slope, velocity, or wind; probably the air itself, being a continuous source of surface retardation, would permanently depress the maximum velocity, while wind failed to effect this, owing to its short duration. On any vertical the mid-depth velocity was greater than the mean, and the bed velocity was the least.",-3.639935554,0.603819046
7776dfe4b,,,"Nobody in Europe dreamt that Columbus had discovered a new continent, and when Balbao, in 1513, discovered the South Sea, then it was known that Asia lay beyond, and navigators directed their course there. On his deathbed, in 1506, Columbus still held to his delusion that he had reached Zipanga, Japan. In 1501 he was exploring the coast of Veragua, in Central America, still looking for the Ganges, and announcing his being informed on this coast of a sea which would bear ships to the mouth of that river, while about the same time the Cabots, under Henry VII, were taking possession of Newfoundland, believing it to be part of the island coast of China.
Although these were grave blunders in geography and in navigation, the discoveries really made in the rich tropical zones, the acquirement of a new world, and the rich products continually reaching Europe from it, for a time aroused Spain from her lethargy. The world opened east and west. The new routes poured their spices, silks, and drugs through new channels into all the Teutonic countries.",-1.041656664,0.481085782
fe44cbd14,,,"The iron cylinder weighs 23 kilogrammes; but, when the current has an intensity of 43 amperes and traverses 15 sections, the stress developed may reach 70 kilogrammes; that is to say, three times the weight of the hammer. So this latter obeys with absolute docility the motions of the operator's hands, as those who were present at the lecture were enabled to see. I will incidentally add that this power hammer was placed on a circuit derived from one that served likewise to supply three Hefner-Alteneck machines (Siemens D5 model) and a Gramme machine (Breguet model P.L.). Each of these machines was making 1,500 revolutions per minute and developing 25 kilogrammeters per second, measured by means of a Carpentier brake. All these apparatuses were operating with absolute independence, and had for generators the double excitation machine that figured at the Exhibition of Electricity. In an experiment made since then, I have succeeded in developing in each of these four machines 50 kilogrammeters per second, whatever was the number of those that were running; and I found it possible to add the hammer on a derived circuit without notably affecting the operation of the receivers.",-3.64289216,0.644398243
9ea42e4ab,,,"I saw Favre, for the first time, in Geneva, in 1872, a few days after he had assumed the responsibility of undertaking the great work. He had been living since the war on his magnificent Plongeon estate, on the right bank of the lake. There was no need of dancing attendance in order to reach the contractor of the greatest work that has been accomplished up to the present time, for Mr. Favre was easy of access. We had scarcely passed five minutes together then we we were conversing as we often did later after an acquaintance of six years. After making known to him the object of my visit, the desire of being numbered among the personnel of his enterprise, the conversation quickly took that turn of mirthfulness that was at the bottom of Favre's character. ""This is the first time,"" said he to me, laughing, ""that I ever worked with Germans, and I had not yet struck the first blow of the pick on the Gothard when they began to quibble about our contract of the 8th of last August. Ah! that agreement of August 8th! How I had to change and re-change it, later on.""",-2.278462418,0.485862554
400b5fb6d,,,"It is well understood that in the fluid steel poured into the mould there is a larger store of heat than is required for the purpose of rolling or hammering. Not only is there the mere apparent high temperature of fluid steel, but there is the store of latent heat in this fluid metal which is given out when solidification takes place.
It has, no doubt, suggested itself to many that this heat of the ingot ought to be utilized, and as a matter of fact, there have been, at various times and in different places, attempts made to do so; but hitherto all such attempts have proved failures, and a kind of settled conviction has been established in the steel trade that the theory could not possibly be carried out in practice.
The difficulty arose from the fact that a steel ingot when newly stripped is far too hot in the interior for the purpose of rolling, and if it be kept long enough for the interior to become in a fit state, then the exterior gets far too cold to enable it to be rolled successfully.",-1.81048116,0.480360936
b5357a02c,,,"Crystals of this are included in the denser rock in great abundance; they are very small, seldom over a few lines in diameter, of an iron black color, of a regular octahedral form; sometimes large crystals may be found in place or in the disintegrated loose rock. I have seen them a half inch in diameter, and a half dozen in a small mass, thus forming an excellent cabinet specimen. By finding out by observation where they are the thickest in the rock, and cutting in at this point, more or less fine crystals may be obtained. This is readily found where they are so very abundant, near the equidistant points of the walk, that no difficulty should be encountered in so doing. These characteristics are interesting, and if large specimens cannot be obtained, any quantity of the small crystals may be split out, and, as a group, used for a representative at least. Before the blowpipe it is infusible, but if powdered, it slowly dissolves in the molten borax bead and yields a beautiful green globule. The specific gravity, which is generally unattainable, is about 4.5, and hardness 5 to 6.",-2.815430619,0.551715204
20808494a,,,"When we examine our atmosphere, we find it is composed of oxygen and nitrogen. The nitrogen constitutes no less than 80 percent of the atmosphere; the remaining 20 percent, consists of oxygen, so that the atmosphere consists almost entirely of these two gases, odorless and colorless and invisible. The atmosphere is, however, never free from moisture; a certain amount of aqueous vapor is always present. The quantity can hardly be stated, as it varies from day to day and month to month; it depends upon the temperature and other conditions. Then we have the gas commonly called carbonic acid in extremely minute quantities, about one part in 2,500, or four one-hundredths of one percent. A small quantity of ammonia and a small quantity of ozone are also present.
Besides these gases which have been enumerated, and which play an important part in supporting life in both the kingdoms of nature, we find a great many solids. Many people know how dust settles upon everything about the house. This dust has recently been the subject of most active study, and it proves to be quite as important as the vital oxygen that actually supports life.",-2.319227544,0.516856615
0c88f796b,,,"Now, modern science tell us that such changes are accompanied with manifestations of energy in some form or other, most frequently in that of heat, and we must look, therefore, upon nitrogenous food as contributing to the energy of the body in addition to its other functions.
What are the substances which we may class as nitrogenous? In the first place, we have the typical example of the purest form in albumin, or white of egg; and from this the name is now given to the class of albuminates. The animal albuminates are: Albumin from eggs, fibrin from muscles, or flesh, myosin, or synronin, also from animals, casein (or cheesy matter) from milk, and the nitrogenous substances from blood. In the vegetable kingdom, we have gluten, or vegetable fibrin, which is the nourishing constituent of wheat, barley, oats, etc.; and legumin, or vegetable casein, which is the peculiar substance found in peas and beans. The other organic constituents--the fats and the starches and sugars--contain no nitrogen, and were at one time thought to be concerned in producing animal heat.",-1.803128658,0.481479388
215c6251a,,,"The instrument consists of two permanent horseshoe magnets, fixed parallel with each other and an inch apart. A very thin spool or bobbin of insulated wire is suspended, like the pendulum of a clock, between these permanent magnets, in such a manner that the bobbin hangs just in front of the four poles. A counterpoise is fixed at the top of the pendulum bar, which permits the adjusting of the antagonistic forces represented by the action of the swinging bobbin, and two springs, which are insulated from the mass, and which form one electrode of the local or annunciator circuit, while the pendulum bar forms the other.
It will be easily understood that as the bobbin hangs freely in the center of a very strong magnetic field (formed by the four poles of the two permanent magnets), the slightest current sent through the bobbin will cause the bobbin to be attracted from one direction, while it will be repelled from the other, according to the polarity of the current transmitted.",-1.82895049,0.484163408
6ae215054,,,"Having had occasion during the last six years to manufacture lead plaster in considerable quantities, it occurred to me that cotton seed oil might be used instead of olive oil, at less expense, and with as good results. The making of this plaster with cotton seed oil has been questioned, as, according to some authorities, the product is not of good consistence, and is apt to be soft, sticky, and dark colored; but in my experience such is not the case. If the U. S. P. process is followed in making this plaster, substituting for the olive oil cotton seed oil, and instead of one half-pint of boiling water one and one-half pint are added, the product obtained will be equally as good as that from olive oil. My results with this oil in making lead plaster led me to try it in making the different liniments of the Pharmacopoeia, with the following results:
Linimentum Ammonia--This liniment, made with cotton seed oil, is of much better consistency than when made with olive oil. It is not so thick, will pour easily out of the bottle, and if the ammonia used is of proper strength, will make a perfect liniment.",-1.852586129,0.507014055
367b40adb,,,"Gilbert Brothers erected a saw mill here three years ago. A year later, the Denison Paper Manufacturing Company, of Mechanic Falls, erected a big pulp mill, which, also, the town voted to exempt from taxation for ten years. The mills are valuable companions for each other. The pulp mill utilizes all the waste of the saw mill. A settlement was speedily built by the operatives. Gilbertville now boasts of a post-office, a store, several large boarding houses, a nice school house, and over 500 inhabitants. The pulp mill employs seventy men. It runs night and day. It manufactures monthly 350 cords of poplar and spruce into pulp. It consumes monthly 500 cords of wood for fuel, 45 casks of soda ash, valued at $45 per cask, nine car loads of lime, 24,000 pounds to the car. It produces 1,000,000 pounds of wet fiber, valued at about $17,000, monthly. The pay roll amounts to $3,500 per month.",-1.178851866,0.482603352
13d49f82c,,,"The supply of spawn has been greater than could be hatched there, and supplies were sent to responsible persons in every state in the Union to be experimented with. At the date of issuing the report the supply of stock fish at the hatchery embraced, it was estimated, a thousand salmon trout, of weights ranging from four to twelve pounds; ten thousand brook trout, from half a pound to two pounds in weight; thirty thousand California mountain trout, weighing from a quarter of a pound to three pounds; forty-seven hundred rainbow trout, of from a quarter of a pound to two pounds' weight; and a large number of hybrids produced by crossing and interbreeding of different members of the salmon tribe. In this connection reference is made to the interesting fact that hybrids of the fish family are not barren. Spawners produced by crossing the male brook trout with the female salmon trout cast 72,000 eggs last fall, which hatched as readily as the spawn of their progenitors. The value of the stock of breeding fish at the hatchery is estimated at $20,000.",-1.604197427,0.471638627
c4e09a85e,,,"The parts to be joined are made to fit accurately, either by filing or on a lathe. The surfaces are moistened with the soldering fluid, a smooth piece of tin foil laid on, and the pieces pressed together and tightly wired. The article is then heated over the fire or by means of a lamp until the tin foil melts. In this way two pieces of brass can be soldered together so nicely that the joint can scarcely be found.
With good soft solder, nearly all kinds of soldering can be done over a lamp without the use of a ""copper."" If several piaces have to be soldered on the same piece, it is well to use solder of unlike fusibility. If the first piece is soldered with fine solder composed of 2 parts of lead, 1 of tin, and 2 of bismuth, there is no danger of its melting when another place near it is soldered with bismuth solder, made of 4 parts of lead, 4 of tin, and 1 of bismuth, for their melting points differ so much that the former will not melt when the latter does. Many solders do not form any malleable compounds.",-2.125428401,0.526224246
fa6bb66d0,,,"When it is desired to place one of the telescopes in a given position (its position of zero, for example), without acting on the alidade, it may be done by acting directly on the telescope itself without the intermedium of the winch. For such purpose it is necessary to interrupt communication with the mechanism by pressing on the button, q. If the telescope be turned to one side or the other of its normal position, in making it describe an angle of 90°, it will abut against stops, and these two positions will permit of determining the direction of the base.
The alidades themselves are provided with a button which disengages the toothed sector from the endless screw, and permits of their being turned to a mark made on the table. A regulating screw permits of this operation being performed very accurately. In what precedes, we have supposed a case in which the movable point is viewed by two observers, and in which the table, T T, is stationed at a place distant from them. In certain cases only two stations are employed.",-2.32817047,0.482432787
3682a03ea,,,"The problem thus proposed may be solved by means of electricity. Take a goblet like the one that supports the pipe, and rub it briskly against your coat sleeve, so as to electrify the glass through friction. Having done this, bring the goblet to within about a centimeter of the pipe stem. The latter will then be seen to be strongly attracted, and will follow the glass around and finally fall from its support. This curious experiment is a pretty variation of the electric pendulum; and it shows that pipe-clay--a very bad conductor of electricity--favors very well the attraction of an electrified body. Tumblers or goblets are to be found in every house, and a clay pipe is easily procured anywhere. So it would be difficult to produce manifestations of electricity more easily and at less expense than by the means here described.",-2.348879783,0.510305333
96deae2ab,,,"Surgeon Major Roehring, of Amberg, reports, in No. 32 of the Allg. Med. Centr. Zeit., April 22, 1882, a case of headache of long standing, which he cured by salicylate of sodium, which confirms the observations of Dr. Oehlschlager, of Dantzig, who first contended that we possessed in salicylic acid one of the most reliable remedies for neuralgia. This cannot astonish us if we remember that the action of salicylic acid is, in more than one respect, and especially in its influence on the nervous centers, analogous to quinine.
While out with the troops on maneuver, Dr. Roehring was called to visit the sixteen-year-old son of a poor peasant family in a neighboring village. The boy, who gave all evidences of living under bad hygienic surroundings, but who had shown himself very diligent at school, had been suffering, from his sixth year, several days every week from the most intense headache, which had not been relieved by any of the many remedies tried for this purpose. A careful examination did not reveal any organic lesion or any cause for the pain, which seemed to be neuralgic in character, a purely nervous headache.",-3.195814315,0.541291885
8b3e2d531,,,"There was considerable complaint last season, on the part of wheat raisers in sections tributary to Minneapolis, on account of the rigid standard of grading adopted by the millers of that city. It was asserted that the differentiation of prices between the grades was unjustly great and out of proportion to the actual difference of value. In order to ascertain whether this was the case or not, the Farmers' Association of Blue Earth County, Minn., decided to have samples of each grade analyzed by a competent chemist in order to determine their relative value. Accordingly specimens were secured, certified to by the agent of the Millers' Association of Minneapolis, and sent to the University of Minnesota for analysis. The analysis was conducted by Prof. Wm. A. Noyes, Ph.D., an experienced chemist, who has recently reported as follows:
""The analyses of wheat given below were undertaken for the purpose of determining whether the millers' grades of wheat correspond to an actual difference in the chemical character of the wheat. For this purpose samples of wheat were secured, which were inspected and certified to by M. W. Trexa on April 13th of this year.""",-3.037707345,0.568403833
bb60291db,,,"A lecture on ancient Greek painting was lately delivered by Professor C.T. Newton, C.B., at University College, London. The lecturer began by reminding his audience of the course of lectures on Greek sculpture, from the earliest times to the Roman period, which he completed this year. The main epochs in the history of ancient sculpture had an intimate connection with the general history of the Greeks, with their intellectual, political, and social development. We could not profitably study the history of ancient sculpture except as part of the collateral study of ancient life as a whole, nor could we get a clear idea of the history of ancient sculpture without tracing out, so far as our imperfect knowledge permits, the characteristics and successive stages of ancient painting. Between these twin sister arts there had been in all times, and especially in Greek antiquity, a close sympathy and a reciprocal influence.",-2.37252525,0.469574813
968c283cd,,,"""The principal generators of incrustation in boilers are gypsum and the so-called bicarbonates of calcium and magnesium. If these can be taken put of the water, before it enters the boiler, the formation of incrustation is made impossible; all disturbances and troubles, derived from these incrustations, are done away with, and besides this, a considerable saving of fuel is possible, as clear iron will conduct heat quicker than that which is covered with incrustation.""
J. Kolb, according to Dingler's Polyt. Journal, says: ""A boiler with clear sides yielded with 1 kil. coal 7.5 kil. steam, after two months only 6.4 kil. steam, or a decrease of 17 per cent. At the same time the boiler had suffered by continual working.""
Suppose a boiler free from inside crust would yield a saving of only 5 per cent. in fuel (and this figure is taken very low compared with practical experiments) it would be at the same time a saving of 3c. per cubic meter water. If the cleaning of one cubic meter water therefore costs less than 3c., this alone would be an advantage.",-3.373600051,0.617687682
f5e0c410a,,,"In the latter part of April fifty-three courses of granite masonry, rising to the height of seventy feet above high water, had been laid, and thirty-six courses remained to be set. The old lighthouse had been already overtopped. As the work advances toward completion the question arises: What shall be done with John Smeaton's famous tower, which has done such admirable service for 120 years? One proposition is to take it down to the level of the top of the solid portion, and leave the rest as a perpetual memorial of the great work which Smeaton accomplished in the face of obstacles vastly greater than those which confront the modern architect. The London News says: ""Were Smeaton's beautiful tower to be literally consigned to the waves, we should regard the act as a national calamity, not to say scandal; and, if public funds are not available for its conservation, we trust that private zeal and munificence may be relied on to save from destruction so interesting a relic. It certainly could not cost much to convey the building in sections to the mainland, and there, on some suitable spot, to re-erect it as a national tribute to the genius of its great architect.""",-2.755436885,0.500409201
62d33b32e,,,"According to Alex. Guillaumot the apparatus consisted of a sort of railway on which the car was moved by manual labor. In the car, which was decorated with the royal colors, are seen seated the ladies and children of the king's household, while the king himself stands in the rear and seems to be directing operations. The remarkable peculiarity to which we would direct the attention of the reader is that this document shows that the car ran on rails very nearly like those used on the railways of the present time, and that a turn-table served for changing the direction to a right angle in order to place the car under the shelter of a small building. The picture which we reproduce, and the authenticity of which is certain, proves then that in the time of Louis XIV. our present railway turn-tables had been thought of and constructed--which is a historic fact worthy of being noted.",-2.58066491,0.515121528
974a6be11,,,"From the lathe, the veneer is passed to the cutting table, where it is cut to lengths and widths as desired. It is then conveyed to the second story, where it is placed in large dry rooms, air tight, except as the air reaches them through the proper channels. The veneer is here placed in crates, each piece separate and standing on edge. The hot air is then turned on. This comes from the sheet iron furnace attached to the boiler in the engine room below, and is conveyed through large pipes regulated by dampers for putting on or taking off the heat. There is also a blower attached which keeps the hot air in the dry rooms in constant motion, the air as it cools passing off through an escape pipe in the roof, while the freshly heated air takes its place from below. These rooms are also provided with a net-work of hot air pipes near the floor. The temperature is kept at about 165°, and so rapid is the drying process that in the short space of four hours the green log from the steam box is shaved, cut, dried, packed, and ready for shipment.",-2.036273591,0.488621062
1433b32c3,,,"The loss resulting from the charging and discharging of this battery is not great; for example, if a certain quantity of energy is expended in charging the cells, 80 per cent. of that energy can be reproduced by the electricity resulting from the discharge of the cells; moreover, the battery can be carried from one place to another without injury. A battery was lately charged in Paris, then taken to Brussels, where it was used the next day without recharging. The cost is also said to be very low. A quantity of electricity equal to one horse power during an hour can be produced, stored, and delivered at any distance within 3 miles of the works for 1½d. Therefore these batteries may become useful in producing the electric light in private houses. A 1,250 horsepower engine, working dynamo-machines giving a continuous current, will in one hour produce 1,000 horse-power of effective electricity, that is to say 80 per cent. of the initial force. The cost of the machines, establishment, and construction will not be more than £40,000, and the quantity of coal burnt will be 2 lb. per hour per effective horse-power, which will cost (say) ½d.",-2.908671185,0.523880095
f0c6ffa2f,,,"To produce the electric current, all that is needed is to lower these suspended elements down into the trough, having previously connected the wires to the electric lamp. At once a light starts up, between the carbon pencils of a thousand-candle power or more. With a light of this power, a large head on cabinet or carte size plate may be produced in three or four seconds.
The generator occupies a floor space of three feet six inches by two feet, and stands two feet six inches high. The cells will cost 5s. to charge, and will produce upward of sixty negatives before being exhausted. All that is necessary, in recharging, is to lift the elements up out of the way, take out the troughs by their handles and empty them, charging them again by means of a toilet jug. When replaced, the whole apparatus is fit for use again; the whole of the above operation occupies but a quarter of an hour, and as there are no earthenware cells employed, there is no fear of breakage.",-2.177340304,0.465649555
7c6c55dd9,,,"To speak of the wonderful strides which the art of milling has taken during the past decade has become exceedingly trite. This progress, patent to the most casual observer, is a marked example of the power inherent in humanity to overcome natural obstacles. Had the climatic conditions of the Northwest allowed the raising of as good winter wheat as that raised in winter wheat sections generally, I doubt if we should hear so much today of new processes and gradual reduction systems. So long as the great bulk of our supply of breadstuffs came from the winter wheat fields, progress was very slow; the mills of 1860, and I may even say of 1870, being but little in advance, so far as processes were concerned, of those built half a century earlier. The reason for this lack of progress may be found in the ease with which winter wheat could be made into good, white, merchantable flour.",-2.771850362,0.542753549
ed9bd6d42,,,"Crafty had studied the ways of the human race for many years. In his view man was created for the benefit of rats. He had known men who were almost as sly as rats; but on the whole he looked upon them as inferior beings.
Simple, who lived close by, had also a great contempt for men and women. He often boasted that he got his board and lodging all at their expense. But he did not know half as much as he thought he did; and many a time he had been kept from getting into a scrape by his good friend Crafty.
One night, about twelve o'clock, Crafty and Simple started out together to see what they could find. Having poked into every corner of Farmer Rural's cellar, without getting any thing better than raw potatoes, they made their way up stairs.",-0.675484106,0.52586354
574cc0461,,,"So he got into the boat, and began to rock it. The boat got loose, and drifted down the river. Walter did not notice this until he was quite a distance from the shore; then, turning round, he saw what had happened. Every moment the current was carrying him further from home.
Walter was not a timid boy, and, instead of crying, he began to reason in this way: ""The boat does not leak. It is safe and sound. There are no waves to make me afraid. The wind does not blow. Here on a seat is a thick blanket. In this box is a loaf of bread and a knife. The water of the river is good to drink, and here is a tin mug. I think I will not cry, but hope for the best.""
So he sat down. He called to some people on the shore; but they did not hear him. He stood up, and waved his hat to a man in a passing boat, and cried, ""Help, help!"" But the man thought it was some little fellow making fun of him.",0.603083106,0.488982793
fe0dbef10,,,"One night, after spending the day in the Catacombs, which are nothing more than cities of the dead, under ground, and after tumbling over my companions, and treading on the heels of the guide, I came home hoping for a quiet, peaceful evening. Finding, however, an invitation to spend that evening with a lady who lived at the other end of the palace, I felt bound to accept it.
As I passed along the dark, narrow entry, which seemed like going through the Catacombs again, I heard a patter, patter, patter, on the brick floor. I supported myself by putting my hands out until they touched the sides of the tube, for I was just the least bit frightened.
The sound was approaching me; but I dared not turn my back. It echoed from the walls and the high ceiling, and the whole air seemed filled with a weird noise. I tiptoed along, when suddenly my foot came down directly upon a pigeon.",-0.511090666,0.520883969
1e77a04d4,,,"In the first place there was Rover, the big brown pup. Georgie had not taken three steps, when Rover spied the bread, and, thinking it was for him, began jumping after it. Georgie thought he would have to run back to the house; but, seeing a stick on the ground, he picked it up, and shook it at Rover. Rover was afraid of the stick, and ran meekly away.
Nothing else happened to trouble Georgie until he had gone halfway up the walk. Then he met another difficulty. Two big turkey-gobblers, looking very red about the head, and with feathers all ruffled up, rushed towards him for the bread, crying, ""Gobble, gobble!"" in a frightful manner.
Georgie hesitated. Dare he go past them? ""Gobble, gobble!"" screeched the turkeys. Down went the bread on the ground, and back to the house, as fast as his legs could carry him, ran Georgie.",0.557032679,0.535328213
ae2081eab,,,"After lunch away they ran in search of ""specimens,"" by which they meant pretty stones. They chipped pieces off the rocks with hammers, playing they were miners finding gold and silver. They filled their baskets, and pretended to have made great fortunes.
They kept up the sport until five o'clock, when their mammas said it was time to start for home, and counted the children to see if all were there. Only five could be found. There should have been six. Who was missing?
It was four-year-old Willie. ""Willie, Willie!"" shouted every one, and from the great red rock came a faint reply. Then began ""hide-and-seek"" in earnest, and soon they spied the little fellow sitting on the side of the rock full five yards up.
""Why, Willie!"" called his mamma. ""What are you doing up there?""
""Going to climb through the little hole, mamma; but I'm tired.""
His uncle climbed after him, and soon brought him down.
Six tired little children went early to bed that night, and dreamed of stony men and women, lions and bears.",0.213840367,0.501683629
b047b3487,,,"No answer came. Mrs. West looked into the nursery and bedrooms, but saw nothing of the little girl.
Then she went down stairs and looked into the parlor and hall. Lily was not there. She opened the front door and called ""Lily, Lily!"" but still in vain.
At last she went into the dining-room, and there, to be sure, was Lily fast asleep in a large chair, with Dinah the kitten in her lap, and a little black paw clasped in her chubby hand.
Mrs. West smiled and shut the door softly, saying to herself ""Dear child, she is certainly doing no mischief."" Then she called her sister to come down and peep in at the sleeping companions.
Helen said, ""Isn't that a pretty picture? Suppose we take a big peach from this basket of fruit and put it softly beside her on the chair to surprise her when she wakes.""
When Lily woke soon after, she rubbed her eyes, and said, ""Why, where did this peach come from, I wonder! Have I been asleep, and has a fairy dropped it in my chair?""",0.226051243,0.516252742
682b7a59a,,,"Edith was four years old, and had come the day before, for the first time in her life, to stay on a large farm. She had never seen young chickens, except in picture-books: so you can imagine how pleased she was at the thought of seeing real live ones.
She was soon in the farmyard, and after feeding the little things with meal and water,—hasty-pudding she called it,—she seemed to long so to pet them, that her kind grandmother said, ""Well, dear, hold up your apron, and I will put some of the chickens in; but you must handle them very gently.""
Edith was delighted, and begged to carry them into the house for mamma to see. Old mother-hen, who was busy scratching for the rest of her brood, did not at first notice what was going on. But, when she saw Edith walking off with some of her darlings, she began to spread her wings, and puff out her feathers, and scold in hen fashion.",0.845298282,0.498300429
108700fba,,,"They build their nests in the osier-beds, by the side of the river, but out of the reach of the water. These nests are compact, handsome structures, formed of osiers, or reeds.
Every pair of swans has its own walk, or district, within which no other swans are permitted to build. Every pair has a keeper appointed to take the entire charge of them.
The keeper receives a small sum for every cygnet that is reared; and it is his duty to see that the nest is not disturbed. Sometimes he helps these lordly birds by building the foundation of the nest for them.
Once a year, in August, the swans are counted and marked. This is called ""swan-upping,"" and a good time it used to be. In gayly decorated barges, with flags flying, and music playing, the city authorities came up the river to take up the swans and mark them.",-0.973264568,0.443895777
a603d1ba0,,,"Jack thought there never before had been such fortunate creatures as they were, and did not dream of separation from his dear friends. But one day a man came up with a rope, and, before the donkeys knew what he was doing, threw it over poor little Jack's neck, and tried to lead him away.
But Jack hadn't the least intention of going. Oh, dear, no! He planted his feet firmly on the ground, while the man pulled, and pulled, and pulled, but could not make him stir a step. At last the man gave up and went away; but he came back the next day with two more men.
Then, spite of Jack's firmness, his legs were bound, and he was laid in a wagon, and carried miles and miles away from all his dear companions.
His new home was a small farm where there were no friends for him at all. Jack soon grew so lonely, that he even felt anxious to scrape acquaintance with the hens and chickens.",0.213225724,0.500836017
a5d622faf,,,"I was a careless young cub, and one day, when at play on the river-side, I went too near the steep bank, fell over it, and went down splash into the water. It was very deep, and there was a strong current. I had never been taught to swim. I was in such a fright that I could not even cry for help.
The water was choking me, and I was nearly drowned, when a kind log came floating by to my rescue. It seemed like a friend sent from home. I scrambled to the top of it, bade good-by to my sister, who stood crying on the bank, and went drifting down the river.
Before long two queer-looking objects came toward me, paddling along in a sort of hollow log. Seeing plainly that they were not bears, I felt much afraid of them. My mother had often talked to me about some fierce creatures called ""men,"" and had told me always to keep out of their way.",1.2562954,0.594943353
776e8cdec,,,"On March 10, 1880, the elephant Hebe gave birth to the female calf America. Hebe is now twenty eight years old, and the father of the calf, Mandrie, thirty-two. Since the birth of the ""Baby,"" the mother has been in excellent health, except during about ten days, when she suffered from a slight indisposition, which soon left her.
When born the calf weighed 213½ lbs., and in April, 1881, weighed 900 lbs. A very fair year's growth on a milk diet. At the time I procured the samples both mother and calf were in fine health.
To obtain the milk was a matter of some difficulty. The calf was constantly sucking, nursing two or three times an hour, morning, noon, and night. The milk could be drawn from either of the two teats, but only in small quantity. The mother gave the fluid freely enough, apparently, to her infant, but sparingly to inquisitive man, so the ruse had to be resorted to of milking one teat while the calf was at the other.",-0.567859467,0.459423871
8f8e9fc41,,,"The child's mind has the receptive side, the sensibility, the most prominent. His senses are alert. He handles and examines objects about him. He sees more, and he learns more from the seeing, than he will in later years unless his perceptive powers are definitely trained and observation made a habit. His judgment and his will are weak. He reasons imperfectly. He chooses without appropriate motives. He needs the building up and development given by educational training. Nature points out the method.
Sensibility being the characteristic of his mind, we must appeal to him through his senses. We must use the concrete; through it we must act upon his weak will and immature judgment. From his natural curiosity we must develop attention. His naturally strong perceptive powers must be made yet stronger; they must be led in proper directions and fixed upon appropriate objects. He must be led to appreciate the relation between cause and effects--to associate together related facts--and to state what he knows in a definite, clear, and forcible manner.
Object lessons, conversational lessons, lessons on animals, lessons based on pictures and other devices, have been used to meet this demand of the child's mental make up.",-1.767337768,0.463573204
1b4f8e807,,,"Near the bottom of the shaft, branches are taken off to supply light to the principal roadways and to the haulage engine-room, the main cables being carried into one of the sections of the mine a distance of half-a-mile. After a careful inspection of the lamps at the pit bottom, the party were photographed in three groups, with the aid of the electric light, by Mr. Annan, of Glasgow, who may well be credited with the distinction of being the first to exercise his skill in the bowels of the earth. They were then led to the haulage engine-room and into the workings, where they witnessed the effects of the light. At the latter point, while, of course, the visitors were at a safe distance, a shot was fired, bringing down a large mass of coal. Having spent fully an hour below ground, the party returned to the surface.",-1.657961295,0.505131846
716f4548c,,,"The same Captain of Engineers has undertaken a series of very interesting experiments on the sensitiveness to light of one or two substances to which bitumen probably owes its sensitiveness, but which, contrary to what takes place with bitumen, are capable of rendering very beautiful half tones, both on polished zinc and on albumenized paper. These sensitive substances are extracted by dissolving marine glue or coal-tar in benzine. By exposure to light, both marine-glue and coal-tar turn of a sepia color, and, in a printing-frame, they render a visible image, which is not the case with bitumen; their solvents are in the order of their energy; chloroform, ether, benzine, turpentine, petroleum spirit, and alcohol. Of these solvents, benzine is the best adapted for reducing the substances to a fluid state, so as to enable them to flow over the zinc. The images obtained, which are permanent, and which are very much like those of the Daguerreotype, are fixed by means of the turpentine and petroleum spirit. They are washed with water, and then carefully dried. It is possible to obtain prints with half-tones in fatty ink by means of plates of zinc coated with marine-glue.",-3.038175323,0.548930231
d320d8fe5,,,"After searching through the house, Nellie ran out to the barn to look for the lost pet.
Sure enough, there was the kitten, not taking the least care of her necktie, just ready to pounce upon a big mouse.
Nellie's voice startled her so that she did not catch the mouse, after all. The nimble little rogue darted into a hole before kitty could even get her paw on his tail.
But the cherry bow was still safe and unsoiled. So, after giving pussy a lecture on her disobedience, Nellie took her into the house.
She met Belle at the door, and told her what a search she had made; while puss, cuddled in her arms, kept up a busy purring, as much as to say, ""I'm sorry you were displeased with me. I really thought you would praise me for trying to catch that big mouse; for I'm not much more than a kitten yet.""",-0.203507979,0.496119964
c94fad68a,,,"One day Susan had two little friends visit her,—Willy and Bessie Hill; and, as they had never seen a parrot, she proposed to take them to the bird-store. They were both delighted to go; and Bessie took her doll and her dog Snip with her.
In her right hand she carried a cake; and the first thing the parrot said as she went towards him was, ""Polly wants a cake.""
This made the little girl laugh. She laughed still more when the parrot took a piece of cake in his claw, and ate it, bit by bit, as nicely as she could herself.
But when Snip barked at the parrot, and the parrot barked too, she thought it was the funniest thing yet, and laughed till the tears came.
The parrot was so well pleased with his visitors, and talked so fast, that a boy with oranges to sell, came behind to listen. He was much astonished; for he too had never heard a bird speak before.
The children looked a little at the other birds and pets; but none interested them as much as the parrot.",1.275683999,0.61981111
73a49c286,,,"From the fire balloon invented by the Montgolfier Brothers, in 1782, to the superior hydrogen balloon of M.M. Charles and Robert, no material advancement has been made, except the employment of coal gas, first suggested by Mr. Green. The vast surface presented to the wind makes the balloon unmanageable in every breeze, and the aeronaut can do nothing but allow it to float along with the current. This is a difficulty which has been partly overcome, as was seen at the recent Paris Electrical Exhibition; but no one will ever be able to guide it in a direction opposite to a current of air. The aeronaut must ever content himself in being able to float in the direction of the current or at certain angles to its course; but to do this even is a matter which has not been successfully accomplished. An inflated balloon would ascend too high unless several hundred pounds of ballast were used to weight it down.",-1.484356036,0.544383406
9e1ad6cc3,,,"They lived in Sunland, a little town not many miles from Boston; and every morning Parley-voo would hurry down to give his father a kiss before he went away to his business in the city. Then, when the train went by, he would stand at the window, and wave his little white handkerchief, and then his father would wave back at him, as if to say, ""Good-by, once more, my dear little Parley-voo, good-by!""
But one morning he was so very sleepy, that he could not open his eyes when his nurse told him it was time to get up. He called the nurse a bonne, as they do in Paris. He pushed her away, and went to sleep again, and the first thing he heard was the train going by with a ""choo, choo, choo,"" and his father was gone without a kiss.
Then Parley-voo cried, and said it was his bonne's fault. He went to the window, and there he stood crying. He could not eat the nice breakfast that his nurse brought him, and would not let her dress him. So she went away, and shut the door, and left him to dress himself.",-0.583696639,0.444420969
eb0976baf,,,"Early one bright morning, three little girls who were spending the summer on their uncle's farm went out to gather wild flowers in the woods not far from the house. Just as they came to the edge of the wood, they heard the faint bleating of a lamb.
They listened, keeping very still, but could not make out where the sound came from. Then Mary, the eldest of the three, said, ""Let us each go a different way, and hunt till we find the poor little thing.""
They did so; and in a few minutes, Lulu the youngest called to the others, ""I've found it! I've found it! Come, Mollie and Bessie, come quick and help me; for the dear little lamb is hurt, and I'm afraid it will die.""
You may be sure that they all ran quickly, and it was well that they did; for the lamb had broken its leg, and could not have lived much longer if some one had not taken care of it. They found Lulu trying to help the poor creature; but she could do little except to soothe it.",0.800924596,0.506489105
9f9d452e8,,,"Jimmy's papa has about a hundred horses, as many cows, and a great many hundred sheep. He does not keep them in barns, or feed them with hay, but they roam over the hills, and feed on grass both in winter and summer.
Mr. Mason's house is five miles from any neighbor, and fifteen miles from town. There is no garden or fence round it, and there are no trees to be seen anywhere near. But there are wild flowers in abundance. One of them is a species of cactus. It bears beautiful yellow blossoms in summer, after which comes the fruit, a prickly pear, not good to eat. Another kind of cactus has crimson and scarlet blossoms, but no prickly pears.
Both of these plants are covered with sharp thorns and prickles. Jimmy thinks the blossoms are pretty; but he does not like to pick them.",0.940750978,0.525255475
0e96f2522,,,"The great advantages of this apparatus are as follows: 1. From the moment the lid is closed one can work by daylight. 2. The method of washing in moving water is combined with that of complete change of water. 3. The emulsion never comes in contact with metal. 4. Whoever wishes to prepare dry gelatine only requires, when the washing is over and the vessel perfectly emptied, to leave the emulsion to drip for a time, and then to lift out the sieve and its contents and place it in a suitable vessel with absolute alcohol. The latter should be changed once, and when sufficient water has been extracted the sieve should be withdrawn from the vessel and the emulsion allowed to dry spontaneously. In this way all trouble occasioned by changing from vessel to vessel is avoided, and there is no loss of material.",-1.989870433,0.495646291
53bc19945,,,"THIS house has no roof, no chimney, no windows, no front-door, no back-door. Yet it was once the home of a happy family; and, if you went near it, you would hear their sweet low voices from morning till night. Such was this little house when I visited it one fine day last summer.
To-day I called again. All was still. Not a voice did I hear. The roofless house was filled with snow. The walls looked dark and sad. The leaves that once cast lovely shadows about them were gone.
As I stood looking at the empty house, Ethel, who is very young but very wise, exclaimed, ""The family have gone south for the winter, but are sure to come back in the spring. There will be merry times here pretty soon.""
Just then a sharp gust of wind came, and the old house shook as if about to fall. Ethel stood ready to catch it.",-0.149306425,0.475507308
2356f0d62,,,"Quickly he opens the paper to its full extent, and places it on the floor carefully. He waits patiently for the bones that are to reward his obedience. When they have been put on the clean ""table-cloth,"" he begins his nice feast. Dinner over, Flash picks up the paper cloth, and carries it out of the room for the cook to burn.
Ethel says that Flash can tell time; for at just such a minute every day, the dog comes to his master, sits up straight, with his front paws drooping gracefully, and asks, in his dumb way, for something to eat. And when the time comes for his master to go down town to business, Flash is sure to give him a hint; for Flash is very punctual, you see, and does not approve of delay.
One day Flash brought an intimate friend, a red setter, and introduced him to his master. Flash stood wagging his tail, while the caller was politely caressed. Then the two dogs trotted off together, and Flash's playmate had a new name to put on his visiting list.",-0.584273721,0.446803431
b93784bb1,,,"We know well enough what forms the main material of thought with bees and flies, and that is visible objects. For you must think about something if you think at all; and you can hardly imagine a contemplative blow-fly setting itself down to reflect, like a Hindu devotee, on the syllable Om, or on the oneness of existence. Abstract ideas are not likely to play a large part in apian consciousness. A bee has a very perfect eye, and with this eye it can see not only form, but also colour, as Sir John Lubbock's experiments have shown us. The information which it gets through its eye, coupled with other ideas derived from touch, smell, and taste, no doubt makes up the main thinkable and knowable universe as it reveals itself to the apian intelligence. To ourselves and to bees alike the world is, on the whole, a coloured picture, with the notions of distance and solidity thrown in by touch and muscular effort; but sight undoubtedly plays the first part in forming our total conception of things generally.",-2.189230859,0.472631892
912846d5f,,,"Zip had a long, low body, covered with stiff yellowish hair. His nose was pointed, and his eyes were bright as buttons. His paws were regular little hands, and he used them just like hands.
He was very tame. He would climb up on Isabella's chair, and scramble to her shoulder. Then he would comb her hair with his fingers, pick at her ear-rings, and feel of her collar and pin and buttons.
Isabella's mother was quite ill, but sometimes was able to sit in her chair and eat her dinner from a tray on her lap. She liked to have Zip in her room; but, if left alone with her, Zip would jump up in the chair behind her, and try to crowd her off. He would reach around, too, under her arm, and steal things from her tray.",0.358703756,0.499052304
ac8a70925,,,"One day Lisa was alone in the house. Her sister had gone away to spend the day, and her father was out fishing. A heavy storm came up. It rocked the house, and blew the shutters to and fro; but Lisa never heeded it, for she was thinking of her father.
After the storm had ceased, she went to the door and looked out. An old fisherman was passing with his son. She asked him about her father. He pointed out the place where he had seen him before the storm, and said, ""I fear that your father's boat has been driven upon the rocks, for it is no longer to be seen.""
Without a moment's delay, Lisa tied on her hat, and hastened down to the shore. She got into a boat, and was pushing off, when an old sailor stopped her, and asked her where she was going.",1.177972616,0.527709665
0de5939cc,,,"MASTER BABY has been playing in the park all the morning. He has been chasing a butterfly. He did not catch the butterfly. But he has come home with two rosy cheeks and a good appetite.
Now he must have his dinner. Tie his bib around his neck. Seat him at the table. Give him some soup. Now cut him up some meat and potato, and let him feed himself.
He is a little awkward; but a hungry boy will soon learn how to handle a fork. Let him alone for that. It will not take long to teach him how to use a knife too.
Boys need a good deal of food to make them strong and hearty. Give them plenty of fresh air. Let the sun shine on them. Then they will be sure to eat with a relish.",-0.680406408,0.490024357
d57be9577,,,"In order to accumulate electricity for the production of light or motive power, the author has arranged secondary batteries, which differ from those of M.G. Planté. At the negative pole he uses a sheet of palladium, which, during the electrolysis, absorbs more than 900 times its volume of hydrogen. At the positive pole he uses a sheet of lead. The electrolyzed liquid is sulphuric acid at one tenth. This element is very powerful, even when of small dimensions. Another secondary element which has also given good results, is formed at the negative pole of a slender plate of sheet-iron. This plate absorbs more than 200 times its volume of hydrogen when electrolyzed in a solution of ammonium sulphate. The positive pole is formed of a plate of lead, pure or covered with a stratum of litharge, or pure oxide, or all these substances mixed. These metallic plates are immersed in a solution containing 50 per cent. of ammonium sulphate. Another arrangement is at the negative pole, sheet-iron; at the positive pole a cylinder of ferro-manganese. The electrolyzed liquid contains 40 per cent. ammonium sulphate.",-3.204948742,0.582303672
943325fa5,,,"The amount of woody fiber or cellulose is considerable for rice with its husk, but only slight for samples without husk. The seat of the mineral matter of the grain of rice is mainly in the husk, and as this ash is very valuable as nourishment for the yeast plant, it is an open question whether it would not be preferable to use for brewing purposes rice with its husk. The comparatively largest amount of fat is contained in maize; and as such oil is not desirable for brewing purposes, different recommendations have been advanced for freeing the grain from it. In the following table some of the mineral constituents of the three kinds of grain are compared with each other. These data refer to 100 parts of ash, and are taken from analysis given by Dr. Emil Wolf.
The excessive amount of ash in rice with its husk is very remarkable, and as this mineral matter consists to a great extent of phosphoric acid and potash, the larger part of it is soluble in water. Consequently on using rice with its husk for brewing purposes, the yeast will be provided with a considerable amount of nutritive substance.",-2.467111578,0.516999435
3b39139af,,,"The young man and the young woman talked and laughed together as they went along. They seemed to be very good friends. But what became of the infant in the carriage?
Poor child! She fell off the seat. Her head hung over the side of the carriage, just in front of the wheel, and there she lay shrieking for help.
I could not hear her shrieks, for I was a mile away; but the sight was enough for me. I seized my trumpet. ""Shipmate, ahoy!"" I shouted to the sailor-chap.
No answer. It was plain that the sailor-chap did not care in the slightest degree for that poor suffering child. Nobody offered to help her.
""Steer for the shore!"" I said to my helmsman. ""Bear down to the rescue!"" We landed as soon as we could, but not without some delay, and when we reached the place it was too late. Nurse, carriage, sailor-chap, and all were gone.",-0.247205703,0.47404816
fb13e084e,,,"It is now a well established fact that matter, per se, is inert, and that its energy is derived from the physical forces; therefore all chemical and physical phenomena observed in the universe are caused by and due to the operations of the physical forces, and matter, of whatever state or condition it may be in, is but the vehicle through or by which the physical forces operate to produce the phenomena.
There are but two physical forces, i.e., the force of attraction and the force of caloric. The force of attraction is inherent in the matter, and tends to draw the particles together and hold them in a state of rest. The force of caloric accompanies the matter and tends to push the particles outward into a state of activity.
The force of attraction being inherent, it abides in the matter continuously and can neither be increased nor diminished; it, however, is present in different elementary bodies in different degrees, and in compound bodies relative to the elements of which they are composed.",-2.115730196,0.509237095
268780694,,,"I will tell you what stopped him. While the ducklings were swimming away for dear life, the old mother-duck came sailing boldly up, with her great yellow beak, and faced Master Carlo.
She looked like a sloop-of-war all ready for action. Carlo was a brave dog; but he was afraid of her, for all that. So he stood still and barked.
Madam Duck did not mind his noise in the least. She quacked at him fiercely. This is what she meant to say: ""Look here, my young friend, you are a dog, and I am a duck. You are at home on the land, but I am at home on the water. Bark as much as you please, but, if you know what is good for your health, keep out of this pond, and let my ducklings alone.""
""Do you hear that, Carlo?"" said Jane. ""Now don't stop to answer, but come with me like a good dog, and we will have a run in the woods.""
And then Carlo gave up his chase of the ducks, and went quietly where Jane led him.",-0.623942733,0.452161673
2c9bcf259,,,"After breakfast she would go into the field where the hay was making, and help with her own little rake to toss and spread it. But at eleven o'clock her mother would call her in, put on her cool night-dress, and lay her in her crib for a nap, and by that time the little girl was usually tired enough to be glad to go to sleep.
But one day she was having such a nice time with some little cousins who had come to play with her, that, when her mother called her in for her nap, she said, ""Oh, please, mamma, don't make me go to sleep today; I'm not a bit sleepy. See how wide open my eyes are!""
Her mother laughed and said, ""Well, darling, we'll try it this once, but I'm afraid you will be tired before night.""
""Oh, no! mamma, I shall not be tired, I know, because I am having such a good time.""",0.794407859,0.556934542
1b5965664,,,"His is a little English girl. Her name is Mildred; but she is usually called Milly. She has always lived in a fine old house, with lovely grounds about it, not far from London. But now she is going, with her father and mother, to India.
She thinks it will be very nice to be travelling so far away with them; but she is sorry to leave her kind grandmother, and all her aunts and cousins. She could not help crying when she said good-by to them.
""I cannot go without my Jip,"" she said to her mother the day before leaving.
""Oh, no, darling!"" said her mother. ""I wouldn't think of leaving the little dog behind. He will be a fine play-fellow for you on board the ship.""
So she has Jip cuddled close in her arms, you see. It is late in November, and the weather is cold. But Milly has plenty of warm fur wraps to protect her and her pet too.",0.259716548,0.485864783
8e109655a,,,"Usurpations of the Federal Government have been presented, not in a spirit of hostility, but as a warning to the people against the dangers by which their liberties are beset. When the war ceased, the pretext on which it had been waged could no longer be alleged. The emancipation proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, which, when it was issued, he humorously admitted to be a nullity, had acquired validity by the action of the highest authority known to our institutions—the people assembled in their several State Conventions. The soldiers of the Confederacy had laid down their arms, had in good faith pledged themselves to abstain from further hostile operations, and had peacefully dispersed to their homes; there could not, then, have been further dread of them by the Government of the United States. The plea of necessity could, therefore, no longer exist for hostile demonstration against the people and States of the deceased Confederacy. Did vengeance, which stops at the grave, subside? Did real peace and the restoration of the States to their former rights and positions follow, as was promised on the restoration of the Union?",-2.358667038,0.498395156
6.36E+297,,,"One fine summer day a very hungry fox sallied out in search of his dinner. After a while his eye rested on a young rooster, which he thought would make a very good meal: so he lay down under a wall and hid himself in the high grass, intending to wait until the rooster got near enough, and then to spring on him, and carry him off.
Suddenly, however, the rooster saw him and flew, in a great fright, to the top of the wall.
The fox could not get him there, and he knew it: so he came out from his hiding-place, and addressed the rooster thus: ""Dear me!"" he cried, ""how handsomely you are dressed! I came to invite your magnificence to a grand christening feast. The duck and the goose have promised to come, and the turkey, though slightly ill, will try to come also.",0.168486273,0.511911202
2c21c73ae,,,"The sparrow looks saucily at him, saying, ""Ah, ha, Sir Hawk! You have scared me many a time with your sharp claws and hooked beak; but now I am a match for you. It was fine fun for you to kill little chickens. Now you see what comes of it.""
""Yes indeed,"" cries the turkey, ""he killed seven dear little chickens. How glad I am that he is caught at last! I'll give him a piece of my mind now, but he can't have any more chickens.""
""Ah!"" says the hawk, ""you talk very bravely; but, if I were let out of this cage, you would not stare at me much longer.""
The fowls walk slowly away without saying more. But the pert young sparrow bristles up, and dares the hawk to come out and fight him. It is very easy to be brave when there is no danger.",-0.63975029,0.483700501
b0a8df49f,,,"Their habits are quite peculiar. In summer they stay in the water most of the time, coming out only now and then to sun themselves on some log or branch. In the winter they bury themselves in the mud, or remain in a torpid state. When spring comes, they lay their eggs.
They live chiefly on bugs; but I have heard of one living a whole year without any thing to eat. They are very patient, and I have seen one try for hours to get over a wall that one would think he could never get over; and yet he would succeed.
I have a turtle now that will have a funny story to tell his friends, if he ever reaches his native home again. This is it: I once took him to school with me, and left him in a box, with the cover half open, on a table in the dressing-room. In about an hour I heard a suppressed laugh from one of the girls, and, looking up, I saw Mr. Turtle calmly walking into school. He wanted to learn something as well as the rest of us.",-0.655298703,0.469046579
b163bbf8c,,,"Jack and Fred sat on the steps, trying to think of something to do. They had spent their morning in digging wells and ditches in the sand; for it was vacation-time, and they were living down by the sea.
Just before dinner they had been in bathing. Since dinner they had been over in the fields, picking up long feathery grasses to put in mamma's vases. And now, what should they do next?
At last, Jack thought it would be fine fun to make a large kite, much larger than any they had ever seen. Fred said he would help; and off they ran to get sticks, tacks, paper, paste, and string, so as to have every thing ready.
When they could think of nothing else that was needed, they set to work. Jack cut and tacked the sticks together, just as the smaller ones were in his little old kite; while Fred cut the papers, and made the tail.",0.936082831,0.498200556
cf8dcfc05,,,"Bertie is a brave little boy: so he marches straight up to the door,—which stands open,—and looks out. Then he claps his chubby hands, and shouts, ""Oh! it was my uncle Frank under the table. I forgot he was such a funny man. Oh, uncle Frank! How can you get in the house and out of the house, and nobody see you?""
""Look down here at me!"" says a strange barking voice from the bottom of the steps. Bertie looks, and sees something that makes his eyes brighter than ever. It is a great, black, shaggy dog, hitched to such a nice little express-wagon. The harness fits its wearer as nicely as can be, and has silver rings and buckles. The reins are red, white, and blue. A neat whip lies across the seat of the wagon. On the sides of the wagon, in large gilt letters, are the words, ""City Express.""",-0.603442077,0.465079557
93eada7ed,,,"The first use of the alizarins for reds was for application of styles, that is colors containing at once the mordant and the coloring matter and fixed upon the cloth by the action of steam. Good steam-reds were easily obtained by using receipts originally designed for extracts of madder (mixtures of alizarin and purpurin). On the other hand, the first attempts at dyeing red grounds and red pieces were not successful. The custom of dyeing up to a brown with fleur and then lightening the shade by a succession of soapings and cleanings had much to do with this failure. Goods, mordanted with alumina and dyed with alizarin for reds up to saturation, never reach the brown tone given by fleur or garancin. This tone is due in great part to the presence of fawn colored matters, which the cleanings and soapings served to destroy or remove. The same operations have also another end--to transform the purpurin into its hydrate, which is brighter and more solid. The shade, in a word, loses in depth and gains in brightness.",-3.101642546,0.559066181
85b41606e,,,"As soon as the plate is dry, a positive cliché of the drawing to be reproduced is laid upon it, and the whole exposed to the sun for a minute, or to the electric light for three minutes. The reaction produced is the same as with the citrate of iron, but much quicker; the exposed parts are no longer hygroscopic, but in the parts protected by the lines of the drawing the sensitive coating has retained its stickiness, and will hold any powder that may be passed over it, thus producing a very clear image of the drawing. The coating being excessively thin, the little moisture it holds and the powder applied suffice to break its continuity, especially if the powder be slightly alkaline. If the rest of the surface were sufficiently resisting, the plate might be bitten at once; but light alone is not enough to produce complete impermeability: the action of heat must be combined with it. The plate is, therefore, placed on a grating, with wide openings, a large flame is applied underneath, and it is heated till the borders where the copper is bare show iridescent colors.",-3.543987406,0.60934847
09b161e42,,,"One day, when Sam was playing in the yard, his papa came driving home from town, with something tied in the bottom of the wagon. When he saw Sam, he stopped the horse and called, ""Sam, come here, I have something for you.""
Sam ran there as fast as he could, and—what do you think?—papa lifted two little goats out of the wagon, and put them down on the ground. One goat was black and one was white. Sam was so glad he did not know what to to do. He just jumped up and down with delight.
Then the dog Jack came running out to see the goats too; but he did not like them much. He barked at them as hard as he could; but the goats did not mind him at all.
Pretty soon mamma came to see what Sam had. When she saw the goats, she said, ""Why, papa, what will become of us if we have two goats on the place?"" But she was glad because Sam was glad; and Sam gave his papa about a hundred kisses to thank him for the goats.",1.052183905,0.601546764
6d24206e3,,,"On one side of his house there was a door that opened into a pen. The pen was in the orchard where the sweet apples grew. Sometimes in summer the apples would fall down from the trees into the pen; then piggy would pick them up and eat them. Sometimes they would strike him on his back when they fell; but he did not mind that; he was always glad to get them.
He had his bed of warm straw to sleep in at night, and every day he had as much as he wanted to eat. He had all a pig could wish for: so he was contented. One morning farmer Jackson brought a pailful of milk for piggy's breakfast. He poured the milk into the trough, and piggy made haste to come and eat it.
While he was eating, something hard and cold came into his mouth. He bit it, but found that it was not good: so he left it. He ate up all the milk. When it was gone, he saw a bright silver spoon in the bottom of the trough.",0.183285383,0.483116783
deeff2162,,,"""Inner!"" said grandma. ""What does that mean? Some new expression. I have no doubt, which I never before heard; but an old lady of eighty years can't be expected to keep up with the times. It's something dreadful, of course.""
But what was the old lady's surprise when the boys threw aside their blue jackets, and two of them began to throw the ""stone"" back and forth, one to the other; while the third boy stood between, striking at it as it flew through the air, and sometimes hitting it and sometimes not. There they staid all the afternoon doing the same thing.
""Why,"" said grandma, putting on her glasses, and looking more closely. ""I declare! they're only playing ball, after all. Well, I'm glad they're not so cruel as I thought them. They are such pretty little boys, and have such pretty red stockings too!""
""But,"" said she, after a long pause, ""there is still one thing that troubles me. Where is the 'old cat'?""",-0.533508899,0.472168015
6d91d7382,,,"The conditions of the problem were finally fulfilled to the satisfaction of all concerned, and especially to that of the public.
The hulls, navicular in form and having a flat bottom, are constructed of one-tenth inch iron plate and 40x40 angle iron. Their dimensions are: Length, 33 feet; breadth, 3¼ feet; and depth, 5 feet. The internal distance between the two shells is 7¼ feet. These hulls, having absolutely water-tight decks, are connected below by tie bars of flat iron, and above by vertical stays 1 foot in length, which serve to support the floor-planks of the deck and boilerplate flooring of the engine-room. The engine-room, which is 19½ feet long by 5 feet wide, is constructed of varnished pitch-pine, with movable side-shutters of teak. The roof, of thin iron plate, is provided with a ventilator to allow of the escape of hot air.",-2.836400575,0.561007642
b21da66b1,,,"The nature of the fuel required depends on the purpose for which the gas is used. If for heating boilers, furnaces, etc, coke or any kind of coal maybe used; but for gas engines or any application of the gas requiring great cleanliness and freedom from sulphur and ammonia it is best to use anthracite, as this does not yield condensable vapors, and is very free from impurities. Good qualities of this fuel contain over 90 per cent of carbon and so little sulphur that, for some purposes, purification is not necessary. For gas engines, etc., it is, however, better to pass the gas through some hydrated oxide of iron to remove the sulphureted hydrogen. The oxide can be used over and over again after exposure to the air, and the purifying is thus effected without smell or appreciable expense. Gas made by this process and with anthracite coal has no tar and no ammonia, and the small percentage of carbon dioxide present does not sensibly affect the heating power.",-1.561415394,0.474681227
2debecc63,,,"It is important to mention here the large proportion of resinous matter hemlock-tanned leather contains. This resin is a very beautiful red substance, which communicates its peculiar color to the leather.
We should mention here that in these calculations we assume that the hide is in a perfectly dry state, water being a changeable element which does not allow one to arrive at a precise result.
These figures show the enormous differences resulting from diverse methods of tanning. Hemlock, which threatens to flood the markets of Europe, distinguishes itself above all. The high results attributable to the large proportion of resin that the hide assimilates, explain in part the lowness of its price, which renders it so formidable a competitor. One is also surprised at the large return from sumac-tanned hides when it is remembered in how short a time the tanning was accomplished, which, in the present case, only occupied half an hour.
The figures show us that the greatest return is obtained by means of those tanning substances which are richest in resin. In short, hemlock, sumac, and pine, which give the greatest return, are those containing the largest amount of resin.",-2.913001967,0.534775359
44e81c99e,,,"Buckwheat may be made profitable upon a piece of rough or newly cleared ground: No other crop is so effective in mellowing rough, cloddy land. The seed in northern localities should be sown before July 12; otherwise early frosts may catch the crops. Grass and clover may sometimes be sown successfully with buckwheat.
The London News says: ""Of all poultry breeding, the rearing of the goose in favorable situations is said to be the least troublesome and most profitable. It is not surprising, therefore, that the trade has of late years been enormously developed. Geese will live, and, to a certain extent, thrive on the coarsest of grasses.""
When a cow has a depraved appetite, and chews coarse, indigestible things, or licks the ground, it indicates indigestion, and she should have some physic. Give one pint and a half of linseed oil, one pound of Epsom salts, and afterward give in some bran one ounce of salt and the same of ground ginger twice a week.
Asiatic breeds of fowl lay eggs from deep chocolate through every shade of coffee color, while the Spanish, Hamburg, and Italian breeds are known for the pure white of the eggshell.",-2.31050877,0.512182852
7f42b2204,,,"In order to produce relatively strong currents, even in case of sound-action of a minimum strength, Franz Kröttlinger, of Vienna, has made an interesting experiment to use thermo electric currents for the transmission of sound to a distance. The apparatus which he has constructed is exceedingly simple. A current of hot air flowing from below upward is deflected more or less from its direction by the human voice. By its action an adjacent thermo-battery is excited, whose current passes through the spiral of an ordinary telephone, which serves as the receiving instrument. As a source of heat the inventor uses a common stearine candle, the flame of which is kept at one and the same level by means of a spring similar to those used in carriage lamps. On one side of the candle is a sheet metal voice funnel fixed upon a support, its mouth being covered with a movable sliding disk, fitted with a suitable number of small apertures. On the other side a similar support holds a funnel-shaped thermo-battery. The single bars of metal forming this battery are very thin, and of such a shape that they may cool as quickly as possible.",-2.41721102,0.505607022
1f8e17b78,,,"Reservoir.--An ordinary inverted bell-glass with a diameter of 100 mm. and a total height of 205 mm. forms the reservoir; its mouth is closed by a well-fitting cork through which passes the glass tube that forms one termination of the pump. The cork around tube and up to the edge of the former is painted with a flexible cement. The tube projects 40 mm. into the mercury and passes through a little watch-glass-shaped piece of sheet-iron, W, figure 1, which prevents the small air bubbles that creep upward along the tube from reaching its open end; the little cup is firmly cemented in its place. The flow of the mercury is regulated by the steel rod and cylinder, CR, Figure 1. The bottom of the steel cylinder is filled out with a circular piece of pure India-rubber, properly cemented; this soon fits itself to the use required and answers admirably. The pressure of the cylinder on the end of the tube is regulated by the lever; this is attached to a circular board which again is firmly fastened over the open end of the bell-glass.",-3.53942996,0.54903393
fb5063eac,,,"Water power in many of the States is abundant and contributes largely to their prosperity. Its proper development calls for the services of the civil engineer, and as it is the branch of the profession with which I am most familiar, I propose to offer a few remarks on the subject.
The earliest applications were to grist and saw mills; carding and fulling mills soon followed; these were essential to the comfort of the early settlers who relied on home industries for shelter, food, and clothing, but with the progress of the country came other requirements.
The earliest application of water power to general manufacturing purposes appears to have been at Paterson, New Jersey, where ""The Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures"" was formed in the year 1791. The Passaic River at this point furnishes, when at a minimum, about eleven hundred horse power continuously night and day.
The water power at Lowell, Massachusetts, was begun to be improved for general manufacturing purposes in 1822. The Merrimack River at this point has a fall of thirty-five feet, and furnishes, at a minimum, about ten thousand horse power during the usual working hours.",-1.455174094,0.451989512
fc5a0368a,,,"The authors described their experiments on the fluid density of metals made in continuation of those submitted to Section B at the Swansea meeting of the Association. Some time since one of the authors gave an account of the results of experiments made to determine the density of metallic silver, and of certain alloys of silver and copper when in a molten state. The method adopted was that devised by Mr. R. Mallet, and the details were as follows: A conical vessel of best thin Lowmoor plate (1 millimeter thick), about 16 centimeters in height, and having an internal volume of about 540 cubic centimeters, was weighed, first empty, and subsequently when filled with distilled water at a known temperature. The necessary data were thus afforded for accurately determining its capacity at the temperature of the air. Molten silver was then poured into it, the temperature at the time of pouring being ascertained by the calorimetric method. The precautions, as regards filling, pointed out by Mr. Mallet, were adopted; and as soon as the metal was quite cold, the cone with its contents was again weighed.",-2.291102447,0.541740804
c68111ee9,,,"The fine, soft hair upon the hinder part of a cow's udder for the most part turns upward. This upward-growing hair extends in most cases all over that part of the udder visible between the hind legs, but is occasionally marked by spots or mere lines, usually slender ovals, in which the hair grows down. This tendency of the hair to grow upward is not confined to the udder proper; but extends out upon the thighs and upward to the tail. The edges of this space over which the hair turns up are usually distinctly marked, and, as a rule, the larger the area of this space, which is called the ""mirror"" or ""escutcheon,"" the more milk the cow will give, and the longer she will continue in milk.
That portion of the escutcheon which covers the udder and extends out on the inside of each thigh, has been designated as the udder or mammary mirror; that which runs upward towards the setting on of the tail, the rising or placental mirror. The mammary mirror is of the greater value, yet the rising mirror is not to be disregarded.",-2.158912225,0.519822987
0301b92fa,,,"""Did I ever tell you how I lost my red coral beads, and where they were found?"" I said this to my boys, Roy and Fred, one frosty night, when we were all gathered around the bright open fire.
""No!"" said Fred decidedly. ""That is a new story. Does it tell about the time when you were a little girl? and about the farmhouse and the sitting-room with the big fireplace, and the bellows, and the queer hour-glass, and the old-fashioned iron snuffers in a red tray?""
""Yes,"" I answered, ""it is about every thing you like to hear so well."" Then I told the story as follows:—
""My story begins in the long, low, pleasant farmhouse sitting-room, with its big beam running across the low ceiling. There was also a great fireplace, and a wide stone hearth. There we children cracked our nuts, and there, on winter evenings, a great basket of Rhode-Island Greenings always stood warming in the corner. Of course there was a wide mantel over the fireplace.",0.393651401,0.48194123
e11faa74b,,,"In 1831, there were a considerable number of paddle steamers running along some of the rivers in England, and across the Channel to the Continent. But there were no ocean steamers, properly so-called, and there were no steamers used for warlike purposes. As in the case of the wagon boilers, the boilers of the paddle steamers of 1831 were most unsuited for resisting pressure. They were mere tanks, and there was as much pressure when there was no steam in the boiler from the weight of the water on the bottom, as there was at the top of the boiler from the steam pressure when the steam was up. Under these circumstances, again, from 3½ lb. to 5 lb. was all the pressure the boilers were competent to bear, and as the engines ran at a slow speed, they developed but a small amount of horse-power in relation to their size.",-1.780837933,0.478505767
f667f29b4,,,"There were no playmates for Charley at grandpa's; but with a calf at the barn, several broods of chickens, and four kittens, he found enough to occupy his mind. He was up very early in the morning, and it was after ten o'clock when he came into the kitchen rather hungry.
""Look under the cloth on the table, Charley,"" called his grandma from the sitting-room. ""You'll find a little cake I baked for you. Don't you see it?"" she asked, coming into the kitchen. ""There, that one.""
""Oh!"" said Charley, ""I thought that was a loaf.""
Then, taking the cake in his hand, he sat on a rock at the foot of a tree a little distance from the house, and began to eat with great relish.
Not far from him, and a little way from the other buildings, was the corn-barn, and at one end of its roof was a bird-house, which had been taken by two little birds for their home. Charley saw one bird come out and fly away. While she was gone, her mate kept watch at a short distance to see that no harm came to the eggs that were within.",0.247436299,0.493419981
0ae3b1e64,,,"Lamp-black is the name given to those varieties of carbon which are deposited when hydrocarbons are burned with an insufficient supply of oxygen; thus the smoke and soot emitted into our atmosphere from our furnaces and fireplaces are composed of comparatively pure carbon.
Coal is an impure form of carbon derived from the gradual oxidation and destruction of vegetable matters by natural causes; thus wood first changes into a peaty substance, and subsequently into a body called lignite, which again in its turn becomes converted into the different varieties of coal; these changes, which have resulted in the accumulation of vast beds of coal in the crust of the earth, have been going on for ages. There are very many different kinds of coal; some are rich in hydrogen, and are therefore well adapted for making illuminating gas, while others, such as anthracite, are very rich in carbon, and contain but little hydrogen; the last named variety of coal is smokeless, and is therefore largely used for drying malt.",-1.902984077,0.487340261
0e2b16542,,,"Among the older varieties of the apple, he strongly recommended Button Beauty, which had proved so excellent in Massachusetts, and which had been equally successful at the Mount Hope Nurseries at Rochester; the fine growth of the tree and its great productiveness being strongly in its favor. The Wagener and Northern Spy are among the finer sorts. The Melon is one of the best among the older sorts; the fruit being quite tender will not bear long shipment, but it possesses great value for home use, and being a poor grower, it had been thrown aside by nurserymen and orchardists. It should be top-grafted on more vigorous sorts. The Jonathan is another fine sort of slender growth, which should be top-grafted.
Among new pears, Hoosic and Frederic Clapp were highly commended for their excellence. Some of the older peaches of fine quality had of late been neglected, and among them Druid Hill and Brevoort.
Among the many new peaches highly recommended for their early ripening, there was great resemblance to each other, and some had proved earlier than Alexander.
Of the new grapes, Lady Washington was the most promising. The Secretary was a failure.",-1.374108359,0.447915998
4d9c7bc5f,,,"The fiery steed of Colonel Bob reared and plunged, as if eager to dash upon the foe. The roll of the drum made a fearful sound. The standard-bearer waved his flag. The army came rushing on. Snap the dog barked furiously. But above all the din was heard the shout of Colonel Bob, ""Forward, my brave boys!""
Not a picture started from its frame. Not a chair moved. But all of a sudden the door opened, and a face looked in. It was Colonel Bob's papa.
""What's all this noise about, Robert?"" said he. ""This is not the place for such games. Go out of doors if you want to play soldier. I can't have such a drumming and shouting in the house.""
This was rather a damper on Colonel Bob's military zeal; but what came next was still worse.",-0.601601499,0.472018327
030b56bc4,,,"Since gelatine emulsion first came into use one of the greatest troubles in connection with the manufacture of it has been that of washing. According to the first methods the time taken for this part of the process was, I believe, about twenty-four hours. It was very much reduced and the ease of manufacture greatly facilitated by the methods now most generally used, and which were, I believe, first communicated by Messrs. Wratten and Wainright. I refer to those of precipitating with alcohol and of straining the emulsion, when set, through canvas, so as to divide it very finely. When the latter method is resorted to a comparatively short time is sufficient to wash it. This method, although a great improvement upon the older ones, yet leaves much to be desired, especially for those who are not in the habit of making emulsion regularly, but only an occasional batch.",-2.403804934,0.475886258
eee3c8ed1,,,"In good soil and a partly shaded spot we have no handsomer plant in bloom than the tall bugbane (Cimicifuga racemosa); from a bunch of thrifty leaves arise a dozen scapes of racemes, creamy white, and six feet high. The scarlet lychnis and its many varieties are nearly past, but the large-flowered, Haag's, and others of that section, are in their prime, and showy plants they are. They are true and lasting perennials, bloom well the first season from seed, quite hardy, copious, and effective; any ordinary garden soil. The pyrenean prunella has large purple heads; the false dragonhead (Physostegia), pale rose-purple spikes; centranthuses, cymes of red and white; centaureas, heads of yellow, blue, and purple; pinks, divers shades of red and white; and monkshoods, hoods of blue or white; and all are very hardy, ready growers, and copious bloomers. The bee balm, one of our handsomest perennials, has bright red whorls; it spreads upon the surface of the ground like mint, and thus may be divided and increased to any extent. It loves rich, moist land, but is not fastidious.",-2.846766899,0.504145588
466e33a64,,,"The copper even of such a conductor has been melted by the powerful current which it has carried away. In telephonic central offices, M. Bede has seen all the signals of one row of telephone wires fall at the same moment, proving that an electric discharge had fallen upon the wires, and been by them conveyed to earth.
This fact shows that wires, even without points, are capable of attracting the atmospheric electricity; but it must be remembered that there are two points at every join in the wire. M. Bede insists strongly upon the uselessness of terminating lightning conductors in wells, or even larger pieces of water. The experiments of MM. Becquerel and Pouillet proved that the resistance of water to the passage of electricity is one thousand million times greater than that of iron; consequently, if the current conveyed by a wire one square mm. thick were to be carried off by water without increased resistance, a surface of contact between the wire and the water of not less than 1,000 square meters must be established.",-3.596750775,0.567050141
d5d719c31,,,"Our plate illustrates the residence of Mr. J. E. Boehm, A.R.A., the sculptor. Bent's Brook is situated at Holmwood, not far south of Dorking, on the Mid-Sussex line, and commands some fine views of well-timbered country. The site itself is comparatively low, and the soil being clay it was advisable to keep the building well out of the ground, and in this way a rather unusually high elevation for such a house was obtained. The plan is very compactly arranged, with an ingenious approach to the well-centered hall and staircase, over which, by a mezzanine contrivance, a good store place is secured. The drawing-room has a belvedere bay, reached from the garden by an external stair, under which is a covered garden seat. A balcony overlooking the garden leads also from the drawing-room, and a billiard room is arranged on the basement level with a separate entrance from the porch. A tradesmen's entrance is provided elsewhere. The kitchen and offices are on the lower floor level, and a kitchen yard is conveniently placed at the rear. Red brick, with cut-brick dressings, is the material used throughout for the walls, the upper parts of which are hung with ornamental tiles.",-2.978524086,0.511225184
7d63bedf7,,,"The authors give two different processes for the determination of animal or vegetable oils or fats and hydrocarbon or other neutral oils. They take a certain weight of the sample and boil it with twice its weight of an eight per cent, solution of caustic soda in alcohol. The soda combines with the fatty acids of the animal or vegetable oils forming soaps; bicarbonate of soda is then added to neutralize the excess of caustic soda; and, lastly, sand; and the whole is evaporated to dryness at the temperature of boiling water. The dry mixture is then transferred to a large glass tube, having a small hole in the bottom plugged with glass wool to act as a filter, and light petroleum spirit--which boils at about 150° to 180° Fahr.--is poured over it, till all the neutral or unsaponifiable oil is dissolved out. In the other process no sand is used, but the dry mixture is dissolved in water, and the soap solution which holds the neutral oils in solution is treated with ether, which dissolves out the neutral oil and then floats to the surface of the liquid.",-2.691530384,0.537443281
c51e0ff6c,,,"One of the most important indications for the use of the drug is threatening paralysis of the heart from insufficient compensation. In such cases it is necessary to gain time until digitalis and alcoholics can unfold their action, and here nitrite of amyl stands pre-eminent. A single case in point will suffice to illustrate this. The patient was suffering from mitral insufficiency, with irregular pulse, loss of appetite, enlargement of the liver, and mild jaundice. Temporary relief had been several times afforded by infusion of digitalis. In February, 1879, the condition of the patient suddenly became aggravated. The pulse became very irregular and intermittent. The condition described as delirium cordis presented itself, together with epigastric pulsation and vomiting. Vigorous counter-irritation, by means of hot bottles and sinapisms to the extremities, etc., proved useless. Digitalis and champagne, when administered, were immediately vomited. The pulse ran up from seventy until it could no longer be counted at the wrist, while the beats of the heart increased to one hundred and twenty and more per minute. The extremities grew cold, and the face became covered with perspiration.",-2.493544356,0.557576107
307efb1c0,,,"The Mill-House--This consists of a central room, 262 feet long, 98 feet wide, and 68 feet in height, with two lean-to annexes of 16 feet each, making the total width 100 feet. The structure is wholly of metal, and is so arranged as to permit of advantage being taken of every foot of space under cover. For this purpose the system of construction without tie-beams, known as the ""De Dion type,"" has been adopted. The binding-rafters consist of four angle-irons connected by cross-bars of flat iron. The covering of corrugated galvanized iron rests directly upon the binding-rafters, the upper parts of which are covered with wood for the attachment of the corrugated metal. The spacing of these rafters is calculated according to the length of the sheets of corrugated iron, thus dispensing with the use of ordinary rafters, and making a roof which is at once very light and very durable, and consequently very economical.",-1.78905053,0.466810542
e41a4d88e,,,"The length of the City of Rome, as compared with breadth, insures long and easy lines for the high speed required; and the depth of hold being only 37 feet, as compared with the beam of 52 feet, insures great stability and the consequent comfort of the passengers. A point calling for special notice is the large number of separate compartments formed by water tight bulkheads, each extending to the main deck. The largest of these compartments is only about 60 feet long; and, supposing that from collision or some other cause, one of these was filled with water, the trim of the vessel would not be materially affected. With a view to giving still further safety in the event of collision or stranding, the boilers are arranged in two boiler rooms, entirely separated from each other by means of a water tight iron bulkhead. This reduces what, in nearly all full-powered steamships, is a vast single compartment, into two of moderate size, 60 feet in length; and in the event of either boiler room being flooded, it still leaves the vessel with half her boiler power available, giving a speed of from thirteen to fourteen knots per hour.",-2.07868661,0.489325107
b84de2eb4,,,"The object of this new machine, then, which has been doing its wonderful work for a few days only, is to reproduce artificially chenille embroidered on light tissues, by mechanically cutting out and gluing small circles of velvet upon these fabrics.
For this purpose all kinds of velvet may be employed, and, in order to facilitate the cutting, they are previously coated on the reverse side with any glue or gum whatever, which gives the velvet a stiffness favorable to the action of the punch. To effect the object desired the apparatus has three successive operations to perform: first, cutting the circles; second, moistening; and third, fastening down the dots upon the tissue according to a definite order and spacing. The machine may be constructed upon any scale whatever, although at present it is only made for operating on pieces 31 inches wide, that being the normal width of dotted tulles. The quincuncial arrangement of the dots is effected by the punching, moistening, and fastening down of odd and even dots, combined with the forward movement of the tissue to be chenilled.",-2.785488375,0.514814438
c7905e412,,,"Japanese chronicles claim that the first pottery was made in the year 660 B.C.; it was not, however, until the Christian era that the art made any considerable advances. In the year 1223 A.D., great improvements were made in manufacture and decoration of the ware. From that date to the sixteenth century the great potteries of Owari, Hizen, Mino, Kioto, Kaga, and Satsuma were established. The Rahn-Yaki, or crackled ware, was first made at Kioto, at the commencement of the sixteenth century. The best old Hizen ware, that which is still the most admired, was made at Arita Hizen, in 1580 to 1585; the old Satsuma dates from 1592. Consul-General Van Buren states that porcelain clays are found in nearly all parts of the country, and the different kinds are usually found in close proximity, and close to canals and rivers, which is of considerable advantage, as affording a means of transport.",-1.883648915,0.492066885
ada447e86,,,"From the site of this building, magnificent views are obtained over the island-dotted sea and the mainland of Asia Minor: but, ""though every prospect pleases,"" it is a land of earthquakes, and unfortunately, the works at the chateau have been suspended, owing to the dreadful calamity which has recently fallen upon the district. The building is intended for the residence of an English lady of exalted rank. It is to be built of local white stone, the hall, staircase, etc., being lined and paved with marbles. The hall is a large apartment about 25 ft. high, with paneled ceiling, having galleries on two sides, giving access to the rooms surrounding it on first floor, and to the turret staircase leading to roofs, etc. With the exception of sanitary apparatus, painted windows, etc. (which will be supplied by English firms), the whole of the work will be executed by native labor. The architect is Mr. Edwin T. Hall, London.",-1.503505472,0.506820981
185499138,,,"No one at this moment knows what electricity is; but for our present purpose we may regard it as a fluid, non-elastic, and without weight, and universally diffused through the universe. To judge by recently published statements, a large section of the reading public are taught that this fluid is a source of power, and that it may be made to do the work of coal. This is a delusion. So long as electricity remains in what we may call a normal state of repose, it is inert. Before we can get any work out of electricity a somewhat greater amount of work must be done upon it. If this fundamental and most important truth be kept in view it will not be easy to make a grave mistake in estimating the value of any of the numerous schemes for making electricity do work which will ere long be brought before the public.",-1.732828438,0.459421932
3.91E+07,,,"At the recent Medical Congress in London, Professor Klebs undertook to answer the question: ""Are there specific organized causes of disease?""
A short historical review of the various opinions of mankind as to the origin of disease led, the speaker thought, to the presumption that these causes were specific and organized.
If we now, he said, consider the present state of this question, the three following points of view present themselves as those from which the subject may be regarded:
I.--We have to inquire whether the lower organisms, which are found in the diseased body, may arise there spontaneously; or whether even they may be regarded as regular constituents of the body.
II.--The morphological relations of these organisms have to be investigated, and their specific nature in the different morbid processes has to be determined.
III.--We have to inquire into their biological relations, their development inside and outside the body, and the conditions under which they are able to penetrate into the body, and there to set up disease.",-2.793147802,0.51673772
419a01a56,,,"The true social peril, hardly discovered before we became aware how to conjure it, lies in those legions of animalcules or microbes that surround us and in the middle of which we live. M. Pasteur has revealed them to us as the factors in infectious diseases. Claude Bernard has demonstrated the community which exists between animals and vegetables--phenomena of movement, of sensibility, of production of heat, of respiration, of digestion even, for there are the Drosera and kindred carnivorous plants. Iron cures chlorosis in vegetables as well as in animals, and chloroform and ether render both insensible. There resemblances are more striking still between animals. After Baudrimont, insects are, in presence of alcohols, chloroform, and irrespirable gases, similarly affected as man. Many maladies, too, are common to man and several species of animals; and this organic identity is best illustrated in the relationship between epidemics and epizootias, cancer, asthma, phthisis, smallpox, rabies, glanders, charbon, etc., afflict alike man and many species of animals.",-3.088371668,0.557496866
d9a7b97be,,,"In selecting a lathe an amateur may exercise more or less taste, and he may be governed somewhat by the length of his purse; the same is true in the matter of chucks; but when he comes to the selection or making of turning tools he must conform to fundamental principles; he must profit as far as possible by the experience of others, and will, after all, find enough to be learned by practice.
Tools of almost every description may be purchased at reasonable prices, but the practice of making one's own tools cannot be too strongly recommended. It affords a way out of many an emergency, and where time is not too valuable, a saving will be realized. A few bars of fine tool steel, a hammer, and a small anvil, are all that are required, aside from fire and water. The steel should be heated to a low red, and shaped with as little hammering as possible; it may then be allowed to cool slowly, when it may be filed or ground to give it the required form.",-2.476984216,0.541162089
31e08be8c,,,"Little Sutton was an old house, parts of which were in existence before the time of Cromwell. It is situated in a picturesque old garden, surrounded by ivy-clad walls and fine trees, one of the cedars being extraordinarily large and perfect, its huge branches covering a space of over 90 ft. in diameter. The greater part of the old house, being uninhabitable through decay, was pulled down; the old parts are shown in black on the plan, and the new hatched. It is faced with red bricks, and red Corsehill stone dressings, and covered with tiles. The plan was arranged so as to preserve the old kitchen, billiard-room, morning room, and conservatory. The hall, entered from a veranda in connection with the entrance-porch, is surrounded by a dado, the height of doors; the lower panels are filled with tiles made to design by the School of Art at Bombay. The woodwork is painted a mottled blue color, harmonizing with the general tone of the tiles, the whole being something the color of lapis lazuli.",-1.261651996,0.461018627
c8e2fb22b,,,"In his remarks on the synopsis of one hundred and eleven experiments, made at Washington, he says: ""As may be noticed, thirty-five of them would yield zero. If we take the average of the hundred and eleven experiments, we find as a yield 4.5 per cent., which result cannot possibly be practically accepted. In other words, our government, notwithstanding the favorable conditions under which they were made, prove that the sorghum utilization is fallacy in every sense of the word."" ... ""If sorghum is to be grown for its sirup, or for fodder, it will evidently render excellent service."" It seems that less than four per cent. of crystallizable sugar in the sorghum juice will not pay the cost of making sugar from it, as it will not crystallize in a reasonable time, on account of the glucose in the juice, which, with the other impurities, will prevent the ready crystallization of four or five times their own weight of sucrose.",-2.194383485,0.510471636
450964a38,,,"Now it had happened three years before, that a poor young man of the name of Simpson had been saved from drowning by Amy's father. I fear that the young man had thrown himself into the water because he was sick of life, but I dare say he was glad enough to be pulled out.
Mr. Cooper took him home, gave him a room and a bed, and there Mr. Simpson staid for some time. He was what is called an artist. He had a great talent for drawing with a pen and ink. He taught Amy to do this. She soon did it so well, that he said to her, ""Keep on trying, my dear, and it may be a great help to you by and by.""
Sure enough she did keep on trying. Her one thought was to do so well that she could make money by her art. Poor Mr. Simpson died after he had staid with the honest fisherman two years; and his last words to Amy were, ""Keep on practising, my dear: don't let a day pass without it. I am sure you will make an artist.""",-0.0800949,0.49417015
2505ee83e,,,"That was enough for Carlo, as we named him. He had found a kind master, and my father a faithful friend. Of course it wouldn't do to keep the dog without trying to find his owner: so the next day he was advertised; and, for several days after, every ring at the bell would make us children start, and feel afraid that somebody had come to take him away. But nobody came for him; and we loved and petted our new-found treasure to the neglect of wooden horses and dolls, and all our other toys.
Sometimes he would come to the parlor-door with his feet very wet and muddy from running through the street-gutters. Then we would say, ""O Carlo! what dirty boots!"" He would hang down his head, and go off to the back-yard, and lick his feet until they were clean, when, with a bound, and a wag of the tail, he would rush back to the parlor, quite sure that he would be let in.",0.024668264,0.486579249
b6365792d,,,"Up to this time I had believed the sole effect of the rapid inhalation was due to mere diversion of the will, and this was the only way nature could so violently exert herself--that of controlling the involuntary action of the lungs to her uses by the safety valve, or the voluntary movement.
The constant breathing of the patient for thirty seconds to a minute left him in a condition of body and mind resembling the effects of ether and chloroform in their primary stages. I could but argue that the prolonged breathing each time had done it; and, if so, then there must be some specific effect over and above the mere diversion by the will. To what could it be due? To the air alone, which went in excess into the lungs in the course of a minute! Why did I not then immediately grasp the idea of its broader application as now claimed for it? It was too much, gentlemen, for that hour. Enough had been done in this fourth step of conception to rest in the womb of time, until by evolution a higher step could be made at the maturity of the child.",-1.697271948,0.529530872
abd03a6a5,,,"He was only twenty, his brother Ivan was in his twenty-fourth year at the time, while their elder brother Dmitri was twenty-seven. First of all, I must explain that this young man, Alyosha, was not a fanatic, and, in my opinion at least, was not even a mystic. I may as well give my full opinion from the beginning. He was simply an early lover of humanity, and that he adopted the monastic life was simply because at that time it struck him, so to say, as the ideal escape for his soul struggling from the darkness of worldly wickedness to the light of love. And the reason this life struck him in this way was that he found in it at that time, as he thought, an extraordinary being, our celebrated elder, Zossima, to whom he became attached with all the warm first love of his ardent heart. But I do not dispute that he was very strange even at that time, and had been so indeed from his cradle.",-1.495246562,0.441838082
73d389da4,,,"Whereupon, Aunt Patience gave her head handkerchief a vigorous wrench, and went her way—the good old soul—even then considering how she should best set about preparing a genuine surprise for her young master in the shape of daily feasts for a dozen guests. I will not stop here to detail the character of this preparation or to dwell upon its success. It is enough to say that Tom Tunison praised Aunt Patience to the skies; and, as if this were not sufficient to make her happy, he produced a big clay pipe, three plugs of real ""manufac terbacker,"" which was hard to get in those times, a red shawl, and twelve yards of calico.
The fortnight that followed the arrival of Tom's guests was one long to be remembered, not only in the annals of the Rockville Hunting Club but in the annals of Rockville itself. The fair de Compton literally turned the heads of old men and young boys, and even succeeded in conquering the critics of her own sex. She was marvelously beautiful, and her beauty was of a kind to haunt one in one's dreams.",-2.247699737,0.468050983
0525b81ea,,,"Deta did not have to be told twice. She said ""Good-bye"" to Heidi and ""Farewell"" to the uncle, and started down the mountain. Like steam her excitement seemed to drive her forward, and she ran down at a tremendous rate. The people in the village called to her now more than they had on her way up, because they all were wondering where she had left the child. They were well acquainted with both and knew their history. When she heard from door and windows: ""Where is the child?"" ""Where have you left her, Deta?"" and so forth, she answered more and more reluctantly: ""Up with the Alm-Uncle,—with the Alm-Uncle!"" She became much provoked because the women called to her from every side: ""How could you do it?"" ""The poor little creature!"" ""The idea of leaving such a helpless child up there!"" and, over and over again: ""The poor little dear!"" Deta ran as quickly as she could and was glad when she heard no more calls, because, to tell the truth, she herself was uneasy.",-0.483464856,0.438983838
4481844ae,,,"In a city not far from Boston, there once lived a stout little fellow named Willie Wilkins. He was six years old, had red cheeks and blue eyes, and such curly hair that it was always in a tumble, no matter how much it was brushed.
One summer his mamma took him into the country to spend a few weeks at a farm-house. The farmer's wife, Mrs. Hill, was very glad to have him come, for she had no girls or boys of her own, to make the house pleasant. She liked to see Willie running about, and hear his shrill voice calling after the great house-dog Bruno.
One morning Willie had been as busy as ever at his play: he had been in the orchard, hunting for ripe apples; he had been in the barn, looking for hen's eggs in the sweet hay; he had been down to the brook, sailing his boat; and he had played market-man, with Bruno harnessed for a horse.",0.823963203,0.48968481
42269d093,,,"Our Ned is a brave little fellow about eight years old. He is full of fun, and loves to play out of doors in all kinds of weather. But what little boy can be merry when he has a raging toothache! Ned bore it like a hero; but he had to give up at last, and he was glad to take refuge in his mother's lap, and be a baby again for a while. With his head pillowed on his mother's breast, the little boy found some relief; but still he was in great pain. His sister stood by, trying to think of some way to help him. Ned could hardly keep from crying; but he said to his mother, ""I should like to have you tell me a story.""
""What shall it be, darling?"" said his mother.
""Tell me about Harry and his dog Jack."" This story had been told to Ned when he was a very, very little boy, and a good many times since then. It seemed odd to his mother that he had chosen such an old story. But he wanted to hear it; and so she told it all over again.",0.853612643,0.532097185
0aba45c38,,,"Now, when a person is setting off to discuss the relation between electricity and light, it is very natural and very proper to pull him up short with the two questions: ""What do you mean by electricity?"" and ""What do you mean by light?"" These two questions I intend to try briefly to answer. And here let me observe that in answering these fundamental questions, I do not necessarily assume a fundamental ignorance on your part of these two agents, but rather the contrary; and must beg you to remember that if I repeat well-known and simple experiments before you, it is for the purpose of directing attention to their real meaning and significance, not to their obvious and superficial characteristics; in the same way that I might repeat the exceedingly familiar experiment of dropping a stone to the earth if we were going to define what we meant by gravitation.
Now, then, we will ask first, ""What is electricity?"" And the simple answer must be, ""We don't know."" Well, but this need not necessarily be depressing. If the same question were asked about matter, or about energy, we should have likewise to reply, ""No one knows.""",-1.412705072,0.454617973
9d4ee13a8,,,"The foundation of success in life is good health. That is the substratum fortune; it is also the basis of happiness. A person cannot accumulate a fortune very well when he is sick. He has no ambition; no incentive; no force. Of course, there are those who have bad health and cannot help it: you cannot expect that such persons can accumulate wealth, but there are a great many in poor health who need not be so.
If, then, sound health is the foundation of success and happiness in life, how important it is that we should study the laws of health, which is but another expression for the laws of nature! The nearer we keep to the laws of nature, the nearer we are to good health, and yet how many persons there are who pay no attention to natural laws, but absolutely transgress them, even against their own natural inclination. We ought to know that the ""sin of ignorance"" is never winked at in regard to the violation of nature's laws; their infraction always brings the penalty.",-1.686487447,0.484611825
b0bac7214,,,"While I am writing this, seven little boys and nine little girls (how many does that make in all?) are busy writing on their slates. These children do not have any books to study. I tell them what I wish to teach them, and they write it down, and try to remember it. But I teach them without speaking a word. I talk to them with my fingers.
You have guessed already, I dare say, that these dear little children are deaf and mute; that is, they can neither hear nor speak. They cannot go to school and live at home, and see papa and mamma night and morning, as you can; for there are no schools for them near their homes. They have to go a long way from home, and stay in school many long weeks without seeing father or mother, brother or sister. So, when vacation comes, how glad and happy they are! Some of them are even now writing on their slates, ""In sixteen weeks we shall go home.""",0.398470929,0.478329583
1e7cb9295,,,"The ants, therefore, climb up trees on whose leaves the aphides have collected. Then an ant goes close to one of these insects for a drop of the sweet juice. If this be not soon given out, the ant will gently tap the body of the aphid, and thus obtain a supply of the sweet fluid. After feasting on this, the ant will pass to another little aphis and treat it in the same manner for another drop. But the ant has sense enough to treat the aphis as we treat our cows. Our farmers, you know, keep the cows in enclosed meadows, and supply them with hay and turnips when the grass fails. The ants also take a number of aphides close to their nests, and there keep them secure and supply them with suitable food. Now the ladybirds are also fond of the aphides, and eat them up by hundreds.",-0.959596062,0.468118058
c91504fd8,,,"""Why is it that flowers always grow so nicely for Mary? I often plant seeds, but nothing comes from them. They won't grow for me. But blossoms seem to spring right up wherever she goes. They must have a particular liking for her."" That's what Tom said, one day, as he saw Mary watering the flowers. Well, it is no wonder, Tom, if flowers do have a liking for such a lovable little girl. There's nothing so very strange about that. How could they help liking her? But, after all, perhaps the secret of the matter is, that Mary loves the flowers, and never forgets to take care of them. She looks after them every day, and not by fits and starts, as some people do. So she has good luck with her flowers and is always able to make up a nice bouquet. And she not only enjoys the flowers herself but, what is better still, she takes delight in having others enjoy them with her. She does not forget to send a liberal share to the Flower Mission; and many a poor sufferer has been cheered by the sight of Mary's flowers.",-0.238184595,0.510247672
58a4e027a,,,"Colonel Higginson's lecture was to me a green oasis in the arid desert of metaphysics, but it was regarded by earnest truth-seekers in the class as quite irrelevant to the purposes of the course. The lecturer himself confided to me at the close of the session a suspicion that his audience cared more for philosophy than for literature. Once or twice Mr. Emerson visited the school, taking no part in its proceedings, but sitting patiently through the hour, and wearing what a newspaper reporter described as his ""wise smile."" After the lecture for the session was ended, the subject was thrown open to discussion and there was an opportunity to ask questions. Most of us were shy to speak out in that presence, feeling ourselves in a state of pupilage. Usually there would be a silence of several minutes, as at a Quaker meeting waiting for the spirit to move; and then Mr. Alcott would announce in his solemn, musical tones ""I have a thought""; and after a weighty pause, proceed to some Orphic utterance. Alcott, indeed, was what might be called the leader on the floor; and he was ably seconded by Miss Elizabeth Peabody, the sister of Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife.",-2.538234476,0.481914161
bd5047363,,,"Of Cæsar, it may be said that he came into the world at a special time and for a special object. The old religions were dead, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Euphrates and the Nile, and the principles on which human society had been constructed were dead also. There remained of spiritual conviction only the common and human sense of justice and morality; and out of this sense some ordered system of government had to be constructed, under which quiet men could live, and labor, and eat the fruit of their industry. Under a rule of this material kind, there can be no enthusiasm, no chivalry, no saintly aspirations, no patriotism of the heroic type. It was not to last forever. A new life was about to dawn for mankind. Poetry, and faith, and devotion were to spring again out of the seeds which were sleeping in the heart of humanity.",-1.896578016,0.484071991
ff4126703,,,"Young Gill, son of the high master, a school-fellow of Milton, went up to Trinity, Oxford, where he got into trouble by being informed against by Chillingworth, who reported incautious political speeches of Gill to his godfather, Laud. With Gill, Milton corresponded; they exchanged their verses, Greek, Latin, and English, with a confession on Milton's part that he prefers English and Latin composition to Greek; that to write Greek verses in this age is to sing to the deaf. Gill, Milton finds ""a severe critic of poetry, however disposed to be lenient to his friend's attempts.""
If Milton's genius did not announce itself in his paraphrases of Psalms, it did in his impetuosity in learning, ""which I seized with such eagerness that from the twelfth year of my age, I scarce ever went to bed before midnight."" Such is his own account. And it is worth notice that we have here an incidental test of the trustworthiness of Aubrey's reminiscences. Aubrey's words are, ""When he was very young he studied very hard, and sat up very late, commonly till twelve or one o'clock at night; and his father ordered the maid to sit up for him.""",-2.496833038,0.488369561
fffb83ae3,,,"In every part of the earth man's first struggle was for his daily food. With only a rude implement of stone or bone he had to get fish from the sea, bird from the air, beast from the forest. For ages, with such poor equipment, he had to wring a precarious livelihood from nature. He saw, too, every living form around him similarly trying to satisfy its hunger. There seemed to be a Spirit of Hunger abroad. And, at the same time, there was such a resistance to man's satisfaction of his need—the bird and fish so hard to get, the stingy earth so ready to give him a stone when he asked for bread—that he came to the conclusion that there must be invisible voracious beings who wanted all good things for themselves. So the ancient world was haunted by a vast brood of Hunger-demons.",-1.863075566,0.486120755
3fe2d53fd,,,"During the years spent in Europe in writing his first history, from 1851 to 1856, Mr. Motley had lived a life of great retirement and simplicity, devoting himself to his work and to the education of his children, to which last object he was always ready to give the most careful supervision. He was as yet unknown beyond the circle of his friends, and he did not seek society. In this quiet way he had passed the two years of residence in Dresden, the year divided between Brussels and the Hague, and a very tranquil year spent at Vevay on the Lake of Geneva. His health at this time was tolerably good, except for nervous headaches, which frequently recurred and were of great severity. His visit to England with his manuscript in search of a publisher has already been mentioned.
In 1858 he revisited England. His fame as a successful author was there before him, and he naturally became the object of many attentions. He now made many acquaintances who afterwards became his kind and valued friends.",-1.895443508,0.464122827
f7b84baaa,,,"Mr. Charles Darwin and his followers deny design as having any appreciable share in the formation of organism at all. Paley and the theologians insist on design, but upon a designer outside the universe and the organism. The third opinion is that suggested in the first instance, and carried out to a very high degree of development by Buffon. It was improved, and, indeed, made almost perfect by Dr. Erasmus Darwin, but too much neglected by him after he had put it forward. It was borrowed, as I think we may say with some confidence, from Dr. Darwin by Lamarck, and was followed up by him ardently thenceforth, during the remainder of his life, though somewhat less perfectly comprehended by him than it had been by Dr. Darwin. It is that the design which has designed organisms, has resided within, and been embodied in, the organisms themselves.",-2.348893092,0.45776847
6cfa2f783,,,"Mrs. S. had a new cook; and one day she set a pan of custard on the back porch to cool. When she went out to get it, an hour or two after, she found nothing but the empty pan. Molly ran to Mrs. S. in great distress, and told her of the loss of the custard. ""Ah!"" said Mrs. S., ""then Daisy has eaten it."" And, sure enough, Daisy was the thief.
Another time the naughty colt put her head in the kitchen-window, and ate up some apple pies that were on the table. All this was very bad indeed, but Daisy was always forgiven because she was so lovely and gentle. She would follow any of the family about the grounds, and rub her head against them to show how much she loved them.
One day a man came to Mr. S.'s house to make a visit. He was not in the habit of visiting the family, and so had not made Daisy's acquaintance.",0.831305373,0.577763485
26130bc8b,,,"George is never so happy as when he is on Grandpa's knee; and the first thing that Grandpa has to do, when little George is seated there, is to pull out his watch.
""Watch, watch!"" cries little George; and Grandpa takes it out, opens it, and lets him see all the queer little wheels and the bright works, that shine and glitter so, and keep up the quick movements, and make the watch say, ""Tick, tick!""
Grandpa and George are good friends, because Grandpa tries to explain things to him. One day he brought home a watch and gave it to the little boy for his own, and showed him how to wind it up, and make it tick.
George is very proud of it, and will soon learn to tell the time of day. He knows now how to count ten.",0.514309064,0.507619042
dbb82f833,,,"The reader may think that the collections made by the dust-man are valueless, but such is not the case.
There are more than 300,000 inhabited houses in London, consuming more than 3,500,000 tons of coal a year, and besides the ashes from this great quantity of fuel, the dust-man gathers the other refuse of the houses. He is employed by a contractor, who agrees with the corporation to remove the ashes, etc., out of the city, and the contractor divides every load into six parts, as follows: Soil, or fine dust, which is sold to brick-makers for making bricks and to farmers for manure; brieze, or cinders, sold to brick-makers for burning brick; rags, bones and old metals, sold to marine-store dealers; old tin and iron vessels, sold to trunk-makers for clamps; bricks, oyster and other shells, sold for foundations and road-building; and old boots and shoes, sold to the manufacturers of Prussian blue.
Sometimes, much more valuable things than these are found, and the reader may remember the romance that Charles Dickens made out of a London dust-man—""Our Mutual Friend.""",-1.291893764,0.451136445
3ae4a455c,,,"The one that we have illustrated is a fair example, but despite his poverty-stricken appearance, his torn, loose sleeves, and useless boots, he is not at all repulsive. His face tells of want and toil; he has slung a shabby old basket over his shoulders, in which he carries his load, and, with a bunch in his hand, he saunters along the street, proclaiming his trade, ""Grun-sel, grun-sel, grun-sel!"" Besides the groundsel and the chick-weed, he has small pieces of turf for sale, of which larks are very fond.
The birds in their cages at the open windows chirp and put their pretty little heads aside when they hear him coming; they know perfectly well who he is and what he brings, and their twitter shapes itself into a greeting. The old raven perched on the edge of the basket feels like a superior being and wonders why other birds make such a fuss over a little green stuff, but that is only because he has coarser tastes.",-2.193262606,0.496282502
7e416031a,,,"Papa held up a bright silver-piece as a reward of merit to the little girl, if she would be good, and go to sleep. Grandma ventured a little coaxing. But it was all of no avail: the sleepy eyes opened wide, as if they meant to keep open in spite of us all.
But when auntie remarked that she was going to her room to sharpen her pencil, and draw some pictures of a cat, or a dog, or a rabbit, Edith's eyes brightened; and she said, ""Let me go too?""
So Edith sat on her auntie's lap, and asked her to draw a rabbit,—a ""yabbit,"" Edith called it,—and to begin at his ears.
""Yes, little pet. Here are his ears, and here is his body, and here is his tail, and here are his feet, and here are some spectacles for him to see through,"" said auntie, drawing each article as she named it. ""And here are some pretty red beads around his neck, and some rings in his ears; and now we will tie a nice blue ribbon on his tail."" Here Edith suggested shoes for his feet.",-0.429123599,0.446209982
f3706bfa0,,,"I next visited the chapel of Islip, built by the old Abbot of Islip, who dedicated it to St. John the Baptist. One very interesting monument there was to the memory of General Wolfe, who fell, you remember, at the battle of Quebec. His monument is a very beautiful piece of art. It represents him falling into the arms of one of his own soldiers, who is pointing to Glory, which comes in the shape of an angel from the clouds, holding a wreath with which to crown the hero. A Highland sergeant looks sorrowfully on the dying warrior, while two lions sleep at his feet. The inscription reads as follows: ""To the memory of James Wolfe, Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of the British land forces on an expedition against Quebec, who, after surmounting, by ability and valor, all obstacles of art and nature, was slain in the moment of victory, on the 13th of September, 1759, the King and Parliament of Great Britain dedicate this monument.""",-1.530380628,0.454406697
e14aded9d,,,"Sixty years ago, when grandpa was a boy, he had a dog called Romeo, who was made to do the work of churning butter. I never saw a churn that went by dog-power; but it must have been a clumsy affair.
The task could not have been an agreeable one, and I do not wonder that Romeo did not like it. One morning, when the churn was taken out, and the cream was all ready to be made into butter, there was no Romeo to be found. Long and loud were the calls made for him; but he did not answer to his name.
The churning was done that day without his help. Nothing was seen of him until just before dark, when he came into the house with the air of a prodigal son. He did not walk up like an honest dog to get his supper, but slunk under a table.",0.06665353,0.485586789
69f2b5a4a,,,"""I don't believe it is anything of any account,"" cried brother John. ""She wants to keep us curious.""
""Well, I think Pansy must be learning a new piece to recite,"" said her mother.
""That's not it,"" said Pansy. ""It's a 'portant secret: one that my mother will like to hear.""
""Oh, it's important, is it?"" said papa. ""I do wonder what it can be.""
""Mother, what day was it that you lost your wedding-ring?"" said John.
""Don't speak of it, John. It was more than a month ago. I have hunted high and low, and cannot find it. I would have given all my other jewelry rather than have lost it.""
Here Pansy turned red in the face, got down from her high-chair, and ran out of the room.
""Did you see that?"" said papa. ""The little rogue has found the ring, and that's her 'portant secret.""
In a minute Pansy came back, holding up the ring, and her face radiant with delight. ""I found it, mother, among my doll's things. You must have dropped it there when you were fixing them.""
And so little Pansy's secret was out at last!",-0.784494976,0.468460591
2ca4b1b58,,,"She looked for them all about the menagerie, and asked all the animals if they had seen her two pretty yellow-striped lion-puppies. No one had seen them, and nearly every one was sorry, and had something kind to say, for Juno was a favorite with many. To be sure, the wolf snarled at her, and said it served her right for thinking that she, a miserable tame dog, could bring up young lions. But Juno knew she had only done as she was told, so she did not mind the wolf. The monkeys cracked jokes, and teased her, saying they guessed she would be given another family to take care of—sea lions, most likely, and she would have to live in the water to keep them in order. This had not occurred to Juno before, and it made her quite uneasy.",-0.529575682,0.476675641
eaef73f9a,,,"At some schools, where a plan of this kind has been adopted, boys have been inclined to look upon it as a great bore, and have dreaded the return of the so-called social evening, when they would have to be, for some hours, in a state of nervous anxiety, lest they should be catechised in a corner, or be betrayed into something that they would be sorry for afterward.
But, with one exception, this was not the case with the Blackrock boys; the Tuesday reception was always a red-letter day with them, and if ever, through misbehavior, an invitation was withheld, it was regarded as one of the severest punishments inflicted in the school.
Several boys were one day standing in a group under the elms which enclosed the play-ground, putting on their jackets to return to the school-room, as the recreation hour was nearly over.
""Who's going to the house on Tuesday?"" asked Howard Pemberton.",-1.643398074,0.473123342
fdf6ceef7,,,"As for the potatoes, they had turned out so small, and the corn was so short in the ear, that the land only knew where the money to get them all something to wear was to come from. Not that she cared for dress, for hadn't she worn the same bonnet and shawl to church until she was ashamed to show her face there? As for the sewing society, she was a master hand at cutting and planning, and she could go as well as not, too, now that Debby was quite old enough to take care of the baby, and get the supper ready for her father and the boys; but not a step was she going to sit next to Mrs. Williams with her black silk, and Mrs. White with her handsome alpaca, although their husbands' farms were no larger than Mr. Blanchard's; and for the life of her she could not understand why she should not dress as well when she worked twice as hard as they did.",-1.000528196,0.479902063
5f044113a,,,"The match is made. The towering pine which listened to the whisper of the south wind and swayed in the cold northern blast has been so divided that we can take it bit by bit and lightly twirl it between two fingers. But what it has lost in size it has gained in use. The little flame it carries, and which looks so harmless, flashing into brief existence, has a latent power more terrible than the whirlwind which perhaps sent the tall pine-tree crashing to the ground.
But the story is not yet closed. From the machine which completed the matches, they are taken to the ""boxers""—mostly girls and women—who place them in little boxes. The speed with which this is done is surprising. With one hand they pick up an empty case and remove the cover, while with the other they seize just a sufficient number of matches, and by a peculiar shuffling motion arrange them evenly, then—'t is done!",-0.95282901,0.468169991
12d29c137,,,"Many times have I heard English people say, as if they really pitied us: ""Your country has no monuments yet; but then she is so young—only two hundred years old—and, of course, cannot be expected to have either monuments or a history."" Yet we have some monuments, and a chapter or two of history, that the mother-country does not too fondly or frequently remember. But I am not going to write now of the Bunker Hill Monument, nor of the achievement at New Orleans, nor of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. I want to tell of another land nearer its infancy than ours, with a history scarcely three-quarters of a century old, but with one monument, at least, that is well worth seeing, and that cannot be thought of without emotions of loving admiration and reverence. The memorial is of bronze, and tells a story of privation and suffering, but of glorious heroism, and victory even in death.",-1.283404874,0.494513853
b57463aaf,,,"More than a hundred and sixty-eight years ago, there lived a curious personage called ""Old Riddler."" His real name was unknown to the people in that part of the country where he dwelt; but this made no difference, for the name given to him was probably just as good as his own. Indeed, I am quite sure that it was better, for it meant something, and very few people have names that mean anything.
He was called Old Riddler for two reasons. In the first place, he was an elderly man; secondly, he was the greatest fellow to ask riddles that you ever heard of. So, this name fitted him very well.
Old Riddler had some very peculiar characteristics —among others, he was a gnome. Living underground for the greater part of his time, he had ample opportunities of working out curious and artful riddles, which he used to try on his fellow-gnomes; and if they liked them, he would go above-ground and propound his conundrums to the country people, who sometimes guessed them, but not often.",-0.412664873,0.48170426
aacebbd54,,,"My dear Cousins: Shall I really be talking to you as I sit here in my study with the river Thames now flowing, now ebbing, past my window? I am uttering no word, I am only writing; and you are not listening, not reading, for it will be a long time ere what I am now thinking shall reach you over the millions of waves that swell and sink between us. And yet I shall in very truth be talking to you.
In like manner, with divine differences, God began to talk to us ages before we were born: I will not say before we began to be, for, in a sense, that very moment God thought of us we began to exist, for what God thinks of, is. We have been lying for ages in his heart without knowing it. But now we have begun to know it. We are here, with a great beginning, and before us an end so great that there is no end to it. But we must take heed, for, else, the very greatness will turn to confusion and terror.",-2.355404131,0.531540924
388c83bfb,,,"Annie could but wonder of what use a pipe would be, but she had been taught to be patient and wait until things were explained to her; so she stood very quiet, and soon saw the fairy in yellow come floating down to the earth. Behind her came another little creature all in red, and still behind her a third in a beautiful blue dress. Between them they carried a long pipe, much like the one Roger, the gardener, smoked; and when they were in front of the little girl they began to blow through it very hard, and Annie soon found herself inside a large soap-bubble, and felt that she was gently floating upward in her fairy balloon. When she reached the castle she touched the thin wall with her fingers and it melted away, and left her standing in Fairy Land!",1.078380806,0.535500047
b03a4313b,,,"One day, Mr. Little called their attention to the wood which the carpenters had thrown aside as rubbish, and told them he was going to pick up some of it, and send it home to burn; ""and now, boys,"" said Mr. Little, ""if you would like to help your mother, here is a chance to get her some kindling-wood. You may come every day, and get all you can carry home.""
They came home delighted with the plan; and the next morning, as soon as breakfast was done, they were ready to begin their work. The two oldest boys took their wheelbarrows, and the youngest one his cart, and off they started. I could see them from my window, working very diligently, and they soon came back, each with a good-sized load.
They knocked at the back-door, and asked me where I would have my wood put. I told them they could put it in the cellar, and opened the outside cellar-door for them. Each one threw out his load, and started for another; and so they kept at work nearly the whole forenoon.",0.473172404,0.502895616
75bedd3d4,,,"Mrs. Somerby said no more, sure that she had roused him from his torpid condition. She wound Joe up to the starting-point, just as she did her kitchen-clock, and he kept upon his course as steadily as that ancient time-piece. She was just the wife for ease-loving Joe, whom her brisk ways never wounded, for he knew her heart was full of tenderness for him.
An hour later Joe drove into the yard. Mrs. Somerby flew out with a lump of sugar for a jaded-looking horse, bought by Joe to speculate upon, and who ate everything he could get, including his bedding, and never grew fat.
""I'll make a trotter of him in a month, and sell him to some of the grandees!"" Joe said, but his system failed or the material was poor,—old Jack slouched along as if each step was likely to be his last. But despite this, Jack had become very dear to the childless couple, and they were as blind as doating parents to his defects.
""Bless his heart!"" cried Mrs. Somerby, as Jack whinnied at her approach, and thrust his ugly nose into her hand.",-1.052631917,0.44707056
847bf2182,,,"For a long time they continued neck and neck, and the excitement rose to fever heat. At this juncture a mouse attempted to cross the racecourse, and was instantly devoured by an owl, who acted as police of the course. At length the two racers re-appeared coming toward the grand stand,—that is, the place where the Cassowary stood with the signal-gun or, rather, pistol. The shouts and cries became more agitated and violent; there was no doubt about it,—the Stork was ahead! It was in vain that the gallant little Crane strained every sinew; the Stork came into the stand a good three lengths ahead of his adversary. Bang! went the pistol, and the Stork had won. His adherents crowded around him cheering vociferously, and raising him aloft upon their shoulders above the crowd. Even the Cassowary came forward and shook hands with him.",-0.685224828,0.495170011
532fcc79f,,,"""You must be losing your eyesight,"" said the cook, taking a spoon. ""Now, then, I will stir up the eggs; and now I will put in a little flour; and now I will grate in some nutmeg.""
""I think you had better put in some milk,"" said Jenny.
""Of course, I shall,"" replied the cook. ""Where's the basin of milk?""
""You will find it on the floor,"" said Jenny.
Albert looked, and cried out, ""Go away, Snap!—See, Jenny, that greedy dog has lapped up all the milk!""
""No matter,"" said Jenny. ""You can get some more where you got the eggs.""
So Albert seized the little pitcher, went through the motion of emptying it, stirred the pudding once more, and then placed it on the little doll-stove.
""Oh, what a fine cook you are!"" said Jenny. ""But, when I am very hungry, I think I shall not come to you for my dinner.""",0.60625712,0.509828577
7bea11cc5,,,"They made pies; they dug holes, and filled them with water for wells; they made mountains with caves in their sides, and every thing else they could think of. When dinner-time came, Jamie had to be coaxed away from his sand-heap; and mamma said she believed he would sleep in it, if he were allowed to.
After dinner, as soon as he waked from his nap, he went straight to his sand again. Freddy was there before him; and soon Minnie Rich, a little girl eleven years old, came out, and played with them.
She knew how to work sand better than any of them. First she wet it. Then she made a house with holes in the sides for doors and windows, and a chip for a chimney. Then she made a smooth lawn in front of the house, and some hills and valleys in the rear, fenced in a yard, and set out some flowers.",0.552231143,0.579387629
a51c40bfc,,,"""You great, horrid thing! Every single berry is gone now, for I won't eat them after you. So now!""
But, so far from being penitent or frightened, the bear took this interference, and especially the blow, in very bad part, and after a moment of blinking astonishment, he sat up on his haunches, growled a little, showed his teeth, and intimated very plainly that unless that pail of berries was restored at once, there would be trouble for some one. But this was not the first bear-cub that Roxie had seen, and her temper was up as well as the bear's. So, firmly grasping the pail, she began to retreat backward, at first slowly, but as the bear dropped on his feet and seemed inclined to follow her, or rather the pail of berries, she lost courage, and turning, began to run, not caring or noting in what direction, and still mechanically grasping the pail of berries.",-1.507738799,0.455487682
554968681,,,"His cage was placed on her table near her bed, and she always began the day by having a little talk with Chirp. There was not the least risk in opening the cage, and letting him out into the room; for he would fly to Helen as soon as she called him.
So for years the little bird and the little girl lived happily together. One November day, when Helen was almost eleven years old, she had been out making a call, and, on her return, Chirp was missing. Helen saw that a window had been left open, and knew that he must have flown out.
""Oh, dear!"" said she, in great distress, ""my poor little Chirp is gone, and I shall never see him again.""
Her mother tried to comfort her by saying that he had not been gone long, and could not be far away. ""But,"" said Helen, ""it is cold weather, and is snowing too, and he must be chilled to death.""",0.887251286,0.513437791
0c101f2db,,,"The ""Legend of Sleepy Hollow"" is a genuine ghost story. It is not very startling, but very, very funny, when you know what scared poor Ichabod Crane on his midnight ride that last time he went courting Governor Wouter Van Twiller's only daughter.
You must read for yourselves the famous story of Rip Van Winkle and the nap he took. It is too long for me to give in Irving's words, and ""Rip Van Winkle"" is just such a story as no one but Irving knows how to tell.
In another of his interesting stories in the ""Sketch Book,"" told, he says, by a strange old traveler to as strange a company gathered in a great inn-kitchen, Irving describes the busy making-ready for a wedding. The bride's father, he says, ""had in truth nothing exactly to do.""
Do you suppose he was content to do nothing ""when all the world was in a hurry?""",0.356843257,0.48151953
04a9a0f6e,,,"It was quite a long walk to the store—the store, because the village only boasted one. That did not matter much to the inhabitants generally, as the town was so near. Bentleyville and Bentley were connected by a straggling line of houses that made it hard to tell where the village ended and the town began. Ambitious young villagers took advantage of this to talk about ""we city people,"" while the older ones contentedly spoke of themselves as ""plain country-folks.""
Nannie did not care in the least which she was, neither did she greatly mind the walk, though the feet that had done so much running began to grow tired. If only she could carry a peace-offering to Aunt Samantha! That would make all right, and her small world bright again, she was sure.
""I can't have any candy or slate-pencils for ever so long; but I don't care, 'cause I do like her, and she'll know it—course she will if I buy her a handkerchief; and she wont think I got all mussed up on purpose,"" she soliloquized.",-0.715306862,0.474486356
39651417c,,,"A strip of board, half an inch thick, five inches wide, and twenty-two inches long, has notches cut in one side, two inches wide at the bottom, and tapering as shown. Short bits of board nailed upon each end keep the strip upright. Then it is placed upon the floor within two feet of the wall. Each player is provided with the same number of marbles (from three to five, or as many as the players wish), and from the opposite side of the room, he rolls at the board, the object being to roll through the arches, which have numbers immediately above them in the manner shown. The one making the most counts after rolling all the marbles is entitled to one game. Or, if you have but five or six marbles, each party rolls the whole number by himself, and should there be a tie between those who make the highest aggregate number, they must roll again, the one then having the highest tally winning the game.",-2.273949732,0.514694232
db96da49b,,,"There is a great park here, known as the Maidan, where dogs run with bones to pick; and this habit of the dogs suits the crows perfectly, for they always try to get away the bones, and often succeed too. This is the way they usually go to work. The first crow that sees a dog with a bone calls all his friends, and off they fly to where the dog is. There they alight and stand around him. Then they talk to one another. Perhaps one says, in crow language, ""This is an ugly cur;"" another says, ""He has crooked legs;"" another, ""His tail is cut off;"" and so they keep talking until the dog gets angry, and with a snap and a bark, tries to drive them away. This only makes them laugh; and they begin again to torment the dog by talking, and even by jumping upon his back, and pulling his tail.",-0.583532619,0.449156065
3fb0cc126,,,"Now, that there was something she must not tell, Mabel could think of nothing else. She climbed upon his knee, and sat so silent, that her papa said, ""Well, puss, have you nothing to tell papa to-night?""
""Oh, I mustn't tell you my secrets, papa,"" said wise little Mabel: ""I've lots of 'em, and one is for you; and, if I tell, you will know all about it.""
Now that the ice was broken, Mabel chatted on, innocently thinking that her secrets were safe in her wise little head. ""Mamma knows,"" she continued; ""but you mustn't know; and we are going to have a Christmas-tree to put 'em on, and everybody will be so surprised.""
Sure enough, when Christmas Eve came, everyone was surprised, but, most of all, little Mabel; for a beautiful doll and many other pretty things hung upon the tree for her. ""Why, mamma,"" she exclaimed, ""somebody else must have had secrets too!""",-0.270183309,0.513082525
545bdd4f9,,,"""Tell us a story, Kate,"" said Emma.
""Yes, do,"" chimed in Bertha.
""Will you tell us a story?"" said Herbert.
Thus, entreated by these dear, good children, I could not refuse. So while their three heads, close together, with their bright faces beaming upon me and upon each other, formed a pretty picture, I told them this story about two shepherd-dogs, Bravo and Rory:—
""When farmer John and his bride moved into their little white house, a mile from the old homestead, they took with them the young dog, Bravo, and left Rory to guard the old house. Bravo was large and wide awake, but only five months old. He seemed very happy in his new home. His master taught him many curious things; and for a week or more he showed no signs of homesickness.
""But when old Toss, from the tannery nearby, made an attack upon him, although Bravo's fleetness saved him from harm, he began to wish he had never left his puppy-hood's home to live with farmer John.",-0.20107465,0.507602083
610ee98eb,,,"It was not long before I heard a gentle whirr in the leaves overhead, and, looking up, saw two birds circling around the twig, but at some distance above it. Then one of them, the mother, of course, drew nearer and nearer in smaller and smaller circles, at the same time calling to her baby in encouraging little chirps.
Birdie on his perch seemed very much excited, turning his head from one side to the other in the cunningest way. But when his mother came close to him, only to dart off and call on him to follow, he looked so disappointed that I really felt as if I must comfort him.
The mother came back very soon and resumed her lesson in flying, and very hard work she found it too, for the little fellow was timid and refused to follow her, in spite of all her coaxing and scolding. After working a long while, she flew off, leaving her baby trembling on his perch. I pitied the poor little fellow, he seemed so forlorn and helpless.",-0.408106535,0.482470934
61cd7b9de,,,"The ground was covered with snow, and now it had begun raining. There was no prospect of a change in the weather, which made Fred's face rather gloomy as he looked out of the window. Harry was turning over the leaves of a storybook. You could see they were both disappointed that the morning was stormy; for when they came to grandpapa's in the winter, they expected bright days and plenty of fun.
""What shall we do?"" said Fred.
""Let's go into the garret!"" exclaimed Harry.
This plan evidently suited both of them, for they made a rush toward the door; and the dog, awakening from his nap, entered into the idea, too.
At this moment, Aunt Carrie came into the room. They wished it had been grandmamma, for she never laid the least restriction on their sports but smiled on every request and allowed them to do exactly as they pleased.",0.339971588,0.486560076
4bff73b96,,,"So, the next day, the sugar being out, she bought two dollars' worthwhile Teddy was at school, and without even telling his mother, she searched the house for a hiding-place. She shook her head at the pantry and cellar, but she visited the garret, and the spare front chamber; she looked into the camphor-chest, she contemplated a barrel of potatoes, she moved about the things in her wardrobe, and at last, she hid the sugar! No danger of Teddy finding it this time! Aunt Ann could not repress a smile of triumph as she sat down to her knitting.
Unconscious Teddy came home at noon, ate his dinner, and was off again. His mother and Aunt Ann went out making calls that afternoon, and as Aunt Ann closed the street door she thought to herself—""I can really take comfort going out, I feel so safe in my mind, now that sugar is hid.""",-0.419731503,0.500527777
765754b41,,,"On a number of the hills sat solemn old owls, trying to look very wise. Most of these owls sat perfectly still as we drove by; but I saw two or three fly slowly away, as if half asleep. I wonder if these sober old birds teach the little prairie-dogs any of their wisdom.
All the prairies in this part of Kansas are covered with a short, thick grass, called ""buffalo-grass,"" and the dogs live on its roots. These roots are little bulbs, and make nice rich food for the funny little fellows.
A gentleman who has lived here for many years tells me that all their houses are connected underground by halls or passages, so that they can travel a mile or so without coming to the top of the ground.
Wherever you see a prairie-dog village, there you will find good water by digging a few feet. Sometimes boys capture these odd little dogs, and they become quite tame and make cunning pets.",-0.056406551,0.479751466
5db930a7c,,,"He understands fishing much better than most boys, for he seldom misses his game. He takes his position on the railing, and fixes his eyes upon the finny tribes below, and when a fish that suits him comes within his range, he dives into the water and brings it up with his stout beak, and then beats it upon the railing to make it limp and tender before swallowing.
It is not so very surprising that he is such an expert fisher, for during the winter it is his only occupation; he has no family to look after now, and he is so very selfish and quarrelsome that he will not allow any of his brothers to fish near him. He considers the whole length of the wharf his fishing-post, and his brothers must not trespass upon his grounds; if they do, he chases them away with a rattling, clanging noise, enough to frighten any fisher not stronger than himself.",-0.081595481,0.507193133
f09734a29,,,"When I look at pictures of people of old times, I often think what a curious thing it is that the only apparent difference between them and the people of the present day is to be seen in their clothes.
If we could take a dozen or so of ancient Greeks and Romans; some gentlemen and ladies of the middle ages; a party of our great-grandfathers and mothers, and some nice people who are now living in the next street, and were to dress all the women in calico frocks and sun-bonnets, and all the men in linen coats and trousers and broad straw hats, with their hair cut short; and were then to jumble them all up together, and make them keep their tongues quiet, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a committee, unacquainted with any of the party, to pick out the ancients, the middle-agers, or the moderns.",-0.519230627,0.479176332
1566cf3de,,,"So he put on a smile (of course it was not a very beautiful one, for he was in a hurry, but it was the best he could do), and stared straight into the cow's eyes. She saw that smile, and it so touched her that she stopped short. Then she sauntered back a little way, but the thought of that aggravating fly, and that awful frog, was too much for her poor nerves, and turning around, she dashed madly on again.
In another minute, the poor old man—cane, little legs, smile and all—was up in the air.
He alighted in the top of a hickory-tree. One branch grazed his eye, two ran into his legs, while another held his smile stiff and straight.
Thus he stayed until an eagle caught sight of him, pounced right down, and flew off with him to her nest, which was on a huge rock that rose straight up into the cold air and made the summit of a mountain.",-0.803262973,0.46455111
fb68de723,,,"I have known several cases in which treasure lost by piracy or shipwreck has been recovered after a century or more. Some years ago a company of men from Boston made two cruises to the shoals of the Silver Key on the Bahama Banks, a spot noted for shipwrecks. They had some clue to a treasure-laden ship which had foundered there long ago. The first trip was unsuccessful, but on the second voyage the wreck was found. Divers, armed with modern apparatus, spent several days in the quest, but in vain, until, finally, just as the last diver was about to give the signal to be drawn up, he leaned against what seemed only the barnacle-encrusted end of a beam; but suddenly it gave way, and numbers of golden doubloons rolled out at his feet. Considerable sums rewarded further search in the sand-filled and decaying carcass of the old ship; but exactly how much was realized is known only to the discoverers, who kept the matter secret, and thus evaded paying a great part of the share due to the British crown, in whose dominion the treasure was found.",-0.755286774,0.484693766
4df97a927,,,"As with consciousness and volition, so with sudden unfamiliarity. It impresses us more and more deeply the more unfamiliar it is, until it reaches such a point of impressiveness as to make no further impression at all; on which we then and there die. For death only kills through unfamiliarity--that is to say, because the new position, whatever it is, is so wide a cross as compared with the old one, that we cannot fuse the two so as to understand the combination; hence we lose all recognition of, and faith in, ourselves and our surroundings.
But however much we imagine we remember concerning the details of any remarkable impression which has been made us by a single blow, we do not remember as much or nearly as much as we think we do. The subordinate details soon drop out of mind. Those who think they remember even such a momentous matter as the battle of Waterloo recall now probably but half-a-dozen episodes, a gleam here, and a gleam there, so that what they call remembering the battle of Waterloo, is, in fact, little more than a kind of dreaming--so soon vanishes the memory of any unrepeated occurrence.",-3.431114154,0.600151746
662c8504a,,,"Crip was having a dismal—a very dismal time of it. Crip was eleven, it was his birthday, and Crip was in disgrace—in a garret.
Wasn't it dreadful?
It happened thus: Crip's father was a shoemaker. The bench where he worked and the little bit of a shop, about eight feet every way, in which he worked, stood on a street leading down to the town dock, and the name of the town we will say was Barkhampstead, on Cape Cod Bay.
Now and then—that is, once or twice in the year—a whaling vessel set sail from the dock, and sometimes, not always, the same vessels returned to the dock.
The going and the coming of a ""whaler"" made Crip's father, Mr. John Allen, glad. It was his busy season, for when the seamen went, they always wanted stout new boots and shoes, and, when they came, they always needed new coverings on their feet to go home in.",-1.572730112,0.502195987
f054d6f00,,,"Johnny was in disgrace. ""Drandma"" had set him down uncomfortably hard in his little wooden chair by the fire-place, and told him not to move one inch right or left till she came back; she also told him to think over how naughty he had been all day, but some way it seemed easier just then to think of his grandma's short-comings.
He looked through his tears at the candle in the tall silver candlestick, and by half shutting his eyes he could make three candles, and by blinking a little he could see pretty colors; but amusement tends to dry tears, and Johnny wanted to cry.
He caught the old cat and watched his tears slide off her smooth fur, but when he held her head on one side and let a large round tear run into her ear, she left him in indignation. Then he looked out of the window. The snow was falling fast, as it had been all day.",-0.144546229,0.506767041
76f92b721,,,"The biggest desert in the world is in Africa, and is called the Sahara. It is almost as large as the Atlantic Ocean, but instead of water it is all sands and rocks. Like the ocean, it is visited with storms; dreadful gales, when the wind scoops up thousands of tons of sand and drives them forward, burying and crushing all they meet. And it has islands, too—small green patches, where springs bubble through the ground, and ferns and acacias and palm-trees grow. When a traveler sees one of these fertile spots afar off, he feels as a tempest-tossed sailor does at sight of land. It is delightful to quit the hot, baking sun, sit in shadow under the trees, and rest the eyes, long wearied with dazzling sands, on the sweet green and the clear spring. Oases, these islands are called. Long distances divide them. It is often a race for life to get across from one to the other.",1.103341259,0.553751438
dfae5947a,,,"When my mamma was sick, he used to fly about her, and make a great buzzing; and, when the girl brought up her dinner, he would crawl about the tray as if he were hungry. Mamma would give him some sugar, which he liked very much.
We missed him once for a whole week. We looked all over the room, but could not find him anywhere. At last, one day, we saw him on the window trying to fly, and what do you think? The poor fellow had lost one of his wings. Mamma said that he must have flown into the gas-light, and got burnt. She gave him some sugar, and he seemed to feel better for eating it.
I watched him a long time, and when he had eaten enough he crawled on to my hand. I took him off, and put him on the window again; but he kept coming back to my hand, and I think, if he could have spoken, he would have said, ""Thank you, little girl, for my nice dinner.""",0.13819871,0.48820993
48c8e3b82,,,"Near the southern extremity of the western coast of Ireland, there is a little harbor called Valentia, as you will see by referring to a map. It faces the Atlantic Ocean, and the nearest point on the opposite shore is a sheltered bay prettily named Heart's Content, in Newfoundland. The waters between are the stormiest in the world, wrathy with hurricanes and cyclones, and seldom smooth even in the calm months of midsummer. The distance across is nearly two thousand miles, and the depth gradually increases to a maximum of three miles. Between these two points of land—Valentia in Ireland and Heart's Content in Newfoundland—a magical rope is laid, binding America to Europe with a firm bond, and enabling people in London to send instantaneous messages to those in New York. It is the first successful Atlantic cable, and my piece was cut from it before it was laid.",-1.002324736,0.46574205
21947ffde,,,"There were once three little foxes who lived in a hole in a bank. It was a large, comfortable hole, and these three little foxes (two of them were brothers and one was a sister) could lie down and put their heads out of the hole, and see what was going on in the neighborhood.
One afternoon one of the brother foxes slipped out by himself for a little walk, and when he came back he called the other two, and said: ""Oh, come here! I will show you something, and tell you all about it.""
So they all lay down close together, and looked out of the hole.
""Now then,"" said the brother fox who had been out, ""you see that fence down there?""
""Oh yes,"" said his brother and sister.
""Well, on the other side of that fence is a splendid chicken-yard. I went down there and saw it myself. I peeped through the fence. And in that yard there is a row of chicken-coops, all with chickens in.""
""Oh!"" said the others. They began to feel hungry already.",1.088157073,0.584607574
d64329167,,,"Here is a boy drawing on a wall. He is a shoemaker's boy. His name is Bob.
Tom, the baker's boy, and a little girl named Ann are looking on. ""What is it?"" asks Ann at sight of the picture.
""It's a fine lady, of course,"" says Tom. ""Don't you see her head-dress and her sun-shade?"" Bob is so busy that he cannot stop to talk.
He is well pleased with his work. But the man who is looking around the corner of the wall does not look pleased in the least.
It is plain that he has no love for the fine arts. Or it may be that he does not like to see such a rough sketch on his wall.
Perhaps he thinks that when boys are sent on an errand, they ought not to loiter by the way.",-0.19506093,0.447063772
43ba38ce7,,,"Emma has placed her doll Flora against the pillow. She says, ""Now, dear Flora, I want you to be very good tomorrow, for I am to have company. It is my birthday.""
Then Emma sat down in a chair, and said to herself, ""Why, what an old person I shall be! I shall be four years old; and I shall have to go to school soon, and read in my books. I love to look at the pictures now.""
Emma got down from the chair, and placed Flora in it, and said: ""I want you to be very still now, my child, for I am going to say my evening prayers. You must not cry; you must not stir; for I shall not like it at all if you make the least noise.""
Then Emma said her prayers, and Flora kept quite still all the while. ""Now I shall take off my shoes, and get into bed,"" said Emma; and then she thanked Flora for behaving so well.",0.716756594,0.524379302
8109718b0,,,"Our house had a long back piazza, covered all over with grape-vines, with steps going down to the yard. I discovered that by standing on my tip-toes, halfway up the steps, I could see into the next yard, where there grew such different flowers from ours, and where there often came a little girl of six or seven—about my own age—to gather bouquets. She did not see me at first: so, for many days, I quietly watched the stout little figure. During one of my observations, her mother called her, and such a name as she had! The call, as I heard it, was ""Tobacco, my daughter!"" I felt deeply for the girl who was afflicted by such a name. I determined to throw her the finest bunch of grapes on our vine by way of consolation. Some days after, when I was giving my large family of dolls an airing in the garden, I saw a small face staring at me just over the top of the fence. Being familiar with the position myself, I was not alarmed but hastened to mount to the same level on my side and offer some grapes.",-0.774668028,0.462420835
280b96740,,,"Many years ago, when I was a little fellow, I went on a sail with my Uncle Ralph on one of the prettiest of our northern lakes. The day was fine, the air was mild but fresh, and the hills and banks around us were clothed in green.
Besides Uncle Ralph, in the boat were my Aunt Mary, and cousins Walter and Susan Brent. Uncle Ralph was a sportsman, and he had a gun, with which he hoped to bring down a deer, in case he should see one.
I did not at all like this part of his plan. I knew it would mar my own and my aunt's pleasure, if we were made to see the death of a noble stag or a gentle fawn. But I was too fond of a sail to express my dislike of Uncle Ralph's plan.
At the foot of a hill we stopped in our little boat to pick berries. Aunt Mary said she would stay and read. The rest of us went with Uncle Ralph to a clearing near by, to pick raspberries.",0.089047105,0.485752456
8a60e96ad,,,"For a time the other bears were simple enough to take him at his word. They thought, because he said so, that he must be a very great bear indeed. He never was at a loss when they asked him a question, never would confess his ignorance, and so had to say much that was not true.
Dandy boasted so of the respect which men had paid him, that he made the other bears think he was doing them a great honor by living with them. He made them all wait on him. But at last a young bear, that had escaped from a trap which some men had set for him, said to Dandy, ""Is that ring in your nose for ornament or for use?""
""For ornament, of course,"" said Dandy. ""This ring was a gift from a man who was once my partner. He was so fond of me, and so pleased with my dancing, that he never tired of serving me. He brought me all my food. In fact I had him at my beck and call.""",-0.018214118,0.473772536
de47759ea,,,"This free-and-easy bear then continued his stroll. But the crowd behind him grew larger and larger, and he again turned upon them, and made them run, all laughing and shouting, in various directions.
At last, as if he had had enough of this kind of fun, he quickened his pace, driving five or six fellows into a saloon, while he followed close at their heels. The boys on the other side of the street laughed at this: so he crossed the street quickly, and put them to flight; and the way they all ran was fun for those near the saloon, who were now the laughers, in their turn.
At last, a man with whom Bruin was well acquainted, and on good terms, came up, with a chain in his hand, and threw it about the bear's neck; and then, as if he had had quite enough of a stroll, Bruin quietly followed his guide, and was led back to his owner.",-0.292949238,0.465181639
78feadebb,,,"For two or three months I kept his wings clipped, so that he could not fly far. When I went out for a walk, I generally took him, either in my arms or perched on my hand; and thus I and my pet became known all over the neighborhood; and, when my little playmates invited me to visit them, an invitation was always sent for ""Lillie and her pigeon.""
He followed me everywhere. If I was reading, he rested on my chair; if playing on the piano, he would listen attentively: indeed he acquired such a taste for music, that the only time he ever seemed willing to leave me was to perch upon the foot of a gentleman who was singing very finely.
I taught him a number of tricks, such as bringing me any thing that he could carry, lying down very still till I told him to get up, and running over the piano-keys to make music for himself.",0.56670268,0.470942566
15aeaa28d,,,"""Let us go and find her,"" cried James, the eldest of the three boys. ""Let us all go!"" echoed Susan, his youngest sister. ""Shall Sport go with us?"" asked Emma. ""By all means!"" said James. ""Here, Sport, Sport! Where are you, old fellow?"" A big black-and-white Newfoundlander soon rushed frisking in, wagging his tail, and seeming ready to eat up every one of the children, just to show them how fond he was of them all.
Then the children all set out for Mr. Spicer's shop. There they learned that no Elfrida had been seen in the shop that afternoon. ""Where can she be?"" cried James, a little anxious. ""Sport, where is Elfrida?""
Sport stopped his nonsense of playing with a stick, and began to look serious. Then he made a beeline for the nearest turning on the right, on the way home. This was an old lane, on which some old gardens backed, and which led, by a little longer way, to Brook Cottage.",0.288768108,0.471249908
f540bf677,,,"My friend John lives in Colorado, not far from Denver; and he writes me, that he and his sister, not long ago, walked out to see some prairie dogs.
The prairie dog is about the size of a full grown squirrel, and of a like color. It makes a hole for itself in the ground. This hole is in the shape of a tunnel, and as large round as a man's hat.
Now, this little dog is so gentle, that he lets the owl and the rattlesnake come and live with him, if they like. All three are often found dwelling together. For my part, I should not much like such neighbors.
The prairie dogs live on the roots of grass. Scattered all around the entrance to their homes, you may see remnants of the dry roots which they have got for food. They are quick in their movements, and quite playful.",0.588440804,0.486855035
138640efe,,,"Chestnut-burs, you know, are covered with sharp thorns; and yet the bear, being very fond of chestnuts, would try to get at the nuts which he knew were in them,—snarling and whining, and making up very comical faces, because the burs pricked his mouth.
Solomon would stand and watch him, and think it fine fun. But he came near doing it once too often; for one day, when he had carried the bear a capful of burs, intending to have a good laugh at him, the chain that held the bear was not fastened as firmly as usual. After trying two or three burs, the bear made a spring toward Solomon, got loose from his chain, and started after him in earnest.
Solomon was not long in deciding that he had something to do that time besides laughing, and started in a hurry to get out of the bear's way. Now there was a ladder leaning against the side of the barn close by, and Solomon thought that if he went up on the barn-roof he would be all right.",-1.253895746,0.477440114
e236e910d,,,"We children were stationed far away from danger; and another man and Henry chopped and chopped, till it was almost ready to fall, when they stepped back, and, in less than a minute, there was such a whistling through the air, such a crashing, and breaking of branches, and then a loud thud!
The tree was down. I felt quite breathless with excitement; and so did the others; for it was some minutes before we ran up to see how many nuts there were.
Oh, such lots! all spread around, and beaten out of the prickly burrs, all ready for us. I cannot remember how many we gathered, but it was some bushels; and we could not take all that day: so we concluded to return the next afternoon after school.
And what do you think? When we got there, not a nut was to be found! The little squirrels had been busy in our absence, and had taken away every one of them. Saucy squirrels! But we did not grudge them the nuts; for we had plenty.",-0.539312321,0.479659171
37f0e2943,,,"I told my story first, as mammas usually do; and it was all about a naughty little pig, who did not mind his mother when she bade him stay in the sty, but crawled through a hole in the wall.
Of course this pig got into the garden, and was whipped by the farmer, and bitten by the dog, and had all sorts of unpleasant things happen to him, till he was glad to get back again to the sty.
""Now I'll tell you a pig story,"" said Birdie, with a very wise look.
""Once there was a big mother-pig, and she had lots of children-pigs. One was spotted, and his name was Spotty; one's tail curled, and he was Curly; another was white, and he was Whitey; another was Browny; and another was Greeny.""
""Oh, dear! The idea of a green pig!"" said I.
But Birdie's eyes were fixed on the floor. He was too busy thinking of his story to notice my remark.",0.251353117,0.513382593
c8d948ee6,,,"The doe lifted her head with a quick motion. Had she heard something? Probably it was only the south wind in the balsams. There was silence all about in the forest. With an affectionate glance at her fawn, she continued picking up her breakfast.
But suddenly she started, head erect, eyes dilated, a tremor in her limbs. She turned her head to the south; she listened intently.
There was a sound, a distinct, prolonged note, pervading the woods. It was repeated. The doe had no doubt now. It was the baying of a hound—far off, at the foot of the mountain.
Time enough to fly; time enough to put miles between her and the hound before he should come upon her fresh trail; yes, time enough. But there was the fawn.
The cry of the hound was repeated, more distinct this time. The mother bounded away a few paces. The fawn started up with an anxious bleat. The doe turned; she came back; she couldn't leave him.
She walked away toward the west, and the little thing skipped after her. It was slow going for the slender legs, over the fallen logs and through the rasping bushes.",-0.30538342,0.464904103
71066072a,,,"In its habits it is shy; and its voice may be often heard whilst the eye seeks in vain to find the bird itself. Its food consists of caterpillars and various insects.
The female cuckoo makes no nest, and takes no care of her young. How do you suppose she does? Having a wide bill, she takes up in it one of her eggs, which she puts in the nest of some other bird that feeds on insects.
The strange nurses to whom the cuckoo confides her young become not only good mothers to them, but neglect their own children to take care of the young cuckoos.
As the young cuckoo thrives and grows strong, he thrusts the other birds out of the nest, so that he may have all the room to himself. For five weeks or more his adopted mother supplies him with food.",-0.431388566,0.498336802
96c1afccd,,,"Thereupon Mr. Starling flew at Mrs. Sparrow. Mr. Sparrow, without more delay, went at Mr. Starling. Mrs. Sparrow's brother-in-law paid his respects to Mrs. Starling. There was a lively fight.
It ended in the defeat of the sparrows. The starlings were too big for them. The sparrows retreated in good order, and left the starlings to enjoy their triumph.
""Now, my dear,"" said Mr. Starling, ""go in, and put the house in order. I'll warrant those vulgar sparrows have made a nice mess in there. Sweep the floors, dust the furniture, and get the beds made. I'll stay here in the garden, and rest myself.""
""Just like that husband of mine!"" muttered Mrs. Starling: ""I must do all the work, while he has all the fun. But I suppose there's no help for it.""
So she flew up to the door of the house; but, to her surprise, she could not get through it: the opening was not large enough.
""Well, Mr. Starling,"" said she, ""I do believe we have made a mistake. This is not our house, after all.""",-0.923925664,0.457832939
d7116bca8,,,"One day, when the train was going at full speed through the woods, a partridge, flying from one part of the forest to another, being frightened and bewildered by the noise, dashed against the smoke-stack, and fell at the engineer's feet. The engineer, whose name was Nathaniel Grant, took up the poor frightened bird, gently stroked its ruffled feathers, and carried it carefully to his home.
There the partridge was treated with the greatest kindness, and soon got over its bruises. But it longed for the quiet woods, where its life had been spent. It could not eat, and seemed to be almost breaking its heart with home-sickness.
So the next day, when Mr. Grant started off again on the engine, he took the bird with him. Watching very carefully for the place where the partridge had flown in, he found, at last, the exact spot. There he set the bird free, and away it flew, back to its peaceful home.",-0.042496962,0.462733729
5560a9551,,,"Just as soon as she could see out of her funny little gray eyes, she began to try to get out of the box. She wanted to see what there was outside, where Maltie went. She would climb up a little way, and then tumble back on Miss Tittens and Cuddle, which would make them say, ""Mew,"" and make Teddikins laugh; but Spitfire always said, ""Sptss!"" and would try again.
At last, one day we heard a thump; and we looked around, and there was Spitfire on the floor. She had climbed to the top of the box, and tumbled over the edge, and there she stood, with her tail straight in the air, and her legs wide apart, looking at us, and saying, ""Sptss!""
Maltie was very proud of her kitties, and used to take Cuddle and Miss Tittens in her mouth, and carry them into the dining-room when we were eating our breakfast, to show them to us. But Spitfire would not let her mamma carry her.",-0.149773849,0.477326375
14b89732b,,,"I stooped closer to the ground to see if I could get a clue to the mystery, and found that the dust all about the large spider was alive with little ones that she had just shaken off. What a load! And how did they ever get up on her back? Did they run up her slender legs, and crowd and cling on?
How I wished I knew the spider language, that I might find out why this mother weighed herself down with such a burden of little ones as she walked the street! Was she giving them an airing, and showing them the world? or had the broom of some housemaid swept away her web, and forced her thus to take flight to save her family from destruction?
Perhaps she had been burned out. Or was it the first day of May to her? and had her landlord forced her out of her house because she could not pay the rent?
Alas! she could not tell me; and I left her there in the road with all her little ones about her.",-0.317670184,0.473327788
e483eb793,,,"Not a note would he sing. Aunt Minnie could not coax him with green leaf or seed. He would insist on making himself unhappy until baby was taken out for an airing. Then he would burst into song again, and seem to feel that he was in his old place,—the only treasure.
It was a long time before the poor little bird found out that Aunt Minnie's heart was large enough to love him and her precious baby too. But he is learning it now, and likes to have baby held up to his cage.
When Aunt Minnie lets him out into the room, he hops close by the baby; and baby laughs, and stretches out his dimpled hands to catch him; but he is wise enough to keep out of baby's way.
Don't you think it is nice for Aunt Minnie to have such treasures?",-0.092406451,0.535117655
afd1e9b86,,,"Billy was the old family horse, kind, gentle, and loving. Anybody could catch him, or lead him, or drive him. He liked to be petted, and in return seemed to take pride in being kind to all in the family.
Tom was a good horse too; but we had not owned him so long, and he did not care much to have any one pet him.
Billy was a little lame; and though he worked everywhere on the farm, and in drawing loads on the road, yet he was generally excused from going with the carriage, except when it was necessary for some of us children to drive.
One day my father went to the village with Tom, leaving Billy at home alone, in a field near the house. He missed his old friend Tom. They had worked together so much, that they had become great friends; and either one was very lonesome without the other.",0.909419695,0.560227077
e43288516,,,"One day, when my father wished to go away to the mill, he sent my brother Robert down to the pasture to catch Billy. Robert brought the horse up to the house, tied him to the fence in the backyard, and gave him some oats in a pail.
In a pen back of the house we kept three pigs: two of them were white; and the other was spotted,—black and white. These pigs had got out of the pen by pushing off a board from one side of it.
Soon after Billy began to eat his dinner, the two white pigs came running through the yard. They saw Billy eating his oats; and, thinking it would be nice for them to have some as well as he, they ran up to his pail, and without as much as saying, ""By your leave,"" began to help themselves.
Billy had no idea of sharing his dinner with such company as this: so he lopped back his ears, looked as cross as he possibly could, snapped at the pigs fiercely with his teeth, raised his hind-feet from the ground, as if to kick them, and at last succeeded in frightening them away.",0.592079662,0.537623657
c94355a18,,,"On a dry pleasant day, last autumn, I saw her seated on the grass. I went up to tell her not to sit there; for it is not safe to sit on the ground, even in dry weather.
As I drew near to Jessie from behind, I heard her talking. To whom could she be talking? There was no one by her side; that is to say, no human being. But soon I found she was talking to a wasp that was coming as if to sting her.
""Wasp, wasp, go away, and come again another day,"" said she. But the wasp did not heed her. It flew quite near to her face. Instead of striking at the bold insect, she merely drew back a little out of its way; for she thought, ""Surely the wasp will not harm me, if I do not harm it.""",1.316493176,0.611269326
e2093875b,,,"General Tommy felt a weight of responsibility upon his shoulders, and, like a prudent soldier, he resolved not to go into battle until his army was large enough to make victory certain. So he enlisted Queen Lucy the First as a recruit.
Queen Lucy looked very grand in her paper cocked hat, with a feather at the top. She carried a gun; and General Tommy taught her how to fire it off. When all were ready for the onset, he blew a trumpet.
The army marched in excellent order along the entry, into the play-room; and not a soldier drew back as they came within sight of the enemy. ""Halt!"" cried General Tommy. The army halted. The traitor, ""Dandy Jim,"" stood pointing his sword, and the dolls all kept still.
One long blast of the trumpet, and then the brave General Tommy cried out, ""Now, soldiers, on, on to victory!""
On they went. The tin soldiers were soon swept down. The dog and the elephant were handsomely beaten; and, rushing into the fort, General Tommy seized the traitor, ""Dandy Jim,"" by the throat, and said, ""Now, sir, your doom is a dungeon!""",-0.340544236,0.479603959
7fa0079d0,,,"To tell the truth, my sympathies were divided. The little bright-eyed mouse was so cunning and swift, that I thought to myself, ""What a pity to kill such a bright little fellow!"" But then I knew how disappointed poor Breezy would be, if she should wake, and learn somehow that a mouse had run over the floor while she was indulging in inglorious slumber.
Out came mousie quite boldly, and, finding some crumbs under the table, nibbled at them in great haste. Poor little fellow, if I had had a bit of cheese, I should have been tempted to give it to him, there and then.
But, all at once, Breezy woke, and saw what was going on. Mousie, however, had not been so stupid, while making his meal, as not to keep one eye open on his enemy. Quick as a flash he ran for the little crack that led under the cupboard, and thus made his escape.",-0.177925262,0.489054792
55b9d4cad,,,"One day Freddie got his papa to build him a small shelf on the tree, about four feet from the ground, so that he could put nuts on it to feed the squirrels. At first the little fellows were very shy, and would not come near the shelf, but sat on the branches of the tree; and we fancied that we heard them saying to each other, ""Do you think that little boy would hurt us, if we should run down, and take one of those nuts?""
But, after a while, they came down, one by one, took the nuts, and went scampering up to the top branches; and in a few minutes down came the empty shells. They grew so tame before the summer was over, that if we put any thing on their shelf, and took a seat a few steps away, they would come down quite boldly, and get their breakfast.",0.605469731,0.502768489
6a7bf1b8d,,,"Dodger is a full-blooded Scotch terrier. His eyes are the brightest of all bright eyes; and he acts just as one might suppose from his name. He dodges here and there,—under the sofa, and behind the stove, and up in a chair, and sometimes puts his paws up on the baby's cradle.
The other day, the baby's red sock dropped off from his foot; and Dodger slyly picked it up, and, going to a corner of the room, ate off the red tassels that were on it. I don't think he will do it again; for he did not act as though they tasted very good.
Dodger has many cunning ways. He will bring his master's slippers, sit up straight, pretend to be dead, and do many other funny things. Just now his master is trying to teach him to shut a door.",0.493708415,0.539119218
5be9a60e6,,,"One day last summer, at the great Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, I overheard a conversation that interested me very much. The subject of it was a strange little animal called a ""gopher,"" which sat stuck up in a case with its comical little head perched up in the air; for it wasn't even alive, but was a poor little stuffed gopher.
In front of the case I noticed two farmers, who were talking about my little friend in a very earnest way: so I listened to their remarks.
""Yes,"" said one, ""I tell you he is a dreadful creature to dig. Why, he makes us a sight of trouble out our way! can't keep anything that he can dig for, away from him.""
""Is that so?"" said the other man.
""Yes. Why, I pay my boys five cents for every one of 'em they catch; and it's lively work getting 'em, I tell you! See his nose, now! doesn't that look sharp? I tell you, when that fellow gets hold of a job, he keeps right at it! There is no giving up in him.""",-0.799487257,0.474243855
7ff68b5da,,,"One night, the hoseman (who sleeps upstairs in the engine-house, so as to be all ready if there is an alarm of fire) heard a great noise down below,—a stamping and jumping, as if the horses were getting ready to go to a fire, when there was no alarm at all. He went softly to the stairway, and looked down; and there was Jim, jumping over the shafts of the hose-carriage, first one way, then another, just to amuse himself.
One day old Jim was in the yard behind the engine-house, and a man went out to catch him, and lead him in. But he rushed and pranced around the yard, and would not be caught. Then the man set out to drive him in; and what do you think Jim did?
Instead of going in at the open door, he made a leap, and went in at the open window, without breaking a glass, or hurting himself in the least. No one who saw the window would believe that such a great horse could possibly have gone through it.",-1.11705484,0.471546055
6c95bd675,,,"""Why, when a fellow says that he has got the best marbles, and the best kite, and the swiftest sled, and the handsomest velocipede, and the most knowing dog, anywhere in town, we say his talk is all 'great I and little you.' That is, we mean he is always bragging; and a braggart is a very disagreeable person,"" said Wallace.
Herbie looked at Georgie, and both blushed a little. The boys had great fun with their kites; and when they got home, and Wallace and Herbie went up stairs to put away the kite, Herbie said, ""Well, my kite did beat Georgie's, just as I told him it would.""
""That is true,"" said Wallace; ""but you said the other day that you liked Georgie, and didn't like him, because he was always telling how much bigger and better his things were than yours; and now, today, you were making yourself disagreeable to him by bragging about your kite. Now, if you want the boys to like you, my lad, you must give up talking 'great I and little you,' for it is not sensible nor kind.""",-1.097408615,0.459675398
dfa0adfbf,,,"One night there came a terrible storm of wind and rain. When I awoke in the morning, and opened my window, there were the old robins flying about the garden in great distress, making such a dreadful cry, that I went out to see what was the matter. What do you think I saw?
The pretty nest was on the ground, torn in pieces by the wind; and the little baby-birds lay in the cold wet grass, crying pitifully. The old birds were flying about, and beating the grass with their wings.
I ran to the house, and found an old tin pail. I lined this with nice hay from Billy's stable, picked up the poor little robins, and put them in the warm dry hay. Then I hung the pail on a branch of the bush, tied it firmly with some twine, and went into the house to watch the old birds from my window.",0.971212194,0.60067463
d56971604,,,"We keep crickets in a box, and find them very interesting. They are very active, and occupy themselves in laying eggs, digging holes, eating, singing, and running. Only the males sing, and their wings are very rough, and curiously marked.
Crickets have four different kinds of wings,—yellow, brown, black, and brownish-red. Those that have yellow wings seem to be less hardy than the others. They do not sing so well, but lay and eat more.
The brown-winged crickets are quite common, but not so common as the black-winged, which are the most common of all kinds. Brownish-red crickets are very rare. Those that are black with yellow spots where the wings come out, sing the best.
The eggs are yellow, about an eighth of an inch long, and of an oval shape.
When we were in Lynn, a very handsome yellow-winged singer came into the box, and ate three crickets. We put him in another box with his mate, which he brought with him. In the same box were a large female, and a common sized white-winged cricket, both of which he ate.",0.11461555,0.529570374
a995ad06a,,,"What a power there is in kindness! It is very pleasant to form these friendships with birds; so that they learn to trust you and to love you. The sound of the human voice often seems to have a strange effect on animals, as if they almost understood your words.
My sister would say, ""Good-morning, sir! Come in! Don't make yourself a stranger. Hard times these; but you will find plenty of crumbs on the table. Don't be bashful. You don't rob us. Try as you may, you can't eat us out of house and home. You have a great appetite, have you? Oh, well, eat away! No cat is prowling round.""
The little bird, as if he knew that my sister was talking to him, would chirp away, and seem quite happy. As soon as the warm weather came, his visits were not so frequent; but, every now and then, he would make his appearance, as if to say, ""Don't forget me, Helen. I may want some more crumbs when the cold weather comes.""",0.079699363,0.489544718
eb27da783,,,"Jenny and Eva did not know how to swim: so they jumped up and down in the water, while Dora took Kate on her back, and swam out after Tom. She soon overtook him and pushed his head under water; but Tom came up light as a cork, and splashed the water all over Dora.
""That will do, Tom,"" said she; ""now, Andy, come here, and take this little girl on your back and carry her up on the dry sand.""
Then Dora placed Kate on the good dog's back, and the little girl threw her arms round his neck, and he swam with her through the deep water, and carried her up high on the dry, warm sand, where a lady and gentleman were seated, and another lady stood with a sun-shade over her head.
But when Kate saw Tom and the girls all frolicking in the water, she cried out, ""Oh, give me more of the Atlantic Ocean. I like him.""",0.482276393,0.542923829
fe8049334,,,"One day auntie heard a great clattering in the barn, and went out to see what was the matter. When she opened the door, both horses were in their stalls, and all was quiet. She noticed that the meal-chest was open: so she closed it, and went out. Before she reached the house, the noise began again, and she went quietly back, and peeped in at the window.
There was Billy, dipping his nose into the meal-chest, which he had opened. ""Billy, what are you doing?"" said auntie; and it was fun enough to see him whisk into his stall, and stand there as quiet and demure as a cat that had just been caught eating up the cream.
Billy had slipped the halter, and so set himself free. Since then he has been fastened more securely; yet he still succeeds in freeing himself once in a while.",0.236548777,0.511178638
dc1704b87,,,"Among the Azores, is situated the beautiful Island of Fayal, with its orange-groves and profusion of flowers. But, notwithstanding the fruit and flowers, there is one thing which Americans who live there miss sadly, and that is fresh, cool water. There are no lakes or ponds, such as we have here; and so the people have to use rain-water, which they save in large tanks or cisterns.
There are a few wells on the island, which, as the water rises and falls in them twice in every twenty-four hours, are called ""tide-wells."" But there was a time, many years ago, when the people had neither cisterns nor wells, and were obliged to get water from hollows in the rocks. And this is the story of the first well.
The year 1699 was a year when scarcely any rain fell. The grain did not grow, the cows and sheep died from thirst, and many of the poor people also. Now there was a very rich man on the island, who had come here to live many years before, from another part of the world.",-1.382455667,0.455174812
aafcf165c,,,"Louise was a gentle little girl, and Fanny was a very headstrong pony; consequently Fanny had it all her own way. When she was trotting along the road, with Louise on her back, if she chanced to spy a nice prickly thistle away up on a bank, up she would scramble, as fast as she could go, the sand and gravel rolling down under her hoofs; and, no matter how hard Louise pulled on the reins, there she would stay until she had eaten the thistle down to the very roots. Then she would back down the bank, and trot on.
Fanny was fond of other good things besides thistles. She would spy an apple on a tree, no matter how thick the leaves were; and, without waiting to ask Louise's permission, she would run under the tree, stretch her head up among the branches, and even raise herself up on her hind-legs, like a dog, to reach the apple.",-0.516172323,0.474501757
9.74E+08,,,"One day last summer, as I sat on the bank of the river, looking at the pretty blue rippling water, who should come walking proudly down to the water's-edge but, Mrs. Hen with another brood of little, waddling, yellow ducks behind her! She led them clear to the edge of the water, saw them start off, and, turning away, went contentedly to scratching at some weeds on the shore, taking no more notice of her little family. She had come to regard this swimming business as a matter of course.
Now one little duck, for some reason,—maybe he was not so strong as the others,—had not gone into the water with the rest, but remained sitting on the shore. Presently the mother-hen, turning round, happened to spy him. She stopped scratching, and looked at him as if she were saying, ""All my chickens swim: now what is the matter with you? I know it must be laziness; and I won't have that.""",-0.121105127,0.478190153
9476f3825,,,"He read the letters. One was very unpleasant, from a merchant who was buying a forest on his wife's property. To sell this forest was absolutely essential; but at present, until he was reconciled with his wife, the subject could not be discussed. The most unpleasant thing of all was that his pecuniary interests should in this way enter into the question of his reconciliation with his wife. And the idea that he might be led on by his interests, that he might seek a reconciliation with his wife on account of the sale of the forest—that idea hurt him.
When he had finished his letters, Stepan Arkadyevitch moved the office-papers close to him, rapidly looked through two pieces of business, made a few notes with a big pencil, and pushing away the papers, turned to his coffee. As he sipped his coffee, he opened a still damp morning paper, and began reading it.",-0.769838472,0.496070208
0755fc635,,,"One summer afternoon, when the grassy slope before the house was untidy with fallen leaves, and sticks, and withered flowers, I asked Garry to go and bring the rake that we might clear away the rubbish.
So off he ran, and soon came back with an iron rake. Now, if you have ever tried one, you will know that an iron rake is not nearly as good for this purpose as a wooden rake, as it is heavy, and the teeth are so sharp that they tear the roots of the grass.
I used it for a while; but, in spite of all I could do, the teeth would catch the roots. At last Garry exclaimed, ""Grandma, let me take it. I can make it all right.""
I gave it to him, and the dear little boy took it behind a log, and was very busy and quiet for several minutes. Then I called, ""Come, Garry, I don't believe you can help it.""",0.137951681,0.488385347
09f50e9df,,,"Davie and Harold are two little Boston boys. They are brothers. Last summer, they had two pretty little yachts given them by a friend. Then they had a launch in the bath-tub; and their mamma named the yachts, breaking a bottle of water (a small medicine-bottle) over the bows. Davie's yacht was named the ""West Wind;"" and Harold's, the ""Flyaway.""
One afternoon, the boys went to City Point, hired a row-boat, and rowed out about halfway to Fort Independence, where they put the little vessels into the water for a trial-trip. It was a pretty sight to see the sails fill with the wind, and the tiny yachts ride the waves as if they meant to go to China before they stopped.
The ""West Wind"" beat the ""Flyaway,"" and I regret to say that Davie taunted his brother with the fact, and made him cry; for Harold is a boy that takes every thing to heart.",-0.465871169,0.472650358
9e619b223,,,"One day Fred found an old saddle in the stable; and he proposed to Bertie to help him put it on the calf, and have a ride the length of her rope. They succeeded in fastening it upon Buttercup's smooth back; and Freddie exclaimed with delight, ""Now we will have a first-class circus!""
They brought a chair from the house, and placed it by the side of Miss Cow, she looking wonderingly at them with great round eyes. The boys both stood together in the chair, and Fred said, ""Now I will count, and, when I say four, we must spring upon the saddle. One—two—three—four;"" and on they went.
But, before they could have said ""five"" Miss Buttercup's heels were in the air, and her head went down so quickly, that Master Fred felt a sudden chill, and found himself in a tub of rain-water that stood under the eaves of the wood-shed; while Bertie went head-foremost into a pan of meal and water.",-0.28055423,0.468645689
0f9a8af35,,,"Once a fly alighted on one of the boats, and took quite a long voyage. That made Emma think of trying to find other passengers; and she picked up a great ground beetle, and put him aboard. Poor beetle! he didn't want to go, and he wasn't used to it. He tumbled about on the deck; the boat tipped under him, and the next thing Emma knew he was overboard.
""Oh, he mustn't drown!"" she cried. ""I must get him out!"" And she stooped over in great haste to save the poor beetle. But it was a large tub, and a very deep one too; and what did little Emma know about being careful? She lost her balance, and down into the water she went, with a great splash that wrecked all the boats in the same instant. ""Mother, mother!"" screamed a choking, sputtering voice, as Emma managed to lift her head.",-0.262502177,0.443163821
4c70ca8aa,,,"Sometimes she drives out with her uncle behind his black ponies; and, if the road is smooth and level, he lets Madie hold the reins. But she likes better to go with him on the water, in his fine sail-boat, ""Ildrian,"" which is a Spanish name, and means ""fleet as lightning.""
When the weather is fine, and the water is calm, her aunts take her out rowing in their pretty row-boat, ""Echo."" As they row along by the shore, stopping now and then to gather water-lilies, Madie looks at the pretty cottages and white tents nestled among the green trees, where the city people are spending their summer.
They pass many boats on the way, filled with ladies and gentlemen, who give them a salute; and Madie waves her handkerchief in one hand, and her little flag in the other, as they go by. Sometimes they go ashore in a shady cove; and Aunt Clara fills her basket with ferns and moss, while Madie picks up shells and gay-colored stones on the beach.",-0.362712542,0.46812777
f19a4c051,,,"One September morning, before breakfast, Ned and Harry went woodchuck hunting. They took Dick, who is a big, fat, spotted coach-dog, and Gyp, a little black-and-tan, with short ears, and afraid of a mouse,—both ""such splendid hunters,"" Harry said.
Gyp ran ahead on three legs; and Dick walked sedately behind. Ned carried the bow, and Harry, the three arrows: and it was enough to make any wise woodchuck tremble to see them.
First they crossed a potato-field, and then a meadow where there was a brook, and where they lost Gyp so often among the bogs, that Harry carried him at last so as to know where he was. Dick ran through the brook, and shook himself over Ned's new sailor-suit; but that was no matter.
Then they came to a rickety old stone wall, and Dick barked. ""It must be a woodchuck in the wall. We've got him!"" shouted Ned. ""Down comes the wall!"" Then the stones fell; and Gyp jumped up and down with excitement, while Dick gave a low and terrible growl. ""He must be here,"" said Ned.",-0.093418296,0.510469031
b2887cae9,,,"What should we do in our house if it were not for our Aunt Matilda? She is the first one out of bed in the morning, and the last one to go to bed at night. She sees that things are right in the kitchen, and right in the parlor.
Father wants his breakfast by half-past six o'clock this summer weather. Aunt Matilda rises before five, and calls the girls, and sees that the rooms are in order. Then she calls the children to be washed and dressed.
Yes, that is a good likeness of her, as you see her combing my hair. She is not young, you perceive, nor yet very old. Sometimes I get a little impatient, and fidget, because she is so particular; but our quarrels always end in my kissing her, and saying, ""You are a darling Aunty, after all.""",0.440533018,0.525104648
a5fafea13,,,"Willie is a three-year-old darling. This summer he visited his aunt in the city, and was very much interested in the curious sights and sounds which abound there.
A few days after his return home, when his mamma sat on the piazza with some friends, Willie marched up the gravel path with his little wheelbarrow on his back.
He stopped at the foot of the steps, set his burden down, resting it upon the handles, so that it stood upright. Then holding it with one hand, and rolling the wheel with the other, he kept his foot rising and falling, just as if he were at work with a genuine treadle. He looked very sober, and said, ""Please, madam, have you any scissors to sharpen?""
The ladies handed him several pairs, which he ground in the best style, trying the edge with his finger, and at last passing them to the owner with the request for ten cents.",-0.41597369,0.478698557
ed95c6f1f,,,"One day Uncle Wash was ploughing, and he put me on the back of Old Whitey. Well, I liked that very much, and began to cluck, and jerk the reins, to make him go along; when in an instant, without any warning, he pricked up his ears, kicked up his heels, and ran away, leaving the plough behind.
I can't tell you how scared I was. I held on as long as I could; but it was of no use. The old horse ran through swamps and bogs, and dropped me, head first, in the mud and dirt. I was hurt on my head and side, but I would not cry because I was too big for that. When the men got to me, I was hunting for my hat.
After getting rid of his load, the runaway coolly walked up to the barn, and stood looking as mild as a lamb. I didn't have any faith in Old Whitey after that, though his master said he never knew him to do such a thing before.",0.164178505,0.46746235
5af836f02,,,"When she goes out to walk, she finds her way as well as she can by groping about with her big umbrella. Very often she loses her way, and goes in the wrong direction; and sometimes she gets bewildered: but I have never known her to be really lost or hurt. There is always somebody to set her right; and it is pleasant to see how kind every one is to her.
Many a time I have seen some gentleman, while hurrying to catch his train, stop to help her over the crossing; or some handsomely-dressed lady take her by the arm, and set her right, when she has gone astray.
Best of all it is, though, to see the children so kind to her. She comes to our square every Saturday; and, as she is very apt to go to the wrong gate, the little girls—bless their dear hearts!—seem to consider it their duty to guide her, and to help her over the slippery places.",0.223282208,0.474586374
5c663d467,,,"She was slowly poking over the things in her lap, when mamma came back, bringing a pot of yeast to set by the open fire-place, where a small fire burned leisurely on this cool May morning. She put a little tin plate on the top of the pot, kissed the precious baby, and then went out again. Baby Lila was used to being left alone, though seldom out of mamma's hearing. At such times she would sit among the pillows, tossing her trinkets all about, and crowing at her own performances. Sometimes she would drop over against a pillow, and go to sleep.
But this morning Lila had no intention of going to sleep. She flourished the duster, and laughed at the pincushion; then gazed meditatively at the bright window, and reflected gravely on the broad belt of sunshine lying across the floor. That speculation over, she fell to hugging the cherished duster, rocking back and forth as if it were another baby.",-0.249112213,0.530026343
36cf547d3,,,"About three years ago a lady gave me a little trunk, and I have kept my magazines in it ever since. Last winter, when snow was on the ground, and I had to stay in the house a good deal, I used to get my trunk and sit down on the floor by mamma, and look my ""Nursery"" through almost every day. So mamma thought she would like to have my picture taken just in that way.
Now I must introduce you to my dog, Beauty, who sits by my side in the picture. You see he is a Spitz; but do not be frightened: he will never have hydrophobia. I cannot think of having him muzzled, for one of his charms is the way he opens and shuts his mouth when he barks. Oh, no, Beauty! I will never hurt your feelings by making you wear a muzzle.",-0.138491057,0.477416416
4a6709fff,,,"A long, long way from here, there is a country called Norway. It is a very cold country, and very rocky; and there are a great many small islands all around it. It is on these islands that the dear little eider-ducks build their nests. They take a great deal of time and trouble to make them, and they use fine seaweed, mosses, and dry sticks, so as to make them as strong as they can.
When the mother-duck has laid four or five eggs, which are of a pretty, green color, she plucks out some of the soft gray down that grows on her breast, to cover them up, and keep them warm, while she goes off to find some food.
And now what do you think happens? Why, when she comes back to sit on her eggs, she finds that all her eggs and beautiful down have been taken away! Oh, how she cries, and flaps her wings, to find her darling eggs gone!",0.816261254,0.556288341
a3e39d82c,,,"So one day when Mr. Topliff, who keeps a great toy-shop, said to Edwin, ""I'll pay you well for as many of these toy-houses as you can make,"" Edwin replied, ""I'll go to work just as soon as I have finished this bracket; for a little money is just what I want.""
Edwin had by practice learned to use his saw with great skill, and he took pains always to do his work well. Gradually he learned to do the finer sort of cabinet-work; and then he puzzled his wits to invent new varieties of toys, and other things often sought for as Christmas presents.
Mr. Topliff said, ""You can earn a living by this kind of work, if you choose, Edwin."" But no! Edwin had made up his mind to go to college; and so he replied, ""If I can pay my college expenses by working at odd hours, Mr. Topliff, I mean to do it—and I think I can.""
""So do I,"" said Mr. Topliff. ""You've got the knack. Well, my lad, don't forget the firm of Topliff & Co. Bring us all your pretty things.""",-0.122342919,0.483278354
f27daed12,,,"She was very vain; that is, she had a very good opinion of herself. She always would strut when walking. Indeed, it was hard for her to pick up grains of corn as other chickens did. I think she never saw her feet in her life: certainly she never looked where she stepped.
Worse than all this, when she saw any person in the yard, instead of dodging away, as a modest hen should, she would strut right up to such a person, and look saucily in his face, as though asking, ""Who are you? Where are you going? What for?""
At last, however, Strut received a severe rebuke for her evil ways. Cousin William Bird, who is soon to be a doctor, was visiting at Father Nunn's. Having occasion to climb the ladder to the barn-loft, he saw Strut on the farther side. He knew that she would come straight to him; and he also knew that she would not look where she stepped. So he held still to see what would happen; for exactly between them was an opening in the floor for throwing down hay.",-1.037523038,0.483240233
425301f2e,,,"""Well, Murphy & Flynn, I will employ you to do my shovelling today, and I will give you fifty cents for the job; but I am very particular. You must not leave a bit of snow anywhere about the steps or sidewalk.""
""All right, sir,"" said the boys; and they went to work, while Mr. Prim went back to his newspaper. He had not been reading many minutes, when a loud shout in front of the house led him to look out of the window. The picture shows what he saw.
There were the two boys, each mounted on one of the stone lions at the head of the steps, and shouting at the top of his lungs in the excitement of an imaginary race.
Mr. Prim was first astonished, then angry, then amused, at this performance. He opened the window, and called out sharply, ""Look here, boys! do you call that work, or play?""",0.020153195,0.486777109
1bd81f5c5,,,"Wallace, being a small boy, calls to his aid his father's saddle-horse. This horse is a kind, gentle creature, and as wise as he is kind. He and Wallace are about the same age, and have always been good friends.
So when Wallace puts the saddle on him every evening, just before dark, the horse knows just what is going to be done. He looks at the boy with his great bright eyes, as much as to say, ""We have our evening work to do, haven't we, Wallace? Well, I'm ready: jump on.""
Wallace mounts the horse; and they go straight to the nearest lamp-post. Here the horse stops close by the post, and stands as still and steady as the post itself.
Then Wallace stands upright on the saddle, takes a match from his pocket, lights the lamp, drops quickly into his seat again, takes up the bridle, gives the word to the horse, and on they go to the next lamp-post.",0.065674223,0.47885475
7505d2ecb,,,"When he was only a few months old, he followed us all to church without our knowing it; nor did we see him, till, in the most solemn part of the service, we heard a patter, patter, patter, coming up the aisle, and there stood Phantom at the door of our pew. In his mouth was a long-handled feather duster, which he had found in some obscure corner of the building, and where it had been put (as it was supposed) carefully out of everybody's way.
Phantom is very intelligent, and has learned a number of tricks. He can understand what is said to him better than any dog I ever knew; but he is best known among the children here for his love of music and singing.
He has only learned one song yet; but he knows that as soon as he hears it. Wherever he may be,—up stairs, or down stairs, or out of doors,—if he hears that song, he will sit up, throw his head back, and you will hear his voice taking part in the music.",-0.227430559,0.468662162
4b7f1aaf9,,,"She carried the kitten into the kitchen, and soon got from the cook a nice pan of milk. Her little brother Harry came running in to see the new kitten eat its dinner, and with him came the old family cat, Mouser, who rubbed and purred against Alice, as if he wanted her to pet him too.
The next thing was to find a name, ""pretty, and not too common,"" Alice said. While she was trying to think of one, she went up to her own little room and searched among her ribbons for a piece to tie around the kitten's neck. She soon found one that was just the thing.
In one of her drawers, she found a tiny bell that somebody had given her and thought it would be a good plan to hang that around kitty's neck by the ribbon. Kitty made no objection to being thus decorated, and a happy thought struck Alice; ""Kitty Bell would be just the name for her!"" and Kitty Bell it was.",0.983627013,0.567073125
55fa093cb,,,"""But why?"" yelped the pup, as the maid threw a hearth-brush at his head.
Still no one told him why. But a man just then came upstairs. ""Why, what a mess!"" he said. ""Oh, I see! It is that pup. I thought he knew he must not come in!""
""So I did; but I did not know why,"" growled the pup, as, with sore back and lame foot, he crept under a chair.
""Come out, come out!"" cried the man. ""I will not have you in the house at all. Out with you!"" And he seized him with a strong hand and chained him in a stall.
""You might have stopped out, and played on the grass if you had stayed there,"" the man said. ""But, as you will come into the house when you ought not to, you must be kept where you cannot do so.
""",-0.189495706,0.488372969
119070b51,,,"The horse and the cow, in great grief, came and stood by the side of the white sheep as he lay on the grass. They were fond of him in spite of all his faults. ""Oh, why!"" cried the cow, with tears in her eyes (and the bell that was hung round her neck shook and rang as she leaned over him),—""why did you leave the field with the black sheep?""
""He did it first,"" said the white one in a faint voice.
""Then why did you jump down that steep place? Could you not see that it was a pit?""
""I did not stop to see. He did it first,"" said the white sheep. Then, with a groan, he went on to ask, ""How is the black sheep? Is he here too? And what does the man think who comes to see us?""",0.006880764,0.487542114
05254a3bb,,,"At nightfall, the boat, taking advantage of the darkness, rose to the surface of the sea and sailed without lights. Andrey stood on the bridge throughout the night. The water was placid, the stars were screened by a light mist, and far away to the south the pale blue gleam of an enemy searchlight moved through the clouds.
The boat was now approaching a mine field. At dawn, when the greenish-orange light began slowly to pervade the fleecy clouds, the Kate sank to a great depth at a definitely fixed point in the sea. Steering solely by compass and map, she commenced to pick her way under the mines. Yakovlev was in charge of the steering apparatus, while Prince Bylopolsky calculated the side drift and reported to the chief engineer in charge of the motors. Andrey, leaning over the map, gave orders to the man at the wheel.
There was no sensation of movement, and it seemed as if the Kate stood still amidst the eerie darkness. The men for the most part were stretched on their backs, seeking to consume as little oxygen as possible.
",-0.447939702,0.512332818
418b83e47,,,"Mr. D. had promised to give his wife a beautiful rattan rocking-chair as a Christmas present. It was his employment to sell these articles. In due time, Mrs. D. called at his place of business, and selected a chair; but, as she sat enjoying it for a few minutes, a new idea came into her mind, and she told her husband that she would gladly do without her present if he would give Jennie and Alice (their two little daughters) each a chair. Her husband agreed to this; and on Christmas Eve he took home with him two elegant little rocking-chairs. Leaving them in his garden, he went into tea, and, after taking his seat at the table, said to his children, ""I have a story to tell you, and it is a true story. Would you like to hear it?""",0.661885697,0.497874345
bbbfe2852,,,"An old duck wandered into the barn and caught sight of herself in the mirror. ""There is another duck,"" she said. ""I wonder who she is.""
And she walked toward the reflection. ""She is rather friendly,"" the duck went on. ""She is walking toward me. What large feet she has, but her feathers are very handsome.""
Just then she bumped into the mirror. ""Goodness!"" she cried; ""if that duck isn't in a glass case! Why are you in there?""
""Well, you needn't answer if you don't want to,"" she said, walking away. ""A glass case is a good place for you.""
Just then a pig came along, and nosing around, he came in front of the mirror.
""What are you doing here?"" he asked, thinking he saw another pig. His nose hit the glass, and he stepped back.
""So you are in a glass pen,"" he said. ""You are not very handsome, and your nose is not so long as mine; I cannot see why you should have a glass pen.""
And away he trotted to tell the other pigs about the very plain-looking pig.",0.00493344,0.495993687
4fce9ba3d,,,"At that time there were no steamships and no regular packets from Europe. The only way of coming was by a merchant-vessel. So Bernard, who was looking and longing for the arrival of his brother, did not think it strange when six weeks passed away without bringing him. But when two months passed, and he did not appear, poor Bernard began to be anxious. Four months, five months, six months, passed. Nothing was heard of John. Not a word came from Mr. Trainier. More than a year passed away, and still, there was no news. Bernard was in despair.
One August day (it must have been, I think, in the year 1805), when my father had occasion to visit Boston, he took Bernard with him; and, while there, went with him to call on Mr. Duprez, from whom they hoped to hear some good news.",-0.334656174,0.442898476
f31191407,,,"I am very fond of babies. One reason of it, I think, is, that they cannot hurt me with their little hands. They pull my ears, but not so hard as to give me pain.
Once, on a hot day, when my mouth was open, and my tongue was out, Dot took hold of my tongue, and pulled it as hard as he could. I did not even say Bow-wow. I let him pull away.
I would have all people know that this baby is not to be touched while I am here. If you come near to disturb baby, I shall bark; but, if you try to touch him, I shall bite. So be careful. You must not even touch baby's rattle that lies on the floor.
I hear my mistress tell people what a good dog I am, and how she can trust me to take care of baby. Yes, I am proud to say I do my duty. I hold my head up, and keep my eyes wide open",0.522033521,0.543508856
2b2956556,,,"The Easter-egg is a painted or colored egg used for a present at Easter, a day which occurs on Sunday, the second day after Good-Friday.
The term ""Easter"" is said to be derived from a Saxon word meaning rising; and Easter is a festival of the Christian Church to commemorate the resurrection.
In the picture, the children are hunting for Easter-eggs, which the good mother has hidden in different parts of the room. The child who finds the most eggs will have the pleasure of making presents of them to whom he or she may choose.
Baby has set his eyes on the egg that lies on the floor. If he takes it up, I hope he will not let it fall, and break it. The other children will not be slow to find the painted eggs. There must be a dozen, or more, of them hidden away.",0.381140286,0.50483244
523be93ce,,,"Arthur had been looking at some pictures in a book; but he did not quite understand what they were: so he called on Uncle Oscar to explain.
Uncle Oscar took him on his knee, and said, ""This, Arthur, is a picture of the flax-plant, a very useful plant indeed; for from it we make linen. Your apron is linen: so are the collar and wristbands on my shirt.
""The flax-plant bears delicate blue flowers, which look very pretty when in bloom. Flax is raised very largely in Kentucky, and other States in the Union. Do you know what part of the plant is the stalk? I will point it out to you in the picture.
""Well, from this stalk the thread, or fibres, are got, out of which linen cloth is made. The flax is pulled a little before the seeds are ripe: it is stripped, and the stalks are soaked in water. The flax is then dried, and broken and beaten till the threads, or fibres, of the bark are fit for spinning. From the seeds, linseed-oil is made.",-0.349618621,0.492510152
3284ae9a1,,,"We thought that she could not have done it all, but that some careless person had left the chest open, and the door unfastened. So Jenny was led back to her stall and tied up; the lid of the chest was shut down, and the door closed and fastened with a hook.
About an hour afterwards, on entering the stable again, Madam Jenny was found as before, with her nose deep in the meal-chest, munching away with great relish. Then we knew she must have unhooked and opened the door, and raised the cover, as well as unhooked her halter.
Do you not think she was pretty smart for a horse? Papa says it was more smart than honest to steal meal in that way. But I suppose horses do not know much about honesty.
I liked Jenny all the better for her smartness, and I have made a great pet of her since. As she is so fond of meal, I take care to give her so much that she will not have to steal it.",-0.358899127,0.485947749
2516a9594,,,"The other children laughed; but a motion of the master's hand restored silence, and, turning to Katie, he said, ""Now, my child, for your tardiness you will have a black mark, and go down one in your class; but, Katie, for the falsehood you will lose your place in my heart, and I cannot love you so much. But I will forgive you, if you will go stand in the corner of your own accord. Which will you do,—lose your place in my heart, or go stand in the corner for a quarter of an hour?""
The child burst into a flood of tears, and sobbing out, ""I'd rather go stand in the corner,"" went there instantly, and turned her dear little face to the wall.
In a few minutes the master called her, and, as she came running to him, he said: ""Will you promise me, Katie, never again to say what is not true?""
""Oh, yes, I will try—I will try never, never to do it again,"" was the contrite answer.",-0.816671838,0.44430407
ea1ff7f5c,,,"Boy Blue's father then went to the men who were making hay, and said, ""Men, men, have you seen my Boy Blue?"" But the men answered, ""No, no: we have not seen Boy Blue."" But just then they happened to look under a haycock; and there, all curled up, lay Boy Blue, and his dog Tray, fast asleep.
His father shook him by the arm, saying, ""Boy Blue, wake up, wake up! The sheep are in the meadow, and the cows are in the corn."" Boy Blue sprang to his feet, seized his tin horn, and ran as fast as he could to the cornfield, with his little dog running by his side.
He blew on his horn, ""Toot, toot, toot!"" and all the cows came running up, saying, ""Moo, moo!"" He drove them to the barn to be milked. Then he ran to the meadows, and blew once more, ""Toot, toot, toot!"" and all the sheep came running up, saying, ""Baa, baa!"" and he drove them to their pasture.",0.029162243,0.481338383
d79537761,,,"I never had much luck in catching trout. One summer I went from the city to try the trout-streams in Northern New York. I had a handsome rod, and a line nicely baited with an artificial fly; but, though I was very persevering, my success was small.
I remember sitting for hours on the slender bridge just below the Upper Cascades of Buttermilk Fall, represented in the picture; but my patience was not rewarded by the capture of a single trout. I was sorry for this; for I had depended on getting one for my dinner.
As I was about retiring, a little barefoot fellow, about twelve years old, came along with a common fishing-pole, and hook baited with a worm, and said, ""Mister, I'll catch a trout for you.""—""Do it, then,"" said I.
He threw his line over a smooth spot in the pool below; and, before he had been at it five minutes, he pulled up a noble trout, large enough for a good dinner. Another and another were pulled up in quick succession. I did not know what to make of it; for I thought I had fished in a very scientific way.",-0.003260524,0.497929079
9dfa32021,,,"My little friend Mabel is passing the summer amid the Catskill Mountains. These mountains are in the State of New York, on the west side of the Hudson River.
Round Top and High Peak, two of the highest summits, are about thirty-eight hundred feet above the level of the sea. They are well covered with forests, and in autumn, when the leaves begin to change, they make a very brilliant show.
The Catskill-Mountain House is finely situated on a rocky terrace, twenty-two hundred feet above the river. It is twelve miles from the village of Catskill, and is much resorted to in the summer season.
The prospect from this house is quite extensive. Mabel writes me that the view of the sunrise is grand; the air is cool and bracing; and the sight of the tops of trees rolling below, like a sea, for miles and miles, is a thing to remember.",-0.726209978,0.465166622
c8c8807f5,,,"He heard his mother calling him, but took no notice of her call. It was a warm summer day, and he fell asleep. Soon he was startled by the loud barking of dogs. He woke up, and, oh, how frightened he was!
Luckily for him, the dogs did not come where he lay crouching; for their masters were shooting birds, not rabbits. Bunny thought the best thing he could do now was to scamper back to his mother, his brothers and sisters as fast as he could.
But it was not quite so easy to find them again. No sooner had he got into the open path than a troop of boys caught sight of him; and at once there was a volley of stones from their hands. By rare good luck he was not hit by the stones. But he had not gone many paces farther, when a man with a gun shot at him. Happily the man missed his aim, and the shot went into some bushes.",1.008282891,0.552930144
5ba30f6c3,,,"For example, John and I sometimes take our books, and sit down on the rocks in the wood, under the thick trees, and read stories. And then Carlo will lie down at our feet, and go to sleep; for he cannot understand the nice stories which the other two friends enjoy so much.
But wait till we go into the swamps after berries, or into the wood-borders after hazel-nuts. Then Carlo is wide awake, you may be sure. If he sees a snake, what a noise he makes! We can always tell by the tone of his bark when he has found a snake.
And, when John climbs a tree after nuts, how anxiously Carlo will stand underneath and watch him, so afraid is he that the little boy will get a fall! And how the good dog will jump and show his pleasure when he sees John once more safe on the firm ground!",-0.096164721,0.518965614
a5b5d19ef,,,"Billy would always watch the crowd about Dennis, when the latter was taking his bath, with a great deal of anxiety; and, if Dennis did not appear very shortly, he would begin bleating loudly.
This would disgust Dennis immensely; but he couldn't bear to think that Billy's feelings were hurt: so he would leave his nice bath, and push his way through the men, until Billy could see him. Then he would return to the pump, grunting in a manner that plainly showed his feelings.
He was certainly saying, ""I do wish that sheep had a little more of the pig about him. If I am out of his sight for a moment, he begins to cry, and take on in such a manner, that I must show myself to him; and then I have all the trouble of making the sailors pump again.""
But the sailors only waited to make Dennis beg a little. They had no idea of not pumping again. They were always pleased when he showed so much good feeling for Billy; and generally he got a larger allowance of water to pay for it.",-1.435921134,0.475381608
24e7cd638,,,"One warm, sunny morning, Charlie and Georgie, with their papa and mamma, and their two little friends, rowed across from Appledore, and landed on the pebbly beach of White Island. Here the children ran about, and picked up stones until they were tired; and then the whole party seated themselves on some shaded rocks, and ate their lunch of crackers and bananas.
While they were eating, an old white dog, belonging to the lighthouse keeper, came up and made their acquaintance. Georgie shared his cake with him; and it was amusing to see the old dog watching with eager eyes every piece that went into any mouth but his own.
When lunch was over, the two older children, Charlie and Anna, led the way; and all were soon climbing the winding stairs in the lighthouse tower. When they reached the top, they found themselves in a small room with windows on every side, and the great lamp in the centre. The lantern is made of red-and-white glass, and turns around, so that first a red, and then a white, light may be seen far out at sea.",0.143048465,0.487415208
f2807bde3,,,"He dreamed about his pleasant home far away in Italy. He thought he was with his little sisters, and he saw his dear mother smile as she gave him his supper; but, just as he was going to eat, some sudden noise awoke him.
He was frightened to find it was daylight, and that the sun was high in the sky. In the doorway stood a kind gentleman looking at him. Pedro sprang up, and took his fiddle; but the gentleman stopped him as he was going out, and asked if that pile of shavings was all the bed he had. He spoke so kindly, that Pedro told him his story.
The gentleman felt so sorry for him, and was so pleased with his sweet, sad face, that he took him to his own home, and gave him a nice warm breakfast; and, being in want of an errand-boy, he concluded to let Pedro have the place.
Pedro has lived happily in his new home ever since; and, though he still likes to play on his fiddle, he has no wish to return to his old wandering mode of life.",0.339187073,0.477547417
8adaa4e4c,,,"The parent-birds, wild with grief, flew round and round, but it was of no use. Then they followed the cart, and continued to feed their young as well as they could, though the cart was in motion.
But a little girl, whose name was Laura, and who was taking a walk with her mother, saw the man remove the nest, and at once made up her mind to try and get it away from him.
So she went up, and asked him if he would let her have the nest, if she paid him for it. The man seemed a little ashamed when he saw Laura and her mother; and he replied, ""Well, little girl, it didn't cost me any thing, and so you may have it for nothing.""
""Oh, I thank you ever so much!"" cried Laura. So she took the nest, with the birdies in it; and then she and her mother found a safe place in the notch of a tree, hidden from the road, and there they placed it.",0.737383498,0.50616058
5d49b3495,,,"Coney Island, about eight miles from the city of New York, is four and a half miles long and about half a mile in width. It is quite a resort in summer for those who want to breathe the briny air of the ocean.
Charles and Laura had long been promised a visit to this famous bathing-place, and one warm day in June their father drove them down to the island; for there is a bridge connecting it with the main land.
As they drove along the beach, they saw the bathers in the water, and Charles was very desirous of having a dip in the salt sea himself; but he had no bathing-dress, and so he had to give it up.
It is very pleasant on a fine day in summer to stand on the beach, and watch the waves as they come foaming up. The children were much entertained at seeing a Newfoundland dog rush into the water after a stick which his master would throw far out.
They will long remember their pleasant visit to Coney Island; but the next time they go, they mean to take their bathing-dresses and have a swim.",-0.130639229,0.49690726
8b3e3a97b,,,"Dot's father is a funny man. One night, he brought home some lemons for mamma,—twelve long, fat, yellow lemons, in a bag. Dot was sitting at the piano with mamma when his father came in, and did not run, as usual, to greet him with a kiss. So Dot's father opened the bag, and let the lemons drop one by one, and roll all over the floor.
Then Dot looked around, and cried, ""Lemons, lemons! Get down; Dot get down!"" And he ran and picked up the lemons one by one, and put them all together in the great black arm-chair. As he picked them up, he counted them: ""One, two, three, five, six, seven, nine, ten!""
When Dot got tired of seeing them on the chair, he began to put them on the floor again, one at a time, and all in one spot. While he was doing this, his father stooped down, and when the little boy's back was turned, took the lemons, slyly from the spot where Dot was placing them, and put them behind his own back,—some behind his right foot, and some behind his left.",0.048332444,0.551234717
261205d13,,,"We knew at once by her actions that she had a fawn near there; and so, while she was leading Landy away from it, we set about hunting it up. In a few minutes, I came across the little slender-legged beauty, snugly curled up under a tuft of grass. As I came upon him, he dashed out of cover with a shrill, plaintive little ""baa-baa, baa-baa,"" and, as fawns always do in such cases, began running in a small circle.
Landy, disgusted with his hopeless chase, came trotting back, and at once struck in after the fawn. This one was not so fleet as the other; and by and by Landy overtook him, and tried to stop him by pushing him over with his nose. This frightened the fawn so badly, that he made direct for Tip, who was squatting in the long grass in wait for him, and rushed joyfully into his arms.",-0.825796864,0.488777349
e7010d02a,,,"Some weeks passed by before Nellie was allowed to take the little fellow in her arms; but, when she was permitted to do this, it seemed to her that she had never felt such delight before. When he would put up his tiny hands, and feel of her face, she was ready to weep with joy.
But one night the nurse was ill; and there was nobody to take care of the baby. Nellie begged so hard to be allowed to sit up and attend to it, that she was at last permitted to do so. She passed two hours, watching baby as he slept, and thinking of the nice times she would have with him when he grew up.
At last he awoke; and then Nellie gave him some milk from the porringer, and tried to rock him to sleep again. But the little fellow wanted a frolic: so she had to take him in her arms, and walk about the room with him.",0.507236967,0.523719904
11cfbca18,,,"Early last spring, Mistress Jenny Wren took possession of the little box nailed to a tree immediately in front of Mr. Philip's house. She had not really moved in, when who should peep in but Mr. English-Sparrow.
He was abroad house hunting, and never mistrusted that anyone had got this house before him. He was thinking how well it would suit himself and mate, when whir-r-r-r! whir-r-r-r! up came Mrs. Jenny: and before he could offer a word of excuse, she began with, ""Fie, fie! I took you for a gentleman! What business have you here?""
""My dear madam,"" began Mr. Sparrow; but Jenny would not hear him. ""Out, out with you, you saucebox, you interloper!"" she screamed; and she dashed at him and pecked him till he beat a speedy retreat.
The next day, however, he came round again; whether to express his regrets in due form, or to buy her off, I cannot say; but Mrs. Jenny was unwilling to accept anything but the most humble apology.",-1.312572264,0.495599608
71b1c3766,,,"Mabel lives on a hill, quite near a beautiful lake, and is very fond of going with her papa to take a row on the water. Sometimes they visit the woods on the other side of the lake, and pick wild flowers, or go where the water-lilies grow, near the shore, and gather a bunch of the pretty white blossoms.
But I must tell about Mabel's friend Carlo. He is a large shaggy dog, owned by a gentleman who lives near. Although quite a young dog, he knows a great deal. He is very fond of water, and is wild with delight at the prospect of a swim.
His master owns a large sail-boat, and, as the water near the shore is not deep, he has to use a small boat to reach it. When Carlo sees him take down the oar from its place in the yard, he runs up, and takes it in his mouth, as much as to say, ""Let me carry that for you, master."" Then he trots down the hill with the oar, feeling very proud that he is allowed to carry it.",0.902661245,0.528381344
80779b789,,,"When the soldiers went out to battle, Major would go with them, and bark and growl all the time. Once, in a battle way down in Louisiana, Major began to bark and growl as usual, and to stand up on his hind-legs. Then he ran around, saying, ""Ki-yi, ki-yi."" By and by he saw a cowardly soldier, who was running away; and he seized that soldier by the leg, and would not let him go for a long time. He wanted him to go back and fight.
Soon after this, Major began to jump up in the air, trying to bite the bullets that whistled over his head. When a bullet struck the ground, he would run and try to dig it out with his paws. At last he placed himself right in front of an advancing line of soldiers, as much as to say, ""Don't come any further!"" He seemed to think that he could drive them back all alone.",0.369249027,0.467909171
0869a5f53,,,"Out in the field Old Biddy Brown has four wee chickens, little soft downy balls, scarcely bigger than the eggs they came from just one week ago.
They are very spry, and run all about. When the mother Biddy finds any nice bit, she clucks; and every little chick comes running to see what is wanting.
When it grows chilly, and she fears they will take cold, she says, ""Cluck, cluck, cluck!"" and they all run under her warm feathers as fast as they can.
Just now Mother Biddy gave a very loud call, and every chicken was under her wings in a minute; and up in the sky I saw a hawk, who had been planning to make a good dinner of these same chickens. I could not help thinking, how well for them, that they did not stop, like Lottie, to ask, ""Why?""
Down came the hawk with a fierce swoop, as if he meant to take the old hen and the chickens too; but Mother Biddy sprang up and faced him so boldly, that he did not know what to make of it.",-0.239120371,0.465187037
7ea992c13,,,"Once, when Felix had grown to be six years old, his mother took him with her on a journey in the railroad-cars to New York. It was a fine day in June: the windows of the cars were open.
""Felix,"" said his mother, as they took their seats, ""you may sit by the window; but you must not put your head or your arms out of it.""
Before she could explain to him her reasons for saying this, a friend who had come in drew off her attention, by talking to her; so that she forgot to explain to Felix why she did not wish to have him put his head or arms out of the window.
In the seat just before him, Felix saw a large boy, who kept putting his head out, although the boy's mother kept telling him not to do it. By and by the cars rushed by a post, which stood so near the track that it almost grazed the boy's head. He started back in a great fright, losing his hat as he did so. He had a very narrow escape.",0.711158299,0.521251261
54abbaf34,,,"Early in spring, while the weather is yet cold, and before the trees have begun to show many signs of life, it is the time for tapping the maples.
The sun, which has already begun to make his power felt by melting the snow, and leaving great green patches here and there on the cleared lands, has kissed the rugged trunks of the trees, and has set the sweet sap mounting through every vein and tissue.
Now is the time to set the troughs in order, and to bore the holes for the little spouts through which the juice must run. These must be made a foot from the ground, on the sunny side of the tree; and very soon the drip, drip, of the oozing sap will be heard, as it trickles over the spout into the rough bowls placed to catch it at the foot of every maple.",-0.253503254,0.461067455
e4b2adc8c,,,"When Edward was eight years old, his mother told him he might go with John, the hired man, to drive the cows from the pasture. How happy the little boy was!
Every day he would be ready as soon as John gave the word; and off they would go, through the woods, over hills and rocks, and gurgling brooks, wherever the ding-dong of the distant cow-bells pointed the way.
Sometimes they had a long search before they could find all the cows; for the pasture was very large, and the cows would wander about in every part of it, to find the best feeding-places.
On the way home, Edward would run ahead of the cows, and open the bars; and sometimes he would sit on the wall, and pat each cow as she came through.
When the cows reached the barnyard, Edward would help milk. There was one old cow which he called his own, and which he named Carrie. She always stood very still while being milked, and that was one reason why he liked her better than any of the rest.",1.12429464,0.553197545
77d617696,,,"Many young sparrows have been born to us. They are proud of being Americans. They think they are cleverer than their parents, because their parents, you see, are English. Pride is not right, is it?
There is a bird called the butcher-bird,—a very savage bird,—that tries to kill us. We have to look out for these butcher-birds. But they cannot get into our houses: the doors are too small for them.
There is a little bird called the snow-bird, that comes in winter. We are not afraid of him. He is afraid of us. We drive him away when Emily feeds us all. Emily calls us naughty when we do this: she threatens to punish us for it.
Emily and her folks live not far from our grove. Emily has a father and mother, a grandfather, a brother Philip, and a baby sister, whose name is Nelly. Grandfather and Nelly are great friends. Grandfather brings Nelly in his arms to see Emily and Philip feed us.",-0.940741963,0.493719986
b3899a2ee,,,"One day Bessie was at her aunt's house when the folks were away. But Carlo the dog was at home; and Bessie had her doll Cornelia to play with. At last she placed Cornelia up on the arm-chair with her arms over the back.
Then seeing near by an inkstand, and a bottle of gum with a brush in it, Bessie thought she would amuse herself by painting Carlo's face with ink. This was very silly, and Carlo seemed to think so; for he struggled, and tried to get away.
The brush tickled him; he did not like to taste of the ink: at last he broke away, and hid himself under the sofa.
Bessie had a piece of biscuit in her pocket. She took it out, and offered it to Carlo. It was so nice to get biscuit without having to stand on his hind-legs first, or jump a great height, or do something funny to earn it, that Carlo came out.
Then Bessie seized him, and tried once more to ink his face; but this time Carlo tore himself loose, and ran out of the room, knocking over the stool on which stood the inkstand, as he went.",-0.881503978,0.509861144
0d6ebb3d7,,,"On the easel stood a portrait. Bessie looked at it, and thought it must be a likeness of her friend Col. Fraser. ""But,"" said she, ""the mustache is too faint: it wants paint.""
Then she remembered hearing her uncle say that he had more work than he could attend to. ""What if I do a little work for him, and so give him a surprise!"" thought she.
""Uncle Frank, when he is by, never lets me touch his paints,"" said Bessie to herself; ""but that must be because he does not know how clever I am. Nothing can be easier to paint than a mustache. It is only a number of hairs.""
So Bessie climbed up into her uncle's chair, and took one of his long brushes in her hand. Then she looked at the colors on the palette, and tried to mix the blue and red as she had seen Uncle Frank do.
The long brush was hard to manage. However, she remembered the rhyme, ""Try, try, try again;"" and she worked away until she thought she had got the tint.",0.21707516,0.481322944
f2b369c5c,,,"Bessie went into the parlor one day, and noticed that the clock did not tick. ""I must wind it up,"" thought she. ""It must be very easy, for you only have to turn the key round and round.""
So Bessie began to turn the key. At first it would not move; but then she tried it the other way, and it went round and round quite easily. She was determined to do it thoroughly while she was about it: so she went on winding and winding, and was charmed to hear it begin to tick.
But all at once it made a noise,—burr-r-r-r,—and then it stopped ticking.
The hands, too, that had been going so fast, stood still. What could be the reason of it? Had it really stopped? Bessie put her ear quite near, and listened. Yes, there was not a sound.",0.847926538,0.547163017
9f2b5b246,,,"All at once it came into Alan's head that Uncle Paul had once been attacked by a wolf, and that they ought to have an adventure of the same kind: he therefore asked Owen if he would consent to be eaten up by a wolf. Owen said he did not like it: he thought Alan ought to be eaten, for he was the biggest. Alan said that would never do; for then there would be nobody to care for him and Amy.
But, besides this difficulty, there was another: they had no wolf; and, where to get one, they did not know. At last it was settled. Owen was to be the wolf, and to spring on Amy; but before he had eaten her up, or even so much as snapped off her little finger, Alan was to rush upon him with his stick, and drive him back into the woods.
Amy was now left alone, that Owen might get behind one bush, and Alan behind another. No sooner was this done, than, with her basket on her arm, she went on her journey.",-0.777331928,0.462463646
32a364116,,,"The little stepmother, with her blue eyes and rosy cheeks, sat in the yard, surrounded by her pets, and busily paring some apples.
From heaven blew the morning wind, and greeted the lovely child: ""Little stepmother, I will by thee remain: I will make the time pass merrily for thee, and cool thy red cheeks. Dost thou not hear?""
A sparrow sat before her on the bench, and twittered: ""This is my place; my stomach is empty. Little stepmother, I am very hungry. I beg thee to give me some breakfast. Dost thou not hear?""
The dove swelled with anger, and said, ""Go away, thou vagabond, thou beggar sparrow, thou glutton!—Little stepmother, I politely ask thee only for a sip of water. Dost thou not hear?""
The cat sat lost in thought, opening and shutting her eyes. ""Little stepmother,"" said the cat, ""my stomach, too, is empty. Go thou for some meat, or else look out that no harm comes to thy dear birds in the yard. Dost thou not hear?""",-1.257712963,0.488269695
26c87ee54,,,"Well, now, do you call that good manners? My master shut the gate in my face, as much as to say, ""Stay where you are, Bob."" Then he goes in to dine and play chess with the parson, and leaves me here to watch and wait.
Three hours, I do believe, I have been here on the watch,—three long, long hours. And there he sits yonder with the folks in the summer-house. The roast meat seems to be deliciously done, if I may judge from the odor. Just one little bone for me, if you please, good master mine.
What do I see? He gives a bone to that scamp Fido; but for me, his trusty one, who, year in and year out, have guarded yard and stable so faithfully,—for me he has nothing, not even a mouthful! And here I sit hungering and thirsting till my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.",-0.237038257,0.475413731
62013b808,,,"Summer passed away, and autumn came, and Emma was as fond as ever of her dear plant. But Mrs. Vincent, Emma's mother, had been very ill, and Dr. Ware had cured her.
One day, while Emma was in the parlor with her father and mother, Dr. Ware came in.
""I need not come again,"" he said: ""I am here now to say good-by. You will not want any more of my medicines.""
Then Emma's papa thanked Dr. Ware very much for the skill and care which he had shown in the case; and Emma's mother said, ""I hope to show you some day how grateful I am, Dr. Ware.""
""What can I do to let him know how much I thank him?"" thought Emma. ""I will give him my little daisy-plant,"" said she. So she took it to Dr. Ware; and he was so much pleased, that he took her on his knee and kissed her. But I am not sure that a little tear did not drop on Daisy-flower, as Emma put it into the doctor's hand.",-0.78202723,0.495881712
5f5ca10e0,,,"Well, the children walked and walked, and now and then they got a drive; and, on the third morning, Jessie led Johnny into Boston over the Brighton road.
They found Dr. Williamson. He received them kindly. He examined Johnny's eyes, and then said to Jessie, ""I think there are nine chances in ten that I can cure your brother.""
Jessie bounded with joy. The good doctor accommodated them in his own house while the cure was going on; and after not many days he sent the children home in the cars, and, as he left them, placed a sealed envelope in the hand of Jessie.
""My bill for your father: there is no haste about it,"" said he kindly; and then he bade them good-by.
The journey was a short one. Happy enough were the parents to see their dear children back again, and Johnny quite cured of his blindness.",-0.612158053,0.523598212
08e6d6d7b,,,"The pigeons did not seem to be at all disturbed or frightened by the noise of carriages or the press of people; but would fly down, and light on the peddler's wrist, and peck the food from the palm of his hand.
He had made them so tame, that they would often light on his shoulders or on his head; and, if he put food in his mouth, they would try to get it even from between his teeth.
The children would flock round to see him; and even the busy newsboy would pause, and forget the newspapers under his arm, while he watched these interviews between the birds and their good friend.
A year afterwards I was in Boston again; but the poor peddler and his birds were not to be seen. All Franklin Street, and much of the eastern side of Washington Street, were in ruins. There had been a great fire in Boston,—the largest that was ever known there; and more than fifty acres, crowded with buildings, had been made desolate, so that nothing but smoking ruins was left. This was in November, 1872.",0.126890027,0.49051276
ece678a09,,,"The boy had a basket strapped to his back, and stood looking intently, with both hands resting on his knees. His name was Norman Blake. Other boys, and a young woman, soon came up, and joined him as spectators.
Norman studied every movement of the painter's hand; and, when he got home, he took a piece of charcoal, and tried to draw a picture on the wall. Rather a rough picture it was, but pretty good for a first attempt.
The next day Norman went again, and looked on while the painter sketched. ""You've got that line wrong,"" cried Norman all at once, forgetting that the painter had told him not to talk.
""What do you know about it, you young vagabond?"" cried the painter angrily. ""Out of this! Run, scamper, and don't show your rogue's face here again! But stop. Before you go, come here, and point out what struck you as wrong.""",0.065357628,0.503049842
ec45bd222,,,"There was a good path, and they soon came to the woods. On the edge of the woods was a hut, where the men rested sometimes while making sugar. The children thought they would play that was their house. Nobody was there that day: so they had it all to themselves.
A little way out of the woods were two large stakes with a pole across them, on which hung a large kettle. Some half-burnt logs and ashes were under the kettle, but the fire was all out. A pile of wood was not far off; and branches of trees, chips, and logs were scattered around.
The children gathered dry leaves and sticks, and made a fire in a safe place. The next thing to do was to get some sap to boil into candy. What is sap? It is the juice of a tree. When the warm spring sunshine melts the snow, the roots of the tree drink in the moisture of the earth. This goes up into the tree, and makes sap. The sap within the tree, and the sunshine without, make the buds swell, and the bright fresh leaves come out.",0.139892877,0.522409354
ff5dc1c0b,,,"This is a picture of the horse that refuses to run over children. His name is Prince. Once his master was driving him along a narrow street, when Prince saw an infant creeping along across the street right in his way.
Prince at once slackened his speed; and though his master, who did not know that the infant lay in the way, touched him with the whip, Prince knew better than to hurt the poor little infant.
At last the good horse stopped short, and refused to move. His master got out of the buggy to see what was the matter; and there, close by the horse's fore-feet, was a baby on its knees.
Was not Prince a good, wise horse to refuse to harm the baby? Another time, when a little boy came up behind him, when the flies were pestering him, Prince, instead of kicking him, just lifted up one of his hind-feet, and pushed him gently away.",0.492744179,0.490224412
c1a3fb624,,,"Madam Starling looks about with her clear, bright little eyes, and sees that the troublesome sparrows have all gone away; and her faithful mate lights on the topmost bough of a tree nearby, and pours forth a song of rejoicing and of triumph.
But soon the wind blows cold from the north. Ah! old Winter comes back a moment or two just to see what Spring is about. The flakes descend on their black coats; and the starlings come out from their little house, and look about to see what's the matter.
Have they made a mistake? Oh, no! Soon the sun will be out. April has come, and the snow will not last long. They first go to work and clean their little house, pitching out all the rubbish the sparrows have left there.
Straw, feathers, and hay must now be got for a nice fresh nest. This they soon make; and one day Madam Starling shows her mate five or six clear blue eggs in the nest. For nearly sixteen days she must sit brooding on these eggs; and then—what joy!—half a dozen bright little starlings make their appearance.",-1.097004912,0.45530679
95c02c078,,,"One night Hettie went to bed, and forgot to put her pet in its cage. What do you think it did? It just flew up on her pillow; and there it sat with its head tucked under its wing.
Hettie named it Posey, and called it her daughter.
""What will you be, some day, when Posey lays eggs, and brings out a brood of little chickens?"" asked mamma one day.
That was a new idea to Hettie; and it puzzled her little brain for a minute: then she laughed out, ""Shall I be their grandmother?""
Papa looked up from his paper to see what amused his little girl so much; and, when she had told him, he said he would have a pair of spectacles ready for her; and mamma said she would make her a cap; and Hettie said her little arm-chair would be very nice for a grandmother's chair.",0.493526931,0.486812851
d2208fccd,,,"Nearly every day in winter, when they cannot play out of doors, these little girls dress up to represent different characters. They call this ""Playing Tableaux;"" but their tableaux are something more than pictures, as they act their parts as well as dress them.
Sometimes, for instance, one of the little girls appears as a peddler, who is quite as hard to get rid of as a real one.
Sometimes a washerwoman comes in, and gets about tubs and clothes, and makes all the confusion of washing-day.
Sometimes papa's great shaggy black coat covers what pretends to be ""your good old dog Tiger,"" who is very kind to his friends, but has loud, fierce ""bow-wow-wows"" and sharp bites for those who are not good to him.
Sometimes poor little lame Jimmy, who can only walk on crutches, comes in to sell shoe-strings, ""because,"" he says, ""you know I can do nothing else to help my poor mother.""",-0.800782387,0.460723622
c24550bff,,,"George had quite a long walk to take; and, when he got back, it was quite dark. Just as he reached the garden-gate, he remembered what his uncle had said that morning about Watch.
""Now,"" said he to himself, ""I'll just see if I cannot get into the house without your knowing it, Master Watch; and, if I cannot, you are smarter than I think.""
So George took off his shoes, and went stealing along on the soft grass, looking like a little thief, until he came to the broad gravel-walk, which he must cross to get round to the back of the house.
He stopped for a minute, while he looked about for Watch, and soon spied him lying at the front-door, with his black nose resting upon his great white paws; and he seemed to be fast asleep.
Then George very cautiously stepped upon the gravel-walk, first with one foot, and then with the other. As he did so, Watch pricked up both ears; but it was so dark, that George did not see them.",0.073434314,0.488630749
9a9b134c8,,,"One day mousie managed to get his door open and scamper off. Then Ida cried and cried, and was afraid her dear mousie would starve. But after a day or two, as grandma was going upstairs, she saw little mousie hopping up ahead of her.
He ran into Ida's closet. Ida brought the cage; and mamma and grandma made mousie run into it.
""Perhaps it is not the same mouse,"" said grandma.
""Oh, yes, it is!"" said Ida. ""I know him by his sore nose.""
Ida took good care of mousie till warm weather came, and it was time to go into the country for the summer. Then she took the cage outside the back-gate and opened mousie's door. Mousie was very quiet at first; but soon he peeped out, and, seeing nothing to hinder, he ran away as fast as his little legs could carry him.
I am glad that he was set free; for I do not think he was happy in the cage. I hope he will keep away from traps and cats, and live to a good old age.",0.323143442,0.516714778
de2f02e6f,,,"Kit Midge was thought in the family to be a wonderful little cat. She enjoyed sitting in the sunshine; she liked to feast upon the dainty little mice; and, oh, dear me! now and then, she liked to catch a bird!
This was very naughty, of course; but the best trained cats have their faults. One morning Kit ate her breakfast with great relish, washed her face and paws, smoothed down her fur coat, and went into the parlor to take a nap in the big arm-chair.
The sun shone full in her face; and she blinked and purred and felt very good-natured; for, only the night before, she had caught her first rat, and for such a valiant deed had been praised and petted to her heart's content.
Well, Kit Midge fell asleep in the chair, with one little pink ear turned back, that she might wake easily, and a black tail curled round her paws.",0.523273059,0.54329745
9ea0d2788,,,"The most important bee in the hive is naturally the queen. She is longer and sleeker than the others, and has a crooked sting, of which, however, she seldom makes use. Similar in form, but smaller, are the working-bees, whose sting is straight. The male bee, or drone, is thicker than the others, and stingless.
""What has the queen to do in the hive?"" I asked. The old gentleman replied, ""She is the mother-bee, lays all the eggs, and is so diligent that she often lays twelve hundred in a day, having a separate cell for each egg. That is her only work; for she leaves the whole care of her children to the industrious working-bees, who have various labors to perform. Some of them build cells of wax; others bring in honey on the dust of flowers, called pollen; yet others feed and take care of the young; and a small number act as body-guard to the queen.""",0.987861812,0.594407634
c34c54861,,,"When he got to be six months old, he became very mischievous. Things were constantly being missed from the house. Handkerchiefs, slippers, shoes, towels, aprons, and napkins disappeared; and no one could tell what became of them. One day Cæsar was seen going into the garden with a slipper in his mouth; and I followed him to a far-off corner where stood a large currant-bush.
I looked under the bush and saw Cæsar digging a hole, into which he put the slipper, and then covered it up with earth. Upon digging under this bush, I found all the things that had been missed.
A neighbor's dog, called ""Dr. Wiseman,"" was Cæsar's particular friend. One day we heard a loud scratching at the front door; and, when we opened it, in walked Cæsar and Dr. Wiseman. Cæsar took the Doctor by the ear, and led him up to each of the family, just as if he were introducing him, and then led him into the garden, and treated him to a bone.",0.304712221,0.498032083
93d838248,,,"""Tick, tock! tick, tock!"" said again the old clock; and then there was a little buzzing noise, and the old clock began to strike; and all at once a little door over the dial-plate opened, and there stood a little bird crying, ""Cuckoo, cuckoo!"" And over the bird, on the top of the clock, a little man started up in a red coat, with sabre and musket complete, and began to march backwards and forwards.
Henry did not look up to see the bird and the little man; for he wanted to be out in the garden at play with his sister, instead of trying to write a theme on the ""Flight of Time.""
At last Henry finished his theme in these words: ""Time does not fly at all fast for me when I am trying to write a theme. On the contrary, it seems very long indeed. We ought to improve our time. We ought to work. Life is short. My theme is ended. And now, having written the required number of words, I will go out in the garden, and see if any peaches have fallen during the night.""",0.144414634,0.532184443
3db285c39,,,"""Why, Walter, what a threat!"" said Laura, laughing; ""but you are a good deal like the minister's dog Bunkum, who barks terribly, but never bites.""
""See what I get for being a good boy!"" replied Walter. ""The first time a chance for a little fun comes along, then it's, 'O Walter! you and the other boys are too young to be trusted alone on the water.'""
Hardly had Walter given utterance to these words, when there were cries from the roadside near by; and men and women were seen running towards the pond. What could be the matter?
It soon was made known what the matter was. The little fellows in the boat had upset it; and five of them were floundering about in the water. Fortunately no life was lost. All were saved, but not until all were wet through to the skin.",-0.448596035,0.48898893
258f088b3,,,"There were two little boys who were cousins. One was named Richard; the other was named Paul. Richard lived where he could see from his chamber-window the Atlantic Ocean. There was a thick clump of trees at the back of his house; and in winter the ground in front would be often covered with snow.
Paul lived in Southern California, where, from his chamber-window, he could see the Pacific Ocean. He had a brother Harry and two sisters. It never snowed where he was: and he had no use for skates; for the water never froze.
Richard had a sister Mary, of whom he was very fond. Here is what Richard wrote to his Cousin Paul about his way of passing Christmas morning:—
""I wish you and Harry and the girls had been with us; for we had a good time on the ice. I'll tell you what we did. As soon as we had breakfasted, I got out my sled 'Dauntless,' and told Mary to wrap up, and bring her skates along.",0.221019708,0.500077527
28692531a,,,"""That poor woman looks sad and discouraged,"" said Ellen to herself: ""she must be almost as sad as I am. How can I comfort her? Why, by buying some of her shoestrings, of course.""
Ellen had some money of her own put away in a box. She ran and got it, then, putting on her bonnet, went out and bought a whole bunch of shoestrings. Then, with her aunt's consent, she asked the poor woman to come in and get some luncheon.
The poor woman gladly accepted the invitation; and Ellen soon had her seated by a nice fire in the kitchen, chatting and laughing with the maids as merrily as if she had no care in the world.
""Have I made you happy?"" asked Ellen. ""That you have, you darling,"" said the poor woman, with a tear in her eye. ""And so you have made me happy,"" replied Ellen. Yes, she had found that Aunt Alice was in the right. ""The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer another.""",0.847763908,0.606161419
acaded704,,,"It was found that the cow had been badly treated by the man who had owned her, and who had been in the habit of milking her. Being a high-spirited beast, she then gave him so much trouble, that he was soon glad to be rid of her.
She would now let no one touch her but Mabel: so Mr. Brittan finally said that the cow should be Mabel's cow, and that all the butter which the cow yielded should be hers. But Mabel is a generous girl; and so she shares the money she earns. Her mother, her sister Emily, and her brothers Oliver and Frank, all get a part of it.
Mabel has given the cow a name; and the cow will come to her when she calls her by name. The name is a very pretty one for a cow, I think. It is Dido.",0.898551622,0.512523238
077670aa0,,,"Sometimes we say to him, ""Now, Pinny, play sick."" Then he lies down, droops his head, and puts on a woe-begone look. We run around him, saying, ""Poor Pinny!"" and he all the while seems to enjoy the joke. As soon as we say, ""Up Pinny, all well,"" he jumps up, shakes himself, and gives a knowing look, which seems to say, ""Didn't I do that well?""
When we tell him to play beggar, he sits up on his haunches, raises his fore-paws, and whines dolefully.
When we hear a noise, and say, ""See if anybody's coming, Pinny!"" he goes to the door, and listens: if any one is coming, he barks loudly; if not, he comes quietly back.
Sometimes the two dogs play horses. Their master takes a rope a few feet long, and ties one end around Pinny's neck, and the other around Tip's. Then, when the word is given, they set off and gallop up the road abreast, like two ponies. When their master whistles, they turn round, and come back.",-0.116008005,0.474869792
534106951,,,"It was a bright sunny morning when they started off across the prairie. They saw a great many prairie-chickens, and two big gray wolves, as they went along. Albert was in great glee; but it was a long ride, and the little boy was very glad when they came in sight of the sparkling waters of the Neosho, just as the sun was setting.
Papa had just time to pitch a tent and build a big fire before it was quite dark. Then they all sat down by the fire, and ate their supper. Then mamma made up a nice bed with blankets and shawls, and put Albert into it. They were all glad to go to bed early.
The wolves barked at them several times during the night, but were too much afraid of the fire to venture very near. Albert slept as sweetly as if he had been in his own little bed at home, instead of being out under the starry sky, far away from a house.",0.294811559,0.567712769
70117a25c,,,"Maud is spending her vacation among the woods and mountains of Maine, where she went with her father and mother about two weeks ago.
One very pleasant morning papa said, ""I think we had better take a ride this morning."" So Maud was called in to get ready; and Hannah, the good white horse, was harnessed into the buggy.
The buggy had but one seat: so mamma found a nice box, and folded her shawl and put on it; and that made a good place for the little girl, between her father and mother; and they all started on their ride.
They went along a shady road near the river, and soon they saw some geese. Several of them were swimming in the water, and one or two were on the bank. One of these had a sort of frame around its neck, and was standing on one leg.",0.307226901,0.497161153
b6d7f625e,,,"This year, on Thanksgiving Day, none of our friends were with us; and mamma and papa felt very sad to have the big turkey cooked, and only our own family to eat it.
So, happening to see a ragged little boy in the street, mamma called him, and told him to go out and find eleven more poor little boys, and tell them to come with him and get a Thanksgiving dinner.
He ran off in high glee; and, sure enough, when twelve o'clock came, along came the whole number of poor, hungry little boys. Their eyes sparkled with delight when they saw the nice brown turkey, and the pies and cakes. They were soon seated at the table; and papa and mamma waited on them.
It made us all glad to see how the poor fellows enjoyed their dinner. One ragged little boy was so afraid of soiling the cloth, that he quietly slipped the bones under the table. Another boy saw him, and told the rest; and then they all had a good laugh.",1.178357171,0.579614823
888e9eb32,,,"It was a windy day in November. The waves broke with a great noise on the shingly beach. Soon the wind rose higher: the sea rose too, and the rain fell fast. The children walked back to the village; and there the old men said, shaking their heads, ""We shall have a storm.""
That night, all the boats came safely back into the harbor, except the boat in which Rachel's grandfather had sailed. It was a long, sad night for poor Rachel. The next day and the next passed by; and no grandfather came back to take care of her, and find her in food and clothes, and carry her in his strong arms when she was tired out with walking.
Susan and Joe in their own house felt sad for the little orphan. One day their mother went to market. Baby was in the cradle, and Susan was rocking it, whilst Joe was cutting out a boat with an old jack-knife. The kettle on the stove began to sing; and Susan and Joe began to talk.",0.233823812,0.512675148
5ef1424f2,,,"Willy is very fond of playing horse, but has no brother to play with him. His sister Edith, three years old, does not like to play horse: she prefers to be with her dollies. Sometimes Willy gets cross, and scolds at her because she will not play horse as much as he wants her to.
A few days ago I saw Willy coming up from the cellar with a large red apple in his hand; and soon after I heard the two children racing through the rooms, having a merry time; and Willy called out, ""O mamma! I gave Edie an apple, and she did play horse.""
You see, he had thought about that story, and made up his mind to try to coax little sister, as the man did the horse: he soon found that kind words and deeds were better than scolding.
I hope he will not forget it very soon.",0.555416606,0.526168427
b6174e8be,,,"When Willy was two years old, he lived in a red farmhouse with a yard in front of it. The dandelions were very thick there; so that the yard looked yellow, instead of green.
One bright morning Willy's mamma put on his straw hat, and sent him out in the yard to play. She knew the yard had a high fence; and he could not open the gate; so he was safe.
When it was time for him to have a nap, and mamma went to call him, she noticed that a great many of the dandelions were gone. She wondered where they were; but, as Willy could not talk much, she did not ask him about them.
A short time after, while Willy was asleep in his crib, his mamma went out to draw some water. When the bucket came up full of water, the top was all yellow with dandelions. Looking down into the well, she could see no water at all, only dandelions.
It was no wonder, then, where the blossoms had gone. Willy had been very busy trying to fill up the well!",0.573393122,0.497496985
0bd562bbf,,,"Mamma shook her head; though she could not help laughing at the little girl's mistake, for she meant subscribers. It is a hard word; but this little Mamie knew the meaning well.
""O mamma! please do; for you know I love it. And Jennie and Katie and Bessie will love it too, if they only know about it; and, besides, I can get a present, if I send some new names to 'The Nursery' man.""
Little Mamie was so urgent in her request, that her mother asked papa what he thought about it.
Papa said, ""Oh, let her try if she wants to: it will do no harm."" How the black eyes danced! and the little feet could hardly keep still, while mamma dressed her up very warmly, till she was just about as large one way as the other.",-0.315092518,0.460496436
fdd4a14e2,,,"It was a fox. How he did run when he saw us! We ran after him, and chased him into a pile of rails, in one corner of the camp.
You see, the soldiers had torn down all the fences, and piled them up for fire-wood. The fox ran right in among the rails; and, the more he tried to get out, the more he couldn't.
""A fox, a fox!"" we shouted; hearing which, all the men, like so many boys, rushed up, and made themselves into a circle around the wood-pile, so that poor foxy was completely hemmed in.
Then a few of us went to work, and removed the rails one by one, until at last he was clear, and we could all see him. With a bound, he tried to get away; but the men kept their legs very close together, and he was a prisoner. We got one of the tent-ropes and tried to tie him.",0.198952396,0.483871729
c65dd520d,,,"It was on Saturday afternoon, a week ago. He was out coasting with the other boys. Johnny Ware, a little fellow only five years old, was with them.
Harry and several other boys were going very swiftly down the hill as Johnny was coming up.
""Get out of the way!"" shouted one boy.
""Look out, Johnny, turn to the right!"" cried another. But the little fellow did not know which was right, and, being bewildered, stood still. The sleds were almost upon him, and it seemed as if he must be run over, when Harry caught him, and threw him one side, but not in season to save his own ankle.
It was badly sprained, and he had to be carried home. But when Harry remembers the danger, and how near Johnny came to being run over, he does not complain. He can even watch the boys cheerfully, and clap his hands in joy as he hears their ringing laugh and merry shouts.",-0.274810389,0.511097793
3f8e99a66,,,"Annie and her baby-brother went to ride with their papa and mamma. They crossed the river on a long bridge; and beyond it they saw horses and cows feeding on the green prairie.
""What are all these heaps of dirt for?"" said Annie.
""We are just entering 'dog-town,'"" said her papa; ""and those are the houses of the inhabitants. Do you see the two little fellows sitting up on that mound?""
""Yes,"" said Annie; ""but they look like little fat squirrels; don't they, mamma?""
Baby pointed his little chubby finger, and said, ""Ish!""
""They are prairie-dogs,"" said mamma; ""but are sometimes called the 'wish-ton-wish' and 'prairie marmot,' and sometimes 'prairie marmot squirrel.' It is like the marmot because it burrows in the ground, and like the squirrel because it has cheek-pouches.""
""Well, what do they call them dogs for?"" said Annie.
""Let us stop and watch them,"" said her papa. ""Hark! do you hear them bark?""",0.551066288,0.479070292
508973de8,,,"Mr. Werner has a monkey and a pet dog. The monkey is called Captain. He wears a hat with a feather in it. The name of the pet dog is Grip. He is fat and greedy; and, if he sees a boy with a cake, he begs for a piece of it; indeed, he wouldn't object to the whole of it. I wonder if you can spy out Grip and the Captain in the picture.
But Dandy makes more fun for us than all the rest. ""Now, Dandy,"" Mr. Werner will say, ""make your most stunning bow to the ladies, and then give us a turn on the light fantastic.""
By the ""light fantastic,"" Mr. Werner means ""the light fantastic toe."" He has made this joke so many times, that we know what he means by it.
Thus encouraged, Dandy will bow, raise himself on one of his hind-feet, and whirl round in a pirouette. (If you do not know what a pirouette is, you must get some one to explain and pronounce the word for you.)",-0.776042454,0.456180907
9bb35ecb1,,,"One bright Monday morning, I looked out of the front-window, and said, ""Why, Harry, Uncle David has come to town! He is tying his horse under the elm-tree."" A minute after, Uncle David opened the door into the sitting-room, and said, ""Is there any one here who would like to go out to grandpa's today?"" And mamma spoke right up, and said, ""We would all like to go. It will do my little lads good to have a nice ride.""
""Get ready quick, then,"" said Uncle David. So mamma put a little blue cloak and a white sun-bonnet on Freddy the baby, and a linen coat, and straw hat with blue ribbons on Harry; and they all went out, and got into the carriage.
Then away they rode through the pretty streets, and over a covered bridge, where the horse went trot, trot, trot. Then they crossed a railroad-track, and drove past a station, and stopped at a store; and Uncle David went in and bought a great box of sugar for Aunt Mattie, and a little bag of candy to carry home to his little boy Philly.",0.955047261,0.556575638
9226a49a7,,,"In a day or two, we began to look about the world. We found that it comprised a pretty lawn, on which our mansion was placed, with a brick wall at one end of it. The other end of the world was at the foot of the lawn, and consisted of a level expanse as smooth as a sheet of glass.
Our mansion was formed of wood, with a high pointed roof, and with open bars in front, through which we could look out and enjoy the prospect. We could crawl under the bars easily; but mother-hen could not.
One day a great, strong giant came and lifted up our mansion right over our heads. This giant had two legs, but no wings. Poor thing! They called him a little boy. He frightened us very much at first; but as he fed us, and called us, ""Ducky, ducky!"" we soon grew fond of him.",-0.055765398,0.460979085
a0283cf3f,,,"Poor John ate his bread with water instead of milk: but somehow he was not unhappy, for he felt that he had done a kindness to little Sam Jones; and the satisfaction of having rendered a service to another always brings happiness.
A few days after, Mr. Jones came to the school, and spoke to Mr. Brill about the matter; for little Sam had told his father and mother all about it. Sam was a timid boy; but he could not bear to see John Tubbs kept in for no fault, while the other boys were at play.
""What!"" said the master, ""and has John Tubbs borne all the blame without saying a word?—Come here, John.""
""What's the matter now?"" said John to himself. ""Something else, I suppose. Well, never mind, so that poor little Sam Jones has got out of his little scrape.""",-0.03843088,0.499649564
80143e757,,,"One day a stray dog came to the house; and John gave him a part of his dinner. The dog liked the attention so well, that he stayed near the house, and would not be driven off. Every day John gave him what he could spare.
One day, John said to him, ""Doggie, what is your name? Is it Fido? Is it Frisk? Is it Nero? Is it Nap? Is it Tiger? Is it Toby? Is it Plato? Is it Pomp?""
When John uttered the word ""Pomp,"" the dog began to bark; and John said, ""Well, sir, then your name shall be Pomp."" Then John began to play with him, and found that Pomp was not only acquainted with a good many tricks, but was quick to learn new ones.
Pomp would walk on his hind-legs better than any dog that John ever saw. Pomp would let John dress him up in an old coat and a hat; and would sit on a chair, and hold the reins that were put in his paws, just as if he were a coachman.",1.065174212,0.552815184
fc8597e53,,,"William was not afraid of being laughed at; and he felt much obliged to those who pointed out any faults in what he did. He was not discouraged by failures. He kept trying till he had used his pencil nearly all up. Still he had not yet made a good drawing of a horse.
""You'll never learn to draw: so you may as well give it up first as last,"" said his friend to him one day, some six months after their last meeting. ""Your horses are all donkeys still.""
William opened a portfolio, and, taking out some pictures, said, ""What do you think of these?""
""Ah! here is something like a horse,"" replied his friend, looking at one of the drawings. ""You will never do anything like this, Willy.""
William smiled, but said nothing; though it was his own drawing that his friend was praising.",0.292194255,0.463756766
07ac4c066,,,"Rudolf, the eldest boy, learned to be a carpenter. But, when he was twenty-one years of age, he came into the possession of a large fortune. He married, and thought that he had so much money that he could never spend it all.
But, before he was fifty years of age, the whole of his large possessions had melted away. Some of his stately houses had been burned down; and the insurance-offices had failed. Some men he had trusted had proved dishonest; and many schemes that he had entered upon had turned out badly.
At the age of forty-six, Rudolf Reinhold took up the business of a carpenter, which he had learned between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. He soon became skillful, and turned his attention to building houses in the city of Berlin. So successful was he, that in ten years he was once more a rich man.",0.767159433,0.503789065
2719dac02,,,"Rachel has been used to a life in the city, but she is now on a visit to her uncle's in the country; and she has fine times rambling through the woods and fields.
Her cousin Paul takes her to pick berries, and tells her the names of the things she sees. ""Smell of these leaves,"" Paul will say, breaking a twig from a shrub, somewhat like a huckleberry-bush, and crushing the leaves in his hand. ""This is the bayberry-shrub. How fragrant the leaves are! It bears a berry with a gray wax-like coating; and in Nova Scotia this wax is much used instead of tallow, or mixed with tallow, to make candles.""
""But what is this little red berry on the ground?"" asked Rachel once when they were on one of their rambles. ""It has a dark glossy leaf; and I like the taste and the smell of it very much.""",0.118995174,0.480367849
a98ba5def,,,"""Why, cousin,"" said Rodney, ""you must know that the tides are the rise and fall of the waters of the ocean. It will be high tide an hour from now; then the water will cover all these rocks you see around us. After that, the water will sink and go back till we can see the rocks again, and walk a long way on the sand; then it will be low tide. But we must not stay here talking: the water will soon be too deep for us.""
So Rodney took Rose in his arms, and Julia placed her left hand on his right shoulder; and in this way they went through the water to the dry part of the beach.
""We must look out for this sly tide the next time,"" said little Rose as she ran to tell papa of their adventure.",-0.296560369,0.482820138
5a717a66b,,,"Walter Dane was in a hurry to go off to play at ball with some of his schoolfellows; and so he did not give much thought to the lesson which he had to learn.
It was a lesson in grammar. Walter's mother took the book, and said, ""I fear my little boy finds it hard to put his thoughts on his lesson today.""
""Try me, mother,"" said Walter. ""I will do my best.""
""Then, I will put you a question which is not in the book,"" said mamma. ""Which is the heavier,—a pound of feathers, or a pound of lead?""
""A pound of lead, to be sure!"" cried Walter confidently.
""There! you spoke then without thinking,"" said Mrs. Dane. ""A little thought would have made it clear to you that a pound is a pound, and that a pound of feathers must weigh just as much as a pound of lead.""",0.977323053,0.53349217
1e6190236,,,"Did you ever hear of the boy who had a drum and a trumpet and a rocking-horse for his Christmas presents, and cried, after all, because Santa Claus had given his sister a doll, and hadn't given him one?
I have heard of that boy; but, to tell the truth, I doubt the whole story. It is a little too tough for me. I don't believe there ever was such a boy; and I won't believe in him until I see him.
But I did know a little boy who almost cried because he had no Christmas present. He was a good boy too. He would have been pleased with any thing; and it was too bad that Santa Claus forgot to bring some little gift for him.
The strangest case, though, is that of the little boy whose picture we have here. You see him just as he looked on Christmas morning, with his presents all around him; and yet you see he does not look happy. What can be the matter with the child?",0.34502973,0.526428307
a62b7b3b4,,,"""Now is the time to pick the cherries!"" shouted Charles as he came running in from the garden one July afternoon.
""Are they quite ripe?"" said his mother.
""Ripe? I should think so. Just look at them!"" answered Charles, pointing to the trees.
""O mamma!"" said Mary, ""the birds are getting them all. We must have them picked at once.""
""Never fear, little girl,"" said her mother. ""There will be enough for the birds and ourselves and our neighbors too. But it really is time to begin to pick them. So, Charles, get a basket, and we will all go out under the cherry-tree.""
So out they all went,—Charles and Mary and Ellen and Julia and Ruth; and mamma followed with the baby.
""I told the gardener to bring a ladder,"" said mamma. ""He will be here in a moment, Charles. You can't pick cherries without a ladder, you know.""",0.405275212,0.51726892
4625afea0,,,"I had finished eating my dinner, set my pail under a clump of trees, and commenced my afternoon job; but, as the log was large and hard, I often had to stop and rest a minute. While I was standing still, with my hands upon one handle of the saw, all at once a bird came flying down towards me; and, after resting upon the ground behind the log a few moments, what do you suppose he did?
Whether he knew I was tired, and thought it was too hard for me to cut the wood all alone, I cannot say; but suddenly he gave a little spring, and seated himself right on the other handle of my saw, as you see in the picture, grasping it with all the hands he had, and looking as though he had come on purpose to help me saw that log through.",0.25506381,0.490129703
1a8e17102,,,"One day, when I was in the barn, I happened to look up, and there, on a beam, I saw a red squirrel with a great bushy tail. He was looking right at me. The next day I saw him in my yard, trying to jump from one tree to another. I thought he would fall; but he just saved himself by catching the end of a twig. Up in one of the chambers there was an old satchel hanging on a nail. Bunny climbed in at the window, and filled the satchel with nuts and apple-seeds. There was a basket of corn in the wood-house; and Bunny carried it almost all away.
One day, as Bunny was going along in the grass, he heard a noise: so he sat up, and looked about. He saw a dog. Up went Bunny into a tree. The dog came under the tree, and barked. The saucy squirrel ran down, and said with his eyes, ""Now catch me if you can,"" and then ran up to the top of the tree as quick as a wink.",0.594855871,0.503256077
823f90bf4,,,"There were no mice for kitty, and what could she do? She could not sit still. She saw the little soft white chickens running about in the grass, and she thought she would try to catch one. So she crouched down, and, without making a bit of noise, was getting ready for a spring. But the chickens had a dear mother who loved them. When she saw kitty creeping along, she knew that they were in danger: so she flew at kitty, and made a dreadful noise that scared her away.
Then kitty saw a great butterfly flying along in the air. By and by it flew down upon a flower. Kitty sprang and caught it in her mouth. Then she saw a pretty bird on a bush, singing as hard as he could sing. Kitty crept along under the bush, like a sly little rogue. But the bird saw her coming, and flew away. One day a bee was coming home with honey. Kitty saw the bee, and caught it in her mouth. I think she will not try to catch any more bees. Can you guess why?",0.666115768,0.532947614
b49719b13,,,"Edwin has two doves. They were given to him by his uncle. He has a nice little house for them. There are two doors in it, where they go in and out. In front of the doors there is a shelf, on which they perch.
The doves are free to go where they please; but they always come home at night. They are quite tame. Sometimes they fly up to Edwin's window, and light on the sill. They tap on the pane to let him know they are hungry.
Then he opens the window, and feeds them. He gives them corn, crumbs of bread, and sometimes oats. They like the corn best. One of them is rather apt to be greedy; and both get so much to eat that they are very plump and fat.
Here are the doves looking at the turkeys. They do not know what to make of such birds.",0.36104051,0.496549583
2cbaf24b1,,,"The speckled hen walked all around the house, and saw the front-door open. So she walked right in, and went up stairs.
She peeped into the front-chamber, pecked a little at the carpet, and clucked with surprise when she saw herself in the looking-glass.
By and by she saw a wash-bowl standing on the top of the bureau. She thought this would make a nice place for a nest. So she flew up to see; but the bowl tipped over, and fell upon the floor.
When the people came up stairs to see what was the matter, they found that the wash-bowl was all broken in pieces, and the hen had made her nest in the band-box in the corner of the room.
They thought this a very saucy thing for a hen to do; but they did not drive her out: they waited to see what she would do next.
By and by the hen came off, and flew up on the window-sill. Then she began to cackle very loud. I suppose she meant to say, ""Go and look in the band-box.""",0.107541264,0.493748358
859b9eebe,,,"A balloon was going up from Boston Common, and two children were out upon a hill in the country watching for it. ""There it is!"" said Willy, as he pointed to a black speck right over the State House.
The speck seemed to grow larger every moment. ""The balloon is coming this way,"" said Willy. ""I can see a man in it waving a flag."" By and by it seemed to be coming down on a hill close by where the children stood. They ran to meet it, shouting as they went; but it was a great deal farther off than they thought it was.
A good many other people were looking at the balloon at the same time; and it came down in a pasture where some children were picking berries. When it got almost down, the man looked out and said, ""Have you any blueberries for sale?""
The children held out their baskets, and said, ""Yes, plenty of them.""—""Well, then,"" said the man, ""I think this is a good place to stop at.""",0.144573631,0.481835469
4a12b1cf1,,,"When there exists an inherited or instinctive tendency to the performance of an action, or an inherited taste for certain kinds of food, some degree of habit in the individual is often or generally requisite. We find this in the paces of the horse, and to a certain extent in the pointing of dogs; although some young dogs point excellently the first time they are taken out, yet they often associate the proper inherited attitude with a wrong odor, and even with eyesight. I have heard it asserted that if a calf be allowed to suck its mother only once, it is much more difficult afterwards to rear it by hand. Caterpillars which have been fed on the leaves of one kind of tree, have been known to perish from hunger rather than to eat the leaves of another tree, although this afforded them their proper food, under a state of nature; and so it is in many other cases.",-1.865126616,0.482332125
ece951891,,,"The power of Association is admitted by everyone. Mr. Bain remarks, that ""actions, sensations and states of feeling, occurring together or in close succession, tend to grow together, or cohere, in such a way that when any one of them is afterwards presented to the mind, the others are apt to be brought up in idea."" It is so important for our purpose fully to recognize that actions readily become associated with other actions and with various states of the mind, that I will give a good many instances, in the first place relating to man, and afterwards to the lower animals. Some of the instances are of a very trifling nature, but they are as good for our purpose as more important habits. It is known to everyone how difficult, or even impossible it is, without repeated trials, to move the limbs in certain opposed directions which have never been practiced. Analogous cases occur with sensations, as in the common experiment of rolling a marble beneath the tips of two crossed fingers, when it feels exactly like two marbles.",-3.008131033,0.646906876
7b4d8533c,,,"It was a sweet summer evening, and my father asked me, as he sometimes did, to take a little ramble with him along that beautiful forest vista which I have mentioned as lying in front of the schloss.
""General Spielsdorf cannot come to us so soon as I had hoped,"" said my father, as we pursued our walk.
He was to have paid us a visit of some weeks, and we had expected his arrival next day. He was to have brought with him a young lady, his niece and ward, Mademoiselle Rheinfeldt, whom I had never seen, but whom I had heard described as a very charming girl, and in whose society I had promised myself many happy days. I was more disappointed than a young lady living in a town, or a bustling neighborhood can possibly imagine. This visit, and the new acquaintance it promised, had furnished my day dream for many weeks.",-0.455044572,0.454948977
7061bd6cb,,,"As for Passepartout, he was a true Parisian of Paris. Since he had abandoned his own country for England, taking service as a valet, he had in vain searched for a master after his own heart. Passepartout was by no means one of those pert dunces depicted by Moliere with a bold gaze and a nose held high in the air; he was an honest fellow, with a pleasant face, lips a trifle protruding, soft-mannered and serviceable, with a good round head, such as one likes to see on the shoulders of a friend. His eyes were blue, his complexion rubicund, his figure almost portly and well-built, his body muscular, and his physical powers fully developed by the exercises of his younger days. His brown hair was somewhat tumbled; for, while the ancient sculptors are said to have known eighteen methods of arranging Minerva's tresses, Passepartout was familiar with but one of dressing his own: three strokes of a large-tooth comb completed his toilet.",-2.101678771,0.490134519
dac9444a6,,,"One summer Aksionov was going to the Nizhny Fair, and as he bade good-bye to his family, his wife said to him, ""Ivan Dmitrich, do not start today; I have had a bad dream about you.""
Aksionov laughed, and said, ""You are afraid that when I get to the fair I shall go on a spree.""
His wife replied: ""I do not know what I am afraid of; all I know is that I had a bad dream. I dreamt you returned from the town, and when you took off your cap I saw that your hair was quite grey.""
Aksionov laughed. ""That's a lucky sign,"" said he. ""See if I don't sell out all my goods, and bring you some presents from the fair.""
So he said good-bye to his family, and drove away.
When he had travelled half-way, he met a merchant whom he knew, and they put up at the same inn for the night.",-0.755870093,0.458514882
74fe41820,,,"There are strange friendships. The two friends are always ready to fly at one another, and go on like that all their lives, and yet they cannot separate. Parting, in fact, is utterly impossible. The one who has begun the quarrel and separated will be the first to fall ill and even die, perhaps, if the separation comes off. I know for a positive fact that several times Stepan Trofimovitch has jumped up from the sofa and beaten the wall with his fists after the most intimate and emotional tête-à-tête with Varvara Petrovna.
This proceeding was by no means an empty symbol; indeed, on one occasion, he broke some plaster off the wall. It may be asked how I come to know such delicate details. What if I were myself a witness of it? What if Stepan Trofimovitch himself has, on more than one occasion, sobbed on my shoulder while he described to me in lurid colours all his most secret feelings. (And what was there he did not say at such times!) But what almost always happened after these tearful outbreaks was that next day he was ready to crucify himself for his ingratitude.",-1.917684721,0.502031076
621d338e0,,,"The robins are not good solo singers, but their chorus, as, like primitive fire-worshippers, they hail the return of light and warmth to the world, is unrivalled. There are a hundred singing like one. They are noisy enough then, and sing, as poets should, with no afterthought. But when they come after cherries to the tree near my window, they muffle their voices, and their faint pip, pip, pop! sounds far away at the bottom of the garden, where they know I shall not suspect them of robbing the great black-walnut of its bitter-rinded store. They are feathered Pecksniffs, to be sure, but then how brightly their breasts, that look rather shabby in the sunlight, shine in a rainy day against the dark green of the fringe-tree! After they have pinched and shaken all the life out of an earthworm, as Italian cooks pound all the spirit out of a steak, and then gulped him, they stand up in honest self-confidence, expand their red waistcoats with the virtuous air of a lobby member, and outface you with an eye that calmly challenges inquiry.",-1.710588021,0.498407805
03ed80951,,,"Her mother has insinuated that her temper is intractable, but I never saw a face less indicative of any evil disposition than hers; and from what I can see of the behavior of each to the other, the invariable severity of Lady Susan and the silent dejection of Frederica, I am led to believe as heretofore that the former has no real love for her daughter, and has never done her justice or treated her affectionately. I have not been able to have any conversation with my niece; she is shy, and I think I can see that some pains are taken to prevent her being much with me. Nothing satisfactory transpires as to her reason for running away. Her kind-hearted uncle, you may be sure, was too fearful of distressing her to ask many questions as they travelled. I wish it had been possible for me to fetch her instead of him. I think I should have discovered the truth in the course of a thirty-mile journey.",-2.084662291,0.504906175
eb50b525d,,,"There, seated upon the curbstone, Jonathan Tinker, being plied with a few leading questions, told in hints and scraps the story of his hard life, which was at present that of a second mate, and had been that of a cabin-boy and of a seaman before the mast. The second mate's place he held to be the hardest aboard ship. You got only a few dollars more than the men, and you did not rank with the officers; you took your meals alone, and in everything you belonged by yourself. The men did not respect you, and sometimes the captain abused you awfully before the passengers. The hardest captain that Jonathan Tinker ever sailed with was Captain Gooding of the Cape. It had got to be so that no man could ship second mate under Captain Gooding; and Jonathan Tinker was with him only one voyage.",-1.274646431,0.500913231
3e3be383b,,,"I believe very thoroughly in courses of reading, because I believe in having one book lead to another. But, after the beginning, these courses for different persons will vary very much from each other. You all go out to a great picnic, and meet together in some pleasant place in the woods, and you put down the baskets there, and leave the pail with the ice in the shadiest place you can find, and cover it up with the blanket. Then you all set out in this great forest, which we call Literature. But it is only a few of the party, who choose to start hand in hand along a gravel-path there is, which leads straight to the Burgesses' well, and probably those few enjoy less and gain less from the day's excursion than any of the rest. The rest break up into different knots, and go some here and some there, as their occasion and their genius call them.",-1.198710222,0.476604371
41047dfad,,,"Seventeen months after our marriage, our oldest child, Henry, was born. Meanwhile we had gone to Sidney, Delaware County, where my father opened a shop. I still continued in business with him, and during our stay at Sidney, my daughter, Elizabeth, was born. From Sidney, my father wanted to go to Bainbridge, Chenango, County, N.Y., and I went with him, leaving my wife and the children at Sidney, while we prospected. As usual my father started a blacksmith-shop; but I bought a hundred acres of timber land, went to lumbering, and made money. We had a house about four miles from the village, I living with my father, and as soon as found out that we were doing well in business, I sent to Sidney for my wife and children. They were to come by stage, and were due, after passing through Bainbridge, at our house at four o'clock in the morning. We were up early to meet the stage; but when it arrived, the driver told us that my wife had stopped at the public house in Bainbridge.",-0.743778024,0.505457849
9f9482dd7,,,"It is important to remember that, in strictness, there is no such thing as an uneducated man. Take an extreme case. Suppose that an adult man, in the full vigor of his faculties, could be suddenly placed in the world, as Adam is said to have been, and then left to do as he best might. How long would he be left uneducated? Not five minutes. Nature would begin to teach him, through the eye, the ear, the touch, the properties of objects. Pain and pleasure would be at his elbow telling him to do this and avoid that; and by slow degrees the man would receive an education, which, if narrow, would be thorough, real, and adequate to his circumstances, though there would be no extras and very few accomplishments.
And if to this solitary man entered a second Adam, or, better still, an Eve, a new and greater world, that of social and moral phenomena, would be revealed.",-0.92631875,0.490257769
25aa388a7,,,"Towards the end of November, during a thaw, at nine o'clock one morning, a train on the Warsaw and Petersburg railway was approaching the latter city at full speed. The morning was so damp and misty that it was only with great difficulty that the day succeeded in breaking; and it was impossible to distinguish anything more than a few yards away from the carriage windows.
Some of the passengers by this particular train were returning from abroad; but the third-class carriages were the best filled, chiefly with insignificant persons of various occupations and degrees, picked up at the different stations nearer town. All of them seemed weary, and most of them had sleepy eyes and a shivering expression, while their complexions generally appeared to have taken on the colour of the fog outside.
When day dawned, two passengers in one of the third-class carriages found themselves opposite each other. Both were young fellows, both were rather poorly dressed, both had remarkable faces, and both were evidently anxious to start a conversation.",-0.659302511,0.477989864
b6069700c,,,"At the captain's call two of the ship's crew came to help us dress in these heavy and impervious clothes, made of rubber without seam and constructed expressly to resist considerable pressure. One might have taken this diving apparatus for a suit of armor, both supple and resisting. It formed trousers and waistcoat; the trousers were finished off with thick boots, weighted with heavy leaden soles. The texture of the waistcoat was held together by bands of copper, which crossed the chest, protecting it from the great pressure of the water and leaving the lungs free to act. The sleeves ended in gloves, which in no way restrained the movement of the hands. There was a vast difference noticeable between this dress and the old-fashioned diving-suit.
Captain Nemo and one of his companions, Conseil and myself, were soon enveloped in the dresses; there remained nothing more to be done but inclose our heads in the metal boxes. Captain Nemo thrust his head into the helmet, Conseil and I did the same.",-1.220682609,0.461981118
ee0cbca40,,,"The horse was brought round to the door. Now he had not ridden for a great while; and, though the little boys were there to help him, he had great trouble in getting on the horse.
He tried a great many times, but always found himself facing the wrong way, looking at the horse's tail. They turned the horse's head, first up the street, then down the street; it made no difference; he always made some mistake, and found himself sitting the wrong way.
""Well,"" said he, at last, ""I don't know as I care. If the horse has his head in the right direction, that is the main thing. Sometimes I ride this way in the cars, because I like it better. I can turn my head easily enough, to see where we are going."" So off he went, and the little boys said he looked like a circus-rider, and they were much pleased.
He rode along out of the village, under the elms, very quietly. Pretty soon he came to a bridge, where the road went across a little stream.",0.244164599,0.482333787
3ed4c6f35,,,"Sire, there was once upon a time a merchant who possessed great wealth, in land and merchandise, as well as in ready money. He was obliged from time to time to take journeys to arrange his affairs. One day, having to go a long way from home, he mounted his horse, taking with him a small wallet in which he had put a few biscuits and dates, because he had to pass through the desert where no food was to be got. He arrived without any mishap, and, having finished his business, set out on his return. On the fourth day of his journey, the heat of the sun being very great, he turned out of his road to rest under some trees. He found at the foot of a large walnut-tree a fountain of clear and running water. He dismounted, fastened his horse to a branch of the tree, and sat by the fountain, after having taken from his wallet some of his dates and biscuits. When he had finished this frugal meal he washed his face and hands in the fountain.",-0.434453496,0.450248476
cca797996,,,"He examined the jar on all sides; he shook it to see if it would rattle. But he heard nothing, and so, judging from the impression of the seal and the lid, he thought there must be something precious inside. To find out, he took his knife, and with a little trouble he opened it. He turned it upside down, but nothing came out, which surprised him very much. He set it in front of him, and whilst he was looking at it attentively, such a thick smoke came out that he had to step back a pace or two. This smoke rose up to the clouds, and stretching over the sea and the shore, formed a thick mist, which caused the fisherman much astonishment. When all the smoke was out of the jar it gathered itself together, and became a thick mass in which appeared a genius, twice as large as the largest giant. When he saw such a terrible-looking monster, the fisherman would like to have run away, but he trembled so with fright that he could not move a step.",-0.391464189,0.48095944
cb9f1209d,,,"In those terms I was informed of what my personal concern was with the matter of the Diamond. If you are curious to know what course I took under the circumstances, I beg to inform you that I did what you would probably have done in my place. I modestly declared myself to be quite unequal to the task imposed upon me—and I privately felt, all the time, that I was quite clever enough to perform it, if I only gave my own abilities a fair chance. Mr. Franklin, I imagine, must have seen my private sentiments in my face. He declined to believe in my modesty; and he insisted on giving my abilities a fair chance.
Two hours have passed since Mr. Franklin left me. As soon as his back was turned, I went to my writing-desk to start the story.",-1.585192655,0.479198682
048c390ef,,,"Historic truth ought to be no less sacred than religion. If the precepts of faith raise our soul above the interests of this world, the lessons of history, in their turn, inspire us with the love of the beautiful and the just, and the hatred of whatever presents an obstacle to the progress of humanity. These lessons, to be profitable, require certain conditions. It is necessary that the facts be produced with a rigorous exactness, that the changes political or social be analysed philosophically, that the exciting interest of the details of the lives of public men should not divert attention from the political part they played, or cause us to forget their providential mission.
Too often the writer represents the different phases of history as spontaneous events, without seeking in preceding facts their true origin and their natural deduction; like the painter who, in re-producing the characteristics of Nature, only seizes their picturesque effect, without being able, in his picture, to give their scientific demonstration. The historian ought to be more than a painter; he ought, like the geologist, who explains the phenomena of the globe, to unfold the secret of the transformation of societies.",-1.893036688,0.491730956
c718f2c12,,,"The Romans, by protecting the people of Marseilles, had extended their dominion on the coast; by contracting other alliances, they penetrated into the interior. The Ædui were at war with the Allobroges and the Arverni. The proconsul Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus united with the former, and defeated the Allobroges, in 633, at Vindalium, on the Sorgue (Sulgas), not far from the Rhone. Subsequently, Q. Fabius Maximus, grandson of Paulus Æmilius, gained, at the confluence of the Isère and the Rhone, a decisive victory over the Allobroges, and over Bituitus, king of the Arverni. By this success Q. Fabius gained the surname of Allobrogicus. The Arverni pretended to be descendants of the Trojans, and boasted a common origin with the Romans; they remained independent, but their dominion, which extended from the banks of the Rhine to the neighbourhood of Narbonne and Marseilles, was limited to their ancient territory. The Ruteni, who had been their allies against Fabius, obtained similarly the condition of not being subjected to the Roman power, and were exempted from all tribute.",-3.042135781,0.571694549
2e945f2ac,,,"Raskolnikov was not used to crowds, and, as we said before, he avoided society of every sort, more especially of late. But now all at once he felt a desire to be with other people. Something new seemed to be taking place within him, and with it he felt a sort of thirst for company. He was so weary after a whole month of concentrated wretchedness and gloomy excitement that he longed to rest, if only for a moment, in some other world, whatever it might be; and, in spite of the filthiness of the surroundings, he was glad now to stay in the tavern.
The master of the establishment was in another room, but he frequently came down some steps into the main room, his jaunty, tarred boots with red turn-over tops coming into view each time before the rest of his person. He wore a full coat and a horribly greasy black satin waistcoat, with no cravat, and his whole face seemed smeared with oil like an iron lock. At the counter stood a boy of about fourteen, and there was another boy somewhat younger who handed whatever was wanted.",-1.3315417,0.467237125
0f32c1315,,,"In 1803, Mr. Jefferson, being then President of the United States, proposed to Congress to send an exploring party to trace the Missouri to its source; to cross the highlands, and follow the best water communication which might offer itself, to the Pacific Ocean. Congress approved the proposal, and voted a sum of money to carry it into execution. Capt. Lewis, who had then been two years with Mr. Jefferson as his private secretary, immediately renewed his solicitations to have the direction of the expedition. Mr. Jefferson had now had opportunity of knowing him intimately, and believed him to be brave, persevering, familiar with the Indigenous American character and customs, habituated to the hunting life, honest, and of sound judgment. He trusted that he would be careful of those committed to his charge, yet steady in the maintenance of discipline. On receiving his appointment, Capt. Lewis repaired to Philadelphia, and placed himself under its distinguished professors, with a view to acquire familiarity with the nomenclature of the natural sciences. He selected, as his companion in the proposed expedition, William Clarke, a brother-officer, known and esteemed by him.",-1.38298969,0.447929194
613fc24e7,,,"The figures in this boat were those of a strong man with ragged grizzled hair and a sun-browned face, and a dark girl of nineteen or twenty, sufficiently like him to be recognizable as his daughter. The girl rowed, pulling a pair of sculls very easily; the man, with the rudder-lines slack in his hands, and his hands loose in his waistband, kept an eager look out. He had no net, hook, or line, and he could not be a fisherman; his boat had no cushion for a sitter, no paint, no inscription, no appliance beyond a rusty boathook and a coil of rope, and he could not be a waterman; his boat was too crazy and too small to take in cargo for delivery, and he could not be a lighterman or river-carrier; there was no clue to what he looked for, but he looked for something, with a most intent and searching gaze.",-1.230297184,0.47897013
32d579996,,,"There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. ""Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,"" thought Alice; ""only, as it's asleep, I suppose it doesn't mind.""
The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: ""No room! No room!"" they cried out when they saw Alice coming. ""There's plenty of room!"" said Alice, indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.
""Your hair wants cutting,"" said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech.
""You should learn not to make personal remarks,"" Alice said with some severity: ""it's very rude.""
The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was: ""Why is a raven like a writing-desk?""",-0.417731288,0.507834057
0e6bada1d,,,"Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled ""ORANGE MARMALADE,"" but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.
""Well!"" thought Alice to herself. ""After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling downstairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!"" (Which was very likely true.)",0.277173161,0.476214621
bd5200410,,,"""Curiouser and curiouser!"" cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English). ""Now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-by, feet!"" (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off). ""Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure I shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage the best way you can—but I must be kind to them,"" thought Alice, ""or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go! Let me see. I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.""
And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it. ""They must go by the carrier,"" she thought; ""and how funny it'll seem, sending presents to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will look!
Alice's Right Foot, Esq.,
Hearthrug,
near the Fender,
(with Alice's love). Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!""",-2.041095297,0.497791729
a826176fb,,,"The first question of course was, how to get dry again: they had a consultation about this, and after a few minutes it seemed quite natural to Alice to find herself talking familiarly with them, as if she had known them all her life. Indeed, she had quite a long argument with the Lory, who at last turned sulky, and would only say, ""I'm older than you, and must know better.""
And this Alice would not allow, without knowing how old it was, and, as the Lory positively refused to tell its age, there was no more to be said.
At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of some authority among them, called out, ""Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'll soon make you dry enough!"" They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.",-1.006358141,0.438268622
e30f07b5a,,,"Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, ""Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!"" She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.
There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.",0.278696382,0.501264561
7c053644e,,,"In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled ‘ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.",-0.274541107,0.460605496
b51730f9c,,,"Alice looked at the jury-box, and saw that, in her haste, she had put the Lizard in head downwards, and the poor little thing was waving its tail about in a melancholy way, being quite unable to move. She soon got it out again, and put it right; ‘not that it signifies much,' she said to herself; ‘I should think it would be quite as much use in the trial one way up as the other.'
As soon as the jury had a little recovered from the shock of being upset, and their slates and pencils had been found and handed back to them, they set to work very diligently to write out a history of the accident, all except the Lizard, who seemed too much overcome to do anything but sit with its mouth open, gazing up into the roof of the court.
‘What do you know about this business?' the King said to Alice.
‘Nothing,' said Alice.
‘Nothing whatever?' persisted the King.
‘Nothing whatever,' said Alice.",-0.432677528,0.48749841
014512f13,,,"She was very hungry, for she had tasted no food that day, but her faded eyes were calm and patient, telling of an unwavering trust in Providence. Perhaps, she thought, some traveler might come that way who would take compassion on her, and give her alms; then she could return to the garret that she called ""home,"" with bread to eat, and fuel to kindle a fire.
The day drew in, and still she sat and waited. At last a traveler approached. The thick snow muffled every sound, and she was not aware of his coming until his burly figure loomed before her. Her plaintive voice made him turn with a start.
""Poor woman,"" he cried, pausing to look at her very pityingly. ""It is hard for you to be out in such weather as this."" Then he passed on, without giving her anything; his conscience told him that he ought to have relieved her, but he did not feel inclined to take off his thick glove in that bitter cold, and without doing this he could not have found a coin.
The poor woman was naturally disappointed, but she was grateful for his kind words.",-0.060860764,0.476757994
41863101e,,,"Where are the racers? All assembled together near the white columns. It is a beautiful sight,—forty boys and girls in picturesque attire, darting with electric swiftness in and out among each other, or sailing in pairs and triplets, beckoning, chatting, whispering, in the fulness of youthful glee.
A few careful ones are soberly tightening their straps: others, halting on one leg, with flushed, eager faces, suddenly cross the suspected skate over their knee, give it an examining shake, and dart off again. One and all are possessed with the spirit of motion. They cannot stand still. Their skates are a part of them; and every runner seems bewitched.
Holland is the place for skaters, after all. Where else can nearly every boy and girl perform feats on the ice that would attract a crowd if seen on Central Park? Look at Ben! I did not see him before. He is really astonishing the natives; no easy thing to do in the Netherlands. Save your strength, Ben, you will need it soon. Now other boys are trying! Ben is surpassed already. Such jumping, such poising, such spinning, such india-rubber exploits generally!",-0.674418726,0.482013455
1716d3c98,,,"One eighth of the whole population were enslaved people, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These enslaved people constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other.
It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.",-1.503307098,0.50546136
318f98420,,,"Wild Robin knew that the country people would say the fays had pressed that green circle with their light feet. He had heard all the Scottish lore of brownies, elves, will-o'-the-wisps, and the strange water-kelpies, who shriek with eldritch laughter. He had been told that the queen of the fairies had coveted him from his birth, and would have stolen him away, only that, just as she was about to seize him from the cradle, he had sneezed; and from that instant the fairy-spell was over, and she had no more control of him.
Yet, in spite of all these stories, the boy was not afraid; and if he had been informed that any of the uncanny people were, even now, haunting his footsteps, he would not have believed it.
""I see,"" said Wild Robin, ""the sun is drawing his night-cap over his eyes, and dropping asleep. I believe I'll e'en take a nap mysel', and see what comes o' it.""
In two minutes he had forgotten St. Mary's Loch, the hills, the moors, the yellow flowers. He heard, or fancied he heard, his sister Janet calling him home.",-1.901160593,0.449303512
804db3e6f,,,"I want now to tell you, gentlemen, whether you care to hear it or not, why I could not even become an insect. I tell you solemnly, that I have many times tried to become an insect. But I was not equal even to that. I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness--a real thorough-going illness. For man's everyday needs, it would have been quite enough to have the ordinary human consciousness, that is, half or a quarter of the amount which falls to the lot of a cultivated man of our unhappy nineteenth century, especially one who has the fatal ill-luck to inhabit Petersburg, the most theoretical and intentional town on the whole terrestrial globe. (There are intentional and unintentional towns.) It would have been quite enough, for instance, to have the consciousness by which all so-called direct persons and men of action live. I bet you think I am writing all this from affectation, to be witty at the expense of men of action; and what is more, that from ill-bred affectation, I am clanking a sword like my officer. But, gentlemen, whoever can pride himself on his diseases and even swagger over them?",-3.182092989,0.560802426
50efa270e,,,"At length, one day, a venerable man of a noble presence was brought to the tower, with soldiers to guard him and assistants to attend him. The prince was glad of his presence, though at first he seldom opened his lips, and it was manifest that confinement made him miserable. With restless feet he would wander from window to window of the stone tower, and mount from story to story; but mount as high as he would there was still nothing to be seen but the vast, unvarying plain, clothed with scanty grass, and flooded with the glaring sunshine; flocks and herds and shepherds moved across it sometimes, but nothing else, not even a shadow, for there was no cloud in the sky to cast one. The old man, however, always treated the prince with respect, and answered his questions with a great deal of patience, till at length he found a pleasure in satisfying his curiosity.",-1.396125621,0.486786742
b724f5c64,,,"And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self­-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.",-1.985606983,0.500312848
c4b1ecb93,,,"Rinaldo was one of the four sons of Aymon, who married Aya, the sister of Charlemagne. Thus Rinaldo was nephew to Charlemagne and cousin of Orlando. When Rinaldo had grown old enough to assume arms, Orlando had won for himself an illustrious name by his exploits against the Saracens, whom Charlemagne and his brave knights had driven out of France. Orlando's fame excited a noble emulation in Rinaldo. Eager to go in pursuit of glory, he wandered in the country near Paris, and one day saw at the foot of a tree a superb horse, fully equipped and loaded with a complete suit of armor. Rinaldo clothed himself in the armor and mounted the horse, but took not the sword. On the day when, with his brothers, he had received the honor of knighthood from the Emperor, he had sworn never to bind a sword to his side till he had wrested one from some famous knight.",-1.829778572,0.491218057
47631da8c,,,"She was not a good-looking woman, my sister; and I had a general impression that she must have made Joe Gargery marry her by hand. Joe was a fair man, with curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face, and with eyes of such a very undecided blue that they seemed to have somehow got mixed with their own whites. He was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow,—a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness.
My sister, Mrs. Joe, with black hair and eyes, had such a prevailing redness of skin that I sometimes used to wonder whether it was possible she washed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead of soap. She was tall and bony, and almost always wore a coarse apron, fastened over her figure behind with two loops, and having a square impregnable bib in front, that was stuck full of pins and needles. She made it a powerful merit in herself, and a strong reproach against Joe, that she wore this apron so much.",0.041329904,0.49517689
19e8508a4,,,"He fallow-deer — This is the domestic or park deer; and no two animals can make a nearer approach to each other than the stag and it, and yet no two animals keep more distinct, or avoid each other with a more inveterate animosity. They never herd or intermix together, and consequently never give rise to an intermediate race; it is even rare, unless they have been transported thither, to find fellow-deer in a country where stags are numerous. He is very easily tamed, and feeds upon many things which the stag refuses: he also browzes closer than the stag, and preserves his venison better. The doe produces one fawn, sometimes two, but rarely three. In short, they resemble the stag in all his natural habits, and the greatest difference between them is the duration of their lives: the stag, it is said, lives to the age of thirty-five or forty years, and the fallow-deer does not live more than twenty. As they are smaller than the stag, it is probable that their growth is sooner completed.",-2.57511146,0.494902492
489f0d2e4,,,"Here, the idlers of the place assemble to lounge and gossip, to look out for any outward-bound ships that are to be seen in the Channel, and to criticise the appearance and glorify the capabilities of the little fleet of Looe fishing-boats, riding snugly at anchor before them at the entrance of the bay.
The inhabitants number some fourteen hundred; and are as good-humoured and unsophisticated a set of people as you will meet with anywhere. The Fisheries and the Coast Trade form their principal means of subsistence. The women take a very fair share of the hard work out of the men's hands. You constantly see them carrying coals from the vessels to the quay in curious hand-barrows: they laugh, scream, and run in each other's way incessantly: but these little irregularities seem to assist, rather than impede them, in the prosecution of their tasks. As to the men, one absorbing interest appears to govern them all. The whole day long they are mending boats, painting boats, cleaning boats, rowing boats, or, standing with their hands in their pockets, looking at boats.",-2.437427843,0.538579036
53e9470e6,,,"Put yourself on the same level as the person to whom you speak, and under penalty of being considered a pedantic idiot, refraining from explaining any expression or word that you may use.
Never, unless you are requested to do so, speak of your own business or profession in society; to confine your conversation entirely to the subject or pursuit which is your own speciality is low-bred and vulgar.
Make the subject for conversation suit the company in which you are placed. Joyous, light conversation will be at times as much out of place, as a sermon would be at a dancing party. Let your conversation be grave or gay as suits the time or place.
In a dispute, if you cannot reconcile the parties, withdraw from them. You will surely make one enemy, perhaps two, by taking either side, in an argument when the speakers have lost their temper.",-2.008490859,0.483929151
14bde3085,,,"Many believe that politeness is but a mask worn in the world to conceal bad passions and impulses, and to make a show of possessing virtues not really existing in the heart; thus, that politeness is merely hypocrisy and dissimulation. Do not believe this; be certain that those who profess such a doctrine are practising themselves the deceit they condemn so much. Such people scout politeness, because, to be truly a lady, one must carry the principles into every circumstance of life, into the family circle, the most intimate friendship, and never forget to extend the gentle courtesies of life to every one. This they find too much trouble, and so deride the idea of being polite and call it deceitfulness.
True politeness is the language of a good heart, and those possessing that heart will never, under any circumstances, be rude.",-0.829202648,0.465129215
93e86d234,,,"The rush of the water and the booming of the mill bring a dreamy deafness, which seems to heighten the peacefulness of the scene. They are like a great curtain of sound, shutting one out from the world beyond. And now there is the thunder of the huge covered wagon coming home with sacks of grain. That honest wagoner is thinking of his dinner, getting sadly dry in the oven at this late hour; but he will not touch it till he has fed his horses,—the strong, submissive, meek-eyed beasts, who, I fancy, are looking mild reproach at him from between their blinkers, that he should crack his whip at them in that awful manner as if they needed that hint! See how they stretch their shoulders up the slope toward the bridge, with all the more energy because they are so near home. Look at their grand shaggy feet that seem to grasp the firm earth, at the patient strength of their necks, bowed under the heavy collar, at the mighty muscles of their struggling haunches!",-0.987863373,0.46696033
a24e1229b,,,"It was one of their happy mornings. They trotted along and sat down together, with no thought that life would ever change much for them: they would only get bigger and not go to school, and it would always be like the holidays; they would always live together and be fond of each other. And the mill with its booming—the great chestnut-tree under which they played at houses—their own little river, the Ripple, where the banks seemed like home, and Tom was always seeing the water-rats, while Maggie gathered the purple plumy tops of the reeds, which she forgot and dropped afterward—above all, the great Floss, along which they wandered with a sense of travel, to see the rushing spring-tide, the awful Eagre, come up like a hungry monster, or to see the Great Ash which had once wailed and groaned like a man—these things would always be just the same to them. Tom thought people were at a disadvantage who lived on any other spot of the globe; and Maggie, when she read about Christiana passing ""the river over which there is no bridge,"" always saw the Floss between the green pastures by the Great Ash.",-1.063612593,0.486943948
c75df277b,,,"She read on and on in the old book, devouring eagerly the dialogues with the invisible Teacher, the pattern of sorrow, the source of all strength, returning to it after she had been called away, and reading till the sun went down behind the willows. With all the hurry of an imagination that could never rest in the present, she sat in the deepening twilight forming plans of self-humiliation and entire devotedness; and, in the ardour of first discovery, renunciation seemed to her the entrance into that satisfaction which she had so long been craving in vain. She had not perceived—how could she until she had lived longer?—the inmost truth of the old monk's outpourings, that renunciation remains sorrow, though a sorrow borne willingly. Maggie was still panting for happiness, and was in ecstasy because she had found the key to it. She knew nothing of doctrines and systems—of mysticism or quietism; but this voice out of the far-off Middle Ages was the direct communication of a human soul's belief and experience, and came to Maggie as an unquestioned message.",-1.680554848,0.507416859
e26914a57,,,"Seedlings from the same fruit, and the young of the same litter, sometimes differ considerably from each other, though both the young and the parents, as Muller has remarked, have apparently been exposed to exactly the same conditions of life; and this shows how unimportant the direct effects of the conditions of life are in comparison with the laws of reproduction, and of growth, and of inheritance; for had the action of the conditions been direct, if any of the young had varied, all would probably have varied in the same manner. To judge how much, in the case of any variation, we should attribute to the direct action of heat, moisture, light, food, etc., is most difficult: my impression is, that with animals such agencies have produced very little direct effect, though apparently more in the case of plants.",-0.769207253,0.469528546
30c42464a,,,"His message perplexed his mind to that degree that he was fain, several times, to take off his hat to scratch his head. Except on the crown, which was raggedly bald, he had stiff, black hair, standing jaggedly all over it, and growing down hill almost to his broad, blunt nose. It was so like Smith's work, so much more like the top of a strongly spiked wall than a head of hair, that the best of players at leap-frog might have declined him, as the most dangerous man in the world to go over.
While he trotted back with the message he was to deliver to the night watchman in his box at the door of Tellson's Bank, by Temple Bar, who was to deliver it to greater authorities within, the shadows of the night took such shapes to him as arose out of the message, and took such shapes to the mare as arose out of her private topics of uneasiness. They seemed to be numerous, for she shied at every shadow on the road.",-2.273469282,0.527685908
6b15630fc,,,"I live at No. —— Twenty-sixth Street, in New York. The house is in some respects a curious one. It has enjoyed for the last two years the reputation of being haunted. It is a large and stately residence, surrounded by what was once a garden, but which is now only a green enclosure used for bleaching clothes. The dry basin of what has been a fountain, and a few fruit trees ragged and unpruned, indicate that this spot in past days was a pleasant, shady retreat, filled with fruits and flowers and the sweet murmur of waters.
The house is very spacious. A hall of noble size leads to a large spiral staircase winding through its center, while the various apartments are of imposing dimensions. It was built some fifteen or twenty years since by Mr. A——, the well-known New York merchant, who five years ago threw the commercial world into convulsions by a stupendous bank fraud. Mr. A——, as everyone knows, escaped to Europe, and died not long after, of a broken heart. Almost immediately after the news of his decease reached this country and was verified, the report spread in Twenty-sixth Street that No. —— was haunted.",-1.768707595,0.491556074
81a05f4d5,,,"It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say that this doctrine is meant to apply only to human beings in the maturity of their faculties. We are not speaking of children, or of young persons below the age which the law may fix as that of manhood or womanhood. Those who are still in a state to require being taken care of by others, must be protected against their own actions as well as against external injury. For the same reason, we may leave out of consideration those backward states of society in which the race itself may be considered as in its nonage. The early difficulties in the way of spontaneous progress are so great, that there is seldom any choice of means for overcoming them; and a ruler full of the spirit of improvement is warranted in the use of any expedients that will attain an end, perhaps otherwise unattainable.",-2.616935113,0.53405564
751113abb,,,"Leaving our trap at Briancon and making a hasty breakfast at the Hotel de la Paix, we walked up a very lonely valley towards Cervieres. I dare not say how many hours we wended our way up the brawling torrent without meeting a soul or seeing a human habitation; it was fearfully hot too, and we longed for vin ordinaire; Cervieres seemed as though it never would come--still the same rugged precipices, snow-clad heights, brawling torrent, and stony road, butterflies beautiful and innumerable, flowers to match, sky cloudless. At last we are there; through the town, or rather village, the river rushes furiously, the dismantled houses and gaping walls affording palpable traces of the fearful inundations of the previous year, not a house near the river was sound, many quite uninhabitable, and more such as I am sure few of us would like to inhabit. However, it is Cervieres such as it is, and we hope for our vin ordinaire; but, alas!--not a human being, man, woman or child, is to be seen, the houses are all closed, the noonday quiet holds the hill with a vengeance, unbroken, save by the ceaseless roar of the river.",-3.041761967,0.526245572
50e970a38,,,"It is hardly possible to imagine with what eager admiration and delight they were every where received. They possessed in an eminent degree all those qualities which invariably contribute to render any literary work quickly and permanently popular. They were written in a phraseology of which all the powers were universally felt, and which being at once antique, familiar, and now rarely written, was therefore fitted to serve all the dignified and picturesque uses of poetry, without making it unintelligible. The imagery and the sentiments were at once natural, impressive, and interesting. Those topics of satire and scandal in which the rustic delights; that humorous imitation of character, and that witty association of ideas, familiar and striking, yet not naturally allied to one another, which has force to shake his sides with laughter; those fancies of superstition, at which one still wonders and trembles; those affecting sentiments and images of true religion, which are at once dear and awful to the heart; were all represented by Burns with the magical power of true poetry. Old and young, high and low, grave and gay, learned and ignorant, all were alike surprised and transported.",-3.477841745,0.611191531
583707316,,,"At one time a guitar and an Æolian harp had been hung among the old oak's boughs by merry travelling apprentices; now they hung there again, and the wind played sweetly with their strings.
And now the dream changed. A new and stronger current of life flowed through him, down to his lowest roots, up to his highest twigs, even to the very leaves. The tree felt in his roots that a warm life stirred in the earth, and that he was growing taller and taller; his trunk shot up more and more, his crown grew fuller; and still he soared and spread. He felt that his power grew, too, and he longed to advance higher and higher to the warm, bright sun.
Already he towered above the clouds, which drifted below him, now like a troop of dark-plumaged birds of passage, now like flocks of large, white swans. The stars became visible by daylight, so large and bright, each one sparkling like a mild, clear eye.
It was a blessed moment!",-1.45565771,0.475522593
69600d2e9,,,"The year 1840 found all the Brontes living at 'home, except Anne.' I am 'not aware for what reason the plan of sending Branwell to study at the Royal Academy was relinquished; probably, it was found, on inquiry, that the expenses of such a life were greater than his father's slender finances could afford, even with the help which Charlotte's labours at Miss Wooler's gave, by providing. for Anne's board and education. I gather from what I have heard, that Branwell must have been severely disappointed when the plan fell through. His talents were certainly very brilliant, and of this he was fully conscious, and fervently desired, by their use, either in writing or drawing, to make himself a 'name. At the same time, he would probably have found his strong love of pleasure and irregular habits a great impediment in his path to fame; but these blemishes in his character were only additional reasons why he yearned after a London life, in which he imagined he could obtain every stimulant to his. already vigorous intellect, while at the. same time he would have a license of action to be found only in crowded cities.",-2.708607461,0.558977323
ba3ce03c3,,,"Stumpinghame had a king of its own, and his name was Stiffstep; his family was very ancient and large-footed. His subjects called him Lord of the World, and he made a speech to them every year concerning the grandeur of his mighty empire. His queen, Hammerheel, was the greatest beauty in Stumpinghame. Her majesty's shoe was not much less than a fishing-boat; their six children promised to be quite as handsome, and all went well till the birth of their seventh son.
For a long time nobody about the palace could understand what was the matter—the ladies-in-waiting looked so astonished, and the king so vexed; but at last it was whispered through the city that the queen's seventh child had been born with such miserably small feet that they resembled nothing ever seen or heard of in Stumpinghame, except the feet of the fairies.
The chronicles furnished no example of such an affliction ever before happening in the royal family.
The common people thought it portended some great calamity to the city; the learned men began to write books about it; and all the relations of the king and queen assembled at the palace to mourn with them.",-2.047853485,0.462898394
7d9963b66,,,"On the whole, the result of this inquiry seems to be, that Past Masters have no inherent right, derived from the ancient landmarks, to a seat in the Grand Lodge; but as every Grand Lodge has the power, within certain limits, to make regulations for its own government, it may or may not admit them to membership, according to its own notion of expediency.
Some of the Grand Lodges have not only disfranchised Past Masters but Wardens also, and restricted membership only to acting Masters. This innovation has arisen from the fact that the payment of mileage and expenses to three representative would entail a heavy burden on the revenue of the Grand Lodge. The reason may have been imperative; but in the practice, pecuniary expediency has been made to override an ancient usage.
In determining, then, who are the constitutional members of a Grand Lodge, deriving their membership from inherent right, I should say that they are the Masters and Wardens of all regular lodges in the jurisdiction, with the Grand Officers chosen by them. All others, who by local regulations are made members, are so only by courtesy, and not by prescription or ancient law.",-2.512059914,0.519506863
854fc1710,,,"A piazza must be had.
The house was wide—my fortune narrow; so that, to build a panoramic piazza, one round and round, it could not be—although, indeed, considering the matter by rule and square, the carpenters, in the kindest way, were anxious to gratify my furthest wishes, at I've forgotten how much a foot.
Upon but one of the four sides would prudence grant me what I wanted. Now, which side?
To the east, that long camp of the Hearth Stone Hills, fading far away towards Quito; and every fall, a small white flake of something peering suddenly, of a coolish morning, from the topmost cliff—the season's new-dropped lamb, its earliest fleece; and then the Christmas dawn, draping those dim highlands with red-barred plaids and tartans—goodly sight from your piazza, that. Goodly sight; but, to the north is Charlemagne—can't have the Hearth Stone Hills with Charlemagne.",-2.180453384,0.463933298
9752fe7ad,,,"At first I had a feeling that I was going to be at great cost for clothing him. But it proved, of course, at once, that, whenever he was out, I should be at home. And I went, during the bright period of his success, to so few of those awful pageants which require a black dress-coat and what the ungodly call, after Mr. Dickens, a white choker, that in the happy retreat of my own dressing-gowns and jackets my days went by as happily and cheaply as those of another Thalaba. And Polly declares there was never a year when the tailoring cost so little. He lived (Dennis, not Thalaba) in his wife's room over the kitchen. He had orders never to show himself at that window. When he appeared in the front of the house, I retired to my sanctissimum and my dressing-gown. In short, the Dutchman and, his wife, in the old weather-box, had not less to do with, each other than he and I.",-2.129102586,0.538589247
dcc3df7a1,,,"Mrs. Hale, if she spoke truth, might have answered with a ready-made list, ""a silver-grey glacé silk, a white chip bonnet, oh! dozens of things for the wedding, and hundreds of things for the house.""
Margaret only knew that her mother had not found it convenient to come, and she was not sorry to think that their meeting and greeting would take place at Helstone parsonage, rather than, during the confusion of the last two or three days, in the house in Harley Street, where she herself had had to play the part of Figaro, and was wanted everywhere at one and the same time. Her mind and body ached now with the recollection of all she had done and said within the last forty-eight hours. The farewells so hurriedly taken, amongst all the other good-byes, of those she had lived with so long, oppressed her now with a sad regret for the times that were no more; it did not signify what those times had been, they were gone never to return.",-1.930774937,0.475014304
4e8d1dc80,,,"It grew dark as we stood in the office talking, and taking our hats we went out together. The narrow street of business was deserted. The heavy iron shutters were gloomily closed over the windows. From one or two offices struggled the dim gleam of an early candle, by whose light some perplexed accountant sat belated, and hunting for his error. A careless clerk passed, whistling. But the great tide of life had ebbed. We heard its roar far away, and the sound stole into that silent street like the murmur of the ocean into an inland dell.
""You will come and dine with us, Titbottom?""
He assented by continuing to walk with me, and I think we were both glad when we reached the house, and Prue came to meet us, saying:
""Do you know I hoped you would bring Mr. Titbottom to dine?""
Titbottom smiled gently, and answered:
""He might have brought his spectacles with him, and I have been a happier man for it.""
Prue looked a little puzzled.",-0.655743139,0.466268801
f812a9b5b,,,"Nippers, the second on my list, was a whiskered, sallow, and, upon the whole, rather piratical-looking young man of about five and twenty. I always deemed him the victim of two evil powers—ambition and indigestion. The ambition was evinced by a certain impatience of the duties of a mere copyist, an unwarrantable usurpation of strictly professional affairs, such as the original drawing up of legal documents. The indigestion seemed betokened in an occasional nervous testiness and grinning irritability, causing the teeth to audibly grind together over mistakes committed in copying; unnecessary maledictions, hissed, rather than spoken, in the heat of business; and especially by a continual discontent with the height of the table where he worked. Though of a very ingenious mechanical turn, Nippers could never get this table to suit him. He put chips under it, blocks of various sorts, bits of pasteboard, and at last went so far as to attempt an exquisite adjustment by final pieces of folded blotting paper.",-3.164808116,0.575558385
17b36b6bd,,,"In answer to my advertisement, a motionless young man one morning, stood upon my office threshold, the door being open, for it was summer. I can see that figure now — pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn! It was Bartleby.
After a few words touching his qualifications, I engaged him, glad to have among my corps of copyists a man of so singularly sedate an aspect, which I thought might operate beneficially upon the flighty temper of Turkey, and the fiery one of Nippers.
I should have stated before that ground glass folding-doors divided my premises into two parts, one of which was occupied by my scriveners, the other by myself. According to my humor I threw open these doors, or closed them. I resolved to assign Bartleby a corner by the folding-doors, but on my side of them, so as to have this quiet man within easy call, in case any trifling thing was to be done.",-1.965985229,0.478334029
32815bd70,,,"Sometime after my father's liberation, he removed to the town of Minerva, Essex county, N. Y., where I was born, in the month of July, 1808. How long he remained in the latter place I have not the means of definitely ascertaining. From thence he removed to Granville, Washington county, near a place known as Slyborough, where, for some years, he labored on the farm of Clark Northup, also a relative of his old master; from thence he removed to the Alden farm, at Moss Street, a short distance north of the village of Sandy Hill; and from thence to the farm now owned by Russel Pratt, situated on the road leading from Fort Edward to Argyle, where he continued to reside until his death, which took place on the 22d day of November, 1829. He left a widow and two children—myself, and Joseph, an elder brother. The latter is still living in the county of Oswego, near the city of that name; my mother died during the period of my captivity.",-1.670728443,0.49301738
d2f715e42,,,"If he engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined intellect preserves him from the blundering discourtesy of better, perhaps, but less educated minds; who, like blunt weapons, tear and hack instead of cutting clean, who mistake the point in argument, waste their strength on trifles, misconceive their adversary, and leave the question more involved than they find it. He may be right or wrong in his opinion, but he is too clear-headed to be unjust; he is as simple as he is forcible, and as brief as he is decisive. Nowhere shall we find greater candor, consideration, indulgence: he throws himself into the minds of his opponents, he accounts for their mistakes. He knows the weakness of human reason as well as its strength, its province and its limits.
If he be an unbeliever, he will be too profound and large-minded to ridicule religion or to act against it; he is too wise to be a dogmatist or fanatic in his infidelity.",-2.015177447,0.474743883
fefb645c8,,,"This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon.",-1.301586446,0.486452229
d37afc021,,,"Mrs. Shelby had gone on her visit, and Eliza stood in the verandah, rather dejectedly looking after the retreating carriage, when a hand was laid on her shoulder. She turned, and a bright smile lighted up her fine eyes.
""George, is it you? How you frightened me! Well; I am so glad you 's come! Missis is gone to spend the afternoon; so come into my little room, and we'll have the time all to ourselves.""
Saying this, she drew him into a neat little apartment opening on the verandah, where she generally sat at her sewing, within call of her mistress.
""How glad I am!—why don't you smile?—and look at Harry—how he grows."" The boy stood shyly regarding his father through his curls, holding close to the skirts of his mother's dress. ""Isn't he beautiful?"" said Eliza, lifting his long curls and kissing him.
""I wish he'd never been born!"" said George, bitterly. ""I wish I'd never been born myself!""
Surprised and frightened, Eliza sat down, leaned her head on her husband's shoulder, and burst into tears.",-0.764465942,0.466251251
4.67E+34,,,"We went from the path through the forest: a whole flock of bare-headed boys surrounded us. They would all be our guides; the one screamed longer than the other, and every one gave his contradictory explanation, how high the water stood, and how high it did not stand, or could stand. There was also a great difference of opinion amongst the learned.
We soon stopped on a ling-covered rock, a dizzying terrace. Before us, but far below, was the roaring water, the Hell Fall, and over this again, fall after fall, the rich, rapid, rushing elv--the outlet of the largest lake in Sweden. What a sight! what a foaming and roaring, above--below! It is like the waves of the sea, but of effervescing champagne--of boiling milk. The water rushes round two rocky islands at the top so that the spray rises like meadow dew. Below, the water is more compressed, then hurries down again, shoots forward and returns in circles like smooth water, and then rolls darting its long sea-like fall into the Hell Fall. What a tempest rages in the deep--what a sight! Words cannot express it!",-1.727629634,0.451909216
e2810a167,,,"The most remarkable feature in the Roman constitution is the division of the people into Patricians and Plebeians, and our first inquiry must be the origin of this separation. It is clearly impossible that such a distinction could have existed from the very beginning, because no persons would have consented in a new community to the investing of any class with peculiar privileges. We find that all the Roman kings, after they had subdued a city, drafted a portion of its inhabitants to Rome; and if they did not destroy the subjugated place, garrisoned it with a Roman colony. The strangers thus brought to Rome were not admitted to a participation of civic rights; they were like the inhabitants of a corporate town who are excluded from the elective franchise: by successive immigrations, the number of persons thus disqualified became more numerous than that of the first inhabitants or old freemen, and they naturally sought a share in the government, as a means of protecting their persons and properties.",-1.753390777,0.485044885
93b0fbbd8,,,"Whatever truth there might be in these rather passionate representations, and to myself there wanted not a painful feeling of their truth, it by no means appeared what help or remedy any friend of Sterling's, and especially one so related to the matter as myself, could attempt in the interim. Perhaps endure in patience till the dust laid itself again, as all dust does if you leave it well alone? Much obscuration would thus of its own accord fall away; and, in Mr. Hare's narrative itself, apart from his commentary, many features of Sterling's true character would become decipherable to such as sought them. Censure, blame of this work of Mr. Hare's was naturally far from my thoughts. A work which distinguishes itself by human piety and candid intelligence; which, in all details, is careful, lucid, exact; and which offers, as we say, to the observant reader that will interpret facts, many traits of Sterling besides his heterodoxy.
Censure of it, from me especially, is not the thing due; from me a far other thing is due!",-2.616035353,0.504524124
95e9434f2,,,"My mother had a sure foreboding at the second glance, that it was Miss Betsey. The setting sun was glowing on the strange lady, over the garden-fence, and she came walking up to the door with a fell rigidity of figure and composure of countenance that could have belonged to nobody else.
When she reached the house, she gave another proof of her identity. My father had often hinted that she seldom conducted herself like any ordinary Christian; and now, instead of ringing the bell, she came and looked in at that identical window, pressing the end of her nose against the glass to that extent, that my poor dear mother used to say it became perfectly flat and white in a moment.
She gave my mother such a turn, that I have always been convinced I am indebted to Miss Betsey for having been born on a Friday.",-0.75993091,0.458783343
dd94537c4,,,"The Phoenix bird, dost thou not know him? The Bird of Paradise, the holy swan of song! On the car of Thespis he sat in the guise of a chattering raven, and flapped his black wings, smeared with the lees of wine; over the sounding harp of Iceland swept the swan's red beak; on Shakespeare's shoulder he sat in the guise of Odin's raven, and whispered in the poet's ear ""Immortality!"" and at the minstrels' feast he fluttered through the halls of the Wartburg.
The Phoenix bird, dost thou not know him? He sang to thee the Marseillaise, and thou kissedst the pen that fell from his wing; he came in the radiance of Paradise, and perchance thou didst turn away from him towards the sparrow who sat with tinsel on his wings.
The Bird of Paradise — renewed each century — born in flame, ending in flame! Thy picture, in a golden frame, hangs in the halls of the rich, but thou thyself often fliest around, lonely and disregarded, a myth — ""The Phoenix of Arabia.""",-2.885384516,0.553521732
37f6f8e6f,,,"It is natural to believe in great men. If the companions of our childhood should turn out to be heroes, and their condition regal, it would not surprise us. All mythology opens with demigods, and the circumstance is high and poetic; that is, their genius is paramount. In the legends of the Gautama, the first men ate the earth, and found it deliciously sweet.
Nature seems to exist for the excellent. The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome. They who lived with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable only in our belief in such society; and actually, or ideally, we manage to live with superiors. We call our children and our lands by their names. Their names are wrought into the verbs of language, their works and effigies are in our houses, and every circumstance of the day recalls an anecdote of them.",-1.842191006,0.484944474
6616c13a4,,,"Those who have not learned to read the ancient classics in the language in which they were written must have a very imperfect knowledge of the history of the human race; for it is remarkable that no transcript of them has ever been made into any modern tongue, unless our civilization itself may be regarded as such a transcript. Homer has never yet been printed in English, nor Æschylus, nor Virgil even—works as refined, as solidly done, and as beautiful almost as the morning itself; for later writers, say what we will of their genius, have rarely, if ever, equalled the elaborate beauty and finish and the lifelong and heroic literary labors of the ancients. They only talk of forgetting them who never knew them. It will be soon enough to forget them when we have the learning and the genius which will enable us to attend to and appreciate them.",-2.012733567,0.469075214
7522dfe0c,,,"This American government,—what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves; and, if ever they should use it in earnest as a real one against each other, it will surely split. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow; yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free.",-2.012211289,0.496055739
d36b46c15,,,"The violations of truth, which dishonor poetry and painting, are thus for the most part confined to the treatment of their subjects. But in architecture another and a less subtle, more contemptible, violation of truth is possible; a direct falsity of assertion respecting the nature of material, or the quantity of labor. And this is, in the full sense of the word, wrong; it is as truly deserving of reprobation as any other moral delinquency; it is unworthy alike of architects and of nations; and it has been a sign, wherever it has widely and with toleration existed, of a singular debasement of the arts; that it is not a sign of worse than this, of a general want of severe probity, can be accounted for only by our knowledge of the strange separation which has for some centuries existed between the arts and all other subjects of human intellect, as matters of conscience.",-3.343134014,0.60335507
50a424646,,,"Then the horn for washing was sounded, and the King and all his household sat down to eat. And when the meal was ended, Owain withdrew to his lodging, and made ready his horse and his arms.
On the morrow, with the dawn of day, he put on his armour, and mounted his charger, and travelled through distant lands and over desert mountains. And at length he arrived at the valley which Kynon had described to him; and he was certain that it was the same that he sought. And journeying along the valley by the side of the river, he followed its course till he came to the plain and within sight of the Castle. When he approached the Castle, he saw the youths shooting their daggers in the place where Kynon had seen them, and the yellow man, to whom the Castle belonged, standing hard by. And no sooner had Owain saluted the yellow man than he was saluted by him in return.",-1.274794998,0.494251329
be40d522d,,,"On entering the parlour we found that honoured lady seated in her arm-chair at the fireside, working away at her knitting, according to her usual custom, when she had nothing else to do. She had swept the hearth, and made a bright blazing fire for our reception; the servant had just brought in the tea-tray; and Rose was producing the sugar-basin and tea-caddy from the cupboard in the black oak side-board, that shone like polished ebony, in the cheerful parlour twilight.
‘Well! here they both are,' cried my mother, looking round upon us without retarding the motion of her nimble fingers and glittering needles. ‘Now shut the door, and come to the fire, while Rose gets the tea ready; I'm sure you must be starved;—and tell me what you've been about all day;—I like to know what my children have been about.'",-0.533714791,0.473042191
de62673ab,,,"Miss Tox's dress, though perfectly genteel and good, had a certain character of angularity and scantiness. She was accustomed to wear odd weedy little flowers in her bonnets and caps. Strange grasses were sometimes perceived in her hair; and it was observed by the curious, of all her collars, frills, tuckers, wristbands, and other gossamer articles—indeed of everything she wore which had two ends to it intended to unite—that the two ends were never on good terms, and wouldn't quite meet without a struggle. She had furry articles for winter wear, as tippets, boas, and muffs, which stood up on end in rampant manner, and were not at all sleek. She was much given to the carrying about of small bags with snaps to them, that went off like little pistols when they were shut up; and when full-dressed, she wore round her neck the barrenest of lockets, representing a fishy old eye, with no approach to speculation in it.",-2.039424097,0.511753698
70ea81fcf,,,"Towards six o'clock on New Year's Eve Shumkov returned home. Arkady Ivanovitch, who was lying on the bed, woke up and looked at his friend with half-closed eyes. He saw that Vasya had on his very best trousers and a very clean shirt front. That, of course, struck him. ""Where had Vasya to go like that? And he had not dined at home either!"" Meanwhile, Shumkov had lighted a candle, and Arkady Ivanovitch guessed immediately that his friend was intending to wake him accidentally. Vasya did, in fact, clear his throat twice, walked twice up and down the room, and at last, quite accidentally, let the pipe, which he had begun filling in the corner by the stove, slip out of his hands. Arkady Ivanovitch laughed to himself.
""Vasya, give over pretending!"" he said.
""Arkasha, you are not asleep?""
""I really cannot say for certain; it seems to me I am not.""",-1.782425874,0.46720894
e020822cb,,,"Daylight began to forsake the red-room; it was past four o'clock, and the beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight. I heard the rain still beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the grove behind the hall; I grew by degrees cold as a stone, and then my courage sank. My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my decaying ire. All said I was wicked, and perhaps I might be so; what thought had I been but just conceiving of starving myself to death? That certainly was a crime: and was I fit to die? Or was the vault under the chancel of Gateshead Church an inviting bourne? In such vault I had been told did Mr. Reed lie buried; and led by this thought to recall his idea, I dwelt on it with gathering dread.",-2.030086654,0.512557006
8abdedb08,,,"One night the stranger awoke—he slept with the doors of the balcony open—the curtain before it was raised by the wind, and he thought that a strange lustre came from the opposite neighbor's house; all the flowers shone like flames, in the most beautiful colors, and in the midst of the flowers stood a slender, graceful maiden—it was as if she also shone; the light really hurt his eyes. He now opened them quite wide—yes, he was quite awake; with one spring he was on the floor; he crept gently behind the curtain, but the maiden was gone; the flowers shone no longer, but there they stood, fresh and blooming as ever; the door was ajar, and, far within, the music sounded so soft and delightful, one could really melt away in sweet thoughts from it. Yet it was like a piece of enchantment. And who lived there? Where was the actual entrance? The whole of the ground-floor was a row of shops, and there people could not always be running through.",-0.888969169,0.469087464
91f7e030e,,,"As soon as tea was over, Mrs. Morland and her daughter repaired to their toilettes. Fortunately, fashion as well as good taste, has decided that, at a summer party, the costume of the ladies should never go beyond an elegant simplicity. Therefore our two ladies in preparing for their intended appearance at Mrs. St. Leonard's, were enabled to attire themselves in a manner that would not seem out of place in the smaller company they expected to meet at the Watkinsons. Over an under-dress of lawn, Caroline Morland put on a white organdy trimmed with lace, and decorated with bows of pink ribbon. At the back of her head was a wreath of fresh and beautiful pink flowers, tied with a similar ribbon. Mrs. Morland wore a black grenadine over a satin, and a lace cap trimmed with white.
It was but a quarter past nine o'clock when their carriage stopped at the Watkinson door. The front of the house looked very dark. Not a ray gleamed through the Venetian shutters, and the glimmer beyond the fan-light over the door was almost imperceptible.",-1.319049924,0.448669835
41d76962a,,,"I am far from asserting that all London working-people live in such want as the foregoing three families. I know very well that ten are somewhat better off, where one is so totally trodden under foot by society; but I assert that thousands of industrious and worthy people—far worthier and more to be respected than all the rich of London—do find themselves in a condition unworthy of human beings; and that every proletarian, everyone, without exception, is exposed to a similar fate without any fault of his own and in spite of every possible effort.
But in spite of all this, they who have some kind of a shelter are fortunate, fortunate in comparison with the utterly homeless. In London fifty thousand human beings get up every morning, not knowing where they are to lay their heads at night. The luckiest of this multitude, those who succeed in keeping a penny or two until evening, enter a lodging-house, such as abound in every great city, where they find a bed. But what a bed! These houses are filled with beds from cellar to garret, four, five, six beds in a room; as many as can be crowded in.",-2.016611105,0.52724325
1f230e623,,,"Master William Horner came to our village to school when he was about eighteen years old: tall, lank, straight-sided, and straight-haired, with a mouth of the most puckered and solemn kind. His figure and movements were those of a puppet cut out of shingle and jerked by a string; and his address corresponded very well with his appearance. Never did that prim mouth give way before a laugh. A faint and misty smile was the widest departure from its propriety, and this unaccustomed disturbance made wrinkles in the flat, skinny cheeks like those in the surface of a lake, after the intrusion of a stone. Master Horner knew well what belonged to the pedagogical character, and that facial solemnity stood high on the list of indispensable qualifications. He had made up his mind before he left his father's house how he would look during the term. He had not planned any smiles (knowing that he must ""board round""), and it was not for ordinary occurrences to alter his arrangements; so that when he was betrayed into a relaxation of the muscles, it was ""in such a sort"" as if he was putting his bread and butter in jeopardy",-1.485908196,0.451160123
0106b8223,,,"The balloon is composed of silk, varnished with the liquid gum caoutchouc. It is of vast dimensions, containing more than 40,000 cubic feet of gas; but as coal gas was employed in place of the more expensive and inconvenient hydrogen, the supporting power of the machine, when fully inflated, and immediately after inflation, is not more than about 2500 pounds. The coal gas is not only much less costly, but is easily procured and managed.
""For its introduction into common use for purposes of aerostation, we are indebted to Mr. Charles Green. Up to his discovery, the process of inflation was not only exceedingly expensive, but uncertain. Two, and even three days, have frequently been wasted in futile attempts to procure a sufficiency of hydrogen to fill a balloon, from which it had great tendency to escape, owing to its extreme subtlety, and its affinity for the surrounding atmosphere. In a balloon sufficiently perfect to retain its contents of coal-gas unaltered, in quantity or amount, for six months, an equal quantity of hydrogen could not be maintained in equal purity for six weeks.",-2.711545035,0.581476021
c9a4ea202,,,"The winters in the latitude of Sullivan's Island are seldom very severe, and in the fall of the year it is a rare event indeed when a fire is considered necessary. About the middle of October, there occurred, however, a day of remarkable chilliness. Just before sunset I scrambled my way through the evergreens to the hut of my friend, whom I had not visited for several weeks—my residence being, at that time, in Charleston, a distance of nine miles from the Island, while the facilities of passage and re-passage were very far behind those of the present day. Upon reaching the hut I rapped, as was my custom, and getting no reply, sought for the key where I knew it was secreted, unlocked the door and went in. A fine fire was blazing upon the hearth. It was a novelty, and by no means an ungrateful one. I threw off an overcoat, took an arm-chair by the crackling logs, and awaited patiently the arrival of my hosts.",-0.739871464,0.473322509
61ed38362,,,"The portrait, I have already said, was that of a young girl. It was a mere head and shoulders, done in what is technically termed a vignette manner; much in the style of the favorite heads of Sully. The arms, the bosom, and even the ends of the radiant hair melted imperceptibly into the vague yet deep shadow which formed the back-ground of the whole. The frame was oval, richly gilded and filigreed in Moresque. As a thing of art nothing could be more admirable than the painting itself. But it could have been neither the execution of the work, nor the immortal beauty of the countenance, which had so suddenly and so vehemently moved me. Least of all, could it have been that my fancy, shaken from its half slumber, had mistaken the head for that of a living person. I saw at once that the peculiarities of the design, of the vignetting, and of the frame, must have instantly dispelled such idea—must have prevented even its momentary entertainment. Thinking earnestly upon these points, I remained, for an hour perhaps, half sitting, half reclining, with my vision riveted upon the portrait.",-2.485969587,0.528547279
2f145a1fd,,,"Residing in Paris during the spring and part of the summer of 18—, I there became acquainted with a Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin. This young gentleman was of an excellent—indeed of an illustrious family, but, by a variety of untoward events, had been reduced to such poverty that the energy of his character succumbed beneath it, and he ceased to bestir himself in the world, or to care for the retrieval of his fortunes. By courtesy of his creditors, there still remained in his possession a small remnant of his patrimony; and, upon the income arising from this, he managed, by means of a rigorous economy, to procure the necessaries of life, without troubling himself about its superfluities. Books, indeed, were his sole luxuries, and in Paris these are easily obtained.
Our first meeting was at an obscure library in the Rue Montmartre, where the accident of our both being in search of the same very rare and very remarkable volume, brought us into closer communion. We saw each other again and again.",-2.675252681,0.470405127
7ebde0a7c,,,"The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent although transient affections of a partially cataleptical character were the unusual diagnosis. Hitherto she had steadily borne up against the pressure of her malady, and had not betaken herself finally to bed; but on the closing in of the evening of my arrival at the house, she succumbed (as her brother told me at night with inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer; and I learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her person would thus probably be the last I should obtain—that the lady, at least while living, would be seen by me no more.
For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either Usher or myself; and during this period I was busied in earnest endeavors to alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We painted and read together, or I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild improvisations of his speaking guitar.",-2.901986777,0.526525326
c95da3c06,,,"Monsieur Poopoo pricked up his ears at this, and was lost in astonishment. This was a much easier way certainly of accumulating riches than selling toys in Chatham Street, and he determined to buy and mend his fortune without delay.
The auctioneer proceeded in his sale. Other parcels were offered and disposed of, and all the purchasers were promised immense advantages for their enterprise. At last came a more valuable parcel than all the rest. The company pressed around the stand, and Monsieur Poopoo did the same.
""I now offer you, gentlemen, these magnificent lots, delightfully situated on Long Island, with valuable water privileges. Property in fee—title indisputable—terms of sale, cash—deeds ready for delivery immediately after the sale. How much for them? Give them a start at something. How much?"" The auctioneer looked around; there were no bidders. At last he caught the eye of Monsieur Poopoo. ""Did you say one hundred, sir? Beautiful lots—valuable water privileges—shall I say one hundred for you?""
""Oui, monsieur; I will give you von hundred dollar apiece, for de lot vid de valuarble vatare privalege; c'est ça.""
""Only one hundred apiece for these sixty valuable lots—only one hundred—going—going—going—gone!""",-2.601069636,0.521885614
9a60d1143,,,"I put on my old cloak, and took my umbrella, as a light rain was falling. No one was to be seen on the streets except some women, who had flung their skirts over their heads. Here and there one saw a cabman or a shopman with his umbrella up. Of the higher classes one only saw an official here and there. One I saw at the street-crossing, and thought to myself, ""Ah! my friend, you are not going to the office, but after that young lady who walks in front of you. You are just like the officers who run after every petticoat they see.""
As I was thus following the train of my thoughts, I saw a carriage stop before a shop just as I was passing it. I recognised it at once; it was our director's carriage. ""He has nothing to do in the shop,"" I said to myself; ""it must be his daughter.""
I pressed myself close against the wall. A lackey opened the carriage door, and, as I had expected, she fluttered like a bird out of it.",-0.375628747,0.482769189
aadfca281,,,"The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood.
When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the poet. The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet.",-2.77416827,0.519819755
93862fdad,,,"January in the same year, following after February.—I can never understand what kind of a country this Spain really is. The popular customs and rules of court etiquette are quite extraordinary. I do not understand them at all, at all. Today my head was shorn, although I exclaimed as loudly as I could, that I did not want to be a monk. What happened afterwards, when they began to let cold water trickle on my head, I do not know. I have never experienced such hellish torments. I nearly went mad, and they had difficulty in holding me. The significance of this strange custom is entirely hidden from me. It is a very foolish and unreasonable one.
Nor can I understand the stupidity of the kings who have not done away with it before now. Judging by all the circumstances, it seems to me as though I had fallen into the hands of the Inquisition, and as though the man whom I took to be the Chancellor was the Grand Inquisitor. But yet I cannot understand how the king could fall into the hands of the Inquisition.",-1.506059228,0.502390962
6df66308a,,,"Arrived at the seminary, the whole crowd of students dispersed into the low, large class-rooms with small windows, broad doors, and blackened benches. Suddenly they were filled with a many-toned murmur. The teachers heard the pupils' lessons repeated, some in shrill and others in deep voices which sounded like a distant booming. While the lessons were being said, the teachers kept a sharp eye open to see whether pieces of cake or other dainties were protruding from their pupils' pockets; if so, they were promptly confiscated.
When this learned crowd arrived somewhat earlier than usual, or when it was known that the teachers would come somewhat late, a battle would ensue, as though planned by general agreement. In this battle all had to take part, even the monitors who were appointed to look after the order and morality of the whole school. Two theologians generally arranged the conditions of the battle: whether each class should split into two sides, or whether all the pupils should divide themselves into two halves.",-1.114125079,0.448037706
a2298a161,,,"When we arrived at the wharf, there were three of our number who assumed an authority to direct our operations, to which we readily submitted. They divided us into three parties, for the purpose of boarding the three ships which contained the tea at the same time. The name of him who commanded the division to which I was assigned was Leonard Pitt. The names of the other commanders I never knew.
We were immediately ordered by the respective commanders to board all the ships at the same time, which we promptly obeyed. The commander of the division to which I belonged, as soon as we were on board the ship appointed me boatswain, and ordered me to go to the captain and demand of him the keys to the hatches and a dozen candles. I made the demand accordingly, and the captain promptly replied, and delivered the articles; but requested me at the same time to do no damage to the ship or rigging.",-0.398538899,0.471141765
10b11563d,,,"The ex-queen, a princess of the house of Austria, had long impelled her husband to withstand the necessity of the times. She was haughty and fearless; she cherished a love of power, and a bitter contempt for him who had despoiled himself of a kingdom. For her children's sake alone she consented to remain, shorn of regality, a member of the English republic. When she became a widow, she turned all her thoughts to the educating her son Adrian, second Earl of Windsor, so as to accomplish her ambitious ends; and with his mother's milk he imbibed, and was intended to grow up in the steady purpose of re-acquiring his lost crown. Adrian was now fifteen years of age. He was addicted to study, and imbued beyond his years with learning and talent: report said that he had already begun to thwart his mother's views, and to entertain republican principles.",-1.521462856,0.486455411
11fc86ab3,,,"Soon after this I contrived, by means which I must omit for want of room, to transfer myself to London. And now began the latter and fiercer stage of my long sufferings; without using a disproportionate expression I might say, of my agony. For I now suffered, for upwards of sixteen weeks, the physical anguish of hunger in. I various degrees of intensity, but as bitter perhaps as ever any human being can have suffered who has survived it would not needlessly harass my reader's feelings by a detail of all that I endured; for extremities such as these, under any circumstances of heaviest misconduct or guilt, cannot be contemplated, even in description, without a rueful pity that is painful to the natural goodness of the human heart. Let it suffice, at least on this occasion, to say that a few fragments of bread from the breakfast-table of one individual (who supposed me to be ill, but did not know of my being in utter want), and these at uncertain intervals, constituted my whole support.",-2.457391864,0.514251099
08beb9b06,,,"In addition to his other vocations, he was the singing-master of the neighborhood, and picked up many bright shillings by instructing the young folks in psalmody. It was a matter of no little vanity to him on Sundays, to take his station in front of the church gallery, with a band of chosen singers; where, in his own mind, he completely carried away the palm from the parson. Certain it is, his voice resounded far above all the rest of the congregation; and there are peculiar quavers still to be heard in that church, and which may even be heard half a mile off, quite to the opposite side of the millpond, on a still Sunday morning, which are said to be legitimately descended from the nose of Ichabod Crane. Thus, by divers little makeshifts, in that ingenious way which is commonly denominated ""by hook and by crook,"" the worthy pedagogue got on tolerably enough, and was thought, by all who understood nothing of the labor of headwork, to have a wonderfully easy life of it.",-2.822005817,0.532713649
be8b95ec0,,,"His dress was a tunic of forest green, furred at the throat and cuffs with what was called minever; a kind of fur inferior in quality to ermine, and formed, it is believed, of the skin of the grey squirrel. This doublet hung unbuttoned over a close dress of scarlet which sat tight to his body; he had breeches of the same, but they did not reach below the lower part of the thigh, leaving the knee exposed. His feet had sandals of the same fashion with the peasants, but of finer materials, and secured in the front with golden clasps. He had bracelets of gold upon his arms, and a broad collar of the same precious metal around his neck. About his waist he wore a richly-studded belt, in which was stuck a short straight two-edged sword, with a sharp point, so disposed as to hang almost perpendicularly by his side. Behind his seat was hung a scarlet cloth cloak lined with fur, and a cap of the same materials richly embroidered, which completed the dress of the opulent landholder when he chose to go forth.",-1.264322394,0.477247659
c95b9ef21,,,"The great error in Rip's composition was a strong dislike of all kinds of profitable labor. It could not be from the want of perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would carry a fowling piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging through woods and swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor even in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or building stone fences; the women of the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word, Rip was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible.",-2.109412616,0.476114763
4142d9032,,,"It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.
How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God!",-1.798356059,0.486414398
2472396a0,,,"When the hour of departure drew near, the maternal anxiety of Mrs. Morland will be naturally supposed to be most severe. A thousand alarming presentiments of evil to her beloved Catherine from this terrific separation must oppress her heart with sadness, and drown her in tears for the last day or two of their being together; and advice of the most important and applicable nature must of course flow from her wise lips in their parting conference in her closet. Cautions against the violence of such noblemen and baronets as delight in forcing young ladies away to some remote farm-house, must, at such a moment, relieve the fulness of her heart. Who would not think so? But Mrs. Morland knew so little of lords and baronets, that she entertained no notion of their general mischievousness, and was wholly unsuspicious of danger to her daughter from their machinations. Her cautions were confined to the following points. ""I beg, Catherine, you will always wrap yourself up very warm about the throat, when you come from the rooms at night; and I wish you would try to keep some account of the money you spend; I will give you this little book on purpose.""",-2.051922169,0.515066254
ff30cf178,,,"Miss Churchill, however, being of age, and with the full command of her fortune—though her fortune bore no proportion to the family-estate—was not to be dissuaded from the marriage, and it took place, to the infinite mortification of Mr. and Mrs. Churchill, who threw her off with due decorum. It was an unsuitable connection, and did not produce much happiness. Mrs. Weston ought to have found more in it, for she had a husband whose warm heart and sweet temper made him think every thing due to her in return for the great goodness of being in love with him; but though she had one sort of spirit, she had not the best. She had resolution enough to pursue her own will in spite of her brother, but not enough to refrain from unreasonable regrets at that brother's unreasonable anger, nor from missing the luxuries of her former home. They lived beyond their income, but still it was nothing in comparison of Enscombe: she did not cease to love her husband, but she wanted at once to be the wife of Captain Weston, and Miss Churchill of Enscombe.",-2.155723039,0.500017985
c3302a176,,,"Mr. Bennet was among the earliest of those who waited on Mr. Bingley. He had always intended to visit him, though to the last always assuring his wife that he should not go; and till the evening after the visit was paid she had no knowledge of it. It was then disclosed in the following manner. Observing his second daughter employed in trimming a hat, he suddenly addressed her with:
""I hope Mr. Bingley will like it, Lizzy.""
""We are not in a way to know what Mr. Bingley likes,"" said her mother resentfully, ""since we are not to visit.""
""But you forget, mamma,"" said Elizabeth, ""that we shall meet him at the assemblies, and that Mrs. Long promised to introduce him.""
""I do not believe Mrs. Long will do any such thing. She has two nieces of her own. She is a selfish, hypocritical woman, and I have no opinion of her.""
""No more have I,"" said Mr. Bennet; ""and I am glad to find that you do not depend on her serving you.""",-0.384954233,0.48168922
a5e01b562,,,"The first time, that you and I differed in Opinion on any material Question; was after your Arrival from Europe; and that point was the French Revolution.
You was well persuaded in your own mind that the Nation would succeed in establishing a free Republican Government: I was as well persuaded, in mine, that a project of such a Government, over five and twenty millions people, when four and twenty millions and five hundred thousands of them could neither write nor read: was as unnatural irrational and impracticable; as it would be over the Elephants Lions Tigers Panthers Wolves and Bears in the Royal Menagerie, at Versailles. Napoleon has lately invented a Word, which perfectly expresses my Opinion at that time and ever since. He calls the Project Ideology. And John Randolph, though he was 14 years ago, as wild an Enthusiast for Equality and Fraternity, as any of them; appears to be now a regenerated Proselite to Napoleons Opinion and mine, that it was all madness.",-3.223443968,0.533969946
07fcc6d46,,,"I was much pleased with my son's coolness and presence of mind, for it showed me that I might thoroughly rely upon him on any future occasion when real danger might occur. This time, however, no savage beast rushed out, but our trusty dog Turk, whom, in our anxiety at parting, we had forgotten, and who had been sent after us doubtless by my thoughtful wife. I did not fail to commend both the bravery and the discretion of my son, in not yielding to even a rational alarm, and for waiting until he was sure of the object before he resolved to fire.
From this little incident, however, we saw how dangerous was our position, and how difficult escape would be should any fierce beast steal upon us unawares: we therefore hastened to make our way to the open seashore. Here the scene which presented itself was indeed delightful. A background of hills, the green waving grass, the pleasant groups of trees stretching here and there to the very water's edge, formed a lovely prospect.
On the smooth sand we searched carefully for any trace of our hapless companions, but not the mark of a footstep could we find.",-1.057806599,0.452856312
9810db6cc,,,"Industry and love of truth alone will not make the artist. With only these Boswell might have been merely a tireless transcriber. But he had besides a keen sense of artistic values. This appears partly in the unity of his vast work. Though it was years in the making, though the details that demanded his attention were countless, yet they all centre consistently in one figure, and are so focused upon it, that one can hardly open the book at random to a line which has not its direct bearing upon the one subject of the work. Nor is the unity of the book that of an undeviating narrative in chronological order of one man's life; it grows rather out of a single dominating personality exhibited in all the vicissitudes of a manifold career. Boswell often speaks of his work as a painting, a portrait, and of single incidents as pictures or scenes in a drama. His eye is keen for contrasts, for picturesque moments, for dramatic action.",-3.191054044,0.595666139
6b95e3508,,,"Our tillage is exercised in a large plain or common, some hours walk from our dwellings, and all the neighbours resort thither in a body. They use no beasts of husbandry; and their only instruments are hoes, axes, shovels, and beaks, or pointed iron to dig with. Sometimes we are visited by locusts, which come in large clouds, so as to darken the air, and destroy our harvest. This however happens rarely, but when it does, a famine is produced by it. I remember an instance or two wherein this happened. This common is often the theatre of war; and therefore when our people go out to till their land, they not only go in a body, but generally take their arms with them for fear of a surprise; and when they apprehend an invasion they guard the avenues to their dwellings, by driving sticks into the ground, which are so sharp at one end as to pierce the foot, and are generally dipt in poison.",-2.68623973,0.534369823
2ade9142e,,,"The question now is as to a criterion, by which we may securely distinguish a pure from an empirical cognition. Experience no doubt teaches us that this or that object is constituted in such and such a manner, but not that it could not possibly exist otherwise. Now, in the first place, if we have a proposition which contains the idea of necessity in its very conception, it is priori. If, moreover, it is not derived from any other proposition, unless from one equally involving the idea of necessity, it is absolutely priori. Secondly, an empirical judgement never exhibits strict and absolute, but only assumed and comparative universality (by induction); therefore, the most we can say is—so far as we have hitherto observed, there is no exception to this or that rule. If, on the other hand, a judgement carries with it strict and absolute universality, that is, admits of no possible exception, it is not derived from experience, but is valid absolutely à priori.",-3.473291694,0.648481117
ce2625cff,,,"Coming out of the club, the husband and wife walked all the way home in silence. The tax-collector walked behind his wife, and watching her downcast, sorrowful, humiliated little figure, he recalled the look of beatitude which had so irritated him at the club, and the consciousness that the beatitude was gone filled his soul with triumph. He was pleased and satisfied, and at the same time he felt the lack of something; he would have liked to go back to the club and make every one feel dreary and miserable, so that all might know how stale and worthless life is when you walk along the streets in the dark and hear the slush of the mud under your feet, and when you know that you will wake up next morning with nothing to look forward to but vodka and cards. Oh, how awful it is!
And Anna Pavlovna could scarcely walk.... She was still under the influence of the dancing, the music, the talk, the lights, and the noise; she asked herself as she walked along why God had thus afflicted her.",-0.780457475,0.465870105
329899737,,,"Indeed, I feel myself that it is time the obscurity attending those two names—Ellis and Acton—was done away. The little mystery, which formerly yielded some harmless pleasure, has lost its interest; circumstances are changed. It becomes, then, my duty to explain briefly the origin and authorship of the books written by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.
About five years ago, my two sisters and myself, after a somewhat prolonged period of separation, found ourselves reunited, and at home. Resident in a remote district, where education had made little progress, and where, consequently, there was no inducement to seek social intercourse beyond our own domestic circle, we were wholly dependent on ourselves and each other, on books and study, for the enjoyments and occupations of life. The highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure we had known from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary composition; formerly we used to show each other what we wrote, but of late years this habit of communication and consultation had been discontinued; hence it ensued, that we were mutually ignorant of the progress we might respectively have made.",-1.619339458,0.460558131
a852fb41d,,,"In the old legend of Rip Van Winkle with which the American writer Washington Irving has made us so familiar, the ne'er-do-weel Rip wanders off into the Kaatskill Mountains with his dog and gun in order to escape from his wife's scolding tongue. Here he meets the spectre crew of Captain Hudson, and, after partaking of their hospitality, falls into a deep sleep which lasts for twenty years. The latter part of the story describes the changes which he finds on his return to his native village: nearly all the old, familiar faces are gone; manners, dress, and speech are all changed. He feels like a stranger in a strange land.
Now, it is a good thing sometimes to take a look back, to try to count over the changes for good or for evil which have taken place in this country of ours; to try to understand clearly why the reign of a great Queen should have left its mark upon our history in such a way that men speak of the Victorian Age as one of the greatest ages that have ever been.",-1.199124971,0.455346726
7130069dc,,,"I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with my own. Observing my partiality for domestic pets, she lost no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind. We had birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat.
This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree. In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise. Not that she was ever serious upon this point—and I mention the matter at all for no better reason than that it happens, just now, to be remembered.
Pluto—this was the cat's name—was my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I went about the house. It was even with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets.",-0.82739846,0.50801429
7f5328c35,,,"Our telescopes and our mathematical investigations assure us on every hand—notwithstanding the cant of the more ignorant of the priesthood—that space, and therefore that bulk, is an important consideration in the eyes of the Almighty. The cycles in which the stars move are those best adapted for the evolution, without collision, of the greatest possible number of bodies. The forms of those bodies are accurately such as, within a given surface, to include the greatest possible amount of matter;—while the surfaces themselves are so disposed as to accommodate a denser population than could be accommodated on the same surfaces otherwise arranged. Nor is it any argument against bulk being an object with God, that space itself is infinite; for there may be an infinity of matter to fill it. And since we see clearly that the endowment of matter with vitality is a principle—indeed, as far as our judgments extend, the leading principle in the operations of Deity,—it is scarcely logical to imagine it confined to the regions of the minute, where we daily trace it, and not extending to those of the august.",-2.949987825,0.556071662
7f482dceb,,,"Thus it was that we lived all alone, knowing nothing of the world without the valley—I, and my cousin, and her mother.
From the dim regions beyond the mountains at the upper end of our encircled domain, there crept out a narrow and deep river, brighter than all save the eyes of Eleonora; and, winding stealthily about in mazy courses, it passed away, at length, through a shadowy gorge, among hills still dimmer than those whence it had issued. We called it the ""River of Silence""; for there seemed to be a hushing influence in its flow. No murmur arose from its bed, and so gently it wandered along, that the pearly pebbles upon which we loved to gaze, far down within its bosom, stirred not at all, but lay in a motionless content, each in its own old station, shining on gloriously forever.",-1.638285475,0.507868051
e475faceb,,,"For months on end the place swam in vapours. There were wonderful effects of sunrise and sunset, veils of crimson and gold, of every shade of blue and purple. At times the grey sea-lavender was like silver, the wet, black mud gleaming like dark opals; while at high summer there was purple willow-strife spilled thick along the ditches, giving the strange place a transitory air of warm-blooded life; but for the most part it was all as aloof and detached as a sleep-walker.
The birds fitted the place as a verger fits his quiet and dusky church: herons and waders of all kinds; wild-crying curlew; and here and there a hawk, hanging motionless high overhead.
There were scarcely fifty houses in Hemerton, and these were all alike, flat and brown and grey; where there had been plaster it was flaked and ashen. The very church stooped, as though shamed to a sort of poor-relation pose by the immense indifference of the mist-veiled sky—the drooping lids on a scornful face—for even at midday, in mid-summer, the heavens were never quite clear, quite blue, but still veiled and apart.",-1.661991499,0.477077912
71b10cd34,,,"The children were all incredibly sweet, and resolutely refused to model themselves on the ""grown-ups,"" regardless of all the admonitions of their governesses and mammas. They stripped the Christmas tree to the last sweetmeat in the twinkling of an eye, and had succeeded in breaking half the playthings before they knew what was destined for which. Particularly charming was a black-eyed, curly-headed boy, who kept trying to shoot me with his wooden gun. But my attention was still more attracted by his sister, a girl of eleven, quiet, dreamy, pale, with big, prominent, dreamy eyes, exquisite as a little Cupid. The children hurt her feelings in some way, and so she came away from them to the same empty parlour in which I was sitting, and played with her doll in the corner. The visitors respectfully pointed out her father, a wealthy contractor, and some one whispered that three hundred thousand roubles were already set aside for her dowry.",-0.96924999,0.476029438
eb5a24d21,,,"The hope of entering the race for dramatic fame as an individual and single attraction never came into my head until, in 1858, I acted Asa Trenchard in ""Our American Cousin""; but as the curtain descended the first night on that remarkably successful play, visions of large type, foreign countries, and increased remuneration floated before me, and I resolved to be a star if I could. A resolution to this effect is easily made; its accomplishment is quite another matter.
Art has always been my sweetheart, and I have loved her for herself alone. I had fancied that our affection was mutual, so that when I failed as a star, which I certainly did, I thought she had jilted me. Not so. I wronged her. She only reminded me that I had taken too great a liberty, and that if I expected to win her I must press my suit with more patience. Checked, but undaunted in the resolve, my mind dwelt upon my vision, and I still indulged in day-dreams of the future.",-1.68271827,0.489791462
e9371122a,,,"The two mothers could hardly distinguish their own offspring among the lot, and as for the fathers, they were altogether at sea. The eight names danced in their heads; they were always getting them mixed up; and when they wished to call one child, the men often called three names before getting the right one.
The first of the two cottages, as you came up from the bathing beach, Rolleport, was occupied by the Tuvaches, who had three girls and one boy; the other house sheltered the Vallins, who had one girl and three boys.
They all subsisted frugally on soup, potatoes and fresh air. At seven o'clock in the morning, then at noon, then at six o'clock in the evening, the housewives got their broods together to give them their food, as the gooseherds collect their charges. The children were seated, according to age, before the wooden table, varnished by fifty years of use; the mouths of the youngest hardly reaching the level of the table.",-1.029886829,0.490707576
f0ddc51ab,,,"She had no time to answer. The conductor, who had seized her by the arm to help her up the step, pushed her inside, and she fell into a seat, bewildered, looking through the back window at the feet of her husband as he climbed up to the top of the vehicle.
And she sat there motionless, between a fat man who smelled of cheap tobacco and an old woman who smelled of garlic.
All the other passengers were lined up in silence—a grocer's boy, a young girl, a soldier, a gentleman with gold-rimmed spectacles and a big silk hat, two ladies with a self-satisfied and crabbed look, which seemed to say: ""We are riding in this thing, but we don't have to,"" two sisters of charity and an undertaker. They looked like a collection of caricatures.
The jolting of the wagon made them wag their heads and the shaking of the wheels seemed to stupefy them—they all looked as though they were asleep.
The young woman remained motionless.",0.035545146,0.520954103
d45abbed1,,,"An Elephant and a Crocodile were once standing beside a river. They were disputing as to which was the better animal.
""Look at my strength,"" said the Elephant. ""I can tear up a tree, roots and all, with my trunk.""
""Ah! But quantity is not quality, and your skin is not nearly so tough as mine,"" replied the Crocodile, ""for neither spear, arrow, nor sword can pierce it.""
Just as they were coming to blows, a Lion happened to pass. 
""Heyday, sirs!"" said His Majesty, going up to them, ""let me know the cause of your quarrel.""
""Will you kindly tell us which is the better animal?"" cried both at once.
""Certainly,"" said the Lion. ""Do you see that soldier's steel helmet on yonder wall?"" pointing at the same time across the river.
""Yes!"" replied the beasts.
""Well, then,"" continued the Lion, ""go and fetch it, and bring it to me, and I shall be able then to decide between you.""
Upon hearing this, off they started. The Crocodile, being used to the water, reached the opposite bank of the river first, and was not long in standing beside the wall. Here he waited till the Elephant came up.",0.410207317,0.515145086
f994af4e1,,,"""Once upon a time,"" said the sailor, ""the Devil and Davy Jones came to Cardiff, to the place called Tiger Bay. They put up at Tony Adam's, not far from Pier Head, at the corner of Sunday Lane. And all the time they stayed there, they used to be going to the rum-shop, where they sat at a table, smoking their cigars, and dicing each other for different persons' souls. Now you must know that the Devil gets landsmen, and Davy Jones gets sailor-folk; and they get tired of having always the same, so then they dice each other for some of another sort.
""One time they were in a place in Mary Street, having some burnt brandy, and playing red and black for the people passing. And while they were looking out on the street and turning the cards, they saw all the people on the sidewalk breaking their necks to get into the gutter. And they saw all the shop-people running out and kowtowing, and all the carts pulling up, and all the police saluting.",-1.38178624,0.45354157
a9dba43f4,,,"A French writer has recently published a careful and interesting volume on the famous events which ended in the overthrow of Robespierre and the close of the Reign of Terror. These events are known in the historic calendar as the Revolution of Thermidor in the Year II. After the fall of the monarchy, the Convention decided that the year should begin with the autumnal equinox, and that the enumeration should date from the birth of the Republic. The Year I opens on September 22, 1792; the Year II opens on the same day of 1793. The month of Thermidor begins on July 19. The memorable Ninth Thermidor therefore corresponds to July 27, 1794. This has commonly been taken as the date of the commencement of a counter-revolution, and in one sense it was so. Comte, however, and others have preferred to fix the reaction at the execution of Danton (April 5, 1794), or Robespierre's official proclamation of Deism in the Festival of the Supreme Being (May 7, 1794).",-2.590842009,0.526146837
519ca97e9,,,"So the land stood long in great peril, for every lord and baron sought but his own advantage; and the Saxons, growing ever more adventurous, wasted and overran the towns and villages in every part.
Then Merlin went to Brice, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and advised him to require all the earls and barons of the realm and all knights and gentlemen-at-arms to come to him at London, before Christmas, under pain of cursing, that they might learn the will of Heaven who should be king. This, therefore, the archbishop did, and upon Christmas Eve were met together in London all the greatest princes, lords, and barons; and long before day they prayed in St. Paul's Church, and the archbishop besought Heaven for a sign who should be lawful king of all the realm.
And as they prayed, there was seen in the churchyard, set straight before the doorways of the church, a huge square stone having a naked sword stuck in the midst of it. And on the sword was written in letters of gold, ""Whoso pulleth out the sword from this stone is born the rightful King of Britain.""",-1.691501234,0.450662898
fb6a10777,,,"The sugar-cane vendor eyed the other shrewdly. What was the gossip he had heard concerning Fa'ng, the famous old hatchetman? Was it not that the old man was always hungry? Yes, that was it! Fa'ng, whose long knife and swift arm had been the most feared thing in all Chinatown, was starving—too proud to beg, too honest to steal.
""You have eaten well, venerable Fa'ng?"" The inquiry was in a casual tone, respectful.
""Aih, I have eaten well,"" replied the old hatchetman, averting his face.
""How unfortunate for me! I have not yet eaten my rice; for when one must dine alone, one goes slowly to table. Is it not written that a bowl of rice shared is doubly enjoyed? Would you not at least have a cup of tea while I eat my mean fare?"" 
""I shall be honoured to sip tea with you, estimable Bow Sam,"" replied the hatchetman with poorly disguised eagerness.",-1.029448678,0.476793284
001ef05a9,,,"When astronauts go on spacewalks, they wear spacesuits to keep themselves safe. Inside spacesuits, astronauts have the oxygen they need to breathe. They have the water they need to drink.
Astronauts put on their spacesuits several hours before a spacewalk. The suits are pressurized. This means that the suits are filled with oxygen.
Once in their suits, astronauts breathe pure oxygen for a few hours. Breathing only oxygen gets rid of all the nitrogen in an astronaut's body. If they didn't get rid of the nitrogen, the astronauts might get gas bubbles in their body when they walked in space. These gas bubbles can cause astronauts to feel pain in their shoulders, elbows, wrists and knees. This pain is called getting ""the bends"" because it affects the places where the body bends, Scuba divers can also get ""the bends.""
Astronauts are now ready to get out of their spacecraft. They leave the spacecraft through a special door called an airlock. The airlock has two doors.",0.840999936,0.492411116
3aee5c9fd,,,"A Robonaut is a dexterous humanoid robot built and designed at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Our challenge is to build machines that can help humans work and explore in space. Working side by side with humans, or going where the risks are too great for people, Robonauts will expand our ability for constructions and discovery. Central to that effort is a capability we call dexterous manipulation, embodied by an ability to use one's hand to do work, and our challenge has been to build machines with dexterity that exceeds that of a suited astronaut.
There are currently four Robonauts, with others in development. This allows us to study various types of mobility, control methods, and task applications. The value of a humanoid over other designs is this ability to use the same workspace and tools — not only does this improve efficiency in the types of tools, but also removes the need for specialized robotic connectors. Robonauts are essential to NASA's future as we go beyond low earth orbit and continue to explore the vast wonder that is space.",-1.472982809,0.481831349
b3c3a4ada,,,"The doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls--a doctrine to which the foregoing considerations are for the most part easy corollaries--crops up no matter in what direction we allow our thoughts to wander. And we meet instances of transmigration of body as well as of soul. I do not mean that both body and soul have transmigrated together, far from it; but that, as we can often recognise a transmigrated mind in an alien body, so we not less often see a body that is clearly only a transmigration, linked on to some one else's new and alien soul. We meet people every day whose bodies are evidently those of men and women long dead, but whose appearance we know through their portraits. We see them going about in omnibuses, railway carriages, and in all public places. The cards have been shuffled, and they have drawn fresh lots in life and nationalities, but any one fairly well up in mediaeval and last century portraiture knows them at a glance.",-3.143387402,0.605422608
4eba2039c,,,"In one of his Latin letters written from Cambridge, Milton himself speaks of the ignorance of those designed for the profession of divinity, how they knew little or nothing of literature and philosophy. The high prelacy and ritualism of Laud on the one hand, the Puritan movement on the other, each in some measure a protest against this state of things, were at fierce variance with each other, and Milton's ear, from his youth upward, was ""pealed with noises loud and ruinous."" The age of Shakespeare was irrecoverably past, and it was impossible for any but a few imperturbable Cyrenaics, like Herrick, to ""fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world."" The large indifference of Shakespeare to current politics was impossible for Milton. ""I had as lief be a Brownist as a politician,"" said the folly of Sir Andrew Aguecheek and the wisdom of Shakespeare. But now the Brownists and the politicians had it their own way; and Milton was something of both.",-3.120642709,0.592292049
e0afb9219,,,"While she spoke, she became quite happy; it seemed to her as if her wish would surely come to pass. Then she went into the house; and a month passed, and the snow melted; and two months, and the ground was green; and three months, and the flowers came up out of the earth; and four months, and all the trees in the wood burst forth, and the green twigs all grew thickly together; the little birds sang so that the whole wood rang, and the blossoms fell from the trees. The fifth month passed, and she stood under the Juniper-tree, and it smelt so beautiful, and her heart leaped with joy. She fell upon her knees, but could not speak. When the sixth month was gone, the fruit was large and ripe, and she was very quiet; the seventh month, she took the juniper berries, ate them eagerly, and was sick and sorrowful; and the eighth month went by, and she called to her husband, and cried and said, ""If I die, bury me under the Juniper-tree.""",-0.072256895,0.449501214
964b687a5,,,"Once there was a little village maiden, the prettiest ever seen. Her mother was foolishly fond of her, and her grandmother likewise. The old woman made for her a little hood, which became the damsel so well, that ever after she went by the name of Little Red-Riding-Hood. One day, when her mother was making cakes, she said, ""My child, you shall go and see your grandmother, for I hear she is not well; and you shall take her some of these cakes, and a pot of butter.""
Little Red-Riding-Hood was delighted to go, though it was a long walk; but she was a good child, and fond of her kind grandmother. Passing through a wood, she met a great wolf, who was most eager to eat her up, but dared not, because of a woodcutter who was busy hard by. So he only came and asked her politely where she was going. The poor child, who did not know how dangerous it is to stop and speak to wolves, replied, ""I am going to see my grandmother, and to take her a cake and a pot of butter, which my mother has sent her.""",0.224556859,0.513557283
0637d5818,,,"So he departed with his only friends—his horse and his faithful dog Cabriole; while all who met him looked at him compassionately, pitying so pretty a youth bound on such a hopeless errand. But, however kindly they addressed him, Avenant rode on and answered nothing, for he was too sad at heart.
He reached a mountain-side, where he sat down to rest, leaving his horse to graze, and Cabriole to run after the flies. He knew that the Grotto of Darkness was not far off, yet he looked about him like one who sees nothing. At last he perceived a rock, as black as ink, whence came a thick smoke; and in a moment appeared one of the two dragons, breathing out flames. It had a yellow and green body, claws, and a long tail. When Cabriole saw the monster, the poor little dog hid himself in terrible fright. But Avenant resolved to die bravely; so, taking a phial which the princess had given him, he prepared to descend into the cave.",-1.202415911,0.451570516
7a0e0eb5b,,,"Above all, Sargent's portraits are masterly. He was famous in that branch of art before he was twenty-eight years old. Among his finest portraits is that of ""Carmencita,"" a Spanish dancer, who for a time set the world wild with pleasure. The list of his famous portraits is very long.
Sargent's father was a Philadelphia physician; who originally came from New England, but the artist himself was born in Florence. He was given a good education and grew up with the beauties of Florence all about him, in a refined and charming home. He was the delight of his master, Carolus Durand for he was modest and refined, yet full of enthusiasm and energy. In his twenty-third year he painted a fine picture of his master. Sargent was a musician as well as a painter; a man of great versatility, as if the gods and all the muses had presided at his birth.",-0.757147963,0.465763767
ece75211d,,,"Fortuny won his own opportunities. He took a prize, while still very young, which made it possible for him to go to Rome where he wished to study art. He did not spend his time studying and copying the old masters as did most artists who went there, but, instead, he studied the life of the Roman streets.
He had already been at the Academy of Barcelona, but he did not follow his first master; instead, he struck out a line of art for himself. After a year in Rome the artist went to war; but he did not go to fight men, he was still fighting fate, and his weapon was his sketch book. He went with General Prim, and he filled his book with warlike scenes and the brilliant skies of Morocco. From that time his work was inspired by his Moorish experiences.",-1.199019979,0.482757696
12e7d318d,,,"Italian painters received their names in peculiar ways. This man's father was a tailor; and the artist was named after his father's profession. He was in fact ""the Tailor's Andrea,"" and his father's name was Angelo.
One story of this brilliant painter which reads from first to last like a romance has been told by the poet, Browning, who dresses up fact so as to smother it a little, but there is truth at the bottom.
Andrea married a wife whom he loved tenderly. She had a beautiful face that seemed full of spirituality and feeling, and Andrea painted it over and over again. The artist loved his work and dreamed always of the great things that he should do; but he was so much in love with his wife that he was dependent on her smile for all that he did which was well done, and her frown plunged him into despair.",-0.78404479,0.47587921
bf9a1bd7f,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/financial-literacy,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Credit and credit cards are special types of loans. When you use a credit card to buy things, instead of paying for them immediately, each purchase goes onto a big list. At the end of the month, the credit card company adds everything on the list together and sends you a one bill for the total amount of money you spent that month.
The special feature of credit cards is that you do not have to pay back the entire bill right then. Imagine you spent $5,000 last month. When you get the bill, you might only have to use your $1,000 to pay the bill, but you still have all $5,000 worth of stuff you bought.
This functions as a loan because the credit card company has, in a round-about way, loaned you that leftover $4,000. As with a loan, you will still have to pay that $4,000 back eventually, and the credit card company will charge you interest on it. So, in the end, you might owe $4,500 (plus the $1,000 you used to pay the minimum part of the original bill).",-0.281010746,0.45465449
3bdfdd284,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/duke-ellington,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Ellington started taking piano lessons at age seven. He did not take the lessons very seriously or practice well for the first few years. He often skipped his lessons in favor of playing baseball because he did not think he was a good pianist. But by the time he was fourteen, he started sneaking into music clubs and listening to the professional pianists there. He developed a new passion for music. Soon he wrote his first song, ""Soda Fountain Rag,"" inspired by his experiences working at a soda shop.
During high school, Ellington continued to take music lessons, and he imitated his favorite ragtime pianists. Whenever he traveled with his family, he sought out local famous musicians to get advice for his own music. After he graduated he took a job as a sign-painter, which he also used to build his music career; anytime someone requested a sign for a party, he also asked them if they needed a musician for entertainment. He became quite successful playing for both black and white audiences, which was a unique accomplishment at the time.",0.21845871,0.479094392
e7d0b0fc2,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-founding-of-american-democracy,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"People started coming to North America in the 1600s. Those people were called colonists. They were from all over Europe, but the most people came from England. Soon the British were the strongest influence in America. Because of this, all of the colonies became part of Great Britain. For a while people liked being part of a very large kingdom. It meant that they would be protected by a strong government. Then, In the middle of the 1700s, that changed. People started getting uncomfortable with how much power the king had.
The biggest problem people had was how much money they were paying in taxes. They sent the British a lot of money, but they didn't get to be part of the government. That meant they could not choose how their taxes were spent. Colonists started saying ""taxation without representation"" to talk about the problem. The phrase caught on, and was part of what started the American Revolution. In 1776, the colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence. The letter told the king that the colonies didn't want to be part of England anymore.",0.589001578,0.48789093
74ee4d488,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-dust-bowl,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"Several factors caused the Dust Bowl. In the 1920s, the central U.S. had more rain than usual, and agriculture boomed. New immigrants moved to the Great Plains states seeking to start their own successful farms. However, they did not practice environmentally-friendly farming techniques. They made two big mistakes. First, in order to plant as much wheat as possible, they plowed over all of the natural prairie grasses that kept the topsoil in place. Second, they planted crops too often, instead of giving the soil a break every now and then. As long as the rain kept falling, neither of these mistakes caused problems.
But in 1930, the rain stopped coming. The soil became dry, loose, and unable to support crops. This drought would have been bad enough for farmers, but then strong winds picked up across the Great Plains. Those winds picked up all of the dry soil and sent it flying. People called these strong dust storms ""black blizzards,"" which could sometimes last for one or two days straight.",0.437436996,0.544902431
d25b7c3aa,https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-center-of-our-solar-system,CC BY-NC-SA 2.0,"The sun is a star, just like the other millions of stars you see when you look at the night sky. In fact, the sun is a relatively normal star. Like all stars, it is a large ball of gas that produces huge amounts of energy. Stars form when particles floating in space are drawn closer together by gravity, until the cloud of space dust is round and dense. Inside that dense center, hydrogen atoms are under so much pressure that they fuse together into helium atoms. This process is called nuclear fusion, and it releases a lot of extra energy in the forms of heat and light. Nuclear fusion is what keeps stars burning.
4.5 billion years ago, when the sun formed, it was not the only clump of gas and dust swirling around space. As the sun's particles pulled together, other particles and clouds farther away began circling around it, too. Those clouds started condensing into planets. The process was dramatic. Clumps of space dust slammed into each other, breaking apart and reforming, over millions of years.",-0.580630824,0.457744669
aae3150c4,,,"About ten o'clock on the following morning, seedy and hungry, I was dragging myself along Portland Place, when a child that was passing, towed by a nurse-maid, tossed a luscious big pear — minus one bite — into the gutter. I stopped, of course, and fastened my desiring eye on that muddy treasure. My mouth watered for it, my stomach craved it, my whole being begged for it. But every time I made a move to get it some passing eye detected my purpose, and of course I straightened up then, and looked indifferent, and pretended that I hadn't been thinking about the pear at all. This same thing kept happening and happening, and I couldn't get the pear. I was just getting desperate enough to brave all the shame, and to seize it, when a window behind me was raised, and a gentleman spoke out of it, saying:
""Step in here, please.""
I was admitted by a gorgeous flunkey, and shown into a sumptuous room where a couple of elderly gentlemen were sitting. They sent away the servant, and made me sit down.",-0.70142277,0.492807462
ef4dd7344,,,"I was ashamed, and also lost; and it was while wandering the woods hunting for myself that I found a deserted log cabin and had one of the best meals there that in my life-days I have eaten. The weed-grown garden was full of ripe tomatoes, and I ate them ravenously, though I had never liked them before. Not more than two or three times since have I tasted anything that was so delicious as those tomatoes. I surfeited myself with them, and did not taste another one until I was in middle life. I can eat them now, but I do not like the look of them. I suppose we have all experienced a surfeit at one time or another. Once, in stress of circumstances, I ate part of a barrel of sardines, there being nothing else at hand, but since then I have always been able to get along without sardines.",-0.379864669,0.452561488
71e6d18b3,,,"The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up. Well, then, the old thing commenced again. The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with them,—that is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself. In a barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better.",-1.033798688,0.451738036
6dc503900,,,"We moved westward about mid-afternoon over a rippled and sparkling summer sea; an enticing sea, a clean and cool sea, and apparently a welcome sea to all on board; it certainly was to me, after the distressful dustings and smokings and swelterings of the past weeks. The voyage would furnish a three-weeks holiday, with hardly a break in it. We had the whole Pacific Ocean in front of us, with nothing to do but do nothing and be comfortable. The city of Victoria was twinkling dim in the deep heart of her smoke-cloud, and getting ready to vanish and now we closed the field-glasses and sat down on our steamer chairs contented and at peace. But they went to wreck and ruin under us and brought us to shame before all the passengers. They had been furnished by the largest furniture-dealing house in Victoria, and were worth a couple of farthings a dozen, though they had cost us the price of honest chairs. In the Pacific and Indian Oceans one must still bring his own deck-chair on board or go without, just as in the old forgotten Atlantic times—those Dark Ages of sea travel.",-1.440498588,0.495896539
6ace882a8,,,"I do not go one single cent on burglar alarms, Mr. Twain—not a single cent—and I will tell you why. When we were finishing our house, we found we had a little cash left over, on account of the plumber not knowing it. I was for enlightening the heathen with it, for I was always unaccountably down on the heathen somehow; but Mrs. McWilliams said no, let's have a burglar alarm. I agreed to this compromise. I will explain that whenever I want a thing, and Mrs. McWilliams wants another thing, and we decide upon the thing that Mrs. McWilliams wants—as we always do—she calls that a compromise. Very well: the man came up from New York and put in the alarm, and charged three hundred and twenty-five dollars for it, and said we could sleep without uneasiness now. So we did for awhile—say a month. Then one night we smelled smoke, and I was advised to get up and see what the matter was.",-1.325550349,0.45411617
a674f6c38,,,"It is a remarkable river in this: that instead of widening toward its mouth, it grows narrower; grows narrower and deeper. From the junction of the Ohio to a point half way down to the sea, the width averages a mile in high water: thence to the sea the width steadily diminishes, until, at the 'Passes,' above the mouth, it is but little over half a mile. At the junction of the Ohio the Mississippi's depth is eighty-seven feet; the depth increases gradually, reaching one hundred and twenty-nine just above the mouth.
The difference in rise and fall is also remarkable—not in the upper, but in the lower river. The rise is tolerably uniform down to Natchez (three hundred and sixty miles above the mouth)—about fifty feet. But at Bayou La Fourche the river rises only twenty-four feet; at New Orleans only fifteen, and just above the mouth only two and one half.",-0.610296731,0.480259967
91fda1d78,,,"Once upon a time an artist who had painted a small and very beautiful picture placed it so that he could see it in the mirror. He said, ""This doubles the distance and softens it, and it is twice as lovely as it was before.""
The animals out in the woods heard of this through the housecat, who was greatly admired by them because he was so learned, and so refined and civilized, and so polite and high-bred, and could tell them so much which they didn't know before, and were not certain about afterward. They were much excited about this new piece of gossip, and they asked questions, so as to get at a full understanding of it. They asked what a picture was, and the cat explained.
""It is a flat thing,"" he said; ""wonderfully flat, marvelously flat, enchantingly flat and elegant. And, oh, so beautiful!""
That excited them almost to a frenzy, and they said they would give the world to see it. Then the bear asked:
""What is it that makes it so beautiful?""
""It is the looks of it,"" said the cat.",-0.500558945,0.471558824
db0d5ba4d,,,"There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels the stranger's admiration—and regret. The weather is always doing something there; always attending strictly to business; always getting up new designs and trying them on the people to see how they will go. But it gets through more business in spring than in any other season. In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather within four and twenty hours. It was I who made the fame and fortune of the man who had that marvelous collection of weather on exhibition at the Centennial, which so astounded the foreigners. He was going to travel around the world and get specimens from all climes. I said, ""Don't do it; just come to New England on a favorable spring day."" I told him what we could do in the way of style, variety, and quantity. Well, he came, and he made his collection in four days.",-1.424368182,0.470591859
8b6e9878f,,,"We went to a clump of bushes, and Tom made everybody swear to keep the secret, and then showed them a hole in the hill, right in the thickest part of the bushes. Then we lit the candles, and crawled in on our hands and knees. We went about two hundred yards, and then the cave opened up. Tom poked about amongst the passages, and pretty soon ducked under a wall where you wouldn't a noticed that there was a hole. We went along a narrow place and got into a kind of room, all damp and sweaty and cold, and there we stopped. Tom says:
""Now, we'll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer's Gang. Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name in blood.""
Everybody was willing. So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had wrote the oath on, and read it.",0.497026829,0.502544895
2defec2e6,,,"The two lads had come to a halt on the road about half a mile from the borders of Bloomsbury where they lived. From where they stood, holding their fishing rods, and quite a decent catch of finny prizes, they could look out over the beautiful surface of Lake Sunrise, which was over fifteen miles long, and in places as much as three or four wide.
""Mebbe you can tell me, Larry,"" the smaller boy presently said, ""just why Frank keeps sailing around over the lake that way? Suppose he's taking pictures from his biplane?""
""That might be, Elephant,"" Larry answered, slowly and thoughtfully. ""Seems to me I did hear somebody talking about the State wanting to get a map of the lake, with all its many coves and points. But ain't it more dangerous for aviators hanging over water than the shore?""
""That depends,"" remarked the other boy, whose real name was Fennimore Cooper Small, and who was rather apt to have an exalted idea of his own importance, as do so many undersized people.",-1.075147178,0.475291875
cd4a51e02,,,"""Mollie Thurston, we are lost!"" cried Barbara dramatically.
The two sisters were in the depth of a New Jersey woods one afternoon in early September.
""Well, what if we are!"" laughed Mollie, leaning over to add a cluster of wild asters to her great bunch of golden rod. ""We have two hours ahead of us. Surely such clever woodsmen as we are can find our way out of woods which are but a few miles from home. Suppose we should explore a real forest some day. Wouldn't it be too heavenly! Come on, lazy Barbara! We shall reach a clearing in a few moments.""
""You lack sympathy, Miss Mollie Thurston; that's your trouble.""
Barbara was laughing, yet she anxiously scanned the marshy ground as she picked her way along.
""I wouldn't mind being lost in these woods a bit more than you do, if I were not so horribly afraid of snakes. Oh, my! this place looks full of 'em.""",-0.394652628,0.501511518
c5f12dbf3,,,"""Give the assembly call, Number Three!""
Presently, in answer to Paul's order, the clear, sweet notes of a bugle sounded through the big gymnasium under the church. More than a score of lads of all sizes began to pass in from the outside, where they had been chattering like so many magpies; for it was now Summer, with vacation at hand.
After telling the bugler to sound the call for the meeting, Paul, who often had charge in place of the regular scoutmaster, Mr. Gordon, watched the coming of the boys through the open basement door.
""Everybody on hand tonight, I guess, Paul,"" observed his chum Jack, as he laid his hand on the shoulder of the leader of the Red Fox patrol.
Thus far there were three patrols in Stanhope troop. As the first to organize had chosen to be known as the Red Fox, it pleased the others simply to call their patrols by the names of Gray and Black Fox.",-0.749488239,0.449898576
6425c7acb,,,"Peter Rabbit was puzzled. He stared at Lightfoot the Deer a wee bit suspiciously. ""Have you been tearing somebody's coat?"" he asked again. He didn't like to think it of Lightfoot, whom he always had believed quite as gentle, harmless, and timid as himself. But what else could he think?
Lightfoot slowly shook his head. ""No,"" said he, ""I haven't torn anybody's coat.""
""Then what are those rags hanging on your antlers?"" demanded Peter.
Lightfoot chuckled. ""They are what is left of the coverings of my new antlers,"" he explained.
""What's that? What do you mean by new antlers?"" Peter was sitting up very straight, with his eyes fixed on Lightfoot's antlers as though he never had seen them before.
""Just what I said,"" retorted Lightfoot. ""What do you think of them? I think they are the finest antlers I've ever had. When I get the rest of those rags off, they will be as handsome a set as ever was grown in the Green Forest.""",0.698203708,0.53259491
b92a19ac7,,,"""I scarcely know my guardian. Five years ago I spent a week at his home. I don't remember much about it except that he lives in a handsome house, and has plenty of servants. Since then, as you know, I have passed most
of my time here, except that in the summer I was allowed to board at the Catskills or any country place I might select.""
""Yes, and I remember one year you took me with you and paid all my expenses. I shall never forget your kindness, and how much I enjoyed that summer.""
Rodney Ropes smiled, and his smile made his usually grave face look very attractive.
""My dear David,"" he said, ""it was all selfishness on my part. I knew I should enjoy myself much better with a companion.""
""You may call that selfishness, Rodney, but it is a kind of selfishness that makes me your devoted friend. How long do you think you shall remain at school?""",-0.452680032,0.526212343
e626a6367,,,"At Knob Creek the boy began to go to an ""A B C"" school. His first teacher was Zachariah Riney. Of course, there were no regular schools in the backwoods then. When a man who ""knew enough"" happened to come along, especially if he had nothing else to do, he tried to teach the children of the pioneers in a poor log schoolhouse. It is not likely that little Abe went to school more than a few weeks at this time, for he never had a year's schooling in his life. There was another teacher afterward at Knob Creek—a man named Caleb Hazel. Little is known of either of these teachers except that he taught little Abe Lincoln. If their pupil had not become famous the men and their schools would never have been mentioned in history.
An old man, named Austin Gollaher, used to like to tell of the days when he and little Abe went to school together. He said:
""Abe was an unusually bright boy at school, and made splendid progress in his studies. Indeed, he learned faster than any of his schoolmates. Though so young, he studied very hard.""",-0.621558611,0.483611153
462cb08e3,,,"In the same town in which Sebastian was born there stands on the top of a hill a very famous castle built many hundreds of years ago.
This castle is called the Wartburg.
As a boy little Sebastian used to climb the hill with his friends, and they, no doubt, had a happy time playing about the castle grounds. In one of its great halls the minstrels of Germany held their Song Contests.
When Sebastian was old enough he used to travel afoot, just as the minstrels did; his purpose was to go to hear fine organ players. Once as he sat weary by the roadside someone threw a herring to him so that he might eat as he rested.
Little Sebastian's father was named Johan Ambrosius Bach. He, too, was a musician, as his people had been for many years.
One of these was a miller who played and sang while the corn was grinding. His name was Veit Bach, and his little boy was called Hans, the Player, because he, too, loved to play the violin.",-0.69788138,0.461062005
18a5ee5c5,,,"Ludwig was only four years old when he began to study music. Like children of today he shed many a tear over the first lessons. In the beginning his father taught him piano and violin, and forced him to practice. At school he learned, just as we do today, reading, writing, arithmetic, and later on, Latin.
Never again after thirteen, did Ludwig go to school for he had to work and earn his living.
Do you wonder what kind of a boy he was?
We are told that he was shy and quiet. He talked little and took no interest in the games that his boy and girl companions played.
While Ludwig was in school he played at a concert for the first time. He was then eight years old. Two years later he had composed quite a number of pieces. One of these was printed. It was called Variations on Dressler's March.",1.00540027,0.533859055
7cad0f936,,,"A great violinist, Ole Bull by name, visited the Grieg family in the country. He was so kind to the little composer that the boy just loved him.
Ole Bull had traveled the world over playing the violin. He looked over Edvard's compositions and made the boy play them to him. You can see him nodding his head in pleasure as he listens. His fine eyes are lighted up. He tells the boy composer that his music is quite good, but that there is a lot for him to learn yet. So he must study earnestly and make many sacrifices.
Then Ole Bull sits down and talks with Father and Mother Grieg. It is a serious talk, as one can see. Finally, when the talk is finished, Ole Bull takes the wondering boy by the hand and says to him:
""You are going to Leipzig to study and become a fine musician.""",-0.57848221,0.471767604
24b96de9a,,,"One day when little George was seven years old his father set out by coach to visit another son, who was in the service of the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. The little boy begged his father to let him go on the journey. ""No,"" he replied, ""you are too young to go so far.""
However, when the coach set out George Frederick set out too on foot to follow, and he would not be sent home again.
He kept on trudging along as fast as his little feet would go. Everyone hoped he would get tired and go back, but finally the father had to order the coach to stop and take him in. Thus, did he show that determination which helped him all his life.
Arrived at the castle the boy soon made friends with the chapel musicians. They took him to the organ loft, where he played for them.
All were delighted with his talent. One day the Duke himself heard him play. He, too, was astonished that one so young should show so much skill. Calling the father into his presence, he pointed out how wrong it was to deny the boy the right to study music.",-0.492697273,0.47698698
af084a99e,,,"Some day the operas of Richard Wagner will give you great pleasure. At first they were not liked by the public. Wagner had few friends and his life was very hard. But Franz Liszt believed in him and in his work. And so he helped him.
At first Wagner did not like Liszt. He once said, ""I never repeated my first call on Liszt."" By this he meant that he wished the acquaintance to end. When Liszt realized that Wagner did not care to understand him, he tried his best to keep the friendship secure. Liszt never wished to misunderstand another human being. So, it was not long before Wagner's opinion of Liszt changed, for he said, later, ""Through the love of this rarest friend I gained a real home for my art.""
There is one thing true for us all. We carry our early thoughts along with us all through life. The friends we make from youth and the thoughts we think from youth are always at hand to bless us if we have done wisely.",-1.345053241,0.475003797
ac92cfc37,,,"When Wolferl was nearly six his father took him and Nannerl on a concert tour. Everybody wanted to hear them play and they gave many concerts.
Wolferl spent all his boyhood with his music. He went to many places to play, even as far from Salzburg, in Austria (where he was born), as to Paris and London.
Everywhere he went people were happy to see him and his sister and to hear them play. And they, too, were happy to play because they loved the music so much.
When they reached Vienna they played for the Emperor and Empress.
When Wolferl was presented to the Empress he jumped up into her lap and kissed her.
Wolferl was always busy composing music. But he played games and had a good time just like any other boy. When he was busy with his music, however, he never let his thoughts go to anything else.",-0.416173602,0.469677422
9c7728077,,,"Franz's father was a schoolmaster, and so was Franz himself for three years.
He taught the little children of Vienna their A-B-C's, and how to do sums. Of course, he helped them to learn to read.
Sometimes we find it quite hard to take one piano lesson or violin lesson a week.
But from the time when Franz Schubert was a very little boy he had lessons every week for violin, voice, and piano.
A little later he began to study harmony with a very famous man who knew Mozart. His name was Antonia Salieri
With so many lessons and with school work just as we have it, Franz must have been a very busy boy.
He was quite poor and often very hungry; but in spite of that he was always good natured and full of fun.
At eleven years of age he became a singer in the chapel of the Emperor. It was here that Salieri was director.",-0.121030652,0.476784294
824ea20cc,,,"Whenever the organ man came into the village of Roncole, in Italy (where Verdi was born, October 10, 1813), he could not be kept indoors. But he followed the wonderful organ and the wonderful man who played it, all day long, as happy as he could be.
When Giuseppe was seven years old his father, though only a poor innkeeper, bought him a spinet, a sort of small piano. So faithfully did the little boy practice that the spinet was soon quite worn out and new jacks, or hammers, had to be made for it. This was done by Stephen Cavaletti, who wrote a message on one of the jacks telling that he made them anew and covered them with leather, and fixed the pedal, doing all for nothing, because the little boy, Giuseppe Verdi, showed such willingness to practice and to learn. Thus the good Stephen thought this was pay enough.",-1.451268384,0.50258357
01255dd3d,,,"Richard Wagner's day of birth was May 22, 1813. That was more than a century ago! More than twelve hundred months!
Since that time, music has changed very greatly. When Wagner was born, much of the music that was being written had to follow certain patterns or models just as architects follow certain patterns in building a house. Now the composer when he writes music feels a great deal freer as he knows that he can make his own patterns, that he is not held in by any such hard laws as those which held back such composers as Mozart, Bach, Haydn and Handel. It was Wagner who did much to set music free from the old barriers. This does not mean that music today is better than music that was written by Haydn and Beethoven. Indeed it often is not nearly so good, but it is freer, less held down by rule.",-0.571787383,0.434978589
b2307a80c,,,"One Saturday afternoon in January a lively and animated group of boys were gathered on the western side of a large pond in the village of Groveton. Prominent among them was a tall, pleasant-looking young man of twenty-two, the teacher of the Center Grammar School, Frederic Hooper, A. B., a recent graduate of Yale College. Evidently there was something of importance on foot. What it was may be learned from the words of the teacher.
""Now, boys,"" he said, holding in his hand a Waterbury watch, of neat pattern, ""I offer this watch as a prize to the boy who will skate across the pond and back in the least time. You will all start together, at a given signal, and make your way to the mark which I have placed at the western end of the lake, skate around it, and return to this point. Do you fully understand?""
""Yes, sir!"" exclaimed the boys, unanimously.",-0.296045795,0.494935184
61c047490,,,"Patriotism, or love of country, is one of the tests of nobility of character. No great man ever lived that was not a patriot in the highest and truest sense. From the earliest times, the sentiment of patriotism has been aroused in the hearts of men by the narrative of heroic deeds inspired by love of country and love of liberty. This truth furnishes the key to the arrangement and method of the present work. The ten epochs treated are those that have been potential in shaping subsequent events; and when men have struck blows for human liberty against odds and regardless of personal consequences. The simple narrative carries its own morals, and the most profitable work for the teacher will be to merely supplement the narrative so that the picture presented shall be all the more vivid. Moral reflections are wearisome and superfluous.",-1.324563641,0.496898041
513bd77b3,,,"The Goban was the master of sixteen trades. There was no beating him; he had got the gift. He went one time to Quin Abbey when it was building, looking for a job, and the men were going to their dinner, and he had poor clothes, and they began to jibe at him, and the foreman said 'Make now a cat-and-nine-tails while we are at our dinner, if you are any good.' And he took the chisel and cut it in the rough in the stone, a cat with nine tails coming from it, and there it was complete when they came out from their dinner. There was no beating him. He learned no trade, but he was master of sixteen. That is the way, a man that has the gift will get more out of his own brain than another will get through learning. There is many a man without learning will get the better of a college-bred man, and will have better words too. Those that make inventions in these days have the gift, such a man now as Edison, with all he has got out of electricity.",-1.819263041,0.494852457
9635671b4,,,"They have kangaroo rats, and dogs of the jackal kind, all exactly alike; and a little animal of the bear tribe, named the wombat, but the largest quadruped at present discovered is the kangaroo.
These pretty nearly complete the catalogue of four-footed animals yet known on this vast island.
There is, however, an animal which resembles nothing in the creation but itself, and which neither belongs to beast, bird or fish.
This animal is called the Duck-billed Platypus.
Of all the quadrupeds yet known, this seems the most extraordinary in its conformation; exhibiting the perfect semblance of the beak of a duck on the head of a quadruped.
The head is flattish, and rather small than large; the mouth or snout so exactly resembles that of some broad-billed species of duck, that it might be mistaken for one.
The birds and fish are no less singular than the beasts. There is a singular fish, which when left uncovered by the ebbing of the tide, leaps about like the grasshopper, by means of strong fins.",-1.010812418,0.469540844
891c012e8,,,"Most of the towns, and even most of the larger villages, of ancient Egypt were walled. 
This was an almost necessary consequence of the geographical characteristics and the political constitution of the country. The mouths of the defiles which led into the desert needed to be closed against the Bedawîn; while the great feudal nobles fortified their houses, their towns, and the villages upon their domains which commanded either the mountain passes or the narrow parts of the river, against their king or their neighbours.
The oldest fortresses are those of Abydos, El Kab, and Semneh. Abydos contained a sanctuary dedicated to Osiris, and was situate at the entrance to one of the roads leading to the Oasis. As the renown of the temple attracted pilgrims, so the position of the city caused it to be frequented by merchants; hence the prosperity which it derived from the influx of both classes of strangers exposed the city to incursions of the Libyan tribes.",-0.944329891,0.467841156
95797dd7d,,,"Although Greece (or Hel´las) is only half as large as the State of New York, it holds a very important place in the history of the world. It is situated in the southern part of Europe, cut off from the rest of the continent by a chain of high mountains which form a great wall on the north. It is surrounded on nearly all sides by the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, which stretch so far inland that it is said no part of the country is forty miles from the sea, or ten miles from the hills. Thus shut in by sea and mountains, it forms a little territory by itself, and it was the home of a noted people.
The history of Greece goes back to the time when people did not know how to write, and kept no record of what was happening around them. For a long while the stories told by parents to their children were the only information which could be had about the country and its former inhabitants; and these stories, slightly changed by every new teller, grew more and more extraordinary as time passed.",0.370307626,0.483849623
c08246373,,,"It was a glorious day with the sun shining brilliantly from a cloudless sky and just a touch of autumn snap in the air. We crossed the sloping rock-strewn plain to the base of the mountain, and discovered a trail which led up a forested shoulder to the right of the main peaks. An hour of steady climbing brought us to the summit of the ridge where we struck into the woods toward a snow-field on the opposite slope. The trail led us along the brink of a steep escarpment from which we could look over the valley and away into the blue distance toward Li-chiang. Three thousand feet below us the roof of our temple gleamed from among the sheltering pine trees, and the herds of sheep and cattle massed themselves into moving patches on the smooth brown plain.
We pushed our way through the spruce forest with the glistening snow bed as a beacon and suddenly emerged into a flat open meadow overshadowed by the ragged peaks. ""What a perfectly wonderful place to camp,"" we both exclaimed. ""If we can only find water, let's come tomorrow.""",-0.230734605,0.506864059
730277e8d,,,"In the course of the next three generations, the political and social elements of Roman civilization in Britain seem to have disappeared. A few words, such as ""port"" and ""street,"" which may or may not have been derived from the Latin, have come down to us. But there was nothing left, of which we can speak with absolute certainty, save the material shell, the walls, roads, forts, villas, arches, gateways, altars, and tombs, whose ruins are still seen scattered throughout the land.
The soil, also, is full of relics of the same kind. Twenty feet below the surface of the London of today lie the remains of the London of the Romans. In digging in the ""City,"" the laborer's shovel every now and then brings to light pieces of carved stone with Latin inscriptions, bits of rusted armor, broken swords, fragments of statuary, and gold and silver ornaments.",-0.722555848,0.450347431
327c0085a,,,"The original compass consisted of a cup full of water, on which floated a thin circular board, with the needle resting on it; this was placed in a small shrine or temple in front of the helmsman, with a lantern probably fixed inside to throw light on the mysterious instrument during the night. The most fearful oaths were administered to the initiated not to divulge the secret. Every means, also, which craft could devise or superstition enforce was employed by the Phoenicians to prevent other people from gaining a knowledge of it, or of the mode by which their commerce beyond the Straits of Hercules was carried on, or of the currents, the winds, the tides, the seas, the shores, the people, or the harbors. A story is told of a Phoenician vessel running herself on the rocks to prevent the Romans from finding the passage. This secrecy was enforced by the most sanguinary code—death was the penalty of indiscretion; thus the secret of the compass was preserved from generation to generation among a few families of seamen unknown to the rest of the civilized world.",-1.97585251,0.529107247
ba585b63c,,,"The public buildings and gardens were worthy of the first city in Europe. With some of the travelers of today are familiar. The larger number of the remarkable churches now standing were in existence before the Revolution. Of the palaces then in the city, the three most famous have met with varied fates. The Luxembourg, which was the residence of the king's eldest brother, is the least changed. To the building itself but small additions have been made. Its garden was and is a quiet, orderly place where respectable family groups sit about in the shade. The Louvre has been much enlarged. Under Louis XVI. it consisted of the buildings surrounding the eastern court, of a wing extending toward the river (the gallery of Apollo), and of a long gallery, since rebuilt, running near the riverbank and connecting this older palace with the Tuileries. About one-half of the space now enclosed between the two sides of the enormous edifice, and known as the Place du Carrousel, was then covered with houses and streets. The land immediately to the east of the Tuileries palace was not built upon, but part of it was enclosed by a tall iron railing.",-1.392464649,0.498160562
fad51d3c8,,,"The old laws and customs, varying in different provinces, had been swept away, so that the field was clear; and the system of government which Napoleon devised has remained practically unchanged from that time to this. Everything was made to depend upon the central government. The Ministers of Religion, of Justice, of Police, of Education, etc., have the regulation of all interior affairs, and appoint all who work under them, so that nobody learns how to act alone; and as the Government has been in fact ever since dependent on the will of the people of Paris, the whole country is helplessly in their hands. The army, as in almost all foreign nations, is raised by conscription—that is, by drawing lots among the young men liable to serve, and who can only escape by paying a substitute to serve in their stead; and this is generally the first object of the savings of a family.",-1.916807411,0.485455543
acac08ee4,,,"On the basis of the preceding comparisons some writers attempt to trace tentatively the history of the flood tradition current among the peoples of southwestern Asia. A fragment of the Babylonian flood story, coming from at least as early as 2000 B.C., has recently been discovered. The probability is that the tradition goes back to the earliest beginnings of Babylonian history. The setting of the Biblical accounts of the flood is also the Tigris-Euphrates valley rather than Palestine. The description of the construction of the ark in Genesis 6:14-16 is not only closely parallel to that found in the Babylonian account, but the method—the smearing of the ark within and without with bitumen—is peculiar to the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Many scholars believe, therefore, that Babylonia was the original home of the Biblical flood story.
Its exact origin, however, is not so certain. Many of its details were doubtless suggested by the annual floods and fogs which inundate that famous valley and recall the primeval chaos so vividly pictured in the corresponding Babylonian story of the creation. It may have been based on the remembrances of a great local inundation, possibly due to the subsidence of great areas of land.",-3.355931015,0.649671297
a56126929,,,"If we could see in a magic mirror the country now called Scotland as it was when the Romans under Agricola (81 A.D.) crossed the Border, we should recognize little but the familiar hills and mountains. The rivers, in the plains, overflowed their present banks; dense forests of oak and pine, haunted by great red deer, elks, and boars, covered land that has long been arable. There were lakes and lagoons where for centuries there have been fields of corn. On the oldest sites of our towns were groups of huts made of clay and wattle, and dominated, perhaps, by the large stockaded house of the tribal prince. In the lochs, natural islands, or artificial islets made of piles (crannogs), afforded standing-ground and protection to villages, if indeed these lake-dwellings are earlier in Scotland than the age of war that followed the withdrawal of the Romans.",-1.309321829,0.471478556
3b1a28713,,,"The rocks of Wales are older and harder than the rocks of the plains; and as you travel from the south to the north, the older and harder they become. The highest mountains of Wales, and some of its hills, have crests of the very oldest and hardest rock—granite, porphyry, and basalt; and these rocks are given their form by fire. But the greater part of the country is made of rocks formed by water—still the oldest of their kind. In the north-west, center, and west—about two-thirds of the whole country,—the rocks are chiefly slate and shale; in the south-east they are chiefly old red sandstone; in the north-east, but chiefly in the south, they are limestone and coal.
Its rocks give Wales its famous scenery—its rugged peaks, its romantic glens, its rushing rivers. They are also its chief wealth—granite, slate, limestone, coal; and lodes of still more precious metals—iron, lead, silver, and gold—run through them.",-0.638945148,0.461427249
fa899288b,,,"The history of British North America in the quarter of a century that followed the War of 1812 is in the main the homely tale of pioneer life. Slowly little clearings in the vast forest were widened and won to order and abundance; slowly community was linked to community; and out of the growing intercourse there developed the complex of ways and habits and interests that make up the everyday life of a people.
All the provinces called for settlers, and they did not call in vain. For a time northern New England continued to overflow into the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada, the rolling lands south of the St. Lawrence which had been left untouched by riverbound seigneur and habitant. Into Upper Canada, as well, many individual immigrants came from the south, some of the best the Republic had to give, merchants and manufacturers with little capital but much shrewd enterprise, but also some it could best spare, fugitives from justice and keepers of the taverns that adorned every four corners. Yet slowly this inflow slackened.",-1.795773433,0.511231633
376090428,,,"Even so huge and conservative a country as Brazil could not start out upon the pathway of republican freedom without some unrest; but the political experience gained under a regime of limited monarchy had a steadying effect. Besides, the Revolution of 1889 had been effected by a combination of army officers and civilian enthusiasts who knew that the provinces were ready for a radical change in the form of government, but who were wise enough to make haste slowly. If a motto could mean anything, the adoption of the positivist device, ""Order and Progress,"" displayed on the national flag seemed a happy augury.
The constitution promulgated in 1891 set up a federal union broadly similar to that of the United States, except that the powers of the general Government were somewhat more restricted. Qualifications for the suffrage were directly fixed in the fundamental law itself, but the educational tests imposed excluded the great bulk of the population from the right to vote. In the constitution, also, Church and State were declared absolutely separate, and civil marriage was prescribed.",-2.516178813,0.497520405
3f33b36a6,,,"At last they managed to leap from the logs, not to the bank, but to a small island in the river. There they were very little better off than on the raft. They were on land, it is true, but there was still no way of getting to shore; and as there was nothing on the island to make a fire with, Washington was forced, drenched as he was with ice-water, to pass the long winter night in the open air, without so much as a tiny blaze or a handful of coals by which to warm himself.
Unfortunately the night proved to be a very cold one, and poor Gist's feet and hands were frozen before morning. Washington got no frost-bites, but his sufferings must have been great.
During the night that part of the stream which lay between the island and the shore that Washington wished to reach froze over, and in the morning the travellers were able to renew their journey. Once across that, the worst of their troubles were over.",-0.026754507,0.467126723
ff66deb88,,,"At this time there began to be much talk about a voyage of exploration to that country which Leif had discovered. The leader of this expedition was Thorstein Ericsson, who was a good man and an intelligent, and blessed with many friends. Eric was likewise invited to join them, for the men believed that his luck and foresight would be of great furtherance. He was slow in deciding, but did not say nay, when his friends besought him to go. They thereupon equipped that ship in which Thorbiorn had come out, and twenty men were selected for the expedition. They took little cargo with them, naught else save their weapons and provisions. On that morning when Eric set out from his home, he took with him a little chest containing gold and silver; he hid this treasure, and then went his way.",-1.066312659,0.459861536
f95a22e93,,,"Squanto showed the men how to plant alewives or herring as fertilizer for the Indian corn. He taught the boys and girls how to gather clams and mussels on the shore and to ""tread eels"" in the water that is still called Eel River. He gathered wild strawberries and sassafras for the women and they prepared a ""brew"" which almost equaled their ale of old England. The friendly Indians assisted the men, as the seasons opened, in hunting wild turkeys, ducks and an occasional deer, welcome additions to the store of fish, sea-biscuits and cheese. We are told that Squanto brought also a dog from his Indian friends as a gift to the settlement. Already there were, at least, two dogs, probably brought from Holland or England, a mastiff and a spaniel to give comfort and companionship to the women and children, and to go with the men into the woods for timber and game.",-0.52620371,0.469632682
ff260e751,,,"Now, the chair in which Grandfather sat was made of oak, which had grown dark with age, but had been rubbed and polished till it shone as bright as mahogany. It was very large and heavy and had a back that rose high above Grandfather's white head. This back was curiously carved in open work, so as to represent flowers and foliage and other devices, which the children had often gazed at, but could never understand what they meant. On the very tiptop of the chair, over the head of Grandfather himself, was a likeness of a lion's head, which had such a savage grin that you would almost expect to hear it growl and snarl.
The children had seen Grandfather sitting in this chair ever since they could remember anything. Perhaps the younger of them supposed that he and the chair had come into the world together, and that both had always been as old as they were now. At this time, however, it happened to be the fashion for ladies to adorn their drawing-rooms with the oldest and oddest chairs that could be found.",-0.332729519,0.463708695
196bfa0f8,,,"After they got the seal, Doctor Kane and his men traveled on. Sometimes they were on the ice. Sometimes they were in the boats. The men were so weak, that they could hardly row the boats. They were so hungry, that they could not sleep well at night.
One day they were rowing, when they heard a sound. It came to them across the water. It did not sound like the cry of sea birds. It sounded like people's voices.
""Listen!"" Doctor Kane said to Petersen.
Petersen spoke the same language as the people of Greenland. He listened. The sound came again. Petersen was so glad, that he could hardly speak. He told Kane in a half whisper, that it was the voice of some one speaking his own language. It was some Greenland men in a boat.
The next day they got to a Greenland town. Then they got into a little ship going to England. They knew that they could get home from England. But the ship stopped at another Greenland town.",-0.203188101,0.463317863
75d2b5e2d,,,"Lincoln died a martyr to the cause to which he had given his life, and both life and death were heroic. The qualities which enabled him to do his great work are very clear now to all men. His courage and his wisdom, his keen perception and his almost prophetic foresight, enabled him to deal with all the problems of that distracted time as they arose around him. But he had some qualities, apart from those of the intellect, which were of equal importance to his people and to the work he had to do. His character, at once strong and gentle, gave confidence to everyone, and dignity to his cause. He had an infinite patience, and a humor that enabled him to turn aside many difficulties which could have been met in no other way. But most important of all was the fact that he personified a great sentiment, which ennobled and uplifted his people, and made them capable of the patriotism which fought the war and saved the Union.",-0.707089111,0.472009543
bfa588b2f,,,"After crossing the river, his wet clothing freezing to him, he rode all night, a distance of about forty miles. In the morning he left his faithful horse tied to a fence, quite broken down. He then commenced his dreary journey on foot—cold and hungry—in a strange place, where it was quite unsafe to make known his condition and wants. Thus for a day or two, without food or shelter, he traveled until his feet were literally worn out, and in this condition he arrived at Harrisburg, where he found friends. Passing over many of the interesting incidents on the road, suffice it to say, he arrived safely in this city, on New Year's night, 1857, about two hours before day break (the telegraph having announced his coming from Harrisburg), having been a week on the way. The night he arrived was very cold; besides, the Underground train, that morning, was about three hours behind time; in waiting for it, entirely out in the cold, a member of the Vigilance Committee thought he was frosted. But when he came to listen to the story of the Fugitive's sufferings, his mind changed.",-0.671214268,0.506615944
4c0532594,,,"A military life had no charms for me, and I had not the faintest idea of staying in the army even if I should be graduated, which I did not expect. The encampment which preceded the commencement of academic studies was very wearisome and uninteresting. When the 28th of August came—the date for breaking up camp and going into barracks—I felt as though I had been at West Point always, and that if I staid to graduation, I would have to remain always. I did not take hold of my studies with avidity, in fact I rarely ever read over a lesson the second time during my entire cadetship. I could not sit in my room doing nothing. There is a fine library connected with the Academy from which cadets can get books to read in their quarters. I devoted more time to these, than to books relating to the course of studies. Much of the time, I am sorry to say, was devoted to novels, but not those of a trashy sort.",-0.069266933,0.465699683
5a358c889,,,"The Pony Express was the first rapid transit and the first fast mail line across the continent from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast. It was a system by means of which messages were carried swiftly on horseback across the plains and deserts, and over the mountains of the far West. It brought the Atlantic coast and the Pacific slope ten days nearer to each other.
It had a brief existence of only sixteen months and was supplanted by the transcontinental telegraph. Yet it was of the greatest importance in binding the East and West together at a time when overland travel was slow and cumbersome, and when a great national crisis made the rapid communication of news between these sections an imperative necessity.
The Pony Express marked the highest development in overland travel prior to the coming of the Pacific railroad, which it preceded nine years. It, in fact, proved the feasibility of a transcontinental road and demonstrated that such a line could be built and operated continuously the year around--a feat that had always been regarded as impossible.",0.314463848,0.543172571
0751ef6cb,,,"The forests were now painted in all the glories of autumn. All the creatures of the woodlands shook off the drowsy laziness of summer and came down from the uplands seeking haunts for winter retreat. Moose and deer were on the move. Beaver came splashing down-stream to plaster up their wattled homes before frost. Bear and lynx and marten, all were restless as the autumn winds instinct with coming storm. This is the season when the Indian sets out to hunt and fight. Furnished with clothing, food, and firearms, Radisson left the Mohawk Valley with three hunters. By the middle of August, the rind of the birch is in perfect condition for peeling. The first thing the hunters did was to slit off the bark of a thick-girthed birch and with cedar linings make themselves a skiff. Then they prepared to lay up a store of meat for the winter's war-raids. Before ice forms a skim across the still pools, nibbled chips betray where a beaver colony is at work; so the hunters began setting beaver traps.",-0.361977498,0.493062179
cfd196202,,,"All over the small area of the United States then existed a deep interest in the proposed explorations of the course and sources of the Missouri River. The explorers were about to plunge into vast solitudes of which white people knew less than we know now about the North Polar country. Wild and extravagant stories of what was to be seen in those trackless regions were circulated in the States. For example, it was said that Lewis and Clark expected to find the mammoth of prehistoric times still living and wandering in the Upper Missouri region; and it was commonly reported that somewhere, a thousand miles or so up the river, was a solid mountain of rock salt, eighty miles long and forty-five miles wide, destitute of vegetation and glittering in the sun! These, and other tales like these, were said to be believed and doted upon by the great Jefferson himself. The Federalists, or ""Feds,"" as they were called, who hated Jefferson, pretended to believe that he had invented some of these foolish yarns, hoping thereby to make his Louisiana purchase more popular in the Republic.",-1.087621777,0.502677542
5e8e57468,,,"Among the wonders of San Francisco must be mentioned the Palace Hotel, a structure of immense magnitude and probably two or three times as large as the average Eastern man imagines. The site of the hotel covers a space of more than an acre and a half, and several million dollars were spent on this structure. Everything is magnificent, expansive, huge and massive. The building itself is seven stories high, and in its center, forming what may be described as the grandest enclosed court in the world, is a circular space 144 feet across and roofed in with glass at a great height. Carriages are driven into this enclosure, and, in the nearest approach to severe weather known in San Francisco, guests can alight practically indoors.
There are nearly 800 bed-rooms, all of them large and lofty, and the general style of architecture is more than massive. The foundation walls are 12 feet thick, and 31,000,000 brick were used above them. The skeleton of wrought iron bands, upon which the brick and stone work is constructed, weighs more than 3,000 tons.",-0.669352415,0.47404399
4387e650d,,,"The North was not really ready for determined war, indeed, until later in the year. Meanwhile many were the moralizations in the British press upon Bull Run's revelation of Northern military weakness.
Probably the most influential newspaper utterances of the moment were the letters of W.H. Russell to the Times. This famous war-correspondent had been sent to America in the spring of 1861 by Delane, editor of the Times, his first letter, written on March 29, appearing in the issue of April 16. He travelled through the South, was met everywhere with eager courtesy as became a man of his reputation and one representing the most important organ of British public opinion, returned to the North in late June, and at Washington was given intimate interviews by Seward and other leaders. For a time, his utterances were watched for, in both England and America, with the greatest interest and expectancy, as the opinions of an unusually able and thoroughly honest, dispassionate observer.",-1.40300932,0.475095363
de40ff558,,,"Not only was the Titanic the largest steamship afloat but it was the most luxurious. Elaborately furnished cabins opened onto her eleven decks, and some of these decks were reserved as private promenades that were engaged with the best suites. One of these suites was sold for $4350 for the boat's maiden and only voyage. Suites similar, but which were without the private promenade decks, sold for $2300.
The Titanic differed in some respects from her sister ship. The Olympic has a lower promenade deck, but in the Titanic's case the staterooms were brought out flush with the outside of the superstructure, and the rooms themselves made much larger. The sitting rooms of some of the suites on this deck were 15 x 15 feet.
The restaurant was much larger than that of the Olympic and it had a novelty in the shape of a private promenade deck on the starboard side, to be used exclusively by its patrons. Adjoining it was a reception room, where hosts and hostesses could meet their guests.",-0.529921906,0.471086533
3bfbecabe,,,"For this was a lottery in which there were no blanks. The old Commonwealth of Massachusetts, having terrible war debts to pay after the Revolution, had nothing but lands in Maine to pay them with. Now lands in Maine were not very salable, and, if the simple and ordinary process of sale had been followed, the lands might not have been sold till this day. So they were distributed by these lotteries, which in that time seemed gigantic. Every ticketholder had some piece of land awarded to him, I think,—but to the most, I fear, the lands were hardly worth the hunting up, to settle upon. But, to induce as many to buy as might, there were prizes. No. 1, I think, even had a ""stately mansion"" on the land,—according to the advertisement. No. 2 had some special water-power facilities. No. 5, which Mr. Cutts's ticket had drawn, was two thousand acres on Tripp's Cove,—described in the program as that ""well-known Harbor of Refuge, where Fifty Line of Battleship could lie in safety."" To this cove the two thousand acres so adjoined that the program represented them as the site of the great ""Mercantile Metropolis of the Future.""",-2.256505613,0.493310633
e444bca65,,,"Alice MacNeil had made the plan of this Christmas-tree, all by herself and for herself. She had a due estimate of those manufactured trees which hard-worked ""Sabbath Schools"" get up for rewards of merit for the children who have been regular, and at the last moment have saved attendance-tickets enough. Nor did Alice MacNeil sit in judgment on these. She had a due estimate of them. But for her Christmas-tree she had two plans not included in those more meritorious buddings and bourgeonings of the winter. First, she meant to get it up without any help from anybody. And, secondly, she meant that the boys and girls who had anything from it should be regular laners and by-way farers,—they were to have no tickets of respectability,—they were not in any way to buy their way in; but, for this once, those were to come into a Christmas-tree who happened to be ragged and in the streets when the Christmas-tree was ready.",-1.19295363,0.487123531
a7d777123,,,"Poor Mary, how often she thought of that speech, before Christmas day went by! But she did not think of it all through St. Victoria's day. Her husband did not come home to dinner. She did not expect him. The children came from school at two, rejoicing in the long morning session and the half-holiday of the afternoon which had been earned by it. They had some story of their frolic in the snow, and after dinner went quietly away to their little playroom in the attic. And Mary sat with her baby all the afternoon,—nor wanted other company. She could count his breathing now, and knew how to time it by the watch, and she knew that it was steadier and slower than it was the day before. And really he almost showed an appetite for the hourly dole. Her husband was not late. He had taken care of that and had left the shop an hour early. And as he came in and looked at the child from the other side of the crib, and smiled so cheerfully on her, Mary felt that she could not enough thank God for his mercy.",-1.738855026,0.473564184
485e5e212,,,"THERE was a King of Hungary whose name was Adelbert.
When he lived at home, which was not often, it was in a castle of many towers and many halls and many stairways, in the city of Buda, by the side of the river Donau.
He had four daughters, and only one son, who was to be the King after him, whose name was Ladislaus. But it was the custom of those times, as boys and girls grew up, to send them for their training to some distance from their home, even for many months at a time, to try a little experiment on them, and see how they fared; and so, at the time I tell you of, there was staying in the castle of Buda the Prince Bela, who was the son of the King of Bohemia; and he and the boy Ladislaus studied their lessons together, and flew their kites, and hunted for otters, and rode with the falconers together.",-1.07681492,0.467876967
a910bc7f2,,,"She grew up like other girls in her country. She did not know how to read. None of them knew how to read. But she knew how to braid straw, and to make fishnets and to catch fish. She did not know how to spell. Indeed, in that country they had no letters. But she knew how to split open the fish she had caught, how to clean them, how to broil them on the coals, and how to eat them neatly. She had never studied the ""analysis of her language."" But she knew how to use it like a lady; that is, prettily, simply, without pretense, and always truly. She could sing her baby brother to sleep. She could tell stories to her sisters all day long. And she and they were not afraid when evening came, or when they were in any trouble, to say a prayer aloud to the good God. So they got along, although they could not analyze their language. She knew no geography. She could count her fingers, and the stars in the Southern Cross. She had never seen Orion, or the stars in the Great Bear, or the Pole-Star.",0.171158967,0.483961177
152fb715e,,,"I don't know even the Mulligan's town residence. One night, as he bade us adieu in Oxford Street,—""I live THERE,"" says he, pointing down towards Oxbridge, with the big stick he carries—so his abode is in that direction at any rate. He has his letters addressed to several of his friends' houses, and his parcels, &c. are left for him at various taverns which he frequents. That pair of checked trousers, in which you see him attired, he did me the favor of ordering from my own tailor, who is quite as anxious as anybody to know the address of the wearer. In like manner my hatter asked me, ""Oo was the Hirish gent as 'ad ordered four 'ats and a sable boar to be sent to my lodgings?"" As I did not know (however I might guess) the articles have never been sent, and the Mulligan has withdrawn his custom from the ""infernal four-and-nine-penny scoundthrel,"" as he calls him. The hatter has not shut up shop in consequence.",-2.362704181,0.511203547
decae8817,,,"The Times' gentleman (a very difficult gent to please) is the loudest and noisiest of all, and has made more hideous faces over the refreshment offered to him than any other critic. There is no use shirking this statement! when a man has been abused in the Times, he can't hide it, any more than he could hide the knowledge of his having been committed to prison by Mr. Henry, or publicly caned in Pall Mall. You see it in your friends' eyes when they meet you. They know it. They have chuckled over it to a man. They whisper about it at the club, and look over the paper at you. My next-door neighbor came to see me this morning, and I saw by his face that he had the whole story pat. ""Hem!"" says he, ""well, I HAVE heard of it; and the fact is, they were talking about you at dinner last night, and mentioning that the Times had—ahem!—'walked into you.'""",-1.867574933,0.474130285
aac8c0e7d,,,"This royal pair had one only child, the Princess Angelica, who, you may be sure, was a paragon in the courtiers' eyes, in her parents', and in her own. It was said she had the longest hair, the largest eyes, the slimmest waist, the smallest foot, and the most lovely complexion of any young lady in the Paflagonian dominions. Her accomplishments were announced to be even superior to her beauty; and governesses used to shame their idle pupils by telling them what Princess Angelica could do. She could play the most difficult pieces of music at sight. She could answer any one of ""Mangnall's Questions."" She knew every date in the history of Paflagonia, and every other country. She knew French, English, Italian, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Cappadocian, Samothracian, Aegean, and Crim Tartar. In a word, she was a most accomplished young creature; and her governess and lady-in-waiting was the severe Countess Gruffanuff.",-1.360540347,0.4563497
6a762012a,,,"Men admired him because he was strong and just. In all of his dealings they knew they could depend upon him. Every matter that came to his consideration was carefully weighed in his mind and his decisions were always wise. Women trusted him because he was pure and true, with lofty thoughts and high ambitions, and the children loved him because of his gentleness and tenderness toward them. He was never so burdened with affairs of state that he could not stop to speak a pleasant word of greeting to the tiniest child, and the very poorest of his subjects knew they could count upon his interest in them.
This deep-seated love and reverence for their king made the people of this country wish very much for a way in which to give expression to it so that he would understand it. Many consultations were held and one after another the plans suggested were rejected, but at last a most happy solution was found. It was rapidly circulated here and there and it met with the most hearty approval everywhere.",-1.487493776,0.478181451
48e010492,,,"A short time before Christmas the discontented fir tree was the first to fall. As the axe cut sharply through the stem, and divided the pith, the tree fell with a groan to the earth, conscious of pain and faintness, and forgetting all its dreams of happiness, in sorrow at leaving its home in the forest. It knew that it should never again see its dear old companions, the trees, nor the little bushes and many-colored flowers that had grown by its side; perhaps not even the birds. Nor was the journey at all pleasant.
The tree first recovered itself while being unpacked in the courtyard of a house, with several other trees; and it heard a man say, ""We only want one, and this is the prettiest. This is beautiful!""
Then came two servants in grand livery, and carried the fir tree into a large and beautiful apartment. Pictures hung on the walls, and near the great stove stood great china vases, with lions on the lids. There were rocking chairs, silken sofas, large tables covered with pictures, books, and playthings that had cost a hundred times a hundred dollars; at least so said the children.",-0.90345299,0.470045413
2fa0b13d5,,,"Now, it happened a long time ago, in the year ——, but the exact year does not matter, because you will not find this story written in the history of any of the nations of the world. But in one of the countries of Europe bordering on the Mediterranean Sea was a lofty mountain, which, to the dwellers in the plains below, seemed to reach to the very sky. At times its summit was covered with clouds, so that it could not be seen; at other times it stood out fair and clear, as though silently asking the people to look up and not down. The lower slopes of the mountain were covered with olive trees, with groves of oranges and lemons, and with vineyards, and they were dotted here and there with the little white cottages of the peasants who made their living from these groves and vineyards, the fruit of which they sold in the city not far away.",-0.703416213,0.476617792
dca132c52,,,"""Oh, Granny, Granny!"" she exclaimed; ""you did not believe the Christmas angels would think about us, but see, they have, they have! Here is a dear little bird nestled down in the toe of your shoe! Oh, isn't he beautiful?""
Granny came forward and looked at what the child was holding lovingly in her hand. There she saw a tiny chick-a-dee, whose wing was evidently broken by the rough and boisterous winds of the night before, and who had taken shelter in the safe, dry toe of the old wooden shoe. She gently took the little bird out of Gretchen's hands, and skillfully bound his broken wing to his side, so that he need not hurt himself trying to fly with it. Then she showed Gretchen how to make a nice warm nest for the little stranger, close beside the fire and when their breakfast was ready, she let Gretchen feed the little bird with a few moist crumbs.",0.823503573,0.527618207
47d6aff90,,,"And it seemed to Tom Reynolds that all his Christmas joy went skimming away behind him. The sun still shone, the ice still gleamed, the skaters laughed and sang, but Tom moved slowly on, with listless, heavy strokes. The ""Jolly Ramblers"" still twinkled beneath his feet, but he looked down at them no more. What was the use of ""Jolly Ramblers"" when Ralph Evans had a pair of ""Club House"" skates that cost a dollar more, had a graceful curve, and a faultless clamp, and were guaranteed for a year?
It was only four o'clock when Tom slipped his new skates carelessly over his shoulder and started up the bank for home. He was slouching down the main street, head down, hands thrust deep into his pockets, when, on turning a corner, he ran plump into—a full moon! Now I know it is rather unusual for full moons to be walking about the streets by daylight; but that is the only adequate description of the round, freckled face that beamed at Tom from behind a great box, held by two sturdy arms.",0.32007246,0.501911622
a7ec6374c,,,"Joe, who was a general favorite on account of his good looks and gentlemanly manners, and in spite of his shabby attire, was walking home with Annie Raymond, the daughter of the village physician, when Oscar came up.
He was himself secretly an admirer of the young lady, but had never received the least encouragement from her. It made him angry to see his father's drudge walking on equal terms with his own favorite, and his coarse nature prompted him to insult his enemy.
""Miss Raymond,"" he said, lifting his hat mockingly, ""I congratulate you on the beau you have picked up.""
Annie Raymond fully appreciated his meanness, and answered calmly:
""I accept your congratulations, Mr. Norton.""
This answer made Oscar angry and led him to go further than he otherwise would.
""You must be hard up for an escort, when you accept such a ragamuffin as Joe Mason.""
Joe flushed with anger.
""Oscar Norton, do you mean to insult Miss Raymond or me,"" he demanded.",-0.576751701,0.508364136
1ae994d6d,,,"The lake was once located in the central part of the State of Pennsylvania. It was perhaps a mile wide and more than that long and surrounded by mountains and long ranges of hills. At the lower end of the lake was a small settlement of scant importance and at the upper end, where there was a stream of no mean size, was the town of Riverside. At Riverside were situated several summer hotels and boarding houses, and also the elegant mansion in which Ned Talmadge resided, with his parents and his four sisters.
Joe Bodley was as poor as Ned Talmadge was rich, yet the two lads were quite friendly. Joe knew a good deal about hunting and fishing, and also knew all about handling boats. They frequently went out together, and Ned insisted upon paying the poorer boy for all extra services.
Joe's home was located on the side of the mountain which was just now wrapped in such dark and ominous looking clouds. He lived with Hiram Bodley, an old man who was a hermit. The home consisted of a cabin of two rooms, scantily furnished.",-0.231138452,0.51172552
9a4a22f12,,,"On the farms utensils and furniture were generally made in the household. Almost everything was made of wood, as spoons, tankards, pails, firkins, hinges for cupboard and closet doors, latches, plows, and harrows. Every boy learned to use his jack-knife, and could make brooms from birch trees, bowls and dippers and bottles from gourds, and butter paddles from red cherry. The women made soap and candles, carded wool, spun, wove, bleached or dyed the linen and woolen cloth, and made the garments for the family. They knit mittens and stockings, made straw hats and baskets, and plucked the feathers from live geese for beds and pillows.
On the farms the houses of the early settlers were of logs, or were framed structures covered with shingles or clapboards. The tables, chairs, stools, and bedsteads were of the plainest sort, and were often made of puncheons, that is, of small tree trunks split in half. Sometimes the table would be a long board laid across two X supports. This was ""the board,"" around which the family sat at meals. In the better houses in the towns the furniture was of course very much finer.",-0.124091083,0.481088607
580715b3c,,,"Lief invited his father, Eric, to become the leader of the expedition, but Eric declined, saying that he was then stricken in years, and adding that he was less able to endure the exposure of sea life than he had been. Lief replied that he would, nevertheless, be the one who would be most apt to bring good luck, and Eric yielded to Lief's solicitation, and rode from home when they were ready to sail.
They put the ship in order; and, when they were ready, they sailed out to sea, and found first that land which Bjarni and his shipmates found last. They sailed up to the land and cast anchor, and launched a boat and went ashore, and saw no grass there. Great ice mountains lay inland back from the sea, and it was as a [table-land of] flat rock all the way from the sea to the ice mountains; and the country seemed to them to be entirely devoid of good qualities.",-0.673725777,0.453241521
5acc8134c,,,"On the 13th of September, in the evening, Columbus, for the first time, noticed the variation of the needle, a phenomenon which had never before been remarked. He at first made no mention of it, lest his people should be alarmed; but it soon attracted the attention of the pilots and filled them with consternation. It seemed as if the very laws of nature were changing as they advanced, and that they were entering another world, subject to unknown influences. They apprehended that the compass was about to lose its mysterious virtues, and, without this guide, what was to become of them in a vast and trackless ocean? Columbus tasked his science and ingenuity for reasons with which to allay their terrors. He told them that the direction of the needle was not to the polar star, but to some fixed and invisible point. The variation, therefore, was not caused by any fallacy in the compass, but by the movement of the north star itself, which, like the other heavenly bodies, had its changes and revolutions, and every day described a circle round the pole. The high opinion they entertained of Columbus as a profound astronomer gave weight to his theory, and their alarm subsided.",-1.646924298,0.49660172
49965b919,,,"In 1496 a patent was granted to John Cabot and his sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius. This patent is interesting as the earliest surviving document which connects England with the New World. It gave the patentees full authority to sail with five ships under the royal ensign, and to set up the royal banner on any newly found land, as the vassals and lieutenants of the king. They were bound on their return to sail to Bristol and to pay a royalty of one-fifth upon all clear gain. The direction of the voyage, the cargo and size of the ships, and the mode of dealing with the natives, are all left to the discretion of the commander.
Of the details of the voyage itself, so full of interest for every Englishman, we have but the scantiest knowledge. In this respect the fame of Sebastian Cabot has fared far worse than that of the great discoverer with whom alone he may be compared.",-1.269999889,0.471696176
847cf3d08,,,"The site of the settlement was at the northeast corner of the island of Roanoke, whence the settlers could command the strait. There, even now, choked by vines and underwood, and here and there broken by the crumbling remains of an earthen bastion, may be traced the outlines of the ditch which enclosed the camp, some forty yards square, the home of the first English settlers in the New World....
If the failure of his colony was likely to deter Raleigh from further efforts, this was more than outweighed by the good report of the country given both by Lane and Heriot. Accordingly, in the very next year, Raleigh put out another and a larger expedition under the leadership of John White. The constitution of White's expedition would seem to show that it was designed to be more a colony, properly speaking, than Lane's settlement at Roanoke. A government was formed by Raleigh, consisting of White and twelve others, incorporated as the governor and assistants of the city of Raleigh.",-0.578084929,0.492108283
ff8f2fae3,,,"Every log in my house is as straight as a pine can grow. Each room has a window and a door on the east side, and the south room has two windows on the south with space between for my heater, which is one of those with a grate front so I can see the fire burn. It is almost as good as a fireplace. The logs are unhewed outside because I like the rough finish, but inside the walls are perfectly square and smooth. The cracks in the walls are snugly filled with ""daubing"" and then the walls are covered with heavy gray building-paper, which makes the room very warm, and I really like the appearance. I had two rolls of wallpaper with a bold rose pattern. By being very careful I was able to cut out enough of the roses, which are divided in their choice of color as to whether they should be red, yellow, or pink, to make a border about eighteen inches from the ceiling. They brighten up the wall and the gray paper is fine to hang pictures upon. Those you have sent us make our room very attractive.",-0.769484375,0.490374152
6985f427e,,,"The body of rules which nations recognize in their dealings with each other is usually spoken of as international law. As to certain rules of international conduct the civilized nations of the world have been in general agreement for many centuries. Among such rules are those for the carrying out of treaty obligations, the punishment of piracy, the protection of each other's ambassadors, the rights of citizens of one country to the protection of the laws of the country they are visiting, the protection of women and children in time of war.
As in community law so also in international law rules have frequently grown up as matters of custom. In the second place agreements have sometimes been reached through negotiation and written out in the form of treaties between the two nations concerned. In the latter half of the nineteenth century several attempts were made to strengthen international law by means of general conferences of the nations. One of the most famous of these was the Conference of Geneva in 1864, which reached a number of valuable agreements on the care of wounded soldiers and gave official international recognition to the Red Cross.",-1.768397921,0.461687855
a9a6635dc,,,"Sitting, like Rome of old, on its seven hills, San Francisco has long been noted for its beautiful site, clasped in, as it is, between the Pacific Ocean and its own splendid bay, on a peninsula of some five miles in width. Where this juts into the bay at its northernmost point rises a great promontory known as Telegraph Hill, from whose height homeless thousands have recently gazed on the smoke rising from their ruined homes. In the early days of golden promise, a watchman was stationed on this hill to look out for coming ships entering the Golden Gate from their long voyage around the Horn and signal the welcome news to the town below. From this came its name.
Cliffs rise on either side of the Golden Gate, and on one is perched the Cliff House, long a famous hostelry. This stands so low that in storms the surf is flung over its lower porticos, though its force is broken by the Seal Rocks. A chief attraction to this house was to see the seals play on these rocks, their favorite place of resort.",-1.652236463,0.482340816
eb57cde1c,,,"History in its broadest aspect is a record of man's migrations from one environment to another. America is the last great goal of these migrations. He who would understand its history must know its mountains and plains, its climate, its products, and its relation to the sea and to other parts of the world. He must know more than this, however, for he must appreciate how various environments alter man's energy and capacity and give his character a slant in one direction or another. He must also know the paths by which the inhabitants have reached their present homes, for the influence of former environments upon them may be more important than their immediate surroundings. In fact, the history of North America has been perhaps more profoundly influenced by man's inheritance from his past homes than by the physical features of his present home. It is indeed of vast importance that trade can move freely through such natural channels as New York Harbor, the Mohawk Valley, and the Great Lakes.",-2.186441667,0.535444036
ab29cc29a,,,"In the seventeenth century, moreover, France owed much of her national power to a highly-centralized and closely-knit scheme of government. Under Richelieu the strength of the monarchy had been enhanced and the power of the nobility broken. When he began his personal rule, Louis XIV continued his work of consolidation and in the years of his long reign managed to centralize in the throne every vestige of political power. The famous saying attributed to him, ""The State! I am the State!"" embodied no idle boast. Nowhere was there a trace of representative government, nowhere a constitutional check on the royal power. There were councils of different sorts and with varied jurisdictions, but men sat in them at the King's behest and were removable at his will. There were parlements, too, but to mention them without explanation would be only to let the term mislead, for they were not representative bodies or parliaments in the ordinary sense: their powers were chiefly judicial and they were no barrier in the way of the steady march to absolutism.",-1.43205884,0.48125904
f56e91ef9,,,"In early life, Washington had had very little of formal education. He knew no language but English. When he became world famous and his friend LaFayette urged him to visit France he refused because he would seem uncouth if unable to speak the French tongue. Like another great soldier, the Duke of Wellington, he was always careful about his dress. There was in him a silent pride which would brook nothing derogatory to his dignity. No one could be more methodical. He kept his accounts rigorously, entering even the cost of repairing a hairpin for a ward. He was a keen farmer, and it is amusing to find him recording in his careful journal that there are 844,800 seeds of New River Grass to the pound Troy and so determining how many should be sown to the acre. Not many youths would write out as did Washington, apparently from French sources, and read and reread elaborate Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation.",-0.359328533,0.482693172
b428fb330,,,"A fundamental fact is to be observed in the economy of the young nation: the people were raising far more tobacco and grain and were extracting far more of other products than they could possibly use themselves; for the surplus they must find markets. They had, as well, to rely upon the outside world for a great part of their manufactured goods, especially for those of the higher grade. In other words, from the economic point of view, the United States remained in the former colonial stage of industrial dependence, which was aggravated rather than alleviated by the separation from Great Britain. During the colonial period, Americans had carried on a large amount of this external trade by means of their own vessels. The British Navigation Acts required the transportation of goods in British vessels, manned by crews of British sailors, and specified certain commodities which could be shipped to Great Britain only.",-1.203636018,0.491719372
cfbe26119,,,"The first house occupied by Washington was at the corner of Pearl and Cherry streets, then a fashionable locality. What the New York end of the Brooklyn Bridge has left of it is now known as Franklin Square. The house was so small that three of his secretaries had to lodge in one room; and Custis in his Recollections tells how one of them, who fancied he could write poetry, would sometimes disturb the others by walking the floor in his nightgown trying the rhythm of his lines by rehearsing them with loud emphasis. About a year later, Washington removed to a larger house on the west side of Broadway near Bowling Green. Both buildings went down at an early date before the continual march of improvement in New York. In Washington's time Wall Street was superseding Pearl Street as the principal haunt of fashion. Here lived Alexander Hamilton and other New Yorkers prominent in their day; here were fashionable boarding-houses at which lived the leading members of Congress.",-0.448541391,0.467601977
bcef3659e,,,"The usual dimensions of a cabin were sixteen by twenty feet. The timber for the building, having been already cut, lay at hand—logs of hickory, oak, young pine, walnut, or persimmon. To make the foundations, the men seized four of the thickest logs, laid them in place, and notched and grooved and hammered them into as close a clinch as if they had grown so. The wood must grip by its own substance alone to hold up the pioneer's dwelling, for there was not an iron nail to be had in the whole of the Back Country. Logs laid upon the foundation logs and notched into each other at the four corners formed the walls; and, when these stood at seven feet, the builders laid parallel timbers and puncheons to make both flooring and ceiling. The ridgepole of the roof was supported by two crotched trees and the roofing was made of logs and wooden slabs. The crevices of the walls were packed close with red clay and moss. Lastly, spaces for a door and windows were cut out.",-0.776034476,0.459532129
3ecb99a3a,,,"Benjamin Franklin, who was in London in 1760 as agent of the Pennsylvania Assembly, gave the British ministers some wholesome advice on the terms of the peace that should be made with France. The St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes regions, he said, must be retained by England at all costs. Moreover, the Mississippi Valley must be taken, in order to provide for the growing populations of the seaboard colonies suitable lands in the interior, and so keep them engaged in agriculture. Otherwise these populations would turn to manufacturing, and the industries of the mother country would suffer.
The treaty of peace, three years later, brought the settlement which Franklin suggested. The vast American back country, with its inviting rivers and lakes, its shaded hills, and its sunny prairies, became English territory. The English people had, however, only the vaguest notion of the extent, appearance, and resources of their new possession. Even the officials who drew the treaty were as ignorant of the country as of middle Africa.",-0.769552953,0.459426824
1.30E+290,,,"The overland migration attracted the more hardy and experienced pioneers, and also those whose assets lay in cattle and farm equipment rather than in money. The majority came from the more western parts of the then United States, and therefore comprised men who had already some experience in pioneering. As far as the Mississippi or even Kansas these parties generally traveled separately or in small groups from a single locality. Before starting over the great plains, however, it became necessary to combine into larger bands for mutual aid and protection. Such recognized meeting-points were therefore generally in a state of congestion. Thousands of people with their equipment and animals were crowded together in some river-bottom awaiting the propitious moment for setting forth.
The journey ordinarily required about five months, provided nothing untoward happened in the way of delay. A start in the spring therefore allowed the traveler to surmount the Sierra Nevada mountains before the first heavy snowfalls. One of the inevitable anxieties was whether or not this crossing could be safely accomplished.",-1.602807265,0.450325938
c802bcec6,,,"The Underground Railroad filled an insignificant place in the general plan for emancipation, even in the minds of the directors. It was a lesser task preparatory to the great work. As to the numbers of slaves who gained their freedom by means of it, there is a wide range of opinion. Statements in Congress by Southern members that a hundred thousand had escaped must be regarded as gross exaggerations. In any event the loss was confined chiefly to the border States. Besides, it has been stated with some show of reason that the danger of servile insurrection was diminished by the escape of potential leaders.
From the standpoint of the great body of anti-slavery men who expected to settle the slavery question by peaceable means, it was a calamity of the first magnitude that, just at the time when conditions were most favorable for transferring the active crusade from the general Government to the separate States, public attention should be directed to the one point at which the conflict was most acute and irrepressible.",-1.411883703,0.476635024
3e99cc39a,,,"President Grant was anxious to complete the reconstruction and recommended to Congress that the constitutions of Virginia and Mississippi be re-submitted to the people with a separate vote on the disfranchising sections. Congress, now in harmony with the Executive, responded by placing the reconstruction of the three States in the hands of the President, but with the proviso that each State must ratify the Fifteenth Amendment. Grant thereupon fixed a time for voting in each State and directed that in Virginia and Mississippi the disfranchising clauses be submitted separately. As a result, the constitutions were ratified but proscription was voted down. The radicals secured control of Mississippi and Texas, but a conservative combination carried Virginia and thus came near keeping the State out of the Union. Finally, during the early months of 1870 the three States were readmitted.
With respect to Georgia a peculiar condition of affairs existed. In June, 1868, Georgia had been readmitted with the first of the reconstructed States.",-1.234426504,0.484205064
21aa5477d,,,"The traits of the pioneer have thus been the characteristic traits of the American in action. The memories of successive generations have tended to stress these qualities to the neglect of others. Everyone who has enjoyed the free life of the woods will confess that his own judgment upon his casual summer associates turns, quite naturally and almost exclusively, upon their characteristics as woodsmen. Out of the woods, these gentlemen may be more or less admirable divines, pedants, men of affairs; but the verdict of their companions in the forest is based chiefly upon the single question of their adaptability to the environment of the camp. Are they quick of eye and foot, skillful with rod and gun, cheerful on rainy days, ready to do a little more than their share of drudgery? If so, memory holds them.
Some such unconscious selection as this has been at work in the classification of our representative men. The building of the nation and the literary expression of its purpose and ideals are tasks which have called forth the strength of a great variety of individuals.",-2.556269816,0.482947643
6befdf5ed,,,"It was the boast of a Roman Emperor that he had found the Eternal City brick and left it marble. Similarly the present generation of Americans inherited a country which was wood and have transformed it into steel. That which chiefly distinguishes the physical America of today from that of forty years ago is the extensive use of this metal. Our fathers used steel very little in railway transportation; rails and locomotives were usually made of iron, and wood was the prevailing material for railroad bridges. Steel cars, both for passengers and for freight, are now everywhere taking the place of the more flimsy substance. We travel today in steel subways, transact our business in steel buildings, and live in apartments and private houses which are made largely of steel. The steel automobile has long since supplanted the wooden carriage; the steel ship has displaced the iron and wooden vessel. The American farmer now encloses his lands with steel wire, the Southern planter binds his cotton with steel ties, and modern America could never gather her abundant harvests without her mighty agricultural implements, all of which are made of steel.",-0.775744242,0.476706924
c40a66044,,,"Whether or not the American farmer realized that the nineteenth century had seen a total change in the economic relations of the world, he did perceive clearly that something was wrong in his own case. The first and most impressive evidence of this was to be found in the prices he received for what he had to sell. From 1883 to 1889 inclusive the average price of wheat was seventy-three cents a bushel, of corn thirty-six cents, of oats twenty-eight cents. In 1890 crops were poor in most of the grain areas, while prosperous times continued to keep the consuming public of the manufacturing regions able to buy; consequently corn and oats nearly doubled in price, and wheat advanced 20 percent. Nevertheless, such was the shortage, except in the case of corn, that the total return was smaller than it had been for a year or two before. In 1891 bumper crops of wheat, corn, oats, rye, and barley drove the price down on all except wheat and rye, but not to the level of 1889.",-1.53032668,0.482522379
b56a17586,,,"In June, 1841, the first Parliament of united Canada met at Kingston, which as the most central point had been chosen as the new capital. Under Sydenham's shrewd and energetic leadership a business programme of long-delayed reforms was put through. A large loan, guaranteed by the British Government, made possible extensive provision for building roads, bridges, and canals around the rapids in the St. Lawrence. Municipal institutions were set up, and reforms were effected in the provincial administration.
Lord John Russell in England and Sydenham in Canada were anxious to keep the question of responsible government in the background. For the first busy months they succeeded, but the new Parliament contained men quite as strong willed as either and of quite other views. Before the first session had begun, Baldwin and the new French-Canadian leader, La Fontaine, had raised the issue and begun a new struggle in which their single-minded devotion and unflinching courage were to attain a complete success.",-1.524661276,0.468343831
613335dff,,,"By gaining its independence, the United States had set a practical example of what might be done elsewhere in America. Translated into French, the Declaration of Independence was read and commented upon by enthusiasts who dreamed of the possibility of applying its principles in their own lands. More powerful still were the ideas liberated by the French Revolution and Napoleon. Borne across the ocean, the doctrines of ""Liberty, Fraternity, Equality"" stirred the ardent-minded to thoughts of action, though the Spanish and Portuguese Americans who schemed and plotted were the merest handful. The seed they planted was slow to germinate among peoples who had been taught to regard things foreign as outlandish and heretical. Many years therefore elapsed before the ideas of the few became the convictions of the masses, for the conservatism and loyalty of the common people were unbelieveably steadfast.",-1.192042786,0.45712366
d3011b732,,,"Nicolas and Natacha, his son and daughter, often found their father and mother in anxious consultation, talking in low tones of the sale of their Moscow house or of their property in the neighborhood. Having thus retired into private life, the count now gave neither fêtes nor entertainments. Life at Otradnoë was much less gay than in past years; still, the house and domain were as full of servants as ever, and twenty persons or more sat down to dinner daily. These were dependants, friends, and intimates, who were regarded almost as part of the family, or at any rate seemed unable to tear themselves away from it: among them a musician named Dimmler and his wife, Ioghel the dancing-master and his family, and old Mlle. Bélow, former governess of Natacha and Sonia, the count's niece and adopted child, and now the tutor of Pétia, his younger son; besides others who found it simpler to live at the count's expense than at their own. Thus, though there were no more festivities, life was carried on almost as expensively as of old, and neither the master nor the mistress ever imagined any change possible.",-2.169250566,0.543207356
6c4059edf,,,"""We have had many a happy hour together,"" said he, then paused. Presently he said, ""The strings must be severed, for they are worthless."" And he took out a knife and cut. ""Oh!"" cried the E string, in a short, pained tone. The boy cut. ""Oh!"" wailed the next, but the boy cut. ""Oh!"" said the third, mournfully; and he paused at the fourth. A sharp pain seized him; that fourth string, to which he never dared give a name, he did not cut. Now a feeling came over him that it was not the fault of the strings that he was unable to play, and just then he saw his mother walking slowly up the slope toward where he was lying, that she might take him home with her. A greater fright than ever overcame him; he held the fiddle by the severed strings, sprang to his feet, and shouted down to her,
""No, mother! I will not go home again until I can play what I have seen today.""",-1.377255484,0.530292681
c06d6373c,,,"When Sylvestre Ker was alone, he listened to the noise of the waves dashing upon the beach and the sighing of the wind among the great oaks,—two mournful sounds. And he looked with conflicting feelings at the empty seats of Matheline and of his dear mother Josserande. Little by little had he seen the black hair of the widow become gray, then white, around her sunken temples. That night memory carried him back even to his cradle, over which had bent the sweet, noble face of her who had always spoken to him of God.
But whence came those golden ringlets that mingled with Josserande's black hair, and which shone in the sunlight above his mother's snowy locks? And that laugh, oh! that silvery laugh of youth, which prevented Sylvestre Ker from hearing, in his pious recollections, the calm, grave voice of his mother. Whence did it come?",-1.461907733,0.464379773
3efb796e2,,,"But at length, one night, as Hilarion heard those songs as usual, he opened his eyes. And, behold! the place was light, and a great staircase of light, like golden cobwebs, stretched up to heaven, and there were angels going about in numbers, coming and going, with locks like honeycomb, and dresses pink, and green, and sky-blue, and white, thickly embroidered with purest pearls, and wings as of butterflies and peacock's tails, with glories of solid gold about their head. And they went to and fro, carrying garlands and strewing flowers, so that, although mid-winter, it was like a garden in June, so sweet of roses, and lilies, and gillyflowers. And the angels sang; and when they had finished their work, they said, ""It is well,"" and departed, holding hands and flying into the sky above the fir-trees.
And Hilarion wondered greatly, and said five Paters and six Aves. And the next day, as he was cutting a fir-tree in the wood, there met him, among the rocks, a man old, venerable, with a long gray beard and a solemn air. And he was clad in crimson, and under his arm he carried written books and a scourge.",-2.086623467,0.512389237
4782886ea,,,"""Come down, Hermas, come down! The night is past. It is time to be stirring. Christ is born today. Peace be with you in His name. Make haste and come down!""
A little group of young men were standing in a street of Antioch, in the dusk of early morning, fifteen hundred years ago. It was a class of candidates who had nearly finished their two years of training for the Christian church. They had come to call their fellow-student Hermas from his lodging.
Their voices rang out cheerily through the cool air. They were full of that glad sense of life which the young feel when they awake and come to rouse one who is still sleeping. There was a note of friendly triumph in their call, as if they were exulting unconsciously in having begun the adventure of the new day before their comrade.
But Hermas was not asleep. He had been waking for hours, and the dark walls of his narrow lodging had been a prison to his restless heart. A nameless sorrow and discontent had fallen upon him, and he could find no escape from the heaviness of his own thoughts.",-0.64619549,0.474636741
3a3a8a83c,,,"It was Christmas-eve over on the East Side. Darkness was closing in on a cold, hard day. The light that struggled through the frozen windows of the delicatessen store, and the saloon on the corner, fell upon men with empty dinner-pails who were hurrying homeward, their coats buttoned tightly, and heads bent against the steady blast from the river, as if they were butting their way down the street.
The wind had forced the door of the saloon ajar, and was whistling through the crack; but in there it seemed to make no one afraid. Between roars of laughter, the clink of glasses and the rattle of dice on the hard-wood counter were heard out in the street. More than one of the passers-by who came within range was taken with an extra shiver in which the vision of wife and little ones waiting at home for his coming was snuffed out, as he dropped in to brace up. The lights were long out when the silent streets re-echoed his unsteady steps toward home, where the Christmas welcome had turned to dread.",-0.636687494,0.473008334
ed374c972,,,"His hope was not disappointed: for the stocking was found most bountifully filled; and Willie eagerly hastened to examine its contents. It was fortunate that he had borrowed his grandfather's long stocking for the occasion; for his own little sock could never have contained the beautiful, large humming-top, and the pretty Noah's ark, which now met his eyes. And then the large, soft ball, just right for playing in the house in stormy weather; and the nice transparent slate, with which Willie could amuse himself when the older folks wished him to be quiet. All these things, and many more, were safely packed away in grandpa's great stocking. Papers of candy, stores of nuts and almonds, and pretty little lady-apples, came to light as Willie continued his search; and last of all, in a tiny wooden box, was found a bright gold dollar.",-0.663721971,0.467640291
e62556057,,,"This may be a useful lesson to you, dear Isabel,"" she said. ""It will teach you that no real happiness is ever derived from a selfish act. Your motive in presenting a more expensive gift to your teacher than the rest of your companions were prepared to do, was selfish. You expected to receive praise and admiration. In this you were disappointed, and therefore you are unhappy. Another time I trust you will do better. In expending your money for Christmas gifts, you will remember those who need it most, and will gladly give, hoping for nothing again.""
Isabel still wept, but less violently than before, and when Mary entered with a beaming countenance, and told her mother of the gratitude and joy of the poor people whom they had visited, Isabel put her arm around her neck and asked her forgiveness for her ill humor, and promised that when another Christmas came, she too would remember those who need it most.",-0.223570721,0.496809327
08b76b5af,,,"Before I tell my young readers about Mr. Gray's return with little Ellen, I must introduce them more particularly to Clara; although, from what I have already said concerning her, they may have formed a good idea of her character, and have justly concluded that she is very much like themselves, sometimes trying to do what is right, and suffering herself to be led by the good spirits around her, and at other times somewhat selfish and thoughtless, allowing evil spirits to lead her in the wrong path.
Clara was nearly eleven years old. She was generally obedient to her parents and teachers, kind to her playmates, diligent in her studies, and orderly and industrious in her habits. Still she had some faults. Although obliging in her disposition, and desirous to be useful to those around her, she frequently entirely disregarded their wishes through mere thoughtlessness and inattention. Like most children, she was fond of play, and sometimes allowed her amusements to make her forget to perform her duties.",-0.871826488,0.466286346
ec442ed0d,,,"""O Father! Please to come to the door, and see how pretty everything looks,"" exclaimed William Mason, running eagerly into the room where his father was sitting.
Mr. Mason was always glad to give his son pleasure, and he laid aside the newspaper which he was reading, and followed him to the door.
There had been quite a heavy snow-storm a few days before, which was succeeded by rain, and then by severe cold. Everything was now entirely cased in ice.
""Is it not beautiful, father?"" said William. ""I have been all around the yard and garden, and everything has put on its winter coat. Every little branch and twig, every blade of grass, and even the little stones are covered with ice.""
""This is what we used to call a silver morning, when I was a boy,"" said Mr. Mason.",0.387607048,0.518387445
280792757,,,"He opened his eyes again. The room was growing darker. He almost forgot his pain for a few moments, noticing how the sunlight was straightened to a narrow lane which reached from the extreme southern end of the window to the floor in front of his mother's chair. He watched the last rays as they slowly left the floor and stole up her dress to her lap and her breast, leaving all behind and below in shadow. Now they had reached her face. It was bent over her work. Well he knew that was some Christmas gift, may be for him, some Christmas gift, and tomorrow was Christmas! He looked again to see if he could discover what she was making, but the light had left her now, and had risen to the picture.
Strange picture that it was! What funny clothes those men wore! Those long gabardines, mother had called them, reaching almost to the ground; shoes that showed the toes, and hoods for hats. One of them had none. How closely they looked at him! They didn't even see which way they were going, and what a long way it was, stretching out there, dusty and hot.",-0.419690982,0.508842281
2018deb15,,,"The wind was whistling through the old lime and maple trees opposite my windows, the snow was sweeping down the street, and the sky was black as a December sky can possibly be here in Christiania. I was in just as black a mood. It was Christmas Eve,—the first I was to spend away from the cosey fireside of my home. I had lately received my officer's commission, and had hoped that I should have gladdened my aged parents with my presence during the holidays, and had also hoped that I should be able to show myself in all my glory and splendour to the ladies of our parish. But a fever had brought me to the hospital, which I had left only a week before, and now I found myself in the much-extolled state of convalescence. I had written home for a horse and sledge and my father's fur coat, but my letter could scarcely reach our valley before the day after Christmas, and the horse could not be in town before New Year's Eve.",-0.28903163,0.457113699
06e0d89b4,,,"At the theatre in Shoreditch, on Christmas Eve, 1598, the Lord Chamberlain's servants presented a new comedy. Never had the Burbages played to such a house. It cheered every speech—good, bad, or indifferent. To be sure, some of the dramatis personæ—Prince Hal and Falstaff, Bardolph and Mistress Quickly—were old friends; but this alone would not account for such a welcome. A cutpurse in the twopenny gallery who had been paid to lead the applause gave up toiling in the wake of it, and leaned back with a puzzled grin.
""Bravo, master!"" said he to his left-hand neighbour a burly, red-faced countryman well past middle age, whose laughter kept the bench rocking. ""But have a care, lest they mistake you for the author!""
""The author? Ho-ho!""——but here he broke off to leap to his feet and lead another round of applause. ""The author?"" he repeated, dropping back and glancing an eye sidelong from under his handkerchief while he mopped his brow. ""You shoot better than you know, my friend: the bolt grazes. But a miss, they say, is as good as a mile.""",-1.837165157,0.476550442
e3542af4e,,,"First of all you'll let me say that a bad temper is an affliction, whoever owns it, and shortening to life. I don't know what your opinion may be: but my grandfather was parish constable in these parts for forty-seven years, and you'll find it on his headstone in Manaccan churchyard that he never had a cross word for man, woman, or child. He took no credit for it: it ran in the family, and to this day we're all terribly mild to handle.
Well, if ever a man was born bad in his temper, 'twas Captain Bligh, that came from St. Tudy parish, and got himself known to all the world over that dismal business aboard the Bounty. Yes, Sir, that's the man—""Breadfruit Bligh,"" as they called him. They made an Admiral of him in the end, but they never cured his cussedness: and my grandfather, that followed his history (and good reason for why) from the day he first set foot in this parish, used to rub his hands over every fresh item of news. ""Darn it!"" he'd say, ""here's that old Turk broke loose again. Lord, if he ain't a warrior!""",-1.767730154,0.477643842
1b69a927c,,,"Once upon a time, a good many years ago, there was a traveller, and he set out upon a journey. It was a magic journey, and was to seem very long when he began it, and very short when he got half way through.
He travelled along a rather dark path for some little time, without meeting anything, until at last he came to a beautiful child. So he said to the child, ""What do you do here?"" And the child said, ""I am always at play. Come and play with me!""
So, he played with that child, the whole day long, and they were very merry. The sky was so blue, the sun was so bright, the water was so sparkling, the leaves were so green, the flowers were so lovely, and they heard such singing-birds and saw so many butterflies, that everything was beautiful. This was in fine weather. When it rained, they loved to watch the falling drops, and to smell the fresh scents.",0.276671488,0.510550154
bf61390ab,,,"In the Midsummer holidays, some of our fellows who lived within walking distance, used to come back and climb the trees outside the playground wall, on purpose to look at Old Cheeseman reading there by himself. He was always as mild as the tea—and that's pretty mild, I should hope!—so when they whistled to him, he looked up and nodded; and when they said, ""Halloa, Old Cheeseman, what have you had for dinner?"" he said, ""Boiled mutton;"" and when they said, ""An't it solitary, Old Cheeseman?"" he said, ""It is a little dull sometimes:"" and then they said, ""Well good-bye, Old Cheeseman!"" and climbed down again. Of course it was imposing on Old Cheeseman to give him nothing but boiled mutton through a whole vacation, but that was just like the system. When they didn't give him boiled mutton, they gave him rice pudding, pretending it was a treat. And saved the butcher.",-1.580279588,0.488913926
6fc0df6aa,,,"Well, one rainy Sunday evening, in 1855, just twelve days before Christmas, in the little town of Soitgoes, in Worcester County, Mass., Aunt Kindly and Uncle Nathan were sitting in their comfortable parlor before a bright wood-fire. It was about eight o'clock, a stormy night; now it snowed a little, then it rained, then snowed again, seeming as if the weather was determined on some kind of storm, but had not yet made up its mind for snow, rain, or hail. Now the wind roared in the chimney, and started out of her sleep a great tortoise-shell cat, that lay on the rug which Aunt Kindly had made for her. Tabby opened her yellow eyes suddenly, and erected her smellers, but finding it was only the wind and not a mouse that made the noise, she stretched out a great paw and yawned, and then cuddled her head down so as to show her white throat, and went to sleep again.",-0.288221027,0.516423306
e741d2e9a,,,"So it happened that he used to take down his morning papers to the piers on the North River, and take his chance of selling them to passengers from Boston and others ports arriving by the Fall River boats, and others from different points.
The advantage of this was that he often got a chance to serve as guide to strangers visiting the city for the first time, or as porter, to carry their valise or other luggage.
Being a bright, wideawake boy, with a pleasant face and manner, he found his services considerably in demand; and on counting up his money at the end of the week, he found, much to his encouragement, that he had received on an average about a dollar and twenty-five cents per day.
""That's better than sellin' papers alone,"" thought he. ""Besides, Tim isn't likely to come across me here. I wonder I didn't think of settin' up for myself before!""
In the evening he spent an hour, and sometimes more, pursuing his studies, under the direction of Florence.",-1.397628284,0.474558587
ba9b7c9aa,,,"Much to his surprise, the youth found that he was not called on to join his comrades in misfortune, but was left behind in solitude. While casting about in his mind as to what this could mean, he observed in a corner the two rolls of black bread which he had received the previous night, and which, not being hungry at the time, he had neglected. As a healthy appetite was by that time obtruding itself on his attention, he took hold of one and began to eat. It was not attractive, but, not being particular, he consumed it. He even took up the other and ate that also, after which he sighed and wished for more! As there was no more to be had, he went to the fountain in the court and washed his breakfast down with water.",-0.817393144,0.446583587
9b0baa1cd,,,"When I first met Dumps he was scurrying towards me along a sequestered country lane. It was in the Dog Days. Dust lay thick on the road; the creature's legs were remarkably short though active, and his hair being long he swept up the dust in clouds as he ran. He was yelping, and I observed that one or two stones appeared to be racing with, or after, him. The voice of an angry man also seemed to chase him, but the owner of the voice was at the moment concealed by a turn in the lane, which was bordered by high stone-walls.
Hydrophobia, of course, flashed into my mind. I grasped my stick and drew close to the wall. The hairy whirlwind, if I may so call it, came wildly on, but instead of passing me, or snapping at my legs as I had expected, it stopped and crawled towards me in a piteous; supplicating manner that at once disarmed me. If the creature had lain still, I should have been unable to distinguish its head from its tail; but as one end of him whined, and the other wagged, I had no difficulty.",-1.763012421,0.479979528
fe42492d4,,,"It would soon be Christmas and Harry Kenton, at his desk in the Pendleton Academy, saw the snow falling heavily outside. The school stood on the skirt of the town, and the forest came down to the edge of the playing field. The great trees, oak and ash and elm, were clothed in white, and they stood out a vast and glittering tracery against the somber sky.
The desk was of the old kind, intended for two, and Harry's comrade in it was his cousin, Dick Mason, of his own years and size. They would graduate in June, and both were large and powerful for their age. There was a strong family resemblance and yet a difference. Harry's face was the more sensitive and at times the blood leaped like quicksilver in his veins. Dick's features indicated a quieter and more stubborn temper. They were equal favorites with teachers and pupils.",-0.253213709,0.449449016
f8fc14a56,,,"The morning was clear and cold, the streets slippery, but vivid with life, mostly military. He carried his knapsack full of food, and his blankets in a pack on his back, which his passport showed to be his right as a peasant trading in horses, and returning from the front to his home for a fresh supply. But there was little danger to him at present, as there were many other peasants and farmer folk in Metz on one errand or another.
He walked about the hotel, and presently noticed signs of bustle. Several automobiles, one of much magnificence, drove up to the entrance and halted there, obviously awaiting a company of importance. John had no doubt from the first that it was the equipage of the Prince of Auersperg. No one else would travel in such state, and he would stay to see him go with his prisoners. Others drawn by curiosity joined him and they and the young peasant stood very near.",-0.636261431,0.485327802
3ec443d49,,,"Lennox, Willet and Tayoga fell asleep, one by one, and the Onondaga was the last to close his eyes. Then the three, wrapped in their blankets, lay in complete darkness on the stone shelf, with the canoe beside them. They were no more than the point of a pin in the vast wilderness that stretched unknown thousands of miles from the Hudson to the Pacific, apparently as lost to the world as the sleepers in a cave ages earlier, when the whole earth was dark with forest and desert.
Although the storm could not reach them it beat heavily for long hours while they slept. The sweep of the rain maintained a continuous driving sound. Boughs cracked and broke beneath it. The waters of the river, swollen by the floods of tributary creeks and brooks, rose fast, bearing upon their angry surface the wreckage of trees, but they did not reach the stone shelf upon which the travelers lay.
Tayoga awoke before the morning, while it was yet so dark that his trained eyes could see but dimly the figures of his comrades.",-1.36136559,0.492999782
93db5ca37,,,"Then he made a very comfortable cushion of fallen leaves to sit upon, and remained there a long time, his rifle across his knees.
His eyes were wide open, but no part of his body stirred. He had acquired the gift of infinite patience, and with it the difficult physical art of remaining absolutely motionless for a long time. So thorough was his mastery over himself that the small wild game began to believe by and by that he was not alive. Birds sang freely over his head and the hare hopped through the undergrowth. Yet the hunter saw everything and his very stillness enabled him to listen with all the more acuteness.
The sun which had arisen great and brilliant, remained so, flooding the world with golden lights and making it wonderfully alluring to Willet, whose eyes never grew weary of the forest's varying shades and aspects. They were all peaceful now, but he had no illusions. He knew that the hostile force would send out many hunters. So many men must have much game and presently they would be prowling through the woods, seeking deer and bear. The chief danger came from them.",-0.400068923,0.476826187
f28a4261d,,,"Harry did not awaken until late the next morning. Jackson, for once, allowed his soldiers a long rest, and they were entitled to it. When he rose from his blankets, he found fires burning, and the pleasant odor of coffee, bacon and other food came to his nostrils. Many wounded were stretched on blankets, but, as usual, they were stoics, and made no complaint.
The army, in truth, was joyous, even more, it was exultant. Everyone had the feeling that he had shared in mighty triumphs, unparalleled exploits, but they gave the chief credit to their leader, and they spoke admiringly and affectionately of Old Jack. The whole day was passed in luxury long unknown to them. They had an abundance of food, mostly captured, and their rations were not limited.
The Acadian band reappeared and played with as much spirit as ever, and once more the dark, strong men of Louisiana, clasped in one another's arms, danced on the grass. Harry sat with St. Clair, Happy Tom and Dalton and watched them.",0.173562301,0.525953604
3c48bf5aa,,,"A light canoe of bark, containing a single human figure, moved swiftly up one of the twin streams that form the Ohio. The water, clear and deep, coming through rocky soil, babbled gently at the edges, where it lapped the land, but in the center the full current flowed steadily and without noise.
The thin shadows of early dusk were falling, casting a pallid tint over the world, a tint touched here and there with living fire from the sun, which was gone, though leaving burning embers behind. One glowing shaft, piercing straight through the heavy forest that clothed either bank, fell directly upon the figure in the boat, as a hidden light illuminates a great picture, while the rest is left in shadow. It was no common forest runner who sat in the middle of the red beam. Yet a boy, in nothing but years, he swung the great paddle with an ease and vigor that the strongest man in the West might have envied. His rifle, with the stock carved beautifully, and the long, slender blue barrel of the border, lay by his side.",-0.116506835,0.45300013
0d5063385,,,"Robert paused a few moments in the hall. Sounds of voices came from the dining room, showing that the supper was still in progress. He thought of going back there to listen to the talk, but he reflected that the time for youth at the table had passed. They were in their secrets now, and he strolled toward the large room that contained the chest of drawers.
A dim light from an unshuttered window shone into the apartment and it was in his mind to wait there for Tayoga, but he stopped suddenly at the door and stared in astonishment. A shadow was moving in the room, thin, impalpable and noiseless, but it had all the seeming of a man. Moreover, it had a height and shape that were familiar, and it reminded him of the spy, Garay.
He was too much surprised to move, and so he merely stared. Garay knelt before the chest of drawers and began to work at it with a small sharp tool that he drew from his coat. Robert saw, too, that his attention was centered on the third drawer from the top.",-0.768736225,0.476301432
ca520088f,,,"They rode more briskly through the afternoon and at darkness saw the campfires of Urrea glimmering ahead of them. But the night was not favorable to their plans. The sky was the usual cloudless blue of the Mexican plateau, the moon was at the full and all the stars were out. What they wanted was bad weather, hoping meanwhile the execution of the prisoners would not be begun until the Mexicans reached higher authority than Urrea, perhaps Santa Anna himself.
They made their own camp a full two miles from Urrea's, and Obed and the Panther divided the watch.
Urrea started early the next morning, and so did the pursuing three. The dawn was gray, and the breeze was chill. As they rode on, the wind rose and its edge became so sharp that there was a prospect of another Norther. The Panther unrolled from his pack the most gorgeous serape that Ned had ever seen. It was of the finest material, colored a deep scarlet and it had a gold fringe.",-1.480295605,0.478384984
3533ba796,,,"Texas was then a vague and undetermined name in the minds of many. It might extend to the Rio Grande or it might extend only to the Nueces, but to most the Rio Grande was the boundary between them and Mexico. So felt Ned and all his comrades. They were now on the soil which might own the overlordship of Mexico, but for which they, the Texans, were spending their blood. It was strange what an attachment they had for it, although not one of them was born there. Beyond, in the outer world, there was much arguing about the right or wrong of their case, but they knew that they would have to fight for their lives, and for the homes they had built in the wilderness on the faith of promises that had been broken. That to them was the final answer and to people in such a position there could be no other.
The sight of Texas, green and fertile, with much forest along the streams was very pleasant to Ned, and those rough frontiersmen in buckskin who rode with him were the very men whom he had chosen.",-1.131979892,0.505756559
984532955,,,"It was now summer, but, having been a season of plenteous rains, grass and foliage were of the most vivid and intense green. They were entering one of the richest portions of Kentucky, and the untouched soil was luxuriant with fertility. As a pioneer himself said: ""All they had to do was to tickle it with a hoe, and it laughed into a harvest."" There was the proof of its strength in the grass and the trees. Never before had the travelers seen oaks and beeches of such girth or elms and hickories of such height. The grass was high and thick and the canebrake was so dense that passage through it seemed impossible. Down the center of the valley, which was but one of many, separated from each other by low easy hills, flowed a little river, cleaving its center like a silver blade.",-1.672774582,0.458514429
cf2e938da,,,"When at last spring arrived and we returned to Lamington on our Easter vacation, quite a sum of money had been collected, nearly $15.00, if I remember rightly; at any rate plenty to buy the materials for a good-sized tent and leave a large surplus for provisions, etc. Bill figured out on paper just how much canvas we would need for a tent 7 feet wide by 9-1/2 feet long, which he estimated would be about large enough to hold us. It took 34 yards, 30 inches wide. Then we visited the village store to make our purchase. Canvas we found a little too expensive for us, but a material called drill seemed about right. It cost ten cents a yard, but since we wanted such a quantity of it the price was reduced to a total of $3.00. We repaired to the attic to lay out the material.",-0.833513087,0.481808169
04f79e807,,,"Although the crossroad, when they struck into it at the Forks, was not so smooth and well-built as the river highway, Tom did not reduce speed. Mile after mile rolled away behind them. From a low ridge they caught a glimpse of the cut where the two trains had come together.
It was the old story of a freight being dilatory in getting out of a block that had been opened for the passage of an express. The express had run her nose into the caboose of the freight, and more harm was done to the freight than to the passenger cars. A great crowd, however, had gathered about.
Tom ran the car into an open lot beside the tracks, where part of the railroad fence had been torn away. Two passenger cars were on their sides, and one or two of the box cars had burst open.",-1.205215997,0.472084758
ff99879dc,,,"Ruth was excited. In the first place, as to most girls of her age, a ""real live actress"" was as much of a wonder as a Great Auk would have been; only, of course, Hazel Gray was much more charming than the garfowl!
Ruth Fielding was interested in moving pictures—and for a particular reason. Long before she had gained the reward for the return of the pearl necklace to Nettie Parsons' aunt, Ruth had thought of writing a scenario. This was not a very original thought, for many, many thousand other people have thought the same thing.
Occasionally, when she had been to a film show, Ruth had wondered why she could not write a playlet quite as good as many she saw, and get money for it. But it had been only a thought; she knew nothing about the technique of the scenario, or how to go about getting an opinion upon her work if she should write one.",-1.03174025,0.51183881
79d18bcf8,,,"She stepped out and looked on both sides. It was then she saw how threatening the aspect of the clouds on the other side of the river were. The sight drove from her thoughts for the moment the strange sound she had heard. She did not take pains to look beneath the summerhouse on the waterside. Instead, another sound assailed her ears. This time one that she could not mistake for anything but just what it was—the musical horn of Tom Cameron's automobile. Ruth turned swiftly to look up the road. A dark maroon car, long and low-hung like a racer, was coming along the road, leaving a funnel of dust behind it. There were two people in the car. The girl beside the driver—black-haired and petite—fluttered her handkerchief in greeting when she saw Ruth standing by the summerhouse. At once the latter ran across the yard, over the gentle rise, and down to the front gate of the Potter farmhouse. She ran splendidly with a free stride of untrammeled limbs, but she held one shoulder rather stiffly.",-0.463427538,0.476428403
946f4fe91,,,"Jennie Stone was a popular girl and had friends galore. Many of those girlfriends had come from a distance to see their beloved ""Heavy Stone"" (as she had been nicknamed in the old Briarwood Hall days) married to the man she had met in France while she was engaged in those useful and helpful occupations into which so many American girls entered during the war.
Besides, Jennie was the first of the old Briarwood Hall set to be married, and this was bound to be a gala occasion. This was no ""weepy"" wedding, but a time of joy. And the bridal party coming down the aisle made as brilliant a picture as had ever been seen in the old church.
The maid of honor in pink was as refreshing to look upon as a bouquet of arbutus. She had always been a pretty, winsome girl. Now she was developing into a handsome young woman, as all Ruth Fielding's friends declared. In her present filmy costume with its flowery picture hat, the girl of the Red Mill had never looked better.",-0.559436168,0.496640345
26c8fe3f3,,,"""Come in,"" invited Father and the boys, standing in a group watching the knob of the door turn slowly. As it opened silently they saw standing on the threshold a little, old woman, all bent over, a long black cape and hood covering her from head to foot. She carried a cane with a crook in it and leaned very heavily upon it as she walked.
Muttering to herself she crossed the room and took a seat by the fire. Her coarse, gray hair fell in straggly locks about her face almost hiding it from view.
Suddenly the lights went out, leaving the room in darkness, save for the firelight.
""Place the pot before me,"" she ordered, in a high, broken voice, shaking her stick at Fat.
""Yes, Ma'am,"" said Fat, hurrying to obey.
""She's got Fat scared to death,"" giggled Toad to Reddy.
From under her cape she now took a small paper bag and poured the contents into the pot before her, then standing up she hobbled around it three times, waving her arms and humming a queer little tune. Soon a dull red light glowed from within the pot, getting brighter and brighter.",-0.565150113,0.481137075
5d7e42a06,,,"The spring came in with a quickening glory. A fortnight ago the snow was everywhere, the skaters were still out on the streams, the young fellows having rough snowballing matches, then suddenly one morning the white blanket turned a faint, sickly, soft gray, and withered. The pallid skies grew blue, the brown earth showed in patches, there were cheerful sounds from the long-housed animals, rivulets were all afloat running in haste to swell the streams, and from thence to the river and the lakes.
The tiny rings of fir and juniper brightened, the pine branches swelled with great furry buds, bursting open into pale green tassels that moved with every breath of wind. The hemlocks shot out feathery fronds, the spruce spikes of bluish green, the maples shook around red blossoms and then uncurled tiny leaves. The hickories budded in a strange, pale yellow, but the oaks stood sturdy with some of the winter's brown leaves clinging to them.",-1.187582354,0.465509414
9ea79904e,,,"Leila and Eugene Clark were properly impressed with the new house; yet, with the others, were quite ready to stop their play that they might do justice to the big cake with its nine candles, and its wreath of flowers; while the amount of ice cream eaten showed plainly that the refreshments were quite to the taste of the guests. Leila brought Dimple a box of candy, and Eugene presented her with a bunch of beautiful roses. Rock, too, although he hardly could spare the time to rush home and get his gift for her, had something to donate; an exquisite little fan with carved ivory sticks, that he said was made in China, and which his mother had bought in California. Mrs. Hardy added to the gift a dainty pink sash, and Florence had struggled in secret to make Rubina a new frock and had succeeded very well. So Dimple felt herself bountifully remembered.",-1.68110811,0.474244012
4c33ab3a9,,,"The sun was setting behind the hills, and touching the tops of the trees along their base; further away the mountains were very dark against a yellow line of sky. Marian continued her way thoughtfully toward the garden, turned off before she reached the gate and climbed a ladder which leaned against the side of the old brick wall. From the ladder one could reach a long limb of a scraggy apple tree upon which hung early apples nearly ripe. Marian went up the ladder very carefully, taking care not to catch her frock upon a nail or a projecting twig as she crept along the stout limb to settle herself in a crotch of the tree. From this spot she could see the distant sea, pinky purple, and shimmering silver.
Marian did not gaze at this, however, but turned her face toward the mountains.",-0.296345608,0.513307356
4752ac9de,,,"Now Jenik was not a very clever man, and at the end of a very short time he began to bore his wife. She inquired how he managed to build palaces and to get so many precious things. He told her all about the watch, and she never rested till she had stolen the precious talisman. One night she took the watch, rubbed it, and wished for a carriage drawn by four horses; and in this carriage she at once set out for her father's palace. There she called to her own attendants, bade them follow her into the carriage, and drove straight to the sea-side. Then she rubbed her watch, and wished that the sea might be crossed by a bridge, and that a magnificent palace might arise in the middle of the sea. No sooner said than done. The Princess entered the house, rubbed her watch, and in an instant the bridge was gone.",-0.105222174,0.484194214
955a8c878,,,"The magic spell was in Latin, of course; but the princess knew Latin very well, and soon she had the magic song by heart. Then she closed the book and put it back on the shelf. Then she threw open the window and drew back the curtains and put out all the lights except two scented candles that burned with a white fire under a round mirror with a silver frame, opposite the window. And into that mirror the moon shone white and full, filling all the space of it so that the room was steeped in a strange silver light. Now the whole room seemed to sway gently, waving and trembling; and as it trembled it sounded and rang with a low silver music, as if it were filled with the waves of the sea.
Then the princess took a great silver basin, covered with strange black signs and figures raised in the silver. She poured water into the basin, and as she poured it she sang the magic spell from the Latin book.",0.593559832,0.536984906
7d909bbc3,,,"The King had already been married once and had by his first wife seven children, six boys, and one girl, whom he loved more than anything in the world. And now, because he was afraid that their stepmother might not treat them well and might do them harm, he put them in a lonely castle that stood in the middle of a wood. It lay so hidden, and the way to it was so hard to find, that he himself could not have found it out had not a wise-woman given him a reel of thread which possessed a marvelous property: when he threw it before him it unwound itself and showed him the way. But the King went so often to his dear children that the Queen was offended at his absence. She grew curious and wanted to know what he had to do quite alone in the wood. She gave his servants a great deal of money, and they betrayed the secret to her and also told her of the reel which alone could point out the way.",0.12982992,0.476799914
5c406b096,,,"He went to a great many big towns and lived well, and as he was generous and not wiser than most youths of his age, he very soon found himself penniless. Like his father, he then began to think of work and tramped half over Brittany in search of it. Nobody seemed to want him, and he wandered about from one place to another, till he found himself in a dense wood, without any paths, and not much light. Here he spent two whole days, with nothing to eat and very little water to drink, going first in one direction and then in another, but never being able to find his way out. During the first night, he slept soundly and was too tired to fear either man or beast, but when darkness came on for the second time, and growls were heard in the distance, he grew frightened and looked about for a high tree out of reach of his enemies. Hardly had he settled himself comfortably in one of the forked branches when a lion walked up to a spring that burst from a rock close to the tree and crouching down drank greedily.",-0.654343204,0.47321597
bb55b73fc,,,"When Elsa awoke the next morning in her silken bed, with its soft white pillows, she saw a beautiful dress lying over the back of a chair, ready for her to put on. A maid came in to comb out her long hair, and brought the finest linen for her use; but nothing gave Elsa so much joy as the little pair of embroidered shoes that she held in her hand, for the girl had hitherto been forced to run about barefoot by her cruel stepmother. In her excitement, she never gave a thought to the rough clothes she had worn the day before, which had disappeared as if by magic during the night. Who could have taken them? Well, she was to know that by-and-by. But we can guess that the doll had been dressed in them, which was to go back to the village in her stead. By the time the sun rose, the doll had attained her full size, and no one could have told one girl from the other. Elsa started back when she met herself as she looked only yesterday.",-0.176114981,0.490977264
ab408e89d,,,"So the shepherd set out for home, and on his way through the wood, he heard and understood all that was said by the birds, and by every living creature. When he got back to his sheep, he found the flock grazing peacefully, and as he was very tired, he laid himself down by them to rest a little. Hardly had he done so when two ravens flew down and perched on a tree nearby, and began to talk to each other in their own language: ‘If that shepherd only knew that there is a vault full of gold and silver beneath where that lamb is lying, what would he not do?' When the shepherd heard these words, he went straight to his master and told him, and the master at once took a wagon and broke open the door of the vault, and they carried off the treasure.",-0.02829402,0.458401156
9e14ac17a,,,"At the place where the prince intended to hunt he saw a most beautiful deer. He ordered that it should not be killed, but trapped or captured with a noose. The deer looked about for a place where he might escape from the ring of the beaters, and spied one unwatched close to the prince himself. It bounded high and leaped right over his head, got out of the ring, and tore like the eastern wind into the waste. The prince put spurs to his horse and pursued it; and was soon lost to the sight of his followers. Until the world-lighting sun stood above his head in the zenith he did not take his eyes off the deer; suddenly it disappeared behind some rising ground, and with all his search he could not find any further trace of it. He was now drenched in sweat, and he breathed with pain; and his horse's tongue hung from its mouth with thirst. He dismounted and toiled on, with bridle on arm, praying and casting himself on the mercy of heaven.",-0.62782632,0.452749577
edd0518d3,,,"The king asked him what he was reading; and he said he was reading about Paradise, and praying that he might be worthy to enter there. Then they began to talk, and, by-and-bye, the king asked the fakeer if he could show him a glimpse of Paradise, for he found it very difficult to believe in what he could not see. The fakeer replied that he was asking a very difficult, and perhaps a very dangerous, thing; but that he would pray for him, and perhaps he might be able to do it; only he warned the king both against the dangers of his unbelief and against the curiosity which prompted him to ask this thing. However, the king was not to be turned from his purpose, and he promised the fakeer always to provided him with food, if he, in return, would pray for him. To this, the fakeer agreed, and so they parted.",-0.527737284,0.48203395
7d99a764d,,,"There was no moon, and it was the night of Halloween, and everyone was burning nuts and catching apples in a tub of water with their hands tied, and playing all sorts of other games, till the Shifty Lad grew quite tired of waiting for them to get to bed. The Black Gallows Bird, who was more accustomed to the business, tucked himself up on the hay and went to sleep, telling the boy to wake him when the merry-makers had departed. But the Shifty Lad, who could keep still no longer, crept down to the cowshed and loosened the heads of the cattle which were tied, and they began to kick each other and bellow, and made such a noise that the company in the farmhouse ran out to tie them up again. Then the Shifty Lad entered the room and picked up a big handful of nuts, and returned to the loft, where the Black Rogue was still sleeping.",-0.389981467,0.469630868
2ba521c55,,,"The first day of a new term always seems intolerably long, and with such an interesting event as a ballot before them most of the girls felt the hour and a half to drag, and turned many surreptitious glances towards wrist watches. Merle in especial, who hated French translation, groaned as she looked up words in the dictionary, and made several stupid mistakes, because her thoughts were focussed on the election instead of on the matter in hand. Once she yawned openly, and drew down a reproof from Mademoiselle, whereupon she heaved a submissive sigh, controlled her boredom, and went on wearily transferring the flowery sentiments of Fénelon into the English tongue. At precisely five minutes to four the big bell clanged out a warning, dictionaries were shut, exercise-books handed in, pencil-boxes replaced in desks, and the class filed downstairs to the big schoolroom. Miss Pollard was not there: she was busy in the hostel; and Miss Fanny, looking rather flustered and nervous, had evidently given over the conduct of the meeting to Miss Mitchell, and was present merely as a spectator.",-1.349666915,0.484559919
102098a3b,,,"They now hurried on to the boat as if anticipating a pleasure-jaunt. The capacities of the flat were designed to accommodate a flock of sheep or a farm wagon and horses, so there was room and to spare even for thirty-seven girls and their hand luggage. Evan Davis, the crusty old ferryman, greeted them with his usual inarticulate grunt, a kind of ""Oh, here you are again, are you!"" form of welcome which was more forceful than gracious. He linked the protecting chains carefully across the end of the boat, called out a remark in Welsh to his son, Griffith, and, seizing the handle, began to work the windlass. Very slowly and leisurely the flat swung out into the river. The tide was at the full and the wide expanse of water seemed like a lake. The clanking chains brought up bunches of seaweed and river grass which fell with an oozy thud upon the deck.",-1.28772254,0.465916304
a224655f2,,,"When the Little Colonel reached the hotel, the omnibus was leaving the door to go to the railroad station, a few blocks away. Thinking that Betty and Eugenia might be on the coming train, she went into the parlor to wait for the return of the omnibus. She had bought a box of chocolate creams at the cake shop on the corner to divide with Hero.
Fidelia had wandered down to the parlor in her absence, and now seated at the old piano was banging on its yellow keys with all her might. She played unusually well for a girl of her age, but Lloyd had a feeling that a public parlor was not a place to show off one's accomplishments, and her nose went up a trifle scornfully as she entered.
Then she caught sight of herself in the mirror over the mantel, and her expression changed instantly.",-0.580644954,0.480143792
1b6e19e78,,,"There had fallen a pause in the round of merry-makings. After a week of picnics and fishing-parties, lawn fêtes and tennis tournaments, there came a day for which no special entertainment had been planned. It was a hot morning, and the girls were out under the trees: Betty in the swing, with a book in her lap, as usual, Joyce on a camp-stool near by, making a sketch of her, and Eugenia swinging idly in a hammock.
The Little Colonel had been swinging with her, but something had called her to the house, and a deep silence fell on the little group after her departure. Betty, lost in her book, and Joyce, intent on her sketch, did not seem to notice it, but presently Eugenia sat up in the hammock and gave her pillow an impatient thump.
""Whew! how deadly stupid it is here!"" she exclaimed. ""I'm glad that I don't have to live in the country the year round! Nothing to do—nothing to see—I'd turn to a vegetable in a little while and strike root. I wish something exciting would happen, for I'm bored stiff.""",-1.768130782,0.463398755
23106fc3a,,,"Madam Chartley had welcomed many types of girls to her school and was familiar with every shade of embarrassment, but she had never been greeted with quite such an outburst as this. Desperate to make herself understood, Mary began in the middle of her carefully planned speech and breathlessly explained backward, as to why she had arrived at this inopportune time. The explanation was so characteristic of her, so heart-felt and utterly honest, that it revealed far more than she intended and opened a wide door into Madam's sympathies. As she stood looking down at the girl with grave kind eyes, Mary suddenly became aware of a strangely comforting thing. This was not an awesome personage, but a dear adorable being who could understand. The discovery made the second part of her explanation easier. She plunged into it headlong as soon as they were seated.",-0.786934154,0.470439317
f61d1af0e,,,"There was nothing to keep Dick in Cedarville any longer, and he prepared to return to the Stanhope cottage with the mare. But before going he entered the leading drug store, and here purchased a box of choice chocolates for Dora, for he, fortunately, had his spending money with him, or at least the balance left over from the football celebration.
When Dick reached the cottage, he found both the washwoman and the carpenter at work, one in the wash-house and the other finishing up the new barn. The money taken from the bank had been turned over to Mr. Gradley, so Mrs. Stanhope no longer had this to worry her.
Feeling that he could do little at school for the balance of that day, Dick resolved to hunt through the woods for some trace of Josiah Crabtree, and went off shortly after giving Dora the chocolates, over which the girl was greatly pleased. He followed the road in the direction of the lake at first and was about to plunge into the brushwood when a distant voice hailed him.",-1.008496236,0.501479389
a654b2774,,,"The boys had laid out a grand trip, and one which certainly promised a good deal of pleasure. The first stop was to be at Cleveland, and from that city they were to go to Sandusky, and then up the lake and through the Detroit River to Detroit. Here a short stay was to be made, and then the journey was to be resumed through Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River to Lake Huron. Once on Lake Huron they expected to skirt the eastern coast of Michigan, stopping whenever they pleased, and thus gradually make their way to Whitefish Bay and Lake Superior. What they would do when Lake Superior was reached would depend upon how much time was left for the outing.
The Swallow was a well-built, sturdy craft, fifty feet long and correspondingly broad of beam. She had been constructed for a pleasure boat and had all of the latest improvements. She belonged to a rich man of Buffalo, who had known the Rovers for years. The rich man was now traveling in Europe, and had been only too glad to charter the yacht for a period of six weeks.",-1.172303958,0.456301212
1ef2620e2,,,"The idea of a trip on Bob's yacht suited everybody, and it was decided that the whole party should go out early Monday morning, taking old Jerry Tolman with them. They were to load down well with provisions and visit not only several points along the coast, but also one or two of the islands lying twenty-five to thirty miles south of Santa Barbara.
The Rover boys had already inspected the Old Glory and found her to be a first-class yacht in every respect. The craft was about sixty feet in length and correspondingly broad of beam. She carried a tall mast, but the lead in her keel was amply sufficient to keep her from going over unless under full sail in a very heavy wind. The cabin was fairly large and richly furnished, for the Sutters were a family of means, and desired everything of the best.",-0.548806589,0.461531057
cf0754fe4,,,"One after the other the boys entered the opening beyond. At first they could see but little, but gradually their eyes became accustomed to the gloom and they made out a rocky chamber about twelve feet wide and running back in irregular shape for a hundred feet or more. At some points the ceiling was so low they had to stoop, while elsewhere it was far above their reach. The flooring was fairly level, with rock in some places and hard dirt in others.
The opening was rudely furnished with a heavy table and a bench, and close to one wall was a box bed, still filled with pine boughs. On a big wooden hook hung a man's coat, so decayed that it began to fall apart when they touched it. The table contained several tin cups and plates, all rust eaten.",-0.159325458,0.47573173
3eb9cddb8,,,"Scarcely daring to breathe, now that they knew the strange men were so close, the three Rover boys walked to the open doorway of the old mill and went inside. Dick led the way and crossed to where an enclosed stairs ran to the floor below. On tiptoes he went down, not trusting a step until he was sure of his footing. It was well he did this, for two of the steps were entirely rotted away, and he had to warn his brothers, otherwise one or another might have had a fall.
Standing in the wheel room of the old mill the boys saw another streak of light, coming from the room which Dick had suggested. The door to this was closed, a bolt on the inner side holding it in place. There was another bolt on the outside, which Dick remembered having seen on a previous visit.",-0.124092932,0.481544765
5f96da48e,,,"During the past year, a room had been added to the house and this was used as a library and sort of office combined, being provided with a substantial safe and two roller-top desks. One of the desks was used exclusively by Anderson Rover for his private letters and papers. When sick the man had given Dick the extra key to the desk, telling him to keep it. The father trusted his three sons implicitly, only keeping to himself such business affairs as he thought would not interest them.
The boys sat down and, led by Dick, began a careful inspection of the many letters and documents which the roller-top desk contained. A large number of the papers and letters they knew had no bearing on the affair now in hand. But presently Dick took up some letters of recent date and scanned them with interest.
",-0.258175247,0.508824895
404180835,,,"In the meantime, Ruth Stevenson and May Powell, accompanied by Alice Strobell, Annie Larkins, and some of their chums from Clearwater Hall, had arrived in the town and gone to several of the stores on various errands. Then, a few minutes before the time appointed for meeting the cadets, they hurried over in the direction of the moving picture theater.
Several of the girls went into a drugstore close to the theater, leaving Ruth and May standing on the sidewalk, looking at the various gaudy billboards which were displayed there. The girls were discussing the picture of a well-known moving-picture actress, when suddenly Ruth felt some one touch her arm. Turning, she found herself confronted by a tall, heavy-set youth, rather loudly dressed, and accompanied by another boy, wearing a fur cap and fur-lined overcoat.
""Excuse me, but this is Miss Ruth Stevenson, I believe?"" said the big youth, with a broad smile on his coarse face.",0.289033196,0.47703295
d2b59b45b,,,"On the morning of his great race with Mr. Turtle, Jimmy Rabbit was at the creek bright and early. He brought his two brothers with him, to see the fun. And he found that there were others, too, who had heard of the sport and had come to enjoy it. Frisky Squirrel was there, and Billy Woodchuck, and Fatty Coon. Then there was old Mr. Crow, who was always on hand whenever a crowd gathered. And perhaps the pleasantest and most interested of all was Tommy Fox.
""I hope you'll let me have a ride on your new sled when the first snow comes,"" he said to Jimmy Rabbit. ""For, of course, you'll win the race. And Mr. Turtle will have to give you the sled, as he promised.""
""I'll see,"" said Jimmy. And that was all the answer he would give.
But Tommy Fox seemed satisfied.
""I'm going to run along beside you,"" he told Jimmy, ""to keep you company. And I'll wait at Broad Brook with you, to see the fun when Mr. Turtle gets there. For everyone knows that you're going to win the race.""",-0.129181642,0.478137145
328b74259,,,"Simon Screecher lived in the apple orchard, in a hollow tree, where he could sleep during the day safe from attack by mobs of small birds, who had the best of reasons for disliking him.
By night Simon wandered about the fields and the woods, hunting for mice and insects. And since night was the time when Dickie Deer Mouse was awake, and up and doing, it would have been a wonder if the two had never met.
One thing is certain: Dickie Deer Mouse was not eager to make Simon Screecher's acquaintance. Whenever he heard Simon's call he stopped and listened. If it sounded nearer the next time it reached his ears, Dickie Deer Mouse promptly hid himself in any good place that was handy.
So matters went along for some time. And Dickie actually began to think that perhaps he didn't need to be so careful, and that maybe Simon Screecher was not so bad as people said.
However, he jumped almost out of his skin one night, when he heard a wailing whistle in a tree right over his head. And when he came down upon all-fours again he couldn't see a single place to hide.",-0.436762279,0.496620192
3eb7d43dd,,,"There was great excitement in the neighborhood of Farmer Green's house. Rusty Wren had found some strange tracks. And nobody knew whose they were.
Now, when they were puzzled like that the field- and forest-folk usually went straight to Mr. Crow for advice. But this time it happened that the old gentleman had gone on an excursion to the further side of Blue Mountain, where Brownie Beaver lived. And there seemed to be no one else at hand who was likely to be able to explain the mystery.
Being quite old, Mr. Crow was very wise. And people often sought his opinion, though later they fell into the habit of consulting Daddy Longlegs upon matters they did not understand. But this was before Daddy was known in Pleasant Valley.
Upon hearing Rusty Wren's news a good many of his neighbors hurried to the place where Rusty had noticed the strange tracks.",-0.521839701,0.461640093
b82588521,,,"Of all the creatures that walked or swam or flew, Timothy Turtle liked boys the least of all. He said that if they ever did anything except throw stones he had never caught them at it.
""It's a wonder""—he often remarked—""it's a wonder that there's a stone left anywhere along this creek. I've lived here a good many years; and no boy ever spied me sunning myself on a rock in the water without trying to hit me.""
Once in a great while some youngster was skillful enough to bounce a stone off Mr. Turtle's back. And when the old scamp flopped into the water he always heard a great whooping from the bank.
At such times as likely as not Timothy had been awakened from a sound sleep. But when that jeering noise greeted his ears he knew at once what had struck him.",0.454251381,0.518149576
fa7ded344,,,"The next time she saw Mr. Meadow Mouse Mrs. Robin gave him Grandfather Mole's message. ""He says,"" said she, ""he'd like to have a talk with you.""
""Does he?"" Mr. Meadow Mouse exclaimed. ""Now I wonder what he has to say! I returned his umbrella to him, after the rain. So it can't be about that.""
""If I wanted to know, I'd go and find Grandfather Mole,"" Mrs. Robin suggested tartly.
Being a mild sort of person, Mr. Meadow Mouse thanked Mrs. Robin politely, both for the message and for the advice. And then, scampering to a certain spot that he knew, near the fence, he disappeared through an opening into the ground. It was one of Grandfather Mole's doorways. Mr. Meadow Mouse did not hesitate to use it, being one of those fortunate folk that are quite at home anywhere. It made little difference to him whether he was above the ground or in it. And aside from Grandfather Mole and his own family there was no one that knew his way about Grandfather Mole's galleries as well as Mr. Meadow Mouse.",-0.351625969,0.491844938
593e82f3f,,,"A board was floating along on the swollen waters of Black Creek. On it sat Master Meadow Mouse. He was very happy. He was having his first ride, of any sort.
""This raft—"" he said to himself proudly—""this raft belongs to me. I'll be a traveler. I'll see the world—at least as far as the big willow at the lower end of the meadow!""
He scarcely cared to go beyond the big willow. Beyond it lay another farm. And Master Meadow Mouse had never been off Farmer Green's place in his whole life. He feared that he might not be able to find his way back, if he ventured too far from home.
Soon he spied a friend on the bank of the creek. Master Meadow Mouse cried, ""Goodbye!"" and waved a paw at him.
The person on the bank was one of his many cousins. And when he caught sight of Master Meadow Mouse he stared hard for a few moments. Then he shouted, ""Don't jump! I'll rescue you."" He was already running to the water's edge when Master Meadow Mouse stopped him.",-0.36873046,0.455881012
4f79287ea,,,"There was a terrible hubbub in the henhouse. The Rooster squalled so loudly that he waked up every hen in the place. And when they heard him crying that a skunk had knocked him off his roost they were as frightened as he was, and set up a wild cackle. All but Henrietta Hen! She knew there was no skunk there.
""Don't be a goose—er—don't be a gander!"" she hissed to the Rooster. ""I'm the one that bumped into you.""
The Rooster quickly came to his senses.
""Don't be alarmed, ladies!"" he called to the flock. ""There's no danger. There's been a slight mistake."" He pretended that he hadn't been scared. But he had been. And now he was somewhat uneasy about Henrietta Hen. He feared he was in for a scolding from her.
""If you had answered me when I spoke to you I wouldn't have left my perch in the dark,"" she told the Rooster severely. ""When I moved to your perch to see what was the matter I blundered into you. And then you thought I was a skunk! You owe me an apology, sir!""",-0.974150676,0.478442026
43beae221,,,"In the same pasture with Snowball was a black lamb. He was the black lamb that Farmer Green once gave to Johnnie for a pet. But he ran away up the lane the very first time Johnnie tried to hold him in his arms.
After that the black lamb had always stayed with the flock. He was a wild, unruly fellow, bigger and older than Snowball. And he was quite outspoken—and not always careful of his language.
This black lamb chanced to be near Snowball when Johnnie Green came into the pasture on a certain fine morning. And when Johnnie began calling to Snowball the black lamb said, ""Why don't you run the other way? That's what I always do when boys call me.""
Snowball made no answer. He stood and looked at Johnnie Green, who was walking towards him with outstretched hand.
""Come on!"" cried the black lamb. ""I'll run with you.""
""No!"" said Snowball. ""Johnnie may have something good for me to eat. Some salt, maybe!""",-0.133873217,0.487058694
ecb291af9,,,"From a rocky hill above me the baboons were barking. Just below us was a fair stream with a rich grove of native trees on the further bank. Some native gardens showed on the slope above. The white path wound through them, then away among boulders, some of them very big ones. While I watched the stream I saw a white body of mist mounting up. Just at that moment the sun showed. As I looked on the sacred sight I saw somebody coming down the path. It was the man whose mission station I had been looking for. He was coming through the long grass in a hurry. Soon he splashed through the drift. After that he caught sight of me, and rushed up to our camp, glowing. It was Leonard Reeve. He looked much the same as he did that day in London three years before—dark, pale, slight, earnest. I had been to his sendoff and gone down to Victoria Docks with him. I had written to tell him; I was most likely coming his way after Easter. He seemed ever so glad to see me.",-0.766763884,0.474042753
a12fe70cf,,,"Just as the front of the car approached, Frank Merriwell received a push from behind that sent him flat upon the track directly in front of the car wheels!
That particular car did not have a fender, and it seemed that Frank must be mangled beneath the wheels. The motorman saw the lad go down and put on the brake hard, but he could not stop the car in time.
Frank realized that he had been pushed upon the track by someone whose deliberate purpose it was to maim or murder him, but he could not save himself. He struck the paving, and the iron wheels seemed right upon him.
But Jack Diamond moved with marvelous quickness. He made a grasp at Frank as the latter fell, almost caught him, then stooped, grasped his coat and yanked Merry from the track.",0.561113556,0.526793277
1779ba8c1,,,"Frank's success as an actor had been phenomenal. Of course, to begin with, he had natural ability, but that was not the only thing that won success for him. He had courage, push, determination, stick-to-it-iveness. When he started to do a thing he kept at it till he did it.
Frank united observation and study. He learned everything he could about the stage and about acting by talking with the members of the company and by watching to see how things were done.
He had a good head and plenty of sense. He knew better than to copy after the ordinary actors in the road company to which he belonged. He had seen good acting enough to be able to distinguish between the good and bad. Thus it came about that the bad models about him did not exert a pernicious influence upon him.",0.027568233,0.470922879
d436eb9c3,,,"An electric hansom, which had sailed up the street in an eminently respectable manner, had suddenly and without apparent reason begun to act in an altogether disreputable way. It had veered round, rushed over the crossing, and made a bee-line for the sidewalk, almost running down a party of Frank Merriwell's friends, who were out for an afternoon stroll on the street in the pleasant spring sunshine.
The motorman, who occupied a grand-stand seat in the rear, seemed to have lost control of the automobile. He was excitedly fumbling with his levers, but without being able to bring the carriage to a stop.
The street was crowded with people at the time, and when the electric carriage began to cut its eccentric capers there was a rush for places of safety, while the air was filled with excited cries and exclamations.
Merriwell could see the head of a passenger, a man, through the window of the automobile.",-1.587215433,0.478218412
d9eb41f75,,,"Ditson had fawned around Browning a great deal since entering college, with the result that the king of the sophomores came to entertain a feeling of absolute disgust for the fellow. The very sight of Ditson made the ""king"" feel as if he would enjoy giving him a good ""polishing off.""
But Bruce was no bully, although he was a leader of the sophomores. He had proved his ability to fight when it was necessary, but no one could say that he ever showed any inclination to do bodily harm to one who was weak and peaceable.
During his freshman year Browning had originated any number of wild projects for sport, and he had always succeeded in carrying them through successfully. Thus it came about that he was called the ""king,"" and his companions continued to call him that when he became a sophomore.
But now there was a man in college who had fairly outwitted Browning on several occasions, and so it came about that the king was aroused against Frank Merriwell.",-1.199957182,0.468701214
a65fb236a,,,"Their horses had been tethered near at hand, and they were soon mounted and riding away toward Mendoza.
The sun beat down hotly on the plain of white sand, and the sky was of a bright blue, such as Frank had never seen elsewhere.
Outside Mendoza was a narrow canal, but a few feet in width, and half filled with water, from which rose little whiffs of hot steam.
Along the side of the canal was a staggering rude stone wall, fringed with bushes in strips and clumps.
Beyond the canal, which fixed the boundary of the plain of sand, through vistas of tree trunks, could be seen glimpses of brown fields, fading away into pale pink, violet, and green.
The dome and towers of a church rose against the dim blue; low down, and on every side were spots of cream-white, red, and yellow, with patches of dark green intervening, revealing bits of the town, with orange groves all about.",-0.556143721,0.493156898
8938afd2f,,,"As we have before said, the orphans were four in number; the two eldest were boys, and the youngest were girls. Edward, the eldest boy, was between thirteen and fourteen years old; Humphrey, the second, was twelve; Alice, eleven; and Edith, eight. As it is the history of these young persons which we are about to narrate, we shall say little about them at present, except that for many months they had been under little or no restraint, and less attended to. Their companions were Benjamin, the man who remained in the house, and old Jacob Armitage, who passed all the time he could spare with them. Benjamin was rather weak in intellect, and was a source of amusement rather than otherwise. As for the female servants, one was wholly occupied with her attendance on Miss Judith, who was very exacting, and had a high notion of her own consequence.",-1.173475813,0.481388178
f91caf993,,,"I direct my eyes northward. I behold a belt of white sand skirting the blue water. I turn towards the south, and in this direction perceive a similar belt. To both points it extends beyond the reach of vision—hundreds of miles beyond—forming, like a ribbon of silver, the selvage of the Mexican Sea. It separates the turquoise blue of the water from the emerald green of the forest, contrasting with each by its dazzling whiteness. Its surface is far from being level, as is usual with the ocean-strand. On the contrary, its millions of sparkling atoms, rendered light by the burning sun of the tropic, have been lifted on the wings of the wind, and thrown into hills and ridges hundreds of feet in height, and trending in every direction like the wreaths of a great snow-drift. I advance with difficulty over these naked ridges, where no vegetation finds nourishment in the inorganic heap. I drag myself wearily along, sinking deeply at every step.",-1.695788714,0.460965539
9a3f1c4f3,,,"Yet these ""Barren Grounds"" have their denizens. Nature has formed animals that delight to dwell there, and that are never found in more fertile regions. Two ruminating creatures find sustenance upon the mosses and lichens that cover their cold rocks: they are the caribou (reindeer) and the musk-ox. These, in their turn, become the food and subsistence of preying creatures. The wolf, in all its varieties of grey, black, white, pied, and dusky, follows upon their trail. The ""brown bear,""—a large species, nearly resembling the ""grizzly,""—is found only in the Barren Grounds; and the great ""Polar bear"" comes within their borders, but the latter is a dweller upon their shores alone, and finds his food among the finny tribes of the seas that surround them. In marshy ponds, existing here and there, the musk-rat (Fibre zibethieus) builds his house, like that of his larger cousin, the beaver. Upon the water sedge he finds subsistence; but his natural enemy, the wolverene (Gulo luscus), skulks in the same neighbourhood.",-2.163125398,0.50256626
f7137b4c7,,,"Notwithstanding the many losses and crosses of his past life, there was contentment in his eye. He was gratified by the prosperous appearance of his crops. The maize was now ""in the milk,"" and the ears, folded within the papyrus-like husks, looked full and large. It was delightful to hear the rustling of the long green blades, and see the bright golden tassels waving in the breeze. The heart of the farmer was glad as his eye glanced over his promising crop of ""mealies."" But there was another promising crop that still more gladdened his heart—his fine children. There they are—all around him.
Hans—the oldest—steady, sober Hans, at work in the well-stocked garden; while the diminutive but sprightly imp Jan, the youngest, is looking on, and occasionally helping his brother. Hendrik—the dashing Hendrik, with bright face and light curling hair—is busy among the horses, in the ""horse-kraal;"" and Trüey—the beautiful, cherry-cheeked, flaxen-haired Trüey—is engaged with her pet—a fawn of the springbok gazelle—whose bright eyes rival her own in their expression of innocence and loveliness.",-2.306659296,0.504046024
da4cec179,,,"It is true that, to a traveller approaching the Himalayas from any part of the great plain of India, these mountains present the appearance of a single range, stretching continuously along the horizon from east to west. This, however, is a mere optical illusion; and, instead of one range, the Himalayas may be regarded as a congeries of mountain ridges, covering a superficies of 200,000 square miles, and running in as many different directions as there are points in the compass.
Within the circumference of this vast mountain tract there is great variety of climate, soil, and productions. Among the lower hills—those contiguous to the plains of India—as well as in some of the more profound valleys of the interior—the flora is of a tropical or subtropical character. The palm, the tree fern, and bamboo here flourish in free luxuriance. Higher up appears the vegetation of the temperate zone, represented by forests of gigantic oaks of various species, by sycamores, pines, walnut, and chestnut trees. Still higher are the rhododendrons, the birches, and heaths; succeeded by a region of herbaceous vegetation—by slopes, and even table-plains, covered with rich grasses.",-2.421414288,0.509661763
d6c4e3028,,,"Patty well remembered her visit at their summer home which they called the Hurly-Burly, and she could not see that their city residence was any less deserving of the name. Her Aunt Grace and Uncle Ted were jolly, good-natured people, who cared little about system or method in their home. The result was that things often went wrong, but nobody cared especially if they did.
""I meant to have a nicer luncheon for you, Patty,"" said her aunt, as they sat down at the table, ""but the cook forgot to order lobsters, and when I telephoned for fresh peas the grocer said I was too late, for they were all sold. I'm so sorry, for I do love hothouse peas, don't you?""
""I don't care what I have to eat, Aunt Grace. I just came to visit you people, you know, and the luncheon doesn't matter a bit.""",0.484153776,0.498001921
15f2cb16c,,,"It was fortunate that the Bryants were there to take the initiative, for Mr. and Mrs. Maynard seemed incapable of action. Usually alert and energetic, they were so stunned at the thought of real disaster to Marjorie that they sat around helplessly inactive.
""Come with me, King,"" said Cousin Jack, going to the telephone in the library.
Then he called up every house in Seacote where Marjorie could possibly have gone, and King helped by suggesting the names of acquaintances.
But no one could give any news of the little girl; no one whom they asked had seen or heard of her that afternoon.
Cousin Jack's face grew very white, and his features were drawn, as he said: ""You stay here, Ed, with Helen and Ethel; King and I will go out for a bit. Come, King.""
Kingdon said nothing; he snatched up his cap and went along silently by Mr. Bryant's side, trying to keep up with his companion's long, swift strides.",-0.563758857,0.461485505
9fa6a7f79,,,"So Patty, with her unfailing good nature, had agreed to go to the White Mountains with the others. She admitted, herself, that she'd probably have a good time, as she always did everywhere, but still her heart clung to ""The Pebbles,"" as they called their seashore home, and she silently rebelled when she thought of ""Camilla,"" her swift little electric runabout.
Patty drove her own car, and she never tired of spinning along the shore roads, or inland through the pine groves and laurel jungles. She had become acquainted with many young people, both cottagers and hotel guests, and the outlook for a pleasant summer and fall at Spring Beach was all that could be desired from her point of view. But before they left the city in the spring, Patty had known that Nan preferred mountain localities and had agreed to the seashore house for her sake; so, now, it was Patty's turn to give up her preference for Nan's. And she was going to do it,—oh, yes,—she was going to do it cheerfully and even gaily.",-0.629101667,0.489992055
c2b315a00,,,"At eight o'clock that same evening, Patty came down to her own dinner party. An hour's rest had freshened her up wonderfully, and she had changed her little white frock for a dinner gown of pale green chiffon, sparkling with silver embroidery. It trailed behind her in a most grown-up fashion, and she entered the drawing-room with an exaggerated air of dignity.
""Huh,"" cried Roger; ""look at grown-up Patty! Isn't she the haughty lady? Patty, if you put on such airs, you'll be old before your time!""
""Airs, nothing!"" retorted Patty, and with a skipping little dance step, she crossed the room, picked up a sofa pillow, and aimed it deftly at Roger, who caught it on the wing.
""That's better,"" he said. ""We can't have any of these grande dame airs. Now, who is the lucky man who is to take you out to dinner? Me?""",-0.599905635,0.472967663
3fa507d01,,,"Frank knew instantly that he was discovered. He had stood perfectly still, in the hope that he might escape observation; but when he saw the other take to his heels, he realized that it was now destined to be a stern chase. So he, too, started to run at top speed, which meant a hot pace, since Frank was something of a sprinter on the cinder path.
At least, that turn on the part of the other had told him one thing—it was no Columbia fellow who had played this miserable trick upon the football squad; so undoubtedly he must belong in Clifford.
Despite the efforts of the school authorities, there was always more or less laying of wagers on these games. Driven away from the racetracks by recent strict State legislation, it seemed that those who made books were seeking all manner of sports, in order to carry on their games of chance.
So Frank consoled himself in the belief that this might be some agent of these gamesters, rather than a Clifford schoolboy intending to take a mean advantage of the rival team.",-0.624756286,0.483407246
f3721e6b5,,,"In the same instant, without a word to each other, Dave, Darrin, and Dalzell had done the same thing. That is, they started to run and at the same time doffed coats and vests, leaving these garments to flutter behind them.
As they reached the sailboat both midshipmen cast off their shoes. Dave leaped into the boat while Dalzell threw off the bowline, then boarded.
Like a flash both youngsters went at the lashings of the mainsail.
""There isn't a reef in,"" Dan discovered. ""Going to take time for a close reef, Dave?""
""There isn't time,"" Darrin muttered, with drops of cold perspiration on his forehead as he toiled. ""We'll have to go out under a full sail, Dan.""
""Great Scott!"" muttered Dalzell.
""We may be too late to save any one as it is. There! Jump to the halyard.
I've got the sheet.""
Dan and Dalzell began to hoist with a will. In an incredibly short time he had the sail hoisted all the way up, while Darrin, stern and whitefaced, crouched and braced himself by the tiller, gripping the sheet with his left hand.",-1.402129583,0.503299234
c544d9384,,,"Poising himself on tip-toe, Dave awaited the coming of the ball. Wells, with a wicked grin, signaled for a ball that he felt sure would catch Dave napping. Earlier in the game it might have done so, but Ted's right ""wing"" was now drooping. Hi did his best, but Dave reached and clubbed the leather. In raced Greg, while Dick had a loafing time on his way to third. Dave reached first in plenty of time.
Two men went out, leaving the nines tied. Dick fumed now at third.
""I wish some one else than Henderson were going to bat,"" groaned Prescott inwardly.
However, Spoff had the honor of his school desperately at heart. He did his best, watching with cool judgment and backed by an iron determination to make his mark. The third strike he hit. It was enough to bring Prescott in. Dick seemed to travel with the speed of a racing car, reaching the home plate just ahead of the ball.",-0.974890434,0.511201352
0aaac8f69,,,"The introductions concluded, Hawkins followed the young engineers to their room while the drummers went to their own more costly quarters and hastily packed their belongings.
Fifteen minutes later the party stood in the office and porters were bringing down trunks. Tom and Harry, keeping most of their belongings at camp, had only suit cases to carry.
""Gentlemen, I think you are making a mistake,"" began Mr. Ashby, as he met the salesmen in the lobby near the clerk's desk.
""We made a mistake in coming here,"" retorted the leader of the salesmen, pleasantly as to tone, ""but we're rectifying it now. Are our bills ready?""
The proprietor went behind the desk to make change, while the clerk receipted seven bills. Ashby's hands shook as he manipulated the money.
""Dobson,"" he said, in a low tone to one of the drummers, ""I had intended ordering a ton of hams from you. Now, of course, I can't—""
""Quite right,"" nodded Mr. Dobson cheerfully. ""You couldn't get them from our house at four times the market price. We wouldn't want our brand served here.""
The last bill was paid. Proprietor Ashby stiffened, his backbone, trying to look game.",-0.71340362,0.458040957
d8c7bf9bc,,,"After some work Tom succeeded in reducing the chocolate to a consistency that admitted of pouring, though very slowly.
""It took you almost three minutes to pour two cups,"" said Harry, returning his watch to his pocket. ""Come on, now! We've got to make up for lost time. What will Don Luis think of us? And yet it is his household arrangements that are keeping us away from our work.""
Chocolate and rolls were soon disposed of. Then the two engineers sat back, wondering whether Nicolas had deserted them. Finally, both rose and walked to stretch their legs.
""No restaurant in New York has anything on this place for slow-march service!"" growled Hazelton.
As all things must come at last, so did Nicolas. He carried a tray and was followed by a second servant, bringing another.
The tortillas proved to be, as Harry put it, ""a cross between a biscuit and flapjack."" The frijoles were just plain boiled beans, which had evidently been cooked on some other day, and were now mushy. But it was a very solid meal that now lay before them, and the young engineers ate heartily.",-0.981523964,0.483996506
8ef8fdb57,,,"Darrin had dressed for breakfast the morning after, but there were yet some minutes to spare before the call would come to the ward-room mess.
""My compliments to the captain, and I will report immediately,""
Ensign Dave replied.
Turning, he put on his sword and drew on his white gloves. Then, with a glance over himself, he left his quarters, walking briskly toward the commanding officer's quarters.
Captain Gales, at his desk, received the young ensign's salute.
On the desk lay the papers in the matter of the night before.
""Ensign, I have gone over the papers in last night's affair,"" began the ""Old Man,"" as a naval vessel's commander is called, when not present.
""Yes, sir?""
The captain's face was inexpressive; it was impossible to tell what was going on in his mind.
""I have given careful attention to your report, and also to that of Lieutenant Cantor. I have talked with Mr. Carmody, and have asked Coxswain Riley and Corporal Ross some questions. And so I have come to the decision——-""
Here the captain paused for an instant.",-1.059070623,0.487882521
4f17abf2d,,,"The camp was a half mile back from the water's edge, on a low hillside. Here the men of the outfit were settled. There had been mutinous mutterings among some of the men, but so far there had been no open revolt.
Tom, however, who had had considerable experience in such matters, looked for some form of trouble before the smouldering excitement quieted. So did Harry.
On this dark night Tom had proposed that he and his chum take a stroll down to the shore front to see whether all were well there. Soon after leaving camp behind, the young engineers had started on a jog-trot. Just before they reached the water's edge the wind had borne to their ears the faint report of what must have been an explosion out over the waters of the gulf.
""Trouble!"" Tom whispered in his chum's ear. ""Most likely some of the rascals that we drove out of camp have been trying to set back our work with dynamite. If they have done so we'll teach 'em a lesson if we can catch them!""",-0.788881163,0.451224532
cdea4376d,,,"This unlucky nestling had not long sat in this way before some boys, who had brought the haymakers their dinners, and were returning home, saw him in the hedge, and immediately began to try to catch him. But though he could not fly, he could flutter, and if he was not able to run, at least he could hop; so every time one of the boys got near to him, the nestling scrambled on to the next bough, and thus from bough to bough all along the hedge. If the boys had only known how dreadfully frightened the poor little bird was, they never could have been so cruel as to hunt him in this way. They did not know this, however, and only thought of catching him. At last he had got to the end of the hedge, and then went fluttering down upon the field with the boys after him. They soon were so close to him, as he hopped and fluttered along the short grass, that the poor little fellow felt their hands would presently be upon him, and as a last chance of escape, he crept and hid himself under a wisp of hay.",-0.820699894,0.492485066
a16f5d2c6,,,"Tom and his crowd looked down the path and saw two other new-comers approaching. In appearance they were very unlike the shivering, half-frozen boy who had just gone along the path. They were warmly clad, wore sealskin caps and gloves, and there was something in their air and bearing that proclaimed them to be boys who respected themselves, and who intended that others should respect them. One of them was tall and broad-shouldered, and carried himself as though he had never been in the habit of submitting to any nonsense, and the other was small, slender, and apparently delicate.
""Why, they are the Planter and his brother,"" said one of the students, all of whom had had opportunity to learn more or less of the history of the boys who composed the fourth class. ""They're from Mississippi. Their father is worth no end of money, and they say he gives his boys a very liberal allowance.""",-0.159054045,0.477047507
c01b34c77,,,"Dick Slater and Bob Estabrook set off down Broadway and had nearly reached Bowling Green when Dick saw the man in the steeple-crowned hat approaching. He evidently took Dick for his friend at first, for he came forward quickly, and then suddenly stopped, looked at both boys, flushed, and, turning upon his heel, darted across Broadway and into Pearl street, where he disappeared. Dick was after him at once, but by the time he reached Pearl street, nothing was to be seen of the spy.
The boys walked down to Whitehall wharf, where they could see over to Staten Island, where the British ships seemed to be getting ready to change their positions. The day was wearing on rapidly, and as they could not get any additional information at the wharf, they turned their faces toward the city and made their way at a good jog toward the Commons, where the camp was located. As they neared Thames street, above the church, Dick said in a low tone:
""There is that spy going down the street. He has changed his disguise and I would not be surprised if he had taken off his beard.",-0.495233216,0.529901683
407c92bcd,,,"Once upon a time the youngest son of a king became filled with the desire to go abroad and see the world. He got his father's permission to depart, kissed his parents good-bye, mounted his black horse, and galloped away down the high road. Soon the gray towers of the old castle in which he was born hid themselves behind him.
The Prince journeyed on, spending the days in traveling, and the nights in little wayside inns, till one day he found himself in the heart of the Adamant Mountains. The great, red granite crags of the surrounding peaks rose out of the gleaming snow like ugly fingers, and the slopes of giant glaciers sparkled in the sun like torrents of diamonds. The Prince sat down by some stunted trees whose tops had long before been broken off by an avalanche, and began to eat the bit of bread and cheese which he had stored in his pocket. His black horse, meanwhile, ate the grass which grew here and there along the mountain path. And as the Prince sat there in the bright sun and the silence of the mountains, he became aware of a low, continuous roaring.",0.548825845,0.530015576
ddf896b32,,,"The fisherman thanked the King of the Caves, and took the silver fish. It was about the length of your little finger, and had pale moon-stones for eyes. The fisherman hung the talisman on a chain and wore it round his neck.
From that morning on, everything prospered with the youth. His boat never leaked, he was never caught in a storm, and the fish came to his lines and nets the instant he threw them overboard. Within a year or two he had grown so rich that he was able to buy the finest merchant ship in the world, and became a master mariner. Surely no more splendid fellow than this gallant, young captain was ever found on the Seven Seas. He sailed to cold and foggy Flannel Land, where the inhabitants all have incurable head colds, and have no other cloth but red flannel; he traded in the ports of gorgeous Velvet Land, whose inhabitants dress in velvet, and cover their walls with velvet hangings and their floors with velvet rugs.",-0.780167849,0.454019283
037a82462,,,"Seeing the front door wide open, the enchanter walked in. It was very quiet. Only the far away klingle-klangle of a cow-bell could be heard.
""Here shall I live,"" said the enchanter. And he brought his possessions to the house.
Now, one autumnal morning, when a blue haze hung over the lonely fields from which the reapers had departed, and the golden leaves were wet underfoot, the old enchanter went for a walk down the lane, and finding the day agreeable, kept on until he found himself in the woods. Arriving at the crest of a little hill in the woodland, he saw below him, almost at the foot of the slope, a countryman with a white puppy and a black kitten following at his heels. The little dog barked merrily out of pure high spirits, whilst the kitten leaped and struck with its tiny paws at the passing white butterflies.",-0.193262027,0.462013878
6e3c36a07,,,"From Toledo to Ft. Wayne, our next stop, there were two routes, the northern one through Bryan and the southern one through Napoleon and Defiance. As there didn't seem to be much difference between them we played ""John Kempo"" and the northern route won, two out of three. As we were threading our way through the streets of the town, an old woman tried to cross the street just in front of the Glow-worm. Nyoda sounded the horn warningly but the noise seemed to confuse her. She got across the middle of the street in safety and Nyoda quickened up a bit, when the woman lost her head and started back for the side she had come from. She darted right in front of the Glow-worm, and although Nyoda turned aside sharply, the one fender just grazed her and she fell down in the street. Of course, a crowd collected and we had to stop and get out and help her to the sidewalk where we made sure she was not hurt. Nyoda finally took her in tow and piloted her across the street to the place where she wanted to go.",-1.647891253,0.476997115
ea4f40ca6,,,"A porter brushed by her as she stood there with a glass of milk in his hand. Sahwah watched the progress of the milk idly, and the porter stopped beside the Lieutenant of Aviation with it. The lieutenant seemed to be asleep, for the porter had to shake him before he became aware of his existence. Just then Hinpoha caught Sahwah's eye and motioned her to come back to her seat, and Sahwah went tripping down the aisle to join her friends. She glanced casually at the young lieutenant as she passed him; he was staring fixedly at her and she dropped her eyes quickly. A little electric shock tingled through her as she met his eyes; he seemed to be about to speak to her. ""Probably mistook me for someone else and thought he knew me,"" Sahwah thought to herself, and dismissed him from her mind.",-0.930511342,0.440729376
39dcc6828,,,"Agony's eyes traveled over to the group surrounding Pom-pom and rested upon the girl who, next to Pom-pom herself, was the center of the group. She was very much like Agony herself, with intensely black hair, snow white forehead and richly red lips, though a little slighter in build and somewhat taller. A frank friendliness beamed from her clear dark eyes and her smile was warm and sincere. Agony felt drawn to her and jealous of her at the same time. The most popular girl in camp. That was the title Agony coveted with all her soul. To be prominent; to be popular, was Agony's chief aim in life; and to be pointed out in a crowd as the most popular girl seemed the one thing in the world most desirable to her. She, too, would be prominent and popular, she resolved; she, too, would be pointed out in the crowd.",-0.96427267,0.506487773
8f4de29b6,,,"The dark growth of scrub oak and pine parted suddenly and the lithe figure of a boy of about seventeen emerged suddenly into the little clearing. The lad who had so abruptly materialized from the close-growing vegetation peculiar to the region about the little town of Hampton, on the south shore of Long Island, wore a well-fitting uniform of brown khaki, canvas leggings of the same hue and a soft hat of the campaign variety, turned up at one side. To the front of his headpiece was fastened a metal badge, resembling the three-pointed arrow head utilized on old maps to indicate the north. On a metal scroll beneath it were embossed the words: ""Be Prepared.""
The manner of the badge's attachment would have indicated at once, to any one familiar with the organization, that the lad wearing it was the patrol leader of the local band of Boy Scouts.",-1.079335149,0.484231942
3c5efe178,,,"You have already met Theodore, or Teddy or Ted Martin, and his sister Janet, or Jan. With their mother, they were spending the long summer vacation on Cherry Farm, the country home of Grandpa Martin outside the town of Elmburg, near Clover Lake. Mr. Richard Martin, or Dick, as Grandpa Martin called him, owned a store in Cresco, where he lived with his family. Besides Ted and Jan there was Baby William, aged about three years. He was called Trouble, for the reason I have told you, though Mother Martin called him ""Dear Trouble"" to make up for the fun Ted and Jan sometimes poked at him.
Then there was Nora Jones, the maid who helped Mrs. Martin with the cooking and housework. And I must not forget Skyrocket, a dog, nor Turnover, a cat. These did not help with the housework—though I suppose you might say they did, too, in a way, for they ate the scraps from the table and this helped to save work.",-0.763638068,0.470270205
82d1b3d00,,,"So he hopped softly over, and peered around the edge of the stone, and what do you think he saw?
Why, there was a nice, little, red squirrel-girl, and she had a comb and a brush, and little looking-glass. And the glass was stuck up on a stump where the moon-beam that Uncle Wiggily was following shone on it and reflected back again. And by the light of the moon-beam the red squirrel was combing and brushing out her tail as hard as she could comb and brush it.
""What are you doing?"" asked Uncle Wiggily in surprise.
""Oh, my! How you startled me!"" exclaimed the red squirrel. ""But I'm glad it's you, Uncle Wiggily. I'm going to a surprise party soon, and I was just trying to make my tail as big as Johnnie or Billie Bushytail's, but I can't do it,"" she said sadly.
""No, and you never can,"" said the rabbit. ""Their tails are a different kind than yours, for they are gray squirrels and you are a red one. But yours is very nice. Be content to have yours as it is.""",0.501851747,0.500773152
8b34d870a,,,"Daddy Blake had to go away early the next morning, to be gone three days, so he did not have time to tell Hal and Mab why it was that seeds grew when planted in the ground. But before going to school on Monday the brother and sister saw to it that the glass covered box in which the tomato plants were soon to grow, was put in a sunny window.
On the way to school they looked in the big yard of Mr. Porter who lived next door. He was raking up some dried leaves and grass and a small, red-haired boy was watching him.
""Hello, little ones!"" called Mr. Porter. ""Have you got your garden started yet?""
""Not yet,"" answered Hal.
""But we got tomato seeds planted in the house,"" said Mab.
""Yes, and I must do that too. We'll see who'll have the finest garden,"" went on Mr. Porter. ""How's your poodle dog?""
""Oh, we got him shut up so he can't hurt your garden,"" Hal said.
""Don't worry about that yet,"" went on the neighbor. ""I haven't planted any seeds yet, and shall not until it gets warmer. So you may let your dog run loose.""",-0.015542567,0.495552367
c58740461,,,"Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, came out of the underground burrow house of the Littletail family, where he was visiting a while with the bunny children, Sammie and Susie, because his own hollow-stump bungalow had burned down.
""Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?"" asked Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, as he strapped his cabbage leaf books together, ready to go to school.
""Oh, I am just going for a little walk,"" answered Uncle Wiggily. ""Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, asked me to get her some court plaster from the five and six cent store, and on my way there I may have an adventure. Who knows?""
""We are going to school,"" said Susie. ""Will you walk part of the way with us, Uncle Wiggily?""
""To be sure I will!"" crowed the old gentleman rabbit, making believe he was Mr. Cock A. Doodle, the rooster.
So Uncle Wiggily, with Sammie and Susie, started off across the snow-covered fields and through the woods. Pretty soon they came to the path the rabbit children must take to go to the hollow-stump school, where the lady mouse teacher would hear their carrot and turnip gnawing lessons.",-0.140159605,0.484275955
4ac78e5c3,,,"The next morning Ethel Hollister walked up to Barnard and put in her application for admittance. The following week upon her first examination she failed, but she entered the class with conditions. The girl studied hard and soon made good.
She liked the girls of her class. They were intelligent, athletic, and agreeable.
Her former friends and companions from La Rue's declared that of late—in fact, since she had become a Camp Fire Girl—Ethel Hollister had developed fads. This Barnard was one. But as Ethel kept on steadily progressing in college, and she was so very young—not yet seventeen—people began to consider her a girl of great ability and intelligence. Mrs. Hollister grew to be proud of hearing her praised on every side and Archibald seemed less worried over money matters. She was rather glad that things had changed. Perhaps it was all for the best, and people would respect them no less.",-1.639353583,0.526015205
6db88f484,,,"Rollo sat down on the chips, and began picking them up, all around him, and throwing them into his basket. He soon filled it up, and then lugged it in, emptied it into the chip-bin, and then returned, and began to fill it again.
He had not got his basket more than half full the second time, before he came upon some very large chips, which were so square and flat, that he thought they would be good to build houses with. He thought he would just try them a little, and began to stand them up in such a manner as to make the four walls of a house. He found, however, an unexpected difficulty; for although the chips were large and square, yet the edges were so sharp that they would not stand up very well.
Some time was spent in trying experiments with them in various ways; but he could not succeed very well; so he began again industriously to put them into his basket.",-0.021926319,0.493182098
5b34bfeeb,,,"The city—which was the original London—is the most ancient. It was founded long before the days of the Romans; so long, in fact, that its origin is wholly unknown. Nor is any thing known in respect to the derivation or meaning of the name. In regard to Westminster, the name is known to come from the word minster, which means cathedral—a cathedral church having been built there at a very early period, and which, lying west of London as it did, was called the West Minster. This church passed through a great variety of mutations during the lapse of successive centuries, having grown old, and been rebuilt, and enlarged, and pulled down, and rebuilt again, and altered, times and ways without number. It is represented in the present age by the venerable monumental pile—the burial-place of the ancient kings, and of the most distinguished nobles, generals, and statesmen of the English monarchy—known through all the world as Westminster Abbey.",-0.965469031,0.558600114
23940648e,,,"By looking at any map of Europe, it will be seen that England is separated from France by the English Channel, a passage which, though it looks quite narrow on the map, is really very wide, especially toward the west. The narrowest place is between Dover and Calais, where the distance across is only about twenty-two miles. This narrow passage is called the Straits of Dover. It would have been very convenient for travellers that have to pass between London and Paris if this strait had happened to lie in the line, or nearly in the line, between these two cities; but it does not. It lies considerably to the eastward of it; so that, to cross the channel at the narrowest part, requires that the traveller should take quite a circuit round. To go by the shortest distance, it is necessary to cross the channel at a place where Dieppe is the harbor, on the French side, and New Haven on the English.",-1.188880582,0.504635379
d28f425f4,,,"The reason why there are so many paintings and sculptures in Italy is this: in the middle ages, it was the fashion, in all the central parts of Europe, for the people to spend almost all their surplus money in building and decorating churches. Indeed, there was then very little else that they could do. At the present time, people invest their funds, as fast as they accumulate them, in building ships and railroads, docks for the storage of merchandise, houses and stores in cities, to let for the sake of the rent, and country seats, or pretty private residences of various kinds, for themselves. But in the middle ages very little could be done in the way of investments like these. There were no railroads, and there was very little use for ships. There was no profit to be gained by building houses and stores, for there were so many wars and commotions among the people of the different towns and kingdoms, that nothing was stable or safe.",-0.267158712,0.475104038
76e040fd0,,,"The diligences in France are very large, and are divided into different compartments, with a different price for each. There are usually three compartments below and one above. In the Italian diligences, however, or at least in the one in which Mr. George and Rollo travelled to Rome, there were only three. First there was the interior, or the body of the coach proper. Directly before this was a compartment, with a glass front, containing one seat only, which looked forward; there were, of course, places for three persons on this seat. This front compartment is called the coupé. It is considered the best in the diligence.
There is also a seat up above the coupé, in a sort of second story, as it were; and this was the seat which Mr. George and Rollo usually preferred, because it was up high, where they could see better. But for the present journey Mr. George thought the high seat, which is called the banquette, would not be quite safe; for though it was covered above with a sort of chaise top, still it was open in front, and thus more exposed to the night air.",-2.363743905,0.480976693
c9db496d2,,,"Geneva is situated upon the confines of France, Switzerland, and Sardinia, at the outlet of the Lake of Geneva, which is perhaps the most beautiful, and certainly the most celebrated, lake in Switzerland. It is shaped like a crescent,—that is, like the new moon, or rather like the moon after it is about four or five days old. The lower end of the lake—that is, the end where Geneva is situated—lies in a comparatively open country, though vast ranges of lofty mountains, some of them covered with perpetual snow, are to be seen in the distance all around. All the country near, however, at this end of the lake, is gently undulating, and it is extremely fertile and beautiful. There are a great many elegant country seats along the shore of the lake, and on the banks of the River Rhone, which flows out of it. The waters of the lake at this end, and of the river which issues from it, are very clear, and of a deep and beautiful blue color.",-1.542314527,0.481113463
2b58c6708,,,"In thus watching, Rollo observed that from time to time a name was called by one of the clerks behind the desk, and then some of the persons waiting on the seats would rise and go to the place. After stopping there a few minutes, he would take his passport and carry it into an inner room to another desk, where something was done to it. Then he would bring it out to another place, where it was stamped once or twice by a man who seemed to have nothing else to do but to stamp every body's passport when they came out. By watching this process in the case of the others, Rollo knew exactly what to do when his name was called; so that, in about half an hour from the time that he went into the office, he had the satisfaction of coming out and getting into his carriage with the passports all in order for the journey to Switzerland.",-0.4144323,0.457553559
00ff70835,,,"""Well, here it's the fourth day we've been out, and nothing doing yet, Frank!""
Bob spoke gloomily, as though the unsuccessful search was beginning to pall upon him a little. Boys' natures differ so much; and while the young Kentuckian had many fine qualities that his chum admired, still he was not so persistent as Frank.
Nothing could ever daunt the boy from Circle Ranch. Difficulties, he believed, were only thrown in his way to bring out the better parts of his nature. The more a fellow found himself ""up against it,"" as Frank called meeting trouble half-way, the stronger became his character.
""Oh! well, now, Bob, I wouldn't say that,"" he answered the complaint of his chum. ""Just think what tremendous progress we've been making right along. And if the very worst comes, didn't Charley Moi say that it was only a week now before he must get another stock of things to eat, and won't he have to wait at the place of meeting, for the 'learned sahib' to appear, and take them from him, as he has done so often? Why, we can be in hiding nearby, and meet the professor, even against his will.""",-0.9595909,0.458528003
dcb44d2a8,,,"At a word from his master the well trained Buckskin doubled up, and lay down on the ground. Most cowboy ponies are taught to do this trick by their masters, and it is in common use; so that the punchers believe it is a poor animal that has not learned to roll over and play dead on occasion.
Bob, too, managed to induce his mount to do the same thing; but to make it absolutely certain that no unwise flounder on the part of Domino might betray them, he sat upon the horse's head, soothing him by little pats on his glossy hide.
""I hear 'em coming,"" announced Frank, presently.
The sounds reached him against the wind, so that it was quite natural to believe the approaching horses must by now be very close. There was a confused pounding that could only spring from a large body of animals. The trained ear of Frank caught a significance in the clash of hoofs that told him much more than Bob was able to make out.",-1.650243264,0.505781202
bcd803279,,,"Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbors; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. How thorough she was at bath-time, and up at any moment of the night if one of her charges made the slightest cry. Of course her kennel was in the nursery. She had a genius for knowing when a cough is a thing to have no patience with and when it needs stocking around your throat.",-0.983660168,0.490213126
c449939c7,,,"A brilliant October morning was just breaking when a final bump of the train ended the none too musical snoring of Slim Goodwin and he came to a sitting posture, his first yawn almost instantly to give way to an exclamation of surprise.
It was strange scenery he was gazing upon, and for the moment he had forgotten where he was. The grinning faces of Joe and Jerry, whom he had awakened half an hour before with his sawmill sleeping serenade, brought him to a realization of his surroundings.
""Where are we?"" he asked, now fully awake.
""I imagine it's Philadelphia,"" answered Joe, ""although I've never been there.""
""Well, let's climb out and see,"" was a suggestion from Jerry which found ready response in the other two; and a moment later, while half the passengers were still asleep, they were investigating the mysteries of Washington Avenue, near Broad Street, in the Quaker City.",-0.511124158,0.481185783
488cc7730,,,"Perhaps he did not see the lark for a long time, but he would have heard him, far out of sight in the endless sky, thrilling and thrilling until the world seemed to have no other sound but that clear sweetness; and what a world it was to make that sound! Whistles and chirps, coos and caws and croaks, would have grown familiar to him. And he could at last have told which brother of the great brotherhood was making the noise he heard at any moment. The wind too: he would have listened to its thousand voices as it moved in all seasons and in all moods. Perhaps a horse would stray into the thick screen about his home, and would look as solemnly on Fionn as Fionn did on it. Or, coming suddenly on him, the horse might stare, all a-cock with eyes and ears and nose, one long-drawn facial extension, ere he turned and bounded away with manes all over him and hoofs all under him and tails all round him.",-1.733871706,0.461875329
df4390e2a,,,"Probably none of the Camp Fire Girls had ever been so surprised in their lives as when they heard the object of this utterly unexpected visit. Marcia's eyes were rather blurred while she was speaking, and anyone could see that it was a hard task she had assumed.
It is never easy to confess that one has been in the wrong, and it was particularly hard for these girls, whose whole campaign against the Camp Fire party had been based on pride and a false sense of their own superiority, which, of course, had existed only in their imaginations.
For a moment no one seemed to know what to do or say. Strangely enough, it was Dolly, who had resented the previous attitude of the rich girls more than any of her companions, who found by instinct the true solution.
She didn't say a word; she simply ran forward impulsively and threw her arms about Marcia's neck. Then, and not till then, as she kissed the friend with whom she had quarreled, did she find words.",0.164394991,0.498700329
fb3c9e614,,,"""I never dreamed of such a lovely room, Zara, did you?""
Bessie King, her eyes open with admiration and wonder, asked her chum the question in a room in the home of Eleanor Mercer, Guardian of the Manasquan Camp Fire, of the Camp Fire Girls. Both the girls were new members of the organization, and Bessie, who had lived all her life in the country, and had known nothing of the luxuries and comforts that girls in the city, or the luckier ones of them, at least, take almost as a matter of course, had found something new to astonish her in almost every hour since they had come to the city.
""I've dreamed of it—yes,"" said Zara. ""You see I've been in the city before, Bessie; and I've seen houses like this, and I've guessed that the rooms inside must be something like this, though I never lived in one. It's beautiful.""
""I almost wish we were going to stay here, Zara. But I suppose it will be nice when we go to the farm.""",-0.654382262,0.469728867
13009a21b,,,"The Meadow-Brook girl did not dare to go on and enter the secret channel for fear of exposing the hiding place of the houseboat. She was watching for some other nook into which to drive her boat. In case her pursuers discovered her, she determined to jump out and make her escape as best she could, leaving the boat on the beach. Then a sudden idea occurred to her.
Harriet picked up a tin dipper that lay in the boat and that had been used for bailing. This she hurled as far out in the lake as she could throw it. The dipper fell with a splash that was plainly heard both by herself and those in the pursuing boat.
""Out there he is!"" cried a voice in the other boat. She heard the pursuers head out. Harriet took advantage of the opportunity to move her rowboat ahead a few rods. She then turned it sharply to the shore. The girl was fortunate in being able to find cover in the overhanging foliage, behind which she took refuge.",0.342018224,0.480831795
8ddf679c7,,,"That night after the lights had been extinguished, Harriet lay for a long, long time, thinking over the events of the evening, beginning with the Council Fire and ending with the little scene that had taken place in their tent. What should she do? What was the honest course to pursue? The girl was unable to decide. She did make up her mind, however, to consult with Miss Elting on the following morning.
After breakfast at the first opportunity she went in search of Miss Elting, but learned that the guardian in company with another of the camp officials had started out with Jasper to go to ""The Pines,"" a summer watering place in the woods, some ten miles from Camp Wau-Wau. This summer resort was reached by a state road entering the woods from another direction, but the two young women had taken the log road as being the most direct.",0.099996638,0.505325503
d45241a96,,,"It was really marvelous that the girls were able to work such a transformation in themselves in so short a time. In the few moments that had been left to them they had rearranged their hair, brushed the dirt of the plowed field from their clothing and washed their faces and hands. It was really a jolly dinner, too, for the good-natured guest kept them all laughing with his humorous stories and odd remarks. He was so much like his daughter Jane that they had no need to be reminded of the relationship.
""This has been a day of excitement, hasn't it?"" remarked one of the guardians to Miss Elting. ""Buried treasure, automobile wrecks, visitors, mysterious strangers. Gracious me! What are the Camp Girls coming to?""
""I don't know. Did Mr. McCarthy say what the surprise is that he has in store for the girls? I thought perhaps he might have said something about it during our absence on that automobile ride.""",-0.109608482,0.486299499
238a684ff,,,"The Monday after the walking expedition, Grace Harlowe set out for school full of an idea that had been revolving in her busy brain for weeks. The time had come for herself and for her three chums to bind themselves together as a sorority. As charter members, they would initiate four other girls, as soon as proper rites could be thought of. It should be a Greek letter society. Grace thought ""Phi Sigma Tau"" would sound well. Aside from the social part, their chief object would be to keep a watchful eye open for girls in school who needed assistance of any sort.
Mrs. Gray's anxiety over Eleanor Savell had set the bee in Grace's bonnet buzzing, and now her plans were practically perfected. All that remained to be done was to tell her three friends, and consult them as to what other four girls would be eligible to membership.",-0.360293826,0.483424258
3b1faa196,,,"The first two weeks at Overton glided by with amazing swiftness. There was so much to be done in the way of arranging one's recitations, buying or renting one's books and accustoming one's self to the routine of college life that Grace and her friends could scarcely spare the time to write their home letters. There were twenty-four girls at Wayne Hall. With the exception of four sophomores the house was given up to freshmen. Grace thought them all delightful, and in her whole-souled, generous fashion made capital of their virtues and remained blind to their shortcomings. There had been a number of jolly gatherings in Mrs. Elwood's living room, at which quantities of fudge and penuchi were made and eaten and mere acquaintances became fast friends.
The week following their arrival a dance had been given in the gymnasium in honor of the freshmen. The whole college had turned out at this strictly informal affair, and the upperclass girls had taken particular pains to see that the freshmen were provided with partners and had a good time generally.",-1.717180244,0.516008691
74c83ad4a,,,"The summer sun, streaming intimately in at the window of her room, and touching her hair with warm, awakening fingers, caused Grace to open her eyes before six o'clock the next morning. She lay looking about her, unable for the moment to remember where she was. Then she laughed and reaching for her kimono, which hung folded across the footboard of the bed, slipped it on, and, thrusting her feet into her bedroom slippers, went to the window.
""Dear old Overton Hall,"" she murmured, her eyes fixed lovingly on the stately gray tower of the building that she had come to regard as a close friend. Again she found herself overwhelmed by a tide of reminiscences. How many times she and Anne had stood at the self-same window, arm in arm, gazing out at the self-same sights. She could see the very seat at the foot of the big tree where she had sat the day Emma Dean had poked her head about the big syringa bush and mournfully handed her the letter from Ruth Denton's father which had been buried in the pocket of Emma's coat for so many weeks.",-0.647403626,0.468969396
b61a1b4dd,,,"Hippy tried to recall what had happened to him. He remembered riding along the trail; remembered the good-natured teasing of the Overland girls, then all at once consciousness was blotted out. He had a faint recollection of being jolted, which probably was when he was being carried away on a horse, but that was the extent of his recollections. He did know that his head hurt him terribly and that it felt twice its natural size. His throat was parched from thirst, but Lieutenant Wingate declared to himself that he would die rather than ask a favor of the ruffian there who was guarding him.
Shortly after dark Hippy heard voices outside the cave; then two men came in, jerked him to his feet and, dragging him out, threw him over the back of a pony just ahead of the saddle, as if he were a bag of meal. When the rider mounted, Hippy was placed right side up on the saddle, his companion sitting behind him on the horse's back.",-0.286247192,0.482057071
dd54ca86d,,,"While this was being done, Tom selected the camp site; then cut and set four poles, the rear pair lower than the front, and across these he laid ridge poles. When the spruce boughs were brought in they were placed on top of the framework thus erected, and in a few moments the roof was on. The ends of the lean-to were closed by hanging spruce boughs over them. The roof boughs were all laid in the same direction, butts towards the front, tops towards the rear.
This accomplished, a little green house had appeared like magic, but it was not yet complete. Spruce boughs were brought and spread over the ground under the lean-tos to the depth of about a foot, all laid one way, smooth and springy and so sweetly odorous that the air in the little house seemed intoxicating.
Emma Dean dove in headfirst.
""Stop that! This house is not intended to be a rough-house,"" protested Hippy, coming up at this juncture with an armful of boughs.",-0.212790721,0.491935929
dac1a1d1a,,,"The three girls ran lightly out of the basement of the fine old building that was the pride of Oakdale. It was large and imposing, built of smooth, gray stone, with four huge columns supporting the front portico. A hundred yards away stood the companion building, the Boys' High School, exactly like the first in every respect except that a wing had been added for a gymnasium which the girls had the privilege of using on certain days. A wide campus surrounded the two buildings, shaded by elm and oak trees. Certainly no other town in the state could boast of twin high schools as fine as these; and especially did the situation appeal to the people of Oakdale, for the ten level acres surrounding the two buildings gave ample space for the various athletic fields, and the doings of the high schools formed the very life of the place.",0.33573749,0.494981054
e3c48fb3f,,,"The juniors themselves hardly felt the weight of their punishment more than did Grace Harlowe. Her heart was set on winning every basketball game of the series. But she wished to win fairly and honestly. Now, that the juniors had been forbidden the use of the gymnasium, the sophomores might practice there to their heart's content. But was that fair? To be sure the juniors had deserved their punishment, but what kind of basketball could they play after having had no practice for two weeks? Besides, Julia Crosby blamed her for telling what had occurred in the gymnasium. She had gone to Julia, earnestly avowing innocence, but Julia had only laughed at her and refused to listen.
All this passed rapidly through Grace's mind as she walked toward the High School several mornings later. Something must be done, but what she hardly knew. The game could be postponed, but Grace felt that the other girls would not care to postpone it. They were heartily glad that the junior team had come to grief, and showed no sympathy for them.",0.434447474,0.518438422
c0f9a68c4,,,"Mrs. Stanhope occupied her paternal home on the banks of the Rhine. She had married an English-man when very young, and had lived in England until his death, when she returned to the home of her childhood, unoccupied since the death of her parents, bringing with her two little children, the brown-eyed Philo, and his delicate, fair-haired sister, Nora. The faithful Clarissa, who had taken care of Mrs. Stanhope in her childhood and who had accompanied her to her foreign home, loved these children as if they were her own. The little family had now lived several years in this beautiful house on the Rhine; a very peaceful and regular life it was, one day like another; for the children were delicate and could bear no exciting pleasures. Two years ago a heavy sorrow dropped its dark shadow over the household. Little Philo closed his dark eyes forever, and was laid to rest under the old linden-tree in the garden, where the roses bloomed all summer long. Nora, who was only a year younger than her brother, was now in her eleventh year.",-0.921552869,0.48031881
ac7b567bf,,,"Martha knew well enough that she had to remind her little friend about returning, for often time had been forgotten and Cornelli had had to be sent for. But now the little girl began to run swiftly down the incline beside the rushing stream. Soon she came to the large buildings from which the sound of hissing fires, loud thumping and hammering could be heard all day. The noise was so great that only the roaring of the stream could drown it. Here were the works of the great iron foundry, well known far and wide, since most of those who lived in the neighborhood found employment there.
Glancing at the large doors and seeing that they were closed, Cornelli flew by them with great bounds. In an isolated house, well raised above the stream, lived the proprietor of the foundry. Beautiful flower gardens were on three sides.
Cornelli approached the open space in front and was soon inside. Flinging her hat into a corner, she entered the room where her father was already sitting at table.",-1.2931679,0.45303645
0fa8b8d18,,,"In spite of all the grandmother's trouble and work, the years passed so quickly to her, that one day when she began to reckon she discovered that Sami must be fully seven years old. Then she thought it was really time that he learned something. But suddenly to send the boy to a French school when he didn't understand a word of French seemed dreadful to her, for he would be as helpless as a chicken in water. She would rather try, as well as she possibly could, to teach him herself to read. She thought it would be very hard but it went quite easily. In a short time, the youngster knew all his letters, and could even put words together quite well. That something could be made out of this which he could understand and which he did not know before was very amusing to him, and he sat over his reading-book with great eagerness.",0.286467351,0.510116565
fe497d6b6,,,"Many days had passed like this, one exactly the same as the other. The sun had always shone in a cloudless sky; always at evening the friendly little star had gleamed above the dark mountain. But one afternoon, thick, gray clouds began to chase one another across the sky; now and then blinding lightning flashed, and suddenly frightful thunder-bolts sounded, which echoed roaring from the mountains, as if there were twice as many and then a terrible storm broke. It was as dark as night; the rain beat against the hut, and meanwhile the thunder rolled with fearful reverberations through the mountains; quivering lightning lighted up the black, frightful giant-forms, which seemed quite specter-like to come nearer and look down menacingly. The cattle ran together in alarm and bellowed loudly, and great birds of prey flapped around with piercing shrieks.",-1.00850791,0.447124829
8729ce308,,,"Sally ran with a joyous heart, first through the garden, then away over the meadow and down the hill as far as the fir wood, where the dry road lay for a long stretch in the shade. Here Sally slackened her pace a little. It was so beautiful to walk along in shade of the trees, where above in their tops the wind rustled so delightfully and all the birds sang in confusion. She also had to consider how she would arrange her calls, whether she would go first to Kaetheli or to Marianne; but this time old Marianne had a stronger attraction than Kaetheli and Sally felt that she must go there first and give her message. Now her thoughts fell on the strange people and she had to imagine how they looked and what she was going to say, and what they would say when she knocked and asked for Marianne. Thus she thought everything well out, for Sally had a great power of imagining things.",-0.435472611,0.520555003
bd531e0d9,,,"Kurt now ran away, too, but in the opposite direction, where he had discovered his mother. She was standing before a rose bush from which she was cutting faded blossoms and twigs. Kurt was glad to find his mother busy with work which did not occupy her thoughts, as he often longed for such an opportunity without success. Whenever he was eager to discuss his special problems thoroughly and without being interrupted, his young brother and sister were sure to intrude with their questions, or the two elder children needed her advice at the same moment. So Kurt rushed into the garden to take advantage of this unusual opportunity. But today again he was not destined to have his object fulfilled. Before he reached his mother, a woman approached her from the other side, and both entered immediately into a lively conversation. If it had been somebody else than his special old friend Mrs. Apollonie, Kurt would have felt very angry indeed. But this woman had gained great distinction in Kurt's eyes by being well acquainted with the old caretaker of the castle; so he always had a hope of hearing from her many things that were happening there.",-0.620368143,0.458523272
02042361f,,,"Fred was not at all afraid, as a matter of fact, as he set out. Before he had stepped across the mark that stood for the border he had been hugely depressed. He had been friendless and alone. He had been worse than friendless, indeed, since the only man for many miles about who knew him was his bitter enemy. Now he had found that he could still inspire a man like Ernst with belief in his truthfulness and honesty, and the knowledge did him a lot of good. And then, of course, he had another excellent reason for not being afraid. He was entirely ignorant of the particular dangers that were ahead of him. He had no conception at all of what lay before him, and it does not require bravery not to fear a danger the very existence of which one is entirely without knowledge.",-0.448780834,0.46250992
b25ad4c02,,,"Their inspection of the Southern Cross completed, the delighted boys accompanied Captain Hazzard back to the main cabin, where he unfolded before them a huge chart of the polar regions.
The chart was traced over in many places with tiny red lines which made zig-zags and curves over the blankness of the region south of the eightieth parallel.
""These lines mark the points reached by different explorers,"" explained the captain. ""See, here is Scott's furthest south, and here the most recent advance into south polar regions, that of Sir Ernest Shackleton. In my opinion Shackleton might have reached his goal if he had used a motor sledge, capable of carrying heavy weights, and not placed his sole dependence on ponies.""
The boys nodded; Frank had read the explorer's narrative and realized that what Captain Hazzard said was in all probability correct.",-0.479415332,0.523135367
7d713e437,,,"The lad went away with the can to the well, and filled it with water, and then came away home again; but the can being broken, the most part of the water had run out before he got back. So his cake was very small; yet small as it was, his mother asked him if he was willing to take the half of it with her blessing, telling him that, if he chose rather to take the whole, he would only get it with her curse. The young man, thinking he might have to travel a far way, and not knowing when or how he might get other provisions, said he would like to have the whole cake, come of his mother's malison what like; so she gave him the whole cake, and her malison along with it. Then he took his brother aside, and gave him a knife to keep till he should come back, desiring him to look at it every morning, and as long as it continued to be clear, then he might be sure that the owner of it was well; but if it grew dim and rusty, then for certain some ill had befallen him.",-2.076771965,0.494743606
46c598b5f,,,"Out of the hall stepped the Piper, and as he stepped he laid his pipe to his lips and a shrill keen tune sounded through street and house. And as each note pierced the air you might have seen a strange sight. For out of every hole the rats came tumbling. There were none too old and none too young, none too big and none too little to crowd at the Piper's heels and with eager feet and upturned noses to patter after him as he paced the streets. Nor was the Piper unmindful of the little toddling ones, for every fifty yards he'd stop and give an extra flourish on his pipe just to give them time to keep up with the older and stronger of the band.
Up Silver Street he went, and down Gold Street, and at the end of Gold Street is the harbour and the broad Solent beyond. And as he paced along, slowly and gravely, the townsfolk flocked to door and window, and many a blessing they called down upon his head.",-1.303200077,0.519508815
4f9cb89a9,,,"Donald had made a pretty, polished shelf, and screwed it on the outside of the foot-board, and the boys always kept this full of blooming plants, which they changed from time to time; the head-board, too, had a bracket on either side, where there were pots of maiden-hair ferns.
Love-birds and canaries hung in their golden houses in the windows, and they, poor caged things, could hop as far from their wooden perches as Carol could venture from her little white bed.
On one side of the room was a bookcase filled with hundreds—yes, I mean it—with hundreds and hundreds of books; books with gay-colored pictures, books without; books with black and white outline sketches, books with none at all; books with verses, books with stories; books that made children laugh, and some, only a few, that made them cry; books with words of one syllable for tiny boys and girls, and books with words of fearful length to puzzle wise ones.",-0.507022287,0.460456691
4e809bc06,,,"Then how busily they began their work! They had already chosen the place for their nest, springing up and down in the boughs till they found a branch far out of sight of snakes and hawks and cruel tabby cats, high out of reach of naughty small boys with their sling-shots, and now everything was ready for these small carpenters to begin their building. No hammer and nails were needed, claw and bill were all the tools they used, and yet what beautiful carpenter work was theirs!
Do you see how strongly the nest is tied on to those three slender twigs, and how carefully and closely it is woven, so that you can scarcely pull it apart? Those wiry black hairs holding all the rest together were dropped from Prince Charming's tail (Prince Charming is the pretty saddle-horse who crops his grass, under the willow-tree). Those sleek brown hairs belonged to Dame Margery, the gentle mooly cow, who lives with her little calf Pet in the stable with Prince Charming; and there is a shining yellow spot on one side.",-0.824196587,0.483423737
10b636b8f,,,"At this moment a large, comfortable white house, that had been heretofore hidden by great trees, came into view. Timothy drew nearer to the spotless picket fence, and gazed upon the beauties of the side yard and the front garden,—gazed and gazed, and fell desperately in love at first sight.
The whole thing had been made as if to order; that is all there is to say about it. There was an orchard, and, oh, ecstasy! what hosts of green apples! There was an interesting grindstone under one tree, and a bright blue chair and stool under another; a thicket of currant and gooseberry bushes; and a flock of young turkeys ambling awkwardly through the barn. Timothy stepped gently along in the thick grass, past a pump and a mossy trough, till a side porch came into view, with a woman sitting there sewing bright-colored rags. A row of shining tin pans caught the sun's rays, and threw them back in a thousand glittering prisms of light; the grasshoppers and crickets chirped sleepily in the warm grass, and a score of tiny yellow butterflies hovered over a group of odorous hollyhocks.",-0.516231689,0.481176482
464cd0f3c,,,"It is a market night, and the streets will be a moving mass of men and women buying at the hucksters' stalls. Everything that can be sold at a stall is there: fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, crockery, tin-ware, children's clothing, cheap toys, boots, shoes, and sun-bonnets, all in reckless confusion. The vendors cry their wares in stentorian tones, vying with one another to produce excitement and induce patronage, while gas-jets are streaming into the air from the roofs and flaring from the sides of the stalls; children crying, children dancing to the strains of an accordion, children quarrelling, children scrambling for the refuse fruit. In the midst of this spectacle, this din and uproar, the women are chaffering and bargaining quite calmly, watching the scales to see that they get their full pennyworth or sixpennyworth of this or that. To the student of faces, of manners, of voices, of gestures; to the person who sees unwritten and unwritable stories in all these groups of men, women, and children, the scene reveals many things: some comedies, many tragedies, a few plain narratives (thank God!) and now and then—only now and then—a romance.",-1.734927169,0.471306007
fe6abf2d5,,,"And the river rolled on toward the sea, singing its morning song, creating and nourishing beauty at every step of its onward path. Cradled in the heart of a great mountain-range, it pursued its gleaming way, here lying silent in glassy lakes, there rushing into tinkling little falls, foaming great falls, and thundering cataracts. Scores of bridges spanned its width, but no steamers flurried its crystal depths. Here and there a rough little rowboat, tethered to a willow, rocked to and fro in some quiet bend of the shore. Here the silver gleam of a rising perch, chub, or trout caught the eye; there a pickerel lay rigid in the clear water, a fish carved in stone: here eels coiled in the muddy bottom of some pool; and there, under the deep shadows of the rocks, lay fat, sleepy bass, old, and incredibly wise, quite untempted by, and wholly superior to, the rural fisherman's worm.",-1.679017079,0.470215735
7a85d51a0,,,"At the Thanksgiving sociable some one had observed her turquoise engagement ring,—some one who said that such a hand was worthy of a diamond, that turquoises were a pretty color, but that there was only one stone for an engagement ring, and that was a diamond. At the Christmas dance the same some one had said that her waltzing would make her ""all the rage"" in Boston. She wondered if it were true, and wondered whether, if she had not promised to marry Stephen, some splendid being from a city would have descended from his heights, bearing diamonds in his hand. Not that she would have accepted them; she only wondered. These disloyal thoughts came seldom, and she put them resolutely away, devoting herself with all the greater assiduity to her muslin curtains and ruffled pillow-shams. Stephen, too, had his momentary pangs. There were times when he could calm his doubts only by working on the little house. The mere sight of the beloved floors and walls and ceilings comforted his heart, and brought him good cheer.",-0.969682171,0.464170253
fca71161c,,,"Gently Musai plucked out the arrow and helped the bird to rise, pushing back the undergrowth so that its broad white pinions could have free play. After a few feeble attempts to fly it spread its wings, rose up from the earth, and after circling several times round its benefactor as though to thank him, it flew off to the mountain.
Musai went back to his work, hoping that in season his labor would yield a good crop. He had his widowed mother to support and must needs toil every day. His one delight was to come home, weary after the long hours of labour in the muddy rice field, and have a hot bath. This his mother always had ready for him. Then, clean and with a fresh kimono, and a little rest before supper-time, he was ready for a quiet evening with the neighbours.",-0.51751712,0.490613967
49d980e1a,,,"The Hare, one day, laughing at the Tortoise for his slowness and
general unwieldiness, was challenged by the latter to run a race. The Hare, looking on the whole affair as a great joke, consented, and the Fox was selected to act as umpire and hold the stakes.
The rivals started, and the Hare, of course, soon left the Tortoise far behind. Having come midway to the goal, she began to play about, nibble the young herbage, and amuse herself in many ways. The day being warm, she even thought she would take a little nap in a shady spot, as, if the Tortoise should pass her while she slept, she could easily overtake him again before he reached the end.
The Tortoise meanwhile plodded on, unwavering and unresting, straight toward the goal.
The Hare, having overslept herself, started up from her nap, and was surprised to find that the Tortoise was nowhere in sight. Off she went at full speed, but on reaching the winning-post found that the Tortoise was already there, waiting for her arrival!",0.293242284,0.473575891
59db21dca,,,"They were seated along the edge of the lake, six girls and their two visitors. The water was a still, dim blue reflection of the sky with one deep shadow from the hill of pines. Away from the hill and the lake stood the forest of beechwood trees.
In an open space on a little rise of ground half within, half without the forest, lay the summer camp of the Girl Scouts of the Eagle's Wing.
A little brown house built of logs was almost entirely covered with vines, a tangle of woodbine and honeysuckle and wisteria. Only from the windows and the door had the vines been cut away. The house looked extremely ancient, older than the slender beeches that formed a semicircle to the rear and left. Beyond the door, thick with deep green shade on this midsummer morning, towered a single giant beech which appeared to have moved out a few yards from its forest shelter to act as a sentinel for the log cabin.",-0.509803903,0.482884797
3d608fc1c,,,"It was the first Saturday of the regular fall term at Miss Allen's Boarding School. The girls were back again in their old places—all except the seniors of the previous year, who had graduated—and now the sophomores were preparing for the first social event of the year, their reception to the freshmen. Marjorie Wilkinson was chairman.
The clock struck seven, and she stood perfectly still in the center of the floor, viewing the result of their work. The bare, ugly gymnasium had disappeared; in its place was a little winter scene from fairyland. Cedar branches, decked with flakes of artificial snow, and great white snowbanks, completely hid the walls from view. Spread over the floor, except for a space in the middle reserved for dancing, were pine needles and more patches of snow; and everywhere frosty tinsel glimmered in the soft, blue light of the covered electric bulbs.
The girls walked lightly and spoke softly, as if they feared that by some rude noise they might break the magic spell of the scene.",0.558974921,0.528967977
63ef1ca08,,,"Two weeks had passed since graduation and our Motor Maids were just beginning to feel the results of their hard winter's work. It had been a tough pull to catch up with their classes after the return from Japan. There had been no gayeties for them during the Christmas holidays, only continuous hard study, and for weeks afterwards Billie and Nancy and Elinor were tutored every afternoon. Mary Price, the best student of the three, had outstripped them, and in the end had carried off first honors and a scholarship besides. But after the excitement of finals, the four friends had collapsed like pricked balloons. Billie, mortified at what she considered a weakness in her character, had not been able to throw off a deep cold contracted in the spring. Mary Price was limp and white; Elinor had grown mortally thin, and even Nancy had lost her roundness, and her usually plump face was peaked and pale.
""My child needs mountain air!"" said Mr. Campbell on one of his flying trips to West Haven. ""She must not be in a hotel, and she must have her friends with her.""",-1.134066623,0.492871531
734441146,,,"He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his life had he seen a river before—this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver—glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spell-bound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.",-1.501889929,0.448447136
530e61a52,,,"The next afternoon, to the surprise of both Primrose and Daisy, Noel arrived. Daisy greeted her Prince with rapture, but refused to hear any particulars of Dove's trial.
""I want to forget him,"" she said. ""You say he is in the dungeon now. I don't want to think of it. If I think of it long I shall begin to be so sorry for him.""
""We will talk of something better and pleasanter,"" said Noel. ""How soon are you coming back to your Palace Beautiful, little Princess?""
Daisy looked anxiously across the room at Primrose. Primrose was bending over some needlework, and a ray of sunlight was shining on her fair head. She did not raise her eyes or respond in any way to the little sister's glance.
""We did think of coming back to Miss Egerton's in the autumn,"" said Daisy, ""but last night Primrose—May I tell, Primrose?""
Primrose put down her work suddenly and came up to where Noel and Daisy were sitting.",-1.012393435,0.464007306
d95fba12a,,,"Mrs Franklin earned the family bread by taking in lodgers. She was far more active than her husband, who had a very small clerkship in the city; without her aid the children, Peter and Flossy, could scarcely have lived, but by dint of toiling from morning to night, of saving every penny, of turning and returning worn-out clothes, and scrubbing and cooking and brushing and cleaning, Mrs Franklin contrived to make two ends meet. Her lodgers said that the rooms they occupied were clean and neat, that their food was well cooked, and above all things that the house was quiet. Therefore they stayed on; year after year the same people lived in the parlours, and occupied the genteel drawing-room floor; and hard as her lot was, Mrs Franklin considered herself a lucky woman, and her neighbours often envied her.",-0.049400525,0.463952213
9b3213b77,,,"Priscilla was tall and slight. Her figure was younger than her years, which were nearly nineteen, but her face was older. It was an almost careworn face, thoughtful, grave, with anxious lines already deepening the seriousness of the too serious mouth.
Priscilla cut some bread and butter and poured out some tea for her aunt and for herself.
Miss Rachel Peel was not the least like her niece. She was short and rather dumpy. She had a sensible, downright sort of face, and she took life with a gravity which would have oppressed a less earnest spirit than Priscilla's.
""Well, I'm tired,"" she said, when the meal was over. ""I suppose I've done a great deal more than I thought I had all day. I think I'll go to bed early. We have said all our last words, haven't we, Priscilla?""
""Pretty nearly, Aunt Raby.""
""Oh, yes, that reminds me— there's one thing more. Your fees will be all right, of course, and your traveling, and I have arranged about your washing money.""
""Yes, Aunt Raby, oh, yes; everything is all right.""
Priscilla fidgeted, moved her position a little and looked longingly out of the window.",-0.32165293,0.483931625
e989a8d0a,,,"Squire O'Shanaghgan was a tall, powerfully built man, with deep-set eyes and rugged, overhanging brows; his hair was of a grizzled gray, very thick and abundant; he had a shaggy beard, too, and a long overhanging mustache. He entered the north parlor still more noisily than Nora had done. The dogs yelped with delight, and flung themselves upon him.
""Down, Creena! down, Cushla!"" he said. ""Ah, then, Nora, they are as bewitching as yourself, little woman. What beauties they are growing, to be sure!""
""I reared them,"" said Nora. ""I am proud of them both. At one time I thought Creena could not live; but look at her now—her coat as black as jet, and so silky.""
""Shut the door, won't you, Patrick?"" said his wife.
""Bless me! I forgot,"" said the Squire. He crossed the room, and, with an effort after quietness, closed the door with one foot; then he seated himself by his wife's side.
""Better, Eileen?"" he said, looking at her anxiously.",-0.739089228,0.502309232
6e48a64ea,,,"She gazed on a lovely scene, composed of woodland, river, and gently sloping meadows and lawns. Exactly opposite her eyes was a paddock, and in the paddock the two colts which had just been sold were contentedly grazing. As Mrs. Lorrimer stood and looked out, a girl was seen to enter the paddock and go swiftly up to the colts, calling their names as she did so. They both came to her immediately. She threw an arm round the neck of one, while she fed them in turn with carrots and apples which she had in her apron. She was a slightly-made girl, with dark hair and a sallow face. Her hair hung heavily about her shoulders. She might have been ten years old, but looked younger.
""There's Nell,"" said the mother. ""I am sorry the colts are going, she has always made such pets of them. I never saw her take to any creatures before as she has done to those two, and they'll follow her anywhere like lambs. I'm sorry you've got to sell them, Guy.""",0.145040213,0.464971587
a20b7c831,,,"Mr. Graham always spoke of his wife's dressing-room as ""the citadel."" It was absolutely impregnable, he said. In the open field of the drawing-room or the broken country of the dining-room it might be possible—he had never known such a thing to occur, but still it might be possible—for the commander-in-chief to sustain a defeat; but once intrenched behind the walls of the citadel, horse, foot, and dragoons might storm and charge upon her, but they could not gain an inch. Not an inch, sir! True it was that Mrs. Graham always felt strongest in this particular room. She laughed about it, but acknowledged the fact. Here, on the wall, hung a certain picture which was always an inspiration to her. Here, on the shelf above her desk, were the books of her heart, the few tried friends to whom she turned for help and counsel when things puzzled her.",-0.848789922,0.469961172
deb3d08da,,,"Miss Wealthy Bond was a very pretty old lady, and was very well aware of the fact, having been told so during seventy years. ""The Lord made me pleasant to look at,"" she was wont to say, ""and it is a great privilege, my dear; but it is also a responsibility."" She had lovely, rippling silver hair, and soft blue eyes, and a complexion like a girl's. She had put on today, for the first time, her summer costume,—a skirt and jacket of striped white dimity, open a little at the neck, with a kerchief of soft white net inside. This kerchief was fastened with quite the prettiest brooch that ever was,—a pansy, made of five deep, clear amethysts, set in a narrow rim of chased gold. Miss Wealthy always wore this brooch; for in winter it harmonized as well with her gown of lilac cashmere as it did in summer with the white dimity.",-0.697840222,0.475769039
8fe4635e5,,,"The house was yellow, the columns white, and the cheerful colours were set off by the dark trees, elms and locusts, that bent over it and almost hid it from the road. A smooth stretch of lawn lay between the house and the hedge, through which Hildegarde and the Colonel had made their observations: a good lawn for tennis, Hildegarde thought. How good it would be to play tennis again! She had been longing for the time when Hugh would be big enough to learn, or when Jack Ferrers, her cousin, would come back from Germany. How surprised Jack would be when she wrote him that the yellow house was inhabited. What friends he might make of those two nice-looking boys, unless he took one of his shy fits, and would have nothing to do with them. Jack was a trying boy, though very dear.",0.125885031,0.463611867
18f1a757f,,,"After losing the trail many times only to stumble into it again and again, and then slipping, sliding, or jolting down the steep side of the mountain where the timber-line ended near the cliff, Eleanor finally recognized the ravine where the cave was located.
""Oh, thank heavens! We're almost there,"" she cried, trying to find the easiest way down to the ledge.
Polly and Anne were sitting before the entrance to the cave, when they heard shouts and saw three weary riders coming along the rocky ledge that led to their refuge.
""Why—it's Nolla and Bob and a man!"" exclaimed Polly, jumping up to run and meet the girls.
""What's wrong—any one hurt?"" cried Anne, the moment she saw the faces of the girls.
Eleanor then told about the forest-fire, and where the men were. The more recent excitement had quite driven the story of Hank and his claim-jumpers from her mind. But Polly anxiously asked for her mother.",-0.012844179,0.499827395
8c6414f2a,,,"Polly was a genuine child of Nature. Her life of little more than fourteen years had been spent in the mountains surrounding her ranch-home, Pebbly Pit. The farm was oddly located in the crater of an extinct volcano, known on the maps as ""The Devil's Grave."" Like many other peaks scattered about in this region of Colorado, the volcanic fires had been dead for centuries.
The outer rim of the crater formed a natural wall about the bowl, and protected the rich and fertile soil of the farm from the desert winds that covered other ranches with its fine alkali dust. The snows in winter, lodging in the crevices of the cliffs, slowly melted during the progress of summer, thus furnishing sufficient moisture for the vegetation growing in the ""bowl""; and this provided splendid pasturage for the herds of cattle owned by the rancher.
When Sam Brewster staked his claim in this crater, his companions jeered at the choice and called the place ""Pebbly Pit."" But the young man had studied agriculture thoroughly and knew what he was doing; then the test made by the government convinced him of this.",-1.170053667,0.464967508
ee18d2160,,,"Immediately following the Captain's shouts, a great hulk loomed up right beside the yacht, and a fearful blow to the rear end of the pleasure craft sent her flying diagonally out of her path, across the water. The collision made her nose dip down dangerously while the stern rose up clear of the waves.
The group seated forwards slid together, and some were thrown from their chairs, but managed to catch hold of the ropes and rail to prevent being thrown overboard.
Polly and Tom, standing, unaware, so near the open gap in the rail, still arm in arm as they had been walking, were thrown violently side-ways and there being nothing at hand to hold to, or to prevent their going over the side, they fell into the dark sea.
Feeling as if the earth had dropped from under her, Polly screamed in terror before her voice was choked with water. Tom instinctively held on to her arm, as he had been doing when the impact of a larger vessel came upon the yacht, and he maintained this grip as they both sank.",0.050397486,0.458277844
0975adfd1,,,"The two young cruisers in the motor boat could not say a single word when these astounding words reached their ears.
Meanwhile the other craft had drawn quickly nearer, and Jack could even make out the fact that the men crowded in her seemed to be in some sort of uniform, for he certainly discovered brass buttons.
Then it was not a joke, nor yet some sort of trick being played by cunning river vagrants in order to catch the boys off their guard.
Jimmie was rubbing his eyes, and muttering to himself, as though he began to believe he might be dreaming.
""Don't think of offering any resistance, you rascals!"" continued the gruff voice in the nearby boat; ""because we're ready to give you a volley. Take hold there, Grogan. Now aboard with you!""
A couple of burly men came sliding into the natty little motor boat. Then lights flashed in the faces of the two astonished occupants.
""Say, they're a couple of boys, Cap!"" exclaimed the man who had grasped hold of Jack, as the glow of his lantern illuminated the face of the skipper of the Tramp.",-1.41812905,0.490450917
c6e6c1fbb,,,"A dog of Flanders—yellow of hide, large of head and limb, with wolf-like ears that stood erect, and legs bowed and feet widened in the muscular development wrought in his breed by many generations of hard service. Patrasche came of a race which had toiled hard and cruelly from sire to son in Flanders many a century—slaves of slaves, dogs of the people, beasts of the shafts and the harness, creatures that lived straining their sinews in the gall of the cart, and died breaking their hearts on the flints of the streets.
Patrasche had been born of parents who had labored hard all their days over the sharp-set stones of the various cities and the long, shadowless, weary roads of the two Flanders and of Brabant. He had been born to no other heritage than those of pain and of toil. He had been fed on curses and baptized with blows. Why not? It was a Christian country, and Patrasche was but a dog. Before he was fully grown he had known the bitter gall of the cart and the collar.",-1.700618764,0.474089523
398de6619,,,"For August, a salt baker's son and a little cow-keeper when he was anything, was a dreamer of dreams, and when he was upon the high alps with his cattle, with the stillness and the sky around him, was quite certain that he would live for greater things than driving the herds up when the springtide came among the blue sea of gentians, or toiling down in the town with wood and with timber as his father and grandfather did every day of their lives. He was a strong and healthy little fellow, fed on the free mountain air, and he was very happy, and loved his family devotedly, and was as active as a squirrel and as playful as a hare; but he kept his thoughts to himself, and some of them went a very long way for a little boy who was only one among many, and to whom nobody had ever paid any attention except to teach him his letters and tell him to fear God.",-0.938620675,0.471398951
12d2a4c43,,,"It was a pretty little hut, pink all over like a sea-shell, in the fashion that the Netherlanders love; and its two little square lattices were dark with creeping plants and big rose-bushes, and its roof, so low that you could touch it, was golden and green with all the lichens and stoneworts that are known on earth.
Here Bébée grew from year to year; and soon learned to be big enough and hardy enough to tie up bunches of stocks and pinks for the market, and then to carry a basket for herself, trotting by Antoine's side along the green roadway and into the white, wide streets; and in the market the buyers—most often of all when they were young mothers—would seek out the little golden head and the beautiful frank blue eyes, and buy Bébée's lilies and carnations whether they wanted them or not. So that old Mäes used to cross himself and say that, thanks to Our Lady, trade was thrice as stirring since the little one had stretched out her rosy fingers with the flowers.",-1.105646701,0.449471771
b22392e0a,,,"If a clock with great want of tact hadn't insisted on telling them that it was getting late, Kitty never would have got home, for both the young people felt inclined to loiter about arm in arm through the sweet summer night forever.
Jack had meant to say something before she went, and was immensely surprised to find the chance lost for the present. He wanted to go home with her and free his mind; but a neighborly old gentleman having been engaged as escort, there would have been very little satisfaction in a travelling trio; so he gave it up. He was very silent as they walked to the station with Dr. Dodd trudging behind them. Kitty thought he was tired, perhaps glad to be rid of her, and meekly accepted her fate. But as the train approached, she gave his hand an impulsive squeeze, and said very gratefully,—
""Jack, I can't thank you enough for your kindness to your silly little cousin; but I never shall forget it, and if I ever can return it in any way, I will with all my heart.""",-1.646760068,0.48368583
edcfbf9bc,,,"Marjorie was rather afraid of the fat pony, who tossed his head, whisked his tail, and stamped his feet as if he was of a peppery temper. But she liked to be useful, and just then felt as if there were few things she could NOT do if she tried, because it was her birthday. So she proudly let down the rein, and when Jack went splashing into the brook, she stood on the bridge, waiting to check him up again after he had drunk his fill of the clear, cool water.
The old gentleman sat in his place, looking up at the little girl, who was smiling to herself as she watched the blue dragon-flies dance among the ferns, a blackbird tilt on the alderboughs, and listened to the babble of the brook.
""How old are you, child?"" asked the old man, as if he rather envied this rosy creature her youth and health.
""Twelve today, sir;"" and Marjorie stood up straight and tall, as if mindful of her years.",-0.589401134,0.492517589
657c2e5e9,,,"A child's voice sang, a child's hand carried the little candle; and in the circle of soft light it shed, Effie saw a pretty child coming to her through the night and snow. A rosy, smiling creature, wrapped in white fur, with a wreath of green and scarlet holly on its shining hair, the magic candle in one hand, and the other outstretched as if to shower gifts and warmly press all other hands.
Effie forgot to speak as this bright vision came nearer, leaving no trace of footsteps in the snow, only lighting the way with its little candle, and filling the air with the music of its song.
""Dear child, you are lost, and I have come to find you,"" said the stranger, taking Effie's cold hands in his, with a smile like sunshine, while every holly berry glowed like a little fire.",0.079328186,0.506136918
debb0013b,,,"""Yesterday was a very long day,"" said Vrouw Vedder on the morning after Market Day. ""You were gone such a long time.""
Kat gave her mother a great hug.
""We'll stay with you all day today, Mother,"" she said. ""Won't we, Kit?""
""Yes,"" said Kit; and he hugged her too.
""And we'll help you just as much as we helped Father yesterday. Won't we, Kit?""
""More,"" said Kit.
""I shouldn't wonder!"" said Father.
""I shall be glad of help,"" said Vrouw Vedder, ""because Grandma is coming, and I want everything to be very clean and tidy when she comes. I'm going first to the pasture to milk the cow. You can go with me and keep the flies away. That will be a great help.""
Vrouw Vedder put a yoke across her shoulders, with hooks hanging from each end of it. Then she hung a large pail on one of the hooks, and a brass milk can on the other. She gave Kat a little pail to carry, and Kit took some switches from the willow tree in the yard, with which to drive away the flies. Then they all three started down the road to the pasture.",-0.416301583,0.45221327
61a2413ba,,,"Mademoiselle laughed. ""Vive la France,"" she answered, and then, turning to the truck, she cried, ""Come and see what we have in our little shop on wheels. But first let me introduce to you Dr. Miller. She is an American doctor who has come to take care of any who may be sick.""
The Doctor had already climbed down from her high seat and was opening the back of the truck. She smiled and shook hands with the people. ""Is there not something here you wish to buy?"" she asked. ""The prices are plainly marked.""
Everybody now crowded about the truck, and in it,—oh, wonderful,—piled on the floor and hanging from the top and sides, were the very things for which they had been longing so eagerly! There were hoes, and shovels, and rakes, and garden seeds of all kinds. There were bolts of cloth and woolen garments and wooden shoes, and yarn for knitting. There were even knitting-needles! And, best of all, there was food, food such as they had not seen in many weary months. Ah, it was indeed marvelous what that truck contained!",-0.61894531,0.447089943
dd1c1c773,,,"There was only porridge and milk for breakfast, so it took but a short time to eat it, and then the real work of the day began. The Shepherd put on his Kilmarnock bonnet and called Tam, who had had his breakfast on the hearth, and the two went away to the hills after the sheep. Jock led the cow to a patch of green turf near the bottom of the hill, where she could find fresh pasture, and Jean was left alone in the kitchen of the little gray house. Ah, you should have seen her then! She washed the dishes and put them away in the cupboard, she skimmed the milk and put the cream into the churn, she swept the hearth and shook the blankets out of doors in the fresh morning air. Then she made the beds, and when the kitchen was all in order, she ""went ben""—that was the way they spoke of the best room—and dusted that too.",-0.610173609,0.464052504
5e2dc0d55,,,"There stood the table against the kitchen wall, with a little gray mouse on it nibbling a crumb of cheese. A long finger of sunlight streamed through the western window and touched the great stone stove, as if trying to waken the fire within. A beam fell upon a pan of water standing on the floor and sent gay sparkles of light dancing over the shining tins in the cupboard. The cuckoo saw it all at a glance. ""This will never do,"" he ticked indignantly. There was a queer rumbling sound in his insides as if his feelings were getting quite too much for him, and then suddenly he sent a loud ""cuckoo"" ringing through the silent room. Instantly the little gray mouse leaped down from the table and scampered away to his hole in the wall, the golden sunbeam flickered and was gone, and shadows began to creep into the corners. ""Cuckoo, cuckoo,"" he shouted at the top of his voice, ""cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo,""—six times in all,—and then, his duty done, he popped back again into his little dark house, and the door clicked behind him.",-0.698774597,0.476132658
2ef64a4c3,,,"For a few moments the terrified occupants of Avonlea school did not know whether it was an earthquake or a volcanic explosion that had occurred. The innocent looking parcel which Anne had rashly supposed to contain Mrs. Hiram's nut cakes really held an assortment of firecrackers and pinwheels for which Warren Sloane had sent to town by St. Clair Donnell's father the day before, intending to have a birthday celebration that evening. The crackers went off in a thunderclap of noise and the pinwheels bursting out of the door spun madly around the room, hissing and spluttering. Anne dropped into her chair white with dismay and all the girls climbed shrieking upon their desks. Joe Sloane stood as one transfixed in the midst of the commotion and St. Clair, helpless with laughter, rocked to and fro in the aisle. Prillie Rogerson fainted and Annetta Bell went into hysterics.",-0.600053432,0.476437814
ce8c7bec8,,,"Physically the two men bore no resemblance to one another, although they were second cousins. Eric Marshall, tall, broad-shouldered, sinewy, walking with a free, easy stride, which was somehow suggestive of reserve strength and power, was one of those men regarding whom less-favoured mortals are tempted seriously to wonder why all the gifts of fortune should be showered on one individual. He was not only clever and good to look upon, but he possessed that indefinable charm of personality which is quite independent of physical beauty or mental ability. He had steady, grayish-blue eyes, dark chestnut hair with a glint of gold in its waves when the sunlight struck it, and a chin that gave the world assurance of a chin. He was a rich man's son, with a clean young manhood behind him and splendid prospects before him. He was considered a practical sort of fellow, utterly guiltless of romantic dreams and visions of any sort.",-0.605236051,0.464107252
98027a84c,,,"We were quite willing to go to bed; and presently we found ourselves tucked away upstairs in the very room, looking out eastward into the spruce grove, which father had once occupied. Dan shared it with us, sleeping in a bed of his own in the opposite corner. The sheets and pillow-slips were fragrant with lavender, and one of Grandmother King's noted patchwork quilts was over us. The window was open and we heard the frogs singing down in the swamp of the brook meadow. We had heard frogs sing in Ontario, of course; but certainly Prince Edward Island frogs were more tuneful and mellow. Or was it simply the glamour of old family traditions and tales which was over us, lending its magic to all sights and sounds around us? This was home—father's home—OUR home! We had never lived long enough in any one house to develop a feeling of affection for it; but here, under the roof-tree built by Great-Grandfather King ninety years ago, that feeling swept into our boyish hearts and souls like a flood of living sweetness and tenderness.",-0.279422042,0.45923703
bd3d86f22,,,"The Old Lady lived ""away back at the old Lloyd place,"" as it was always called. It was a quaint, low-eaved house, with big chimneys and square windows and with spruces growing thickly all around it. The Old Lady lived there all alone and there were weeks at a time when she never saw a human being except Crooked Jack. What the Old Lady did with herself and how she put in her time was a puzzle the Spencervale people could not solve. The children believed she amused herself counting the gold in the big black box under her bed. Spencervale children held the Old Lady in mortal terror; some of them—the ""Spencer Road"" fry—believed she was a witch; all of them would run if, when wandering about the woods in search of berries or spruce gum, they saw at a distance the spare, upright form of the Old Lady, gathering sticks for her fire. Mary Moore was the only one who was quite sure she was not a witch.",-0.956118203,0.503286003
f076d8942,,,"Fatima arrived the next day. Max brought her out in a covered basket, lined with padded crimson satin. Max likes cats and Aunt Cynthia. He explained how we were to treat Fatima and when Ismay had gone out of the room—Ismay always went out of the room when she knew I particularly wanted her to remain—he proposed to me again. Of course I said no, as usual, but I was rather pleased. Max had been proposing to me about every two months for two years. Sometimes, as in this case, he went three months, and then I always wondered why. I concluded that he could not be really interested in Anne Shirley, and I was relieved. I didn't want to marry Max but it was pleasant and convenient to have him around, and we would miss him dreadfully if any other girl snapped him up. He was so useful and always willing to do anything for us—nail a shingle on the roof, drive us to town, put down carpets—in short, a very present help in all our troubles.",-0.442098974,0.48844213
f371189b5,,,"It was an intensely warm day near the close of June, and the young lady had chosen the coolest and shadiest place she could find on the piazza of her father's elegant mansion in Belfast. She was as pretty as she was bright and vivacious, and was a general favorite among the pupils of the High School, which she attended. She was deeply absorbed in the reading of a story in one of the July magazines, which had just come from the post-office, when she heard a step near her. The sound startled her, it was so near; and, looking up, she discovered the young man whom she had spoken to close beside her. He was not Don John of Austria, but Donald John Ramsay of Belfast, who had been addressed by his companions simply as Don, a natural abbreviation of his first name, until he of Austria happened to be mentioned in the history recitation in school, when the whole class looked at Don, and smiled; some of the girls even giggled, and got a check for it; but the republican young gentleman became a titular Spanish hidalgo from that moment.",-0.827770126,0.466747458
eea5994cd,,,"Paul Vapoor was a genius, and that accounted for his position as chief engineer at the age of twenty-two. He was born a machinist, and his taste in that direction had made him a very hard student. His days and a large portion of his nights, while in his teens, had been spent in studying physics, chemistry, and, in fact, all the sciences which had any bearing upon the life-work which nature rather than choice had given him to do.
His father had been in easy circumstances formerly, so that there had been nothing to interfere with his studies before he was of age. Up to this period, he had spent much of his time in a large machine-shop, working for nothing as though his daily bread depended upon his exertions; and he was better qualified to run an engine than most men who had served for years at the business, for he was a natural scientist.",-0.250211342,0.470926026
e00200d4a,,,"The captain's cabin was in the stern of the vessel, according to the orthodox rule in naval vessels. Of course it was small, though it seemed large to Christy who had spent so much of his leisure time in the cabin of the Florence, his sailboat on the Hudson. It was substantially fitted up, with little superfluous ornamentation; but it was a complete parlor, as a landsman would regard it. From it, on the port side opened the captain's state room, which was quite ample for a vessel no larger than the Bronx. Between it and the pantry on the starboard side, was a gangway leading from the foot of the companion way, by which the captain's cabin and the ward room were accessible from the quarter deck.
Crossing the gangway at the foot of the steps, Christy led the way into the ward room, where the principal officers were accommodated. It contained four berths, with portières in front of them, which could be drawn out so as to inclose each one in a temporary state room.",-1.02023057,0.499255474
cf898ee98,,,"When the cook of the Florence, usually the skipper of the craft, was engaged in the practice of the culinary art, he seated himself on what looked like a box in front of the stove. But the interior of this box was really a part of the cabin, for it contained the feet of any one occupying the berth on the starboard side. The cookroom had no end of bins, lockers and drawers to contain the variety of provisions and stores necessary to get up a dinner for the skipper and his guests, when he had any. And even all these places could not contain everything that was needed on board. Under the two berths were large, though not very deep, lockers, one of which contained the jib-topsail of the craft, and other spare sails, while the opposite one was the fuel locker of the sloop.
As the boat had not been used for a long time in cruising, the fuel receptacle was empty, though a spare gaff-topsail had been thrown into it. This locker was big enough to admit the body-corporate of the skipper.",-1.979186805,0.511266536
8a9bf826b,,,"When the performance was over, Noddy, with the assistance of one of his companions, dressed himself in ""trunk and tights,"" and appeared in the ring to take his first lesson in graceful movements. He could turn the somersets, and go through with the other evolutions; but there was a certain polish needed—so the ring-master said—to make them pass off well. He was to assume a graceful position at the beginning and end of each act; he must recover himself without clumsiness; he must bow, and make a flourish with his hands, when he had done a brilliant thing.
Noddy had not much taste for this branch of the profession. He did not like the bowing and the flourishing. If the feat itself did not please the people, he could not win them by smirking. He was much pleased with his costume, and this kept him good-natured, under the severe training of the ring-master, for a time. Mr. Whippleby was coarse and rough in his manners.",-1.383705397,0.484251495
96f6084b2,,,"There was an old man living in those days who used to frequent the fairs that were held across the mountains. One day he was crossing the mountains to a fair, and when he got to a lonely valley he sat down, for he was tired, and he dropped off to sleep, and his bag fell down by his side. When he was sound asleep the fairies came and carried him off, bag and all, and took him under the earth, and when he awoke he found himself in a great palace of gold, full of fairies dancing and singing. And they took him and showed him everything, the splendid gold room and gardens, and they kept dancing round him until he fell asleep.
When he was asleep they carried him back to the same spot where they had found him, and when he awoke he thought he had been dreaming, so he looked for his bag, and got hold of it, but he could hardly lift it. When he opened it he found it was nearly filled with gold.",1.029429538,0.531216439
67e42e414,,,"Now the truth is that Svadilfare was tired of working day and night. When he saw the little mare go galloping off he became suddenly discontented. He left the stone he was hauling on the ground. He looked round and he saw the little mare looking back at him. He galloped after her.
He did not catch up on the little mare. She went on swiftly before him. On she went over the moonlit meadow, turning and looking back now and again at the great Svadilfare, who came heavily after her. Down the mountainside the mare went, and Svadilfare, who now rejoiced in his liberty and in the freshness of the wind and in the smell of the flowers, still followed her. With the morning's light they came near a cave and the little mare went into it. They went through the cave. Then Svadilfare caught up on the little mare and the two went wandering together, the little mare telling Svadilfare stories of the Dwarfs and the Elves.",-0.219401793,0.471878955
3b501eb47,,,"Rejected by a large majority—I mean, elected by a large majority.""
Roy Blakeley gathered up the ballots in his two hands, dropped them into the shoe box and pushed the box across the table to Mr. Ellsworth as if the matter were finally settled.
""Honorable Roy Blakeley,"" he added, ""didn't even carry his own patrol.""
This humiliating confession, offered in Roy's gayest manner, was true. The Silver Foxes had turned from their leader and, to a scout, voted for Tom Slade. It was hinted that Roy himself was responsible for this, but he was a good politician and would not talk. There was also a dark rumor that a certain young lady was mixed up in the matter and it is a fact that only the night before Roy and Mary Temple had been seen in earnest converse on the wide veranda at Grantley Square by Pee-wee Harris, who believed that a scout should be observant.",-1.154026871,0.46166038
85a7b4fd9,,,"Tommy Atkins' rifle was by no means the first inanimate thing to prove human and to deserve human treatment. Animals of all sorts have been given this quality. Jack London's dog, in The Call of the Wild, has human interest. So has the immortal Black Beauty.
But we are not concerned with animals now. Kipling's ocean liner has human interest—a soul. I need not tell you that a boat is human. Its every erratic quality of crankiness, its veritable heroism under stress, its temperament (if you like that word) makes it very human indeed. That is why a man will often let his boat rot rather than sell it.
This is not true of all inanimate things. It depends. I have never heard of a steam roller or a poison gas bomb being beloved by anybody. I should not care to associate with a hand grenade. It is a matter of taste; I dare say I could learn to love a British tank, but I could never make a friend and confidante of a balloon. An aeroplane might prove a good pal—we shall have to see.",-1.376322198,0.459692258
8.58E+06,,,"The Red Cross bandages which he had rolled had had to be rolled over again. The seeds which he had planted had not come up, because he had buried them instead of planting them. Roy's onion plants were peeping coyly forth in the troop's patriotic garden; Doc Carson's lettuce was showing the proper spirit; a little regiment of humble radishes was mobilizing under the loving care of Connie Bennett, and Pee-wee's tomatoes were bold with flaunting blossoms. A bashful cucumber which basked unobtrusively in the wetness of the ice-box outlet under the shed at Artie Van Arlen's home was growing apace. But not a sign was there of Tom's beans or peas or beets—nothing in his little allotted patch but a lonely plantain which he had carefully nursed until Pee-wee had told him the bitter truth—that this child of his heart was nothing but a vulgar weed.
It is true that Roy Blakeley had tried to comfort Tom by telling him that if his seeds did not come up in Bridgeboro they might come up in China, for they were as near to one place as the other! Tom had not been comforted.",-1.955010427,0.479246599
0a307851a,,,"As long as there's any sign of a trail you can't get me rattled, but cracky, I don't like marshes. You can get lost in a marsh easier than in any other place. Pretty soon I was plodding around deeper than my knees and it gave me a strain every time I dragged my leg out of the swamp. Maybe you'll wonder why I didn't go back, but if you do, that's because you don't know much about marshes. All of a sudden I was right in the middle of it, as you might say, and there were no landmarks at all.
Pretty soon I was in waist deep and then I was scared, you can bet. If there's one thing that gets me scared it's quicksand. As long as I could get my legs out I was all right, but when I began sinking as low as my waist and had to drag myself out by squirming and catching hold of bushes and things, then I lost my nerve—I have to admit it.",-0.569403524,0.441730732
b18147e5e,,,"But remember, I told you that the hike didn't really begin till we got to Catskill. The reason I don't count the hike from Temple Camp to Catskill is because we were all the time hiking down there. It wasn't a hike, it was a habit. I wouldn't be particular about three or four miles. Besides, I wouldn't ask you to take them, because they've been used before. I wouldn't give you any second hand miles.
When we got to Catskill we bought some egg powder and bacon (gee, I love bacon) and coffee and sugar and camera films and mosquito dope and beans and flour and chocolate. You can make a dandy sandwich putting a slice of bacon between two slabs of chocolate. Mm-um! We had a pretty good bivouac outfit, because the Warner twins have a balloon silk shelter that rolls up so small you can almost put it in a fountain pen—that's what Harry Donnelle said. Dorry Benton had his aluminum cooking set along, saucepans, cups, dishes, coffee pot—everything fits inside of everything else.",-0.613595584,0.472993252
801212476,,,"Tom Slade, bending over the office table, scrutinized the big map of Temple Camp. It was the first time he had really looked at it since his return from France, and it made him homesick to see, even in its cold outlines, the familiar things and scenes which he had so loved as a scout. The hill trail was nothing but a dotted line, but Tom knew it for more than that, for it was along its winding way into the dark recesses of the mountains that he had qualified for the pathfinder's badge. Black Lake was just an irregular circle, but in his mind's eye he saw there the moonlight glinting up the water, and canoes gliding silently, and heard the merry voices of scouts diving from the springboard at its edge.
He liked this map better than maps of billets and trenches, and to him the hill trail was more suggestive of adventure than the Hindenburg Line. He had been very close to the Hindenburg Line and it had meant no more to him than the equator. He had found the war to be like a three-ringed circus—it was too big. Temple Camp was about the right size.",-1.269927006,0.507784902
d7ea6fa85,,,"It was characteristic of Tom Slade that he liked to go off alone occasionally for a ramble in the woods. It was not that he liked the scouts less, but rather that he liked the woods more. It was his wont to stroll off when his camp duties for the day were over and poke around in the adjacent woods.
The scouts knew and respected his peculiarities and preferences, particularly those who were regular summer visitors at the big camp, and few ever followed him into his chosen haunts. Occasionally some new scout, tempted by the pervading reputation and unique negligee of Uncle Jeb's young assistant, ventured to follow him and avail himself of the tips and woods lore with which the more experienced scout's conversation abounded when he was in a talking mood. But Tom was a sort of creature apart and the boys of camp, good scouts that they were, did not intrude upon his lonely rambles.",-0.72505481,0.428232657
7eb1cc3a6,,,"This sort of talk was a sample of life at Temple Camp for seven days past. Those who were not given to jollying and banter had fallen back on checkers and dominos and other wild sports. A few of the more adventurous and reckless made birchbark ornaments, while those who were in utter despair for something to do wrote letters home.
Several dauntless spirits had braved the rain to catch some fish, but the fish, themselves disgusted, stayed down at the bottom of the lake, out of the wet, as Roy said. It was so wet that even the turtles wouldn't come out without umbrellas.
Rain, rain, rain. It flowed off the pavilion roof like a waterfall. It shrunk tent canvas which pulled on the ropes and lifted the pegs out of the soggy ground. It buried the roads in mud. Hour in and hour out the scouts sat along the back of the deep veranda, beguiling their enforced leisure with banter and riddles and camp gossip.",-0.925382055,0.457162126
dfe1a4c2e,,,"Pee-wee and Pepsy were not agreed about allowing this third person to buy into their enterprise. Pepsy was suspicious because she could not understand it. But Pee-wee, quick to forget dislikes and trifling injuries, was strong for the new partner.
""He's all right,"" he told her, ""and scouts are supposed to be kind and help people and maybe he wants to reform and we ought to help him get into business.""
""He's a smarty and I hate him and three is bad luck,"" was all that Pepsy could say. Then she broke down crying, ""Miss Bellison hates him, too,"" she sobbed, ""and—and if people sit three in a seat in a wagon one of them dies inside of a year. Now you go and spoil it all by having three.""
""You get three jawbreakers for a cent,"" Pee-wee said. ""Lots of times I bought them three for a cent, and I bought peanut bars three for a cent too, and I never died inside of a year, you can ask anybody.""",-1.224631689,0.467986275
3ef278f52,,,"The night was bleak and cold. All through the melancholy, cheerless day, the first chill of autumn had been in the air. Toward evening the clouds had parted, showing a steel-colored sky in which the sun went down a great red ball, tinting the foliage across the river with a glow of crimson. A sun full of rich light but no heat.
The air was heavy with the pungent fragrance of burning leaves. The gutters along Main Street were full of these fluttering, red memorials of the good old summer-time.
But there were other signs that the melancholy days had come. Down at the Bridgeboro station was a congestion of trunks and other luggage bespeaking the end of the merry play season. And saddest of all, the windows of the stationery stores were filled with pencil-boxes and blank books and other horrible reminders of the opening of school.",-0.409268285,0.448606842
66b828b4a,,,"A great, long, gray shape moved swiftly through the waters of the Thames. Smoke, pouring from three different points in the middle of this great shape, ascended, straight in the air some distance, then, caught by the wind, drifted westward.
It was growing dark. Several hours before, this ocean greyhound—one of Great Britain's monster sea-fighters—had up-anchored and left her dock—where she had been undergoing slight repairs—heading eastward down the river.
Men lined the rails of the monster ship. These were her crew—or some of her crew, to be exact—for the others were engaged in duties that prevented them from waving to the crowds that thronged the shore—as did the men on deck.
Sharp orders carried across the water to the ears of those on shore. The officers were issuing commands. Men left the rail and disappeared from the view of the spectators as they hurried to perform their duties. Came several sharp blasts of the vessel's siren; a moment later her speed increased and as she slid easily through the waters of the river, a cheer went up from both shores.",-1.494802524,0.472161152
3e4324518,,,"The U.S.S. Plymouth was Jack Templeton's first command. He had been elevated to the rank of captain only a few weeks before. Naturally he was not a little proud of his vessel. When Jack was given his ship, it was only natural, too, that Frank Chadwick, who had been his associate and chum through all the days of the great war, should become Jack's first officer.
In spite of the fact that Jack's rating as captain was in the British navy, he was at this moment in command of an American vessel. This came about through a queer combination of circumstances.
The American commander of the Plymouth had been taken suddenly ill. At almost the same time the Plymouth had been ordered to proceed from Dover to Liverpool to join other American vessels. Almost on the eve of departure, the first officer also was taken ill. It was to him the command naturally would have fallen in the captain's absence. The second officer was on leave of absence. Thus, without a skipper, the Plymouth could not have sailed.",-0.818403892,0.457694473
123089f0d,,,"It was already candle-light when we reached the hamlet, and I shall never forget how much I was cheered to see the yellow shine in doors and windows; but that, as it proved, was the best of the help we were likely to get in that quarter. For—you would have thought men would have been ashamed of themselves—no soul would consent to return with us to the Admiral Benbow. The more we told of our troubles, the more—man, woman, and child—they clung to the shelter of their houses. The name of Captain Flint, though it was strange to me, was well enough known to some there and carried a great weight of terror. Some of the men who had been to field-work on the far side of the Admiral Benbow remembered, besides, to have seen several strangers on the road, and taking them to be smugglers, to have bolted away; and one at least had seen a little lugger in what we called Kitt's Hole. For that matter, anyone who was a comrade of the captain's was enough to frighten them to death.",-2.253427614,0.457881149
16c6b6f52,,,"It was near six in the May morning when Dick began to ride down into the fen upon his homeward way. The sky was all blue; the jolly wind blew loud and steady; the windmill-sails were spinning; and the willows over all the fen rippling and whitening like a field of corn. He had been all night in the saddle, but his heart was good and his body sound, and he rode right merrily.
The path went down and down into the marsh, till he lost sight of all the neighbouring landmarks but Kettley windmill on the knoll behind him, and the extreme top of Tunstall Forest far before. On either hand there were great fields of blowing reeds and willows, pools of water shaking in the wind, and treacherous bogs, as green as emerald, to tempt and to betray the traveller. The path lay almost straight through the morass. It was already very ancient; its foundation had been laid by Roman soldiery; in the lapse of ages much of it had sunk, and every here and there, for a few hundred yards, it lay submerged below the stagnant waters of the fen.",-1.340656035,0.489580396
8160b3b3c,,,"Among the first adventures in the field of making the useful necessities was the construction of a water wheel; the building of a sawmill, from which lumber was turned out to make their dwelling; a loom was put up which enabled them to weave clothing; and, finally, a wagon, which arose from the desire to utilize a herd of yaks, which they succeeded in capturing.
Before the present adventure a number of useful articles and tools had been made, among which might be mentioned a lathe, a foundry, in which they turned out articles in iron and brass, and this gave them an opportunity to make first a few pistols, and lastly, several guns, with which the present expedition was equipped.
All these things interested the boys, and they took delight in every part of it, and it gave them satisfaction to see the results of their work on every hand. But that which attracted them more intensely were the series of exploits which brought to light the hidden mysteries of the island, and which caused them to name it ""Wonder Island.""",-1.628925901,0.465474858
47b6010d9,,,"Their voyage was accompanied by favoring winds and perfect weather. Valparaiso, Chile, was the first port at which they landed, and as a trip around the Horn, or even through the Straits of Magellan, and up along the Atlantic coast, would mean several months, with their own vessel, they shipped in one of the line steamers, and within seven weeks they saw Sandy Hook lightship, and then the forts which lined the opposite shore at the Narrows.
Telegrams to their parents created paroxysms of joy in many homes which had been robbed when the Investigator went down. There were no happier homes than the ones Harry and George were welcomed to.
The papers told the stories of the boys in pages and pages of descriptions, and they showed the photos, and told what the boys had done in their temporary home. The hero of all this wonderful homecoming was Angel.
The people, the houses, the wonderful automobiles which he saw on every hand, at first alarmed him, but when he saw that George did not seem a bit afraid, he reconciled himself to the situation.",-1.220072399,0.449051073
7ccc0f771,,,"His Aunt Rachel had another reason for wishing him to leave Waverley-Honour. She had actually observed her Edward look too often across at the Squire's pew in church! Now Aunt Rachel held it no wrong to look at Squire Stubbs's pew if only that pew had been empty. But it was (oh, wickedness!) just when it contained the dear old-fashioned sprigged gown and the fresh pretty face of Miss Cecilia Stubbs, that Aunt Rachel's nephew looked most often in that direction. In addition to which the old lady was sure she had observed ""that little Celie Stubbs"" glance over at her handsome Edward in a way that—well, when she was young! And here the old lady bridled and tossed her head, and the words which her lips formed themselves to utter (though she was too ladylike to speak them) were obviously ""The Minx!"" Hence it was clear to the most simple and unprejudiced that a greater distance had better be put between the Waverley loft and the Squire's pew—and that as soon as possible.",-1.615115569,0.459830638
8d697e15e,,,"The Crawfurds had a cousin visiting them—an English cousin, Polly Musgrave—from the luxury and comparative gaiety of her rich, childless aunt's house in York. Polly was a well-endowed orphan, had no near family ties, and had been educated in the worldly wisdom and epicurean philosophy of a fashionable girls' school. She had come to spend a few weeks, and get acquainted with her Scotch country cousins. Polly had not found her heart, but it was to the credit of her sense and good-nature that she made the very best of a sojourn that had threatened to be a bore to her. She dazzled the girls, she romped with the boys, she entered with the greatest glee into rural occupations, rode on the roughest pony, saw sunset and sunrise from Barnbougle, and threatened to learn to milk cows and cut corn. She brought inconceivable motion and sparkle into the rather stagnant country house, and she was the greatest possible contrast to Joanna Crawfurd. Joanna was a natural curiosity to Polly, and the study amused her, just as she made use of every other variety and novelty, down to the poultry-yard and kitchen-garden at the Ewes.",-1.171994378,0.45130474
c7d20f683,,,"The Millars were still in the old quaintly spacious house with its great bowery garden, for the plausible reason that Dr. Millar could not, on the spur of the moment, find a purchaser or an available tenant. He took some credit to himself for having more breadth of view and controlling common sense than poor Mrs. Carey, otherwise he might have rushed off and crammed his family into a small inconvenient house, for which, at the same time, he would have had to pay rent, that was not called for, unless in the form of rates and taxes, where his old house was concerned. There might be something to say on the other side of the question, but as yet that had not occurred to Dr. and Mrs. Millar. However, the Doctor's brougham, like the Rector's phaeton, was a thing of the past. He trudged manfully on foot to his patients. There are few evils which do not offer some compensations.",-2.8852806,0.511321981
d9e97ada3,,,"Alice was the youngest of the Parlin family. When Grandma Read called the children into the kitchen, and told them about their new little sister, Susy danced for joy; and Prudy, in her delight, opened the cellar door, and fell down the whole length of the stairs. However, she rolled as softly as a pincushion, and was not seriously hurt.
""But you can't go into mother's room,"" said Susy, ""you're crying so hard.""
""Poh!"" replied three-years-old Prudy, twinkling off the tears; ""yes, I can neither. I won't go crying in! I didn't hurt me velly bad. I'm weller now!""
So she had the first peep at the wee dot of a baby in the nurse's arms.
""O, dear, dear,"" said she, ""what shall I do? I are so glad! I wish I could jump clear up to the sky of this room! How do you do, little sister?""
The baby made no reply.
""Why! don't you love me? This is me: my name's Prudy. I've got a red pocket dress;—Santa Claw bringed it.""
Still the little stranger paid no heed,—only winked her small, bright eyes, and at last closed them entirely.",-0.760144891,0.4630049
c67974fcb,,,"After a great, great while, it was afternoon, and the children went up to the Pines, carrying a small market basket half full of nice things.
I don't know which felt most at home in those woods, the birds or the children. It wasn't at all like having a party in a parlor, where there are chairs and rugs in the way; and where you can't run and jump without being afraid of hurting something. No, there wasn't any danger of scratching the varnish off the trees, nor any danger of soiling the soft carpet of the earth.
And if there hadn't been a party, it was enough to make any body happy only to breathe the sweet air, and look away down at the white village, and away off at the blue hills.
Dr. Gray's daughter Ruth, a girl of fourteen, was to have the care of Prudy; and at first she followed the child about like her shadow.",-1.074493888,0.546319267
564f5943f,,,"One beautiful morning in October the sun came up rejoicing. Dotty Dimple watched it from the window with feelings of peculiar pleasure.
""I should think that old sun would wear out and grow rough round the edges. Why not? Last week it was ever so dull; now it is bright. I shouldn't wonder if the angels up there have to scour it once in a while.""
You perceive that Dotty's ideas of astronomy were anything but correct. She supposed the solar orb was composed of a very peculiar kind of gold, which could be rubbed as easily as Norah's tin pans, though so intensely hot that one's fingers would, most likely, be scorched in the operation.
On this particular morning she felt an unusual interest in the state of the weather. It had been decided that she should go West with her father, and this was the day set for departure. ""I am happy up to my throat:"" so she said to Prudy. And now all this happiness was to be buttoned up in a cunning little casaque, with new gaiters at the feet, and a hat and rosette at the top.",-0.702634106,0.486672301
8ae20b895,,,"It was a beautiful place to play. There were trees for hide-and-seek, flat spots for croquet, and little hills and hollows for everything else. The village children used this for a sort of park, and the river seemed to look on and laugh to see them so gay. It was a very sober, steady river above and below, but right here it went leaping and tumbling over some rocks, making a merry cascade,—just for fun, you would think. The children liked to skip stones and see them spin up and down in the foam; but they had been warned not to go too near the bank. Nobody had ever fallen in yet, but it wasn't a safe place for very little folks, certainly not for roly-poly babies like Bubby Proudfit. He was very clumsy, falling down, rolling over, and picking himself up again every five minutes. Patty meant to watch him, but he was not very interesting, and the little girls quite bewitched her with their kind smiles and pretty ways.",-0.025405297,0.458980794
4022385bd,,,"Two hundred and thirty-nine girl voices chanted the Wo-he-lo Cheer with weird impressiveness. The scene alone would have been impressive enough, but Camp Fire Girls are not satisfied with that kind of ""enough."" Once their imagination is stimulated with the almost limitless possibilities of the craft, they are not easily pleased with anything but a finished product.
The occasion was the last Grand Council Fire of Hiawatha Institute for Camp Fire Girls located in the Allegheny city of Westmoreland. The classroom work had been rushed a day ahead, examinations were made almost perfunctory, and for them also the clock had been turned twenty-four hours forward. The curriculum was finished, and the day just closed had been devoted to preparation for a Grand Council wind-up for the fifteen Fires of the Institute, which would ""break ranks"" on the following day and scatter in all directions for home and the Christmas holidays.",-1.317047987,0.497592683
43999fc11,,,"A little knot of the school-girls were walking home together one afternoon in July. As they neared Dr. Carr's gate, Maria Fiske exclaimed, at the sight of a pretty bunch of flowers lying in the middle of the sidewalk:
""Oh my!"" she cried, ""see what somebody's dropped! I'm going to have it."" She stooped to pick it up. But, just as her fingers touched the stems, the nosegay, as if bewitched, began to move. Maria made a bewildered clutch. The nosegay moved faster, and at last vanished under the gate, while a giggle sounded from the other side of the hedge.
""Did you see that?"" shrieked Maria; ""those flowers ran away of themselves.""
""Nonsense,"" said Katy, ""it's those absurd children."" Then, opening the gate, she called: ""John! Dorry! come out and show yourselves."" But nobody replied, and no one could be seen. The nosegay lay on the path, however, and picking it up, Katy exhibited to the girls a long end of black thread, tied to the stems.",-0.332445996,0.488867243
53ee8fd57,,,"The ulster and the felt hat soon came off again, for a head wind lay waiting in the offing, and the ""Spartacus"" began to pitch and toss in a manner which made all her unseasoned passengers glad to betake themselves to their berths. Mrs. Ashe and Amy were among the earliest victims of sea-sickness; and Katy, after helping them to settle in their staterooms, found herself too dizzy and ill to sit up a moment longer, and thankfully resorted to her own.
As the night came on, the wind grew stronger and the motion worse. The ""Spartacus"" had the reputation of being a dreadful ""roller,"" and seemed bound to justify it on this particular voyage. Down, down, down the great hull would slide till Katy would hold her breath with fear lest it might never right itself again; then slowly, slowly the turn would be made, and up, up, up it would go, till the cant on the other side was equally alarming. On the whole, Katy preferred to have her own side of the ship, the downward one; for it was less difficult to keep herself in the berth, from which she was in continual danger of being thrown.",-1.839646897,0.524732731
6a5a64db6,,,"The journey from Burnet to Hillsover was a very long one. It took the greater part of three days, and as Dr. Carr was in a hurry to get back to his patients, they travelled without stopping; spending the first night on the boat, and the second on a railroad train. Papa found this tiresome; but the girls, to whom everything was new, thought it delightful. They enjoyed their state-room, with its narrow shelves of beds, as much as if it had been a baby house, and they two children playing in it. To tuck themselves away for the night in a car-section seemed the greatest fun in the world. When older people fretted, they laughed. Everything was interesting, from the telegraph poles by the wayside to the faces of their fellow-passengers. It amused them to watch people, and make up stories about them, where they were going, and what relation they could be to each other. The strange people, in their turn, cast curious glances toward the bright, happy-faced sisters; but Katy and Clover did not mind that, or, in fact, notice it.",-0.345776961,0.450627461
1de294528,,,"Narrower and narrower grew the road, more and more sharp the turns. They were at the entrance of a deep defile, up which the road wound and wound, following the links of the river, which they crossed and recrossed repeatedly. Such a wonderful and perfect little river, with water clear as air and cold as ice, flowing over a bed of smooth granite, here slipping noiselessly down long slopes of rock like thin films of glass, there deepening into pools of translucent blue-green like aqua-marine or beryl, again plunging down in mimic waterfalls, a sheet of iridescent foam. The sound of its rush and its ripple was like a laugh. Never was such happy water, Clover thought, as it curved and bent and swayed this way and that on its downward course as if moved by some merry, capricious instinct, like a child dancing as it goes.",-1.796458718,0.448438576
c956f7ad7,,,"Groton Bay, as every student of geography knows, is a nearly landlocked, well sheltered body of water, some seven miles long and three wide. At the mouth of the Groton river stands Colfax, a city of more than thirty thousand inhabitants.
This was about all that the submarine boys knew of their destination, until they arrived in the bay on the afternoon of the day after they left, Dunhaven.
Their run down had been a continuous one. Jack had had Biffens to relieve him at the wheel, while Mr. Farnum had helped Hal in the engine room. Besides, Besides, Lieutenant Danvers had stood a few tricks at the wheel.
While Jack came in the ""Benson,"" which carried the two remaining loaded torpedoes, Eph had handled the ""Hastings,"" with Ewald as relief. Williamson had handled the engines of the latter boat. David Pollard standing relief engine room watch.
The work had been hard and confining. It was a relief to all hands when they found themselves heading into Groton Bay.",-1.533520106,0.451369544
a934abe6f,,,"The Baba Yaga, bony of limb, quickly jumped into her mortar, sent it flying along with the pestle, sweeping away the while all traces of its flight with a broom, and set off in pursuit of the girl. Then the girl put her ear to the ground, and when she heard that the Baba Yaga was chasing her, and was now close at hand, she flung down the towel. And it became a wide, such a wide river! Up came the Baba Yaga to the river, and gnashed her teeth with spite; then she went home for her oxen, and drove them to the river. The oxen drank up every drop of the river, and then the Baba Yaga began the pursuit anew. But the girl put her ear to the ground again, and when she heard that the Baba Yaga was near, she flung down the comb, and instantly a forest sprang up, such an awfully thick one! The Baba Yaga began gnawing away at it, but however hard she worked, she couldn't gnaw her way through it, so she had to go back again.",-1.398764415,0.45946881
a3f2f2a4b,,,"The class had assembled again in Professor Gray's study and all were eager to hear the second talk on Edison. There was a delay of many minutes past the hour stated, but the anticipation was such that the time was hardly noticed. During the interim, Professor Gray came to where Bill and Gus sat.
""I hear that you boys intend to go to work in the mills next week,"" he said. ""Well, now, I have some news and a proposition, so do not be disappointed if the beginning sounds discouraging. In the first place I saw Mr. Deering, superintendent of the mills, again and he told me that while he would make good his promise to take you on, there would hardly be more than a few weeks' work. Orders are scarce and they expect to lay off men in August, though there is likely to be a resumption of business in the early fall when you are getting back into school work. So wouldn't it be better to forego the mill work,—there goes the announcement! I'll talk with you before you leave.""",-0.649769815,0.485501451
85750930,,,"Harry, poking about among the ruins of the deserted camp, had discovered several cans of gasoline that the raiders had overlooked. They formed sufficient fuel with the picric cakes that Frank still had a supply of, to drive the big aeroplane for several hundred miles if the wind conditions were favorable.
But leave the river camp the boys dare not, for they realized that if Billy and Lathrop did manage to make their escape, they would, if possible, come back there. True, it was a chance so remote as to appear almost impossible, but under the circumstances even the shadow of a hope seemed to assume substance. And so they waited, and had been waiting, while the stirring events we have related had been happening to their missing chums.
As if to add to their oppression, old Sikaso mooned about the camp, his eyes rooted to the ground in moody absorption and muttering to himself, ""five go—three come back,"" till Frank angrily ordered him to stop. The realization that his gloomy prophecy seemed only too likely to be fulfilled, however, did not tend to relieve the situation.",-1.244948811,0.468112808
2ad973f31,,,"There was a system of telephones connecting Bud's camp with his father's main ranch and also the two branch ones, and the system was likewise hooked-up with the long distance. But a recent wind, just before the round-up, had blown down some poles in Happy Valley, putting Bud's line out of commission. This was why he and his chums could not be reached by wire from Diamond X.
The poles were set up in the next few days, when some cowboys arrived to again take up their duties with Bud, Nort and Dick; for the cattle not sold were again sent back to the valley range to fatten for the fall, and they needed to be looked after.
Meanwhile, a search of the surrounding country had failed to disclose any trace of the robbers, and their identity remained hidden. They had gotten away with about $500, missing a much larger sum in the safe. The authorities were notified, and a posse scoured the region, but fruitlessly.",-0.870159846,0.455773595
5f8ce05b8,,,"In the old days, when the world was young, there were no automobiles nor flying-machines to make one wonder; nor were there railway trains, nor telephones, nor mechanical inventions of any sort to keep people keyed up to a high pitch of excitement. Men and women lived simply and quietly. They were Nature's children, and breathed fresh air into their lungs instead of smoke and coal gas; and tramped through green meadows and deep forests instead of riding in street cars; and went to bed when it grew dark and rose with the sun--which is vastly different from the present custom. Having no books to read they told their adventures to one another and to their little ones; and the stories were handed down from generation to generation and reverently believed.
Those who peopled the world in the old days, having nothing but their hands to depend on, were to a certain extent helpless, and so the fairies were sorry for them and ministered to their wants patiently and frankly, often showing themselves to those they befriended.",-0.213932294,0.468552731
9039acda3,,,"Mombi's curious magic often frightened her neighbors, and they treated her shyly, yet respectfully, because of her weird powers. But Tip frankly hated her, and took no pains to hide his feelings. Indeed, he sometimes showed less respect for the old woman than he should have done, considering she was his guardian.
There were pumpkins in Mombi's corn-fields, lying golden red among the rows of green stalks; and these had been planted and carefully tended that the four-horned cow might eat of them in the winter time. But one day, after the corn had all been cut and stacked, and Tip was carrying the pumpkins to the stable, he took a notion to make a ""Jack Lantern"" and try to give the old woman a fright with it.
So he selected a fine, big pumpkin—one with a lustrous, orange-red color—and began carving it. With the point of his knife he made two round eyes, a three-cornered nose, and a mouth shaped like a new moon.",0.04682205,0.481801416
031f30122,,,"The shaggy man waited. He had an oat-straw in his mouth, which he chewed slowly as if it tasted good; but it didn't. There was an apple-tree beside the house, and some apples had fallen to the ground. The shaggy man thought they would taste better than the oat-straw, so he walked over to get some. A little black dog with bright brown eyes dashed out of the farm-house and ran madly toward the shaggy man, who had already picked up three apples and put them in one of the big wide pockets of his shaggy coat. The little dog barked and made a dive for the shaggy man's leg; but he grabbed the dog by the neck and put it in his big pocket along with the apples. He took more apples, afterward, for many were on the ground; and each one that he tossed into his pocket hit the little dog somewhere upon the head or back, and made him growl. The little dog's name was Toto, and he was sorry he had been put in the shaggy man's pocket.",-0.00392285,0.475499125
04005df65,,,"The old sailor's face was brown as a berry. He had a fringe of hair around the back of his head and a fringe of whisker around the edge of his face, running from ear to ear and underneath his chin. His eyes were light blue and kind in expression. His nose was big and broad, and his few teeth were not strong enough to crack nuts with.
Trot liked Cap'n Bill and had a great deal of confidence in his wisdom, and a great admiration for his ability to make tops and whistles and toys with that marvelous jackknife of his. In the village were many boys and girls of her own age, but she never had as much fun playing with them as she had wandering by the sea accompanied by the old sailor and listening to his fascinating stories.",-0.100735237,0.486327941
b4eaadabe,,,"They had divided one of the biscuits and were munching it for breakfast when they were startled by a sudden splash in the pool. Looking toward it, they saw emerging from the water the most curious creature either of them had ever beheld. It wasn't a fish, Trot decided, nor was it a beast. It had wings, though, and queer wings they were: shaped like an inverted chopping-bowl and covered with tough skin instead of feathers. It had four legs—much like the legs of a stork, only double the number—and its head was shaped a good deal like that of a poll parrot, with a beak that curved downward in front and upward at the edges, and was half bill and half mouth. But to call it a bird was out of the question, because it had no feathers whatever except a crest of wavy plumes of a scarlet color on the very top of its head.",-0.386313822,0.465308045
118356e7a,,,"Colonel Hathaway and his granddaughter stood silently upon the platform of this shed, their luggage beside them, and watched their trunks tumbled out of the baggage car ahead and the train start, gather speed, and go rumbling on its way. Then the girl looked around her to discover that the primitive station was really the only barren spot in the landscape.
For this was no Western prairie country, but one of the oldest settled and most prosperous sections of a great state that had been one of the original thirteen to be represented by a star on our national banner. Chargrove might not be much of a railway station, as it was only eleven miles from a big city, but the country around it was exceedingly beautiful. Great oaks and maples stood here and there, some in groups and some in stately solitude; the land was well fenced and carefully cultivated; roads—smooth or rutty—led in every direction; flocks and herds were abundant; half hidden by hills or splendid groves peeped the roofs of comfortable farmhouses that evidenced the general prosperity of the community.",-0.977815417,0.464525128
ed95e9d53,,,"In one of the houses lived a wise old Hyup named Bini Aru, who used to be a clever Sorcerer. But Ozma of Oz, who rules everyone in the Land of Oz, had made a decree that no one should practice magic in her dominions except Glinda the Good and the Wizard of Oz, and when Glinda sent this royal command to the Hyups by means of a strong-winged Eagle, old Bini Aru at once stopped performing magical arts. He destroyed many of his magic powders and tools of magic, and afterward honestly obeyed the law. He had never seen Ozma, but he knew she was his Ruler and must be obeyed.
There was only one thing that grieved him. He had discovered a new and secret method of transformations that was unknown to any other Sorcerer. Glinda the Good did not know it, nor did the little Wizard of Oz, nor Dr. Pipt nor old Mombi, nor anyone else who dealt in magic arts.",-1.159264533,0.464904716
93999db62,,,"The wind was full on the Seabird's beam as she entered the broken water. Here and there the dark heads of the rocks showed above the water. These were easy enough to avoid, the danger lay in those hidden beneath its surface, and whose position was indicated only by the occasional break of a sea as it passed over them. Every time the Seabird sank on a wave those on board involuntarily held their breath, but the water here was comparatively smooth, the sea having spent its first force upon the outer reef. With a wave of his hand Tom directed the helmsman as to his course, and the little yacht was admirably handled through the dangers.
""I begin to think we shall do it,"" Tom said to Jack Harvey, who was standing close to him. ""Another five minutes and we shall be within reach of her.""
It could be seen now that there was a group of people clustered in the bow of the wreck. Two or three light lines were coiled in readiness for throwing.",-1.154604142,0.49444109
21ae4630e,,,"I do not wish for a moment to defend ill-temper, but I do think that people who suffer from ill-tempered people often talk as if they were the only ones who do suffer in the matter; and as if the ill-tempered people themselves quite enjoyed being in a rage.
And yet how much misery is endured by those who have never got the victory over their own ill-temper! To feel wretched and exasperated by little annoyances which good-humoured people get over with a shrug or a smile; to have things rankle in my mind like a splinter in the flesh, which glide lightly off yours, and leave no mark; to be unable to bear a joke, knowing that one is doubly laughed at because one can't; to have this deadly sore at heart—""I cannot forgive; I cannot forget,"" there is no pleasure in these things. The tears of sorrow are not more bitter than the tears of anger, of hurt pride or thwarted will.",-1.960115381,0.477761189
7eeb2e6bf,,,"In days of yore, there were once two poor old widows who lived in the same hamlet and under the same roof. But though the cottages joined and one roof covered them, they had each a separate dwelling; and although they were alike in age and circumstances, yet in other respects they were very different. For one dame was covetous, though she had little to save, and the other was liberal, though she had little to give.
Now, on the rising ground opposite to the widows' cottages, stood a monastery where a few pious and charitable brethren spent their time in prayer, labour, and good works. And with the alms of these monks, and the kindness of neighbours, and because their wants were few, the old women dwelt in comfort, and had daily bread, and lay warm at night.
One evening, when the covetous old widow was having supper, there came a knock at her door. Before she opened it she hastily put away the remains of her meal.",-1.417609212,0.553060799
27ae759b3,,,"A summer's afternoon. Early in the summer, and late in the afternoon; with odors and colors deepening, and shadows lengthening, towards evening.
Two gaffers gossiping, seated side by side upon a Yorkshire wall. A wall of sandstone of many colors, glowing redder and yellower as the sun goes down; well cushioned with moss and lichen, and deep set in rank grass on this side, where the path runs, and in blue hyacinths on that side, where the wood is, and where--on the gray and still naked branches of young oaks--sit divers crows, not less solemn than the gaffers, and also gossiping.
One gaffer in work-day clothes, not unpicturesque of form and hue. Gray, home-knit stockings, and coat and knee-breeches of corduroy, which takes tints from Time and Weather as harmoniously as wooden palings do; so that field laborers (like some insects) seem to absorb or mimic the colors of the vegetation round them and of their native soil. That is, on work-days. Sunday-best is a different matter, and in this the other gaffer was clothed.",-2.589831934,0.529110083
f2a50710e,,,"Peter Paul and his two sisters were playing in the pastures. Rich, green, Dutch pastures, unbroken by hedge or wall, which stretched—like an emerald ocean—to the horizon and met the sky. The cows stood ankle-deep in it and chewed the cud, the clouds sailed slowly over it to the sea, and on a dry hillock sat Mother, in her broad sun-hat, with one eye to the cows and one to the linen she was bleaching, thinking of her farm.
Peter Paul and his sisters had found another little hillock where, among some tufts of meadow-flowers which the cows had not yet eaten, were dandelion clocks. They divided them quite fairly, and began to tell each other the time of day.
Little Anna blew very hard for her size, and as the wind blew too, her clock was finished in a couple of puffs. ""One, two. It's only two o'clock,"" she said, with a sigh.
Her elder sister was more careful, but still the wind was against them. ""One, two, three. It's three o'clock by me,"" she said.",-0.635887771,0.454120656
35d89eec7,,,"The five started off, Tommy Todd skating beside Flossie to help her if she should need it. Tommy was a sort of chum of both pairs of twins, sometimes going with the older ones, Nan and Bert, and again with Flossie and Freddie. In fact, he played with these latter more often than with Nan and her twin, for Flossie and Freddie had played a large part in helping Tommy at one time, as I'll explain a little later.
It was a fine Winter's day, not too cold, and the sun was shining from a clear sky, but not warmly enough to melt the ice. The steel skates of the five children rang out a merry tune as they clicked over the frozen surface of the lake.
""Hurrah! Here we are!"" cried Bert at last, as he skated on ahead and sat down on a bench in front of the ""Chocolate Cabin,"" as they called the place. He began taking off his skates.",0.123510589,0.483181499
0505ec0d6,,,"""Oh, I guess Snap just ran away for a change, as Flossie and Freddie sometimes do,"" said Mr. Bobbsey when he came home that evening and had been told what had happened. ""He'll come back all right, I'm sure.""
But Nan and Bert were not so sure of this. They knew Snap too well. He had never gone away like this before. Flossie and Freddie, being younger, did not worry so much. Besides, they had Snoop, and the cat was more their pet than was the dog, who was Bert's favorite, though, of course, every one in the Bobbsey family loved him.
Several times that evening Bert went outside to whistle and call for his pet, but there was no answering bark, and when bedtime came Bert was so worried that Mr. Bobbsey agreed to call the police and ask the officers who were on night duty to keep a lookout for the missing animal. This would be done, the chief said, since nearly all the officers in Lakeport knew Snap, who often visited at the police station.",-0.282837043,0.464423184
5ecf5daa3,,,"""Now you must all eat good breakfasts,"" said Grandma Ford, as the six little Bunkers came trooping downstairs in answer to their father's call. ""Eat plenty of buckwheat cakes and maple syrup, so you will not be cold and hungry when you go out on the ice to skate.""
Russ, Laddie and the others needed no second invitation, and soon there was a rattle of knives, forks and spoons that told of hungry children eating heartily.
The house at Great Hedge was warm and cosy, and the smell of the bacon, the buckwheat cakes and the maple syrup would have made almost any one hungry.
""Are we all going out skating?"" asked Rose, as she ate her last cake.
""Yes, I'll take you all,"" said Daddy Bunker. ""Dick went over to the pond, and he says the ice is fine. It's smooth and hard.""
""Is it strong enough to hold?"" asked Mother Bunker. ""I don't want any of my six little Bunkers falling through the ice.""",0.530514282,0.499057297
28876f9d2,,,"Mun Bun was not a very disobedient little boy; but as Daddy Bunker said, he had a better ""forgetery"" than he had memory. Mun Bun quite forgot that Mother Bunker had told him not to leave the bigger stateroom where she was setting things to rights in her usual careful way. For, as they were to be several days on the steamship, she must have a place for things and everything in its place, or she could not comfortably take care of Daddy and six children.
Then, Mun Bun was so quick! Just as Laddie said: one minute he was there, and the next minute he wasn't. He seemed to glide right out of sight. Cowboy Jack had called Mun Bun a blob of quicksilver; and you know you cannot put your finger on a blob of quicksilver, it runs so fast.",-1.285439638,0.467678286
16dfce6a9,,,"Bunny and his sister, with their papa and mamma, were spending the summer on the farm of Grandpa Brown away out in the country. The children liked it on the farm very much, for they had good fun. A few days before they had gone to the circus, and had seen so many wonderful things that they talked about them from morning until night, and, sometimes, even after they got to bed.
But just now, for a little while, they were not talking or thinking about the circus, though up to the time when Grandpa Brown came around the house with the basket on his arm, Bunny had been telling Sue about the man who hung by his heels from a trapeze that was fast to the top of the big tent. A trapeze, you know, is something like a swing, only it has a stick for a seat instead of a board.
""I could hang by a trapeze if I wanted to,"" Bunny had said to Sue.
""Oh, Bunny Brown! You could not!"" Sue had cried.
""I could if I had the trapeze,"" he had said.",0.430458655,0.490770114
848e8bb68,,,"They passed Key West, but did not dock, and kept on. Alice wondered if they would come near the ""Hole in the Wall,"" but she did not like to ask, for fear of making trouble for Jack. She did not know how much of his story he wanted known to those aboard the ship.
It was a warm, sunny day, and Mr. Pertell had announced that he would begin some of the more important scenes of the drama in a short time. The Mary Ellen was plowing through the blue waters, bending over under a good wind. Nearly all the members of the company were out on deck, under awnings. Alice saw Jack Jepson at some work on the port rail, and noticed Hen Lacomb and the captain stroll toward him. The two latter seemed to converse for a few minutes, when suddenly there was a heavy lurch and roll to the craft.
""Mind your helm there!"" sang out Captain Brisco angrily to the steersman. At the same time there rang out a cry from Hen Lacomb.
""Man overboard! Man overboard!""
Alice, startled, leaped to her feet. Jack Jepson had disappeared!",-0.461795522,0.487901588
fb5388070,,,"As for the other girls, they were slowly turning purple in an effort to maintain the solemnity demanded by the occasion. A strange noise from beneath the car, promptly followed by a choked cough, didn't help them any, and they were relieved when their victim turned his suspicious gaze from them to the shallow ditch at the side of the road which was still muddy from the rain of the night before. The only hope he had of getting around them was to drive through this mud.
Without a word or a glance in their direction, he whipped up his team and started for the ditch. This was something the girls had not foreseen, and they were of no mind to let him get ahead of them again.
Grace and Amy flashed a distress signal to Betty, who stooped over Mollie's feet, the feet being all that could be seen of her, and cried with a peculiar inflection:
""I think you must have found the trouble by this time, Mollie, haven't you?""
Mollie took the hint and scrambled hurriedly to her feet.",-1.040140364,0.475604637
cfb874eb7,,,"Grace promised that she would and moved slowly up the stairs.
Meanwhile Amy Blackford, the last of the trio to whom the dark-haired, pink-cheeked little person who was Betty Nelson had telephoned, had stopped merely to remove the apron from in front of her pink-checked gingham dress and was now flying along the two short blocks that separated her house from the Nelsons'.
As for poor Mollie Billette, she was nearly distracted. Torn with curiosity, as that young person very often was, to know the facts that had prompted Betty's early call, she yet could not satisfy that curiosity. When she had told Betty that she would be around in five minutes she had fully meant to make that promise good. But—she had forgotten the twins!
Upon entering the room where she had locked them while she talked to Betty, she found a sight that fairly took her breath away.",-1.028244259,0.470005023
8d2b2a88a,,,"The morning dawned clear and bright. Mollie woke first in the large, sunshiny room which the girls had chosen to occupy together during their stay on Pine Island.
It contained two large double beds—each in a little alcove of its own. The spotless grass mats, the flowers that bloomed on the wide-silled, latticed windows gave the room an air of cheerful hominess and comfort that was very pleasant.
All this Mollie took in subconsciously as her sleepy gaze wandered about the room. Then slowly full wakefulness banished the last vestige of sleep from her eyes and she sat up in bed.
""The sun!"" she cried joyfully. ""And I was sure it was going to be rainy this morning! Oh, now we shall see the island as it really is. Wake up, Amy, do! Oh, goodness, how the child sleeps!"" and she shook her slumbering friend with no uncertain hand.",-0.320310459,0.467246601
29784afb6,,,"The golden days of October passed away, as so many other Octobers have, and brown November likewise, and the greater part of chill December, too. At last came merry Christmas, and Eustace Bright along with it, making it all the merrier by his presence. And, the day after his arrival from college, there came a mighty snow-storm. Up to this time, the winter had held back, and had given us a good many mild days, which were like smiles upon its wrinkled visage. The grass had kept itself green, in sheltered places, such as the nooks of southern hill-slopes, and along the lee of the stone fences. It was but a week or two ago, and since the beginning of the month, that the children had found a dandelion in bloom, on the margin of Shadow Brook, where it glides out of the dell.",-0.742835654,0.460632302
1946b8101,,,"In the old city of Troezene, at the foot of a lofty mountain, there lived, a very long time ago, a little boy named Theseus. His grandfather, King Pittheus, was the sovereign of that country, and was reckoned a very wise man; so that Theseus, being brought up in the royal palace, and being naturally a bright lad, could hardly fail of profiting by the old king's instructions. His mother's name was Aethra. As for his father, the boy had never seen him. But, from his earliest remembrance, Aethra used to go with little Theseus into a wood, and sit down upon a moss-grown rock, which was deeply sunken into the earth. Here she often talked with her son about his father, and said that he was called Aegeus, and that he was a great king, and ruled over Attica, and dwelt at Athens, which was as famous a city as any in the world. Theseus was very fond of hearing about King Aegeus, and often asked his good mother Aethra why he did not come and live with them at Troezene.",-1.786959444,0.493293885
6188a6dda,,,"Meanwhile, Hercules travelled constantly onward, over hill and dale, and through the solitary woods. Sometimes he swung his club aloft, and splintered a mighty oak with a downright blow. His mind was so full of the giants and monsters with whom it was the business of his life to fight, that perhaps he mistook the great tree for a giant or a monster. And so eager was Hercules to achieve what he had undertaken, that he almost regretted to have spent so much time with the damsels, wasting idle breath upon the story of his adventures. But thus it always is with persons who are destined to perform great things. What they have already done seems less than nothing. What they have taken in hand to do seems worth toil, danger, and life itself.
Persons who happened to be passing through the forest must have been affrighted to see him smite the trees with his great club. With but a single blow, the trunk was riven as by the stroke of lightning, and the broad boughs came rustling and crashing down.",-1.161769606,0.481575072
31d70f860,,,"Although decidedly inelegant and unhandsome, this specimen of the human family was by no means uninteresting. He was so large, and his legs were so long, that the contrast between him and the little mule which he bestrode was ridiculous. He was what is sometimes styled ""loosely put together;"" nevertheless, the various parts of him were so massive and muscular that, however loosely he might have been built up, most men would have found it rather difficult to take him down. Although wanting in grace, he was by no means repulsive, for his face, which was ornamented with a soft flaxen beard and moustache of juvenile texture, expressed wonderful depths of the milk of human kindness.
He wore boots with the trousers tucked into them, a grey tunic, or hunting coat, belted at the waist, and a broad-brimmed straw hat, or sombrero.",-1.488372582,0.458232488
fe511f5e2,,,"A few strokes of the oar soon placed them on the deck of a large clumsy vessel which lay anchored off the entrance to the harbour. This was the diver's barge, which exhibited a ponderous crane with a pendulous hook and chain in the place where its fore-mast should have been. Several men were busied about the deck, one of whom sat clothed in the full dress of a diver, with the exception of the helmet, which was unscrewed and lay on the deck near his heavily-weighted feet. The dress was wet, and the man was enjoying a quiet pipe, from all which Edgar judged that he was resting after a dive. Near to the plank on which the diver was seated there stood the chest containing the air-pumps. It was open, the pumps were in working order, with two men standing by to work them. Coils of india-rubber tubing lay beside it. Elsewhere were strewn about stones for repairing the pier, and various building tools.",-1.543063106,0.495129858
a52976f6d,,,"Being both somewhat fatigued by that time they scarcely uttered a word as they encamped, but went about the work as if half asleep. Cheenbuk lifted the canoe out of the water and laid it on the bank, bottom up, in which position it formed a rough and ready tent for his companion, who, meanwhile, carried up the provisions. Seated on the grass beside it they ate a little dried venison, which required no cooking—uttering only a monosyllable now and then with half-closed eyes, and sometimes with an imbecile smile, which terminated occasionally in an irresistible nod. The feebleness of the light, too, as well as the quietness of the hour, contributed not a little to this state of semi-consciousness.
The frugal supper having been washed down with a draught of water, from Nature's own cup—the joined hands—Adolay lay down under the canoe. Cheenbuk retired to a neighbouring spruce-fir and stretched himself under its branches.",-2.500101134,0.498585295
29af0cdc4,,,"This was little Billy's first trip to sea in his father's fishing-smack, and he went not as a passenger but as a ""hand."" It is probable that there never sailed out of Yarmouth a lad who was prouder of his position than little Billy of the Evening Star. He was rigged from top to toe in a brand-new suit of what we may style nautical garments. His thin little body was made to appear of twice its natural bulk by a broad-shouldered pilot-cloth coat, under which was a thick guernsey. He was almost extinguished by a large yellow sou'-wester, and all but swallowed up by a pair of sea-boots that reached to his hips. These boots, indeed, seemed so capacious as to induce the belief that if he did not take care the part of his body that still remained outside of them might fall inside and disappear.",-0.919732724,0.445124043
894214f77,,,"A boatman turned where he sat on the gunwale, lifted up his hand, said something that was not a blessing, and the boats creaked on through the twilight. The broad Indian river, that looked more like a chain of little lakes than a stream, was as smooth as glass, reflecting the sandy-red sky in mid-channel, but splashed with patches of yellow and dusky purple near and under the low banks. Little creeks ran into the river in the wet season, but now their dry mouths hung clear above water-line. On the left shore, and almost under the railway bridge, stood a mud-and-brick and thatch-and-stick village, whose main street, full of cattle going back to their byres, ran straight to the river, and ended in a sort of rude brick pier-head, where people who wanted to wash could wade in step by step. That was the Ghaut of the village of Mugger-Ghaut.",-1.476661214,0.484445188
d334a0bd3,,,"And the Rhinoceros did. He buttoned it up with the three buttons, and it tickled like cake crumbs in bed. Then he wanted to scratch, but that made it worse; and then he lay down on the sands and rolled and rolled and rolled, and every time he rolled the cake crumbs tickled him worse and worse and worse. Then he ran to the palm-tree and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed himself against it. He rubbed so much and so hard that he rubbed his skin into a great fold over his shoulders, and another fold underneath, where the buttons used to be (but he rubbed the buttons off), and he rubbed some more folds over his legs. And it spoiled his temper, but it didn't make the least difference to the cake-crumbs. They were inside his skin and they tickled. So he went home, very angry indeed and horribly scratchy; and from that day to this every rhinoceros has great folds in his skin and a very bad temper, all on account of the cake-crumbs inside.",0.380898468,0.493478546
9fbfabd8b,,,"Many of the other pictures were much too beautiful to begin with, especially before lunch, but as they were drawn over and over again on birch-bark, they became plainer and easier, till at last even Tegumai said he could find no fault with them. They turned the hissy-snake the other way round for the Z-sound, to show it was hissing backwards in a soft and gentle way; and they just made a twiddle for E, because it came into the pictures so often; and they drew pictures of the sacred Beaver of the Tegumais for the B-sound; and because it was a nasty, nosy noise, they just drew noses for the N-sound, till they were tired; and they drew a picture of the big lake-pike's mouth for the greedy Ga-sound; and they drew the pike's mouth again with a spear behind it for the scratchy, hurty Ka-sound; and they drew pictures of a little bit of the winding Wagai river for the nice windy-windy Wa-sound; and so on and so forth and so following till they had done and drawn all the sound-pictures that they wanted, and there was the Alphabet, all complete.",-1.897865447,0.484068887
c69bb27e1,,,"They were the 'Godlike Kings', and when old Hobden piled some comfortable brushwood between the big wooden knees of Volaterrae, they called him 'Hands of Giants'.
Una slipped through their private gap in the fence, and sat still awhile, scowling as scowlily and lordlily as she knew how; for Volaterrae is an important watch-tower that juts out of Far Wood just as Far Wood juts out of the hillside. Pook's Hill lay below her and all the turns of the brook as it wanders out of the Willingford Woods, between hop-gardens, to old Hobden's cottage at the Forge. The sou'-west wind (there is always a wind by Volaterrae) blew from the bare ridge where Cherry Clack Windmill stands.
Now wind prowling through woods sounds like exciting things going to happen, and that is why on blowy days you stand up in Volaterrae and shout bits of the Lays to suit its noises.",-2.802927561,0.51110046
90cc9869f,,,"They settled themselves, as usual, on the sack-strewn cot in front of the fires, and, when Hobden drew up the shutter, stared, as usual, at the flameless bed of coals spouting its heat up the dark well of the old-fashioned roundel. Slowly he cracked off a few fresh pieces of coal, packed them, with fingers that never flinched, exactly where they would do most good; slowly he reached behind him till Dan tilted the potatoes into his iron scoop of a hand; carefully he arranged them round the fire, and then stood for a moment, black against the glare. As he closed the shutter, the oast-house seemed dark before the day's end, and he lit the candle in the lanthorn. The children liked all these things because they knew them so well.
The Bee Boy, Hobden's son, who is not quite right in his head, though he can do anything with bees, slipped in like a shadow. They only guessed it when Bess's stump-tail wagged against them.",-1.362332038,0.48424054
9fc039bad,,,"It is sad but true. Autumn is often called the sad time of the year, and it is the sad time. But it shouldn't be. Old Mother Nature never intended that it should be. She meant it to be the glad time. It is the time when all the little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows have got over the cares and worries of bringing up families and teaching their children how to look out for themselves. It is the season when food is plentiful, and every one is fat and is, or ought to be, care free. It is the season when Old Mother Nature intended all her little people to be happy, to have nothing to worry them for the little time before the coming of cold weather and the hard times which cold weather always brings.",0.377163132,0.506414962
5cf104360,,,"Now when Blacky the Crow discovered that the eggs in the old tumble-down nest of Redtail the Hawk in a lonesome corner of the Green Forest belonged to Hooty the Owl, he straightway made the best of resolutions; he would simply forget all about those eggs. He would forget that he ever had seen them, and he would stay away from that corner of the Green Forest. That was a very wise resolution. Of all the people who live in the Green Forest, none is fiercer or more savage than Hooty the Owl, unless it is Mrs. Hooty. She is bigger than Hooty and certainly quite as much to be feared by the little people.
All this Blacky knows. No one knows it better. And Blacky is not one to poke his head into trouble with his eyes open. So he very wisely resolved to forget all about those eggs.",-0.620987367,0.475340385
a67e94e39,,,"Happy Jack hopped up as if he meant to begin the chase again, but he had a pain in his side from running so hard and so long, and so he sat down again. Right down in his heart Happy Jack knew that Chatterer was right, that the tree didn't belong to him any more than to his cousin. But when he thought of all those big, fat nuts with which the tall hickory tree had been loaded, greedy thoughts chased out all thoughts of right and he said to himself again, as he had said when he first saw his cousin, that Chatterer shouldn't have one of them. He stopped scolding long enough to steal a look at them, and then—what do you think Happy Jack did? Why, he gave such a jump of surprise that he nearly lost his balance. Not a nut was to be seen! Happy Jack blinked. Then, he rubbed his eyes and looked again. He couldn't see a nut anywhere!",0.54748652,0.524696007
726a4ddb5,,,"Old Granny Fox was dreaming. Yes, Sir, she was dreaming. There she lay, curled up on the sunny little knoll on the edge of the Green Forest, fast asleep and dreaming. It was a very pleasant and very comfortable place indeed. You see, jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun poured his warmest rays right down there from the blue, blue sky. When Old Granny Fox was tired, she often slipped over there for a short nap and sun-bath even in winter. She was quite sure that no one knew anything about it. It was one of her secrets.
This morning Old Granny Fox was very tired, unusually so. In the first place she had been out hunting all night. Then, before she could reach home, Bowser the Hound had found her tracks and started to follow them. Of course, it wouldn't have done to go home then. It wouldn't have done at all.",-0.135174835,0.506344182
8d666ccdb,,,"Tom had begun his inventive work when, some years before this story opens, he had bargained for Mr. Damon's motorcycle, after that machine had shot its owner into a tree. Mr. Damon was, naturally, perhaps, much disgusted, and sold the affair cheap. Tom repaired it, made some improvements, and, in the first volume of this series, entitled ""Tom Swift and His Motor-cycle,"" you may read of his rather thrilling adventures on his speedy road-steed.
From then on Tom had passed a busy life, making many machines and having some thrilling times with them. Just previous to the opening of this story Tom had made a peculiar instrument, described in the volume entitled ""Tom Swift and His Photo-Telephone."" With that a person talking could not only see the features of the person with whom he was conversing, but, by means of a selenium plate and a sort of camera, a permanent picture could be taken of the person at either end of the wire.",-0.662825727,0.466070269
22b8be3d9,,,"""Oh Tom, is it really safe?""
A young lady—an exceedingly pretty young lady, she could be called—stood with one small, gloved hand on the outstretched wing of an aeroplane, and looked up at a young man, attired in a leather, fur-lined suit, who sat in the cockpit of the machine just above her.
""Safe, Mary?"" repeated the pilot, as he reached in under the hood of the craft to make sure about one of the controls. ""Why, you ought to know by this time that I wouldn't go up if it wasn't safe!""
""Oh, yes, I know, Tom. It may be all right for you, but I've never been up in this kind of airship before, and I want to know if it's safe for me.""
The young man leaned over the edge of the padded cockpit, and clasped in his rather grimy hand the neatly gloved one of the young lady. And though the glove was new, and fitted the hand perfectly, there was no attempt to withdraw it. Instead, the young lady seemed to be very glad indeed that her hand was in such safe keeping.",0.383169435,0.510116717
83810dc29,,,"""It's Tom Swift!"" cried Sam Snedecker. ""Look out, or you'll run him down!""
""Let him keep out of my way,"" retorted Andy savagely.
The youth on the wheel, with a sudden spurt of speed, tried to cross the highway. He did manage to do it, but by such a narrow margin that in very terror Andy Foger shut off the power, jammed down the brakes and steered to one side. So suddenly was he obliged to swerve over that the ponderous machine skidded and went into the ditch at the side of the road, where it brought up, tilting to one side.
Tom Swift, his face rather pale from his narrow escape, leaped from his bicycle, and stood regarding the automobile. As for the occupants of that machine, from Andy Foger, the owner, to the three cronies who were riding with him, they all looked very much astonished.",-0.66377888,0.473427668
07dd19b18,,,"""Say, hold on there, Ned! Hold on! Where do you get that stuff; as the boys say? Has something gone wrong with one of the adding machines, or is it just on account of the heat? What's the big idea, anyhow? How many millions did you say?"" and Tom Swift, the talented young inventor, looked at Ned Newton, his financial manager, with a quizzical smile.
""It's all right, Tom! It's all right!"" declared Ned, and it needed but a glance to show that he was more serious than was his companion. ""I'm not suffering from the heat, though the thermometer is getting close to ninety-five in the shade. And if you want to know where I get 'that stuff' read this!""
He tossed over to his chum, employer, and friend—for Tom Swift assumed all three relations toward Ned Newton—part of a Sunday newspaper. It was turned to a page containing a big illustration of a diver attired in the usual rubber suit and big helmet, moving about on the floor of the ocean and digging out boxes of what was supposed to be gold from a sunken wreck.",-0.869539752,0.461059057
82486c2a2,,,"Ceasing his restless walk up and down the room, Tom Swift strode to the window and gazed across the field toward the many buildings, where machines were turning out the products evolved from the brains of his father and himself. There was a worried look on the face of the young inventor, and he seemed preoccupied, as though thinking of something far removed from whatever it was his eyes gazed upon.
""Well, I'll do it!"" suddenly exclaimed Tom. ""I don't want to, but I will. It's in the line of 'doing my bit,' I suppose; but I'd rather it was something else. I wonder—""
""Ha! Up to your old tricks, I see, Tom!"" exclaimed a voice, in which energy and friendliness mingled pleasingly. ""Up to your old tricks!""
""Oh, hello, Mr. Damon!"" cried Tom, turning to shake hands with an elderly gentleman—that is, elderly in appearance but not in action, for he crossed the room with the springing step of a lad, and there was the enthusiasm of youth on his face. ""What do you mean—my old tricks?",-0.158521513,0.495309415
21588e6ca,,,"The next few days were busy ones for Tom, Ned and, in fact, the whole Swift household. Tom and his father had several consultations and conducted several experiments in regard to the new stabilizer, the completion of which was so earnestly desired. Mr. Swift was sure he could carry the invention to a successful conclusion.
Ned was engaged in putting the financial affairs of the Swift Company in shape, so they would practically run themselves during his absence. Then, too, there was the packing of their baggage which must be seen to.
Of course, the main details of the trip were left to Professor Bumper, who knew just what to do. He had told Tom and Ned that all they and Mr. Damon would have to do would be to meet him at the pier in New York, where they would find all arrangements made.
One day, near the end of the week (the beginning of the next being set for the start) Eradicate came shuffling into the room where Tom was sorting out the possessions he desired to take with him, Ned assisting him in the task.",-0.780998362,0.469830304
6b26e3764,,,"Once upon a time in the middle of winter, when the flakes of snow were falling like feathers from the clouds, a Queen sat at her palace window, which had an ebony black frame, stitching her husband's shirts. While she was thus engaged and looking out at the snow she pricked her finger, and three drops of blood fell upon the snow. Now the red looked so well upon the white that she thought to herself, ""Oh, that I had a child as white as this snow, as red as this blood, and as black as the wood of this frame!"" Soon afterwards a little daughter came to her, who was as white as snow, and with cheeks as red as blood, and with hair as black as ebony, and from this she was named ""Snow-White."" And at the same time her mother died.",0.40730717,0.478456406
cb37ae268,,,"Aladdin's Mother burst out laughing at the idea of her son wishing to be the son-in-law of the Sultan, and told him to put such thoughts out of his head at once. But Aladdin was not to be laughed out of his fancy. He knew by this time that the fruits which he had gathered from the magic garden were jewels of great value, and he insisted upon his Mother taking them to the Sultan for a present, and asking the hand of the Princess in marriage for her son.
The poor woman was terribly frightened, fearing lest the Sultan should punish her for her impudence; but Aladdin would hear of no excuses, and at last she set forth in fear and trembling, bearing the jewels on a china dish covered with a napkin.
The Sultan smiled at the idea of the son of a poor old woman asking for the hand of his daughter.
When she came before the Sultan, she told him, with many apologies and pleas for forgiveness, of her son's mad love for the Princess Badroulboudour.",0.652234999,0.541123688
4f96f7a0f,,,"The Cat's master was so surprised to hear his Cat talking, that he at once got him what he wanted. The Cat drew on the boots and slung the bag round his neck and set off for a rabbit warren. When he got there he filled his bag with bran and lettuces, and stretching himself out beside it as if dead, waited until some young rabbit should be tempted into the bag. This happened very soon. A fat, thoughtless rabbit went in headlong, and the Cat at once jumped up, pulled the strings and killed him.
Puss was very proud of his success, and, going to the King's palace, he asked to speak to the King. When he was shown into the King's presence he bowed respectfully, and, laying the rabbit down before the throne, he said—
""Sire, here is a rabbit, which my master, the Marquis of Carabas, desires me to present to your Majesty.""
""Tell your master,"" said the King, ""that I accept his present, and am very much obliged to him.""",-0.118794214,0.469655139
1c0bb0401,,,"On the castle gate he found a golden trumpet hanging, under which were written these words—
""Whoever can this trumpet blow,
Shall cause the giant's overthrow.""
Jack seized the golden trumpet and blew a mighty blast, which made the gates fly open and shook the castle to its foundations. The giant and the magician, knowing that their end was now near, stood biting their thumbs and shaking with terror. Jack, with his magic sword, soon killed the giant, and the magician was carried off by a whirlwind. The castle vanished away like smoke, and the duke's daughter and all the knights and lovely ladies who had been turned into birds and beasts returned to their proper shape.
Jack's fame rang through the whole country, and the King gave him a large estate to reward him for all his brave and knightly deeds. And Jack married the duke's daughter, and lived in joy and contentment for the rest of his days.",-0.427376752,0.469084817
b5863e37e,,,"Dick got safely to London, and was in such a hurry to see the fine streets paved with gold, that he ran through many of them, thinking every moment to come to those that were paved with gold; for Dick had seen a guinea three times in his own little village, and remembered what a lot of money it brought in change; so he thought he had nothing to do but to take up some little bits of pavement, and he would then have as much money as he could wish for. Poor Dick ran till he was tired, and had quite forgotten his friend the driver. At last, finding it grow dark, and that every way he turned he saw nothing but dirt instead of gold, he sat down in a dark corner, and cried himself to sleep. Next morning, being very hungry, he got up and walked about, and asked everybody he met to give him a halfpenny to keep him from starving. At last, a good-natured-looking gentleman saw how hungry he looked.
""Why don't you go to work, my lad?"" said he.
""I would,"" answered Dick, ""but I do not know how to get any.""",-0.985785397,0.470353036
d53ad846e,,,"It happened once that the father was going to the fair, and asked his wife's daughters what he should bring them. ""Fine clothes,"" said the first: ""Pearls and diamonds,"" said the second. ""Now, child,"" said he to his own daughter, ""what will you have?"" ""The first sprig, dear father, that rubs against your hat on your way home,"" said she. Then he bought for the two first the fine clothes and pearls and diamonds they had asked for: and on his way home as he rode through a green copse, a sprig of hazel brushed against him, and almost pushed off his hat; so he broke it off and brought it away; and when he got home he gave it to his daughter. Then she took it and went to her mother's grave and planted it there, and cried so much that it was watered with her tears; and there it grew and became a fine tree. Three times every day she went to it and wept; and soon a little bird came and built its nest upon the tree, and talked with her and watched over her, and brought her whatever she wished for.",0.225036864,0.477278358
e82d5caca,,,"For some time Chéri behaved so well that the ring did not prick at all, but one day when he returned from the chase, having caught nothing, he felt so ill-humoured, that when his dog Bibi came fawning upon him, he kicked the poor, faithful creature from him. At that moment the ring pricked like a pin running into his finger.
""What is this?"" he exclaimed: ""the Fairy must be mocking me, surely I've done no great harm in kicking an animal that annoyed me. What's the use of being ruler of a great empire if I may not treat my dog as I will?""
""I am not mocking you,"" he heard in reply to his thoughts; ""you have been bad tempered, and you have behaved unkindly to a poor animal who did not deserve such treatment. I know you are higher than a dog, but the advantage of being ruler of a great empire is not in doing all the harm one wishes, but in doing all the good one can.""",-0.44632581,0.480694309
338934180,,,"Very seldom a day passed without his buying dogs, little dogs, big dogs, sporting dogs, spaniels, hounds, dogs of all sorts. When he found a beautiful one and then came across a still better, he let the first one go, for being alone—the Princes had declined to take any attendants—he could not take charge of thirty or forty thousand dogs.
He travelled on, keeping to one road, until on a certain night, during a storm of thunder and rain, he lost his way, and after some wandering arrived at a most superb castle where nobody was to be seen but about a dozen hands all holding torches. Other hands pushed him forwards, and guided him through one apartment after another, all so rich in precious stones and beautiful paintings, that it was like enchantment.
After passing through sixty rooms, the hands stopped him, and here the wet garments of the Prince were taken away, and he was clad in raiment of the most exquisite description. The hands then conducted him into a banqueting hall, where entered a little figure, not two feet high, covered with a long black crepe veil, followed by a great procession of cats.",-0.595841399,0.502070563
fb8e6baa7,,,"Once upon a time, a long while ago, there was a Beast.
He was a Great Beast, and lived in a Great Castle that stood in the middle of a Great Park, and everybody in the country held the Beast in great fear. In fact everything about the Beast was great; his roar was great and terrific and could be heard for miles around the park, and when he roared the people trembled.
Nobody ever saw the Beast, which was by no means remarkable, for the Beast never came out of his Park, and no one, I can assure you, ever ventured on to his estate.
But matters were not allowed to remain like this for ever, for something very wonderful happened to the Beast and to somebody else, and if that something had not happened this story would never have been written.",-0.206749288,0.510128135
395082cd2,,,"There was once upon a time a Queen who had the ugliest little baby imaginable, so ugly, indeed, that it was almost impossible to believe he was a little boy at all.
A fairy, however, assured his mother that the little baby would be very good and clever, saying that she was also giving him a gift which would enable him to make that person whom he loved the best as clever as himself.
This somewhat consoled the Queen, but still she was very unhappy because her son was so ugly, though no sooner had he begun to speak than he could talk about all sorts of things, and he had such pretty ways that people were charmed with him.
I forgot to say, that, when he was quite a baby, he had a funny little tuft of hair on his head, so he was called Tufty Riquet, for Riquet was the family name.",0.630922779,0.533958999
788cb8492,,,"So the woodman at last agreed to sell Thumbling to the strangers for a large piece of gold. ""Where do you like to sit?"" said one of them. ""Oh! put me on the rim of your hat, that will be a nice gallery for me; I can walk about there, and see the country as we go along."" So they did as he wished; and when Thumbling had taken leave of his father, they carried him away with them. They journeyed on till it began to be dusky, and then the little man said, ""Let me get down, I'm tired."" So the man took off his hat and set him down on a clod of earth in a ploughed field by the side of the road, But Thumbling ran about amongst the furrows, and at last slipped into a mouse-hole. ""Good-night, masters,"" said he, ""I'm off! mind and look sharp after me the next time.""",-0.973742407,0.485580609
cdecb71c4,,,"Phœbus Apollo, clad in purple that glowed like the radiance of a cloud in the sunset sky, sat upon his golden throne. The Day, the Month, and the Year stood by him, and beside them were the Hours. Spring was there, her head wreathed with flowers; Summer, crowned with ripened grain; Autumn, with his feet empurpled by the juice of the grapes; and Winter, with hair all white and stiff with hoar-frost. And when Phaeton walked up the golden steps that led to his father's throne, it seemed as though incarnate Youth had come to join the court of the god of the Sun, and that Youth was so beautiful a thing that it must surely live forever. Proudly did Apollo know him for his son, and when the boy looked in his eyes with the arrogant fearlessness of boyhood, the god greeted him kindly and asked him to tell him why he came, and what was his petition.",-1.768607657,0.476524873
20e58475c,,,"Underneath the swift-flowing water of a deep river, the nymph who was the mother of Aristæus sat on her throne. Fishes darted round her white feet, and beside her sat her attendants, spinning the fine strong green cords that twine themselves round the throats of those who perish when their arms can no longer fight against the force of the rushing current. A nymph sang as she worked, an old, old song, that told one of the old, old tales of man's weakness and the power of the creatures of water, but above her song those who listened heard a man's voice, calling loudly and pitifully.
The voice was that of Aristæus, calling aloud for his mother. Then his mother gave command, and the waters of the river rolled asunder and let Aristæus pass down far below to where the fountains of the great rivers lie. A mighty roar of many waters dinned in his ears as the rivers started on the race that was to bring them all at last to their restless haven, the Ocean.",-1.180387718,0.478894823
c273dccac,,,"Through the tropic nights their sonorous, bell-like booming can be heard coming up from the marshes, and when they are unseen, the song of the bull-frogs would suggest creatures full of solemn dignity. The croak of their lesser brethren is less impressive, yet there is no escape from it on those evenings when the dragon-flies' iridescent wings are folded in sleep, and the birds in the branches are still, when the lilies on the pond have closed their golden hearts, and even the late-feeding trout have ceased to plop and to make eddies in the quiet water. ""Krroak! krroak! krroak!"" they go—""krroak! krroak! krroak!""
It is unceasing, unending. It goes on like the whirr of the wheels of a great clock that can never run down—a melancholy complaint against the hardships of destiny—a raucous protest against things as they are.",-1.249531499,0.461074308
7a3d486c9,,,"Only once during those dreary three hundred years did the children of Lîr see any of their friends. When they saw, riding down to the shore at the mouth of the Bann on the north coast of Erin, a company in gallant attire, with glittering arms, and mounted on white horses, the swans hastened to meet them. And glad were their hearts that day, for the company was led by two sons of Bodb the Red, who had searched for the swans along the rocky coast of Erin for many a day, and who brought them loving greetings from the good king of the Dedannans and from their father Lîr.
At length the three hundred years on the Sea of Moyle came to an end, and the swans flew to Ivros Domnann and the Isle of Glora in the western sea.",-1.21117325,0.479292691
a9624bdf8,,,"Gretchen had a lot of matches in her old apron. She had a little bunch in her hand. But she could not sell her matches. No one would buy them.
Poor little Gretchen! She was cold and hungry. The snow fell on her curly hair. But she did not think about that.
She saw lights in the houses. She smelled good things cooking. She said to herself, ""This is the last night of the year.""
Gretchen got colder and colder. She was afraid to go home. She knew her papa would be mad at her, if she did not take some money to him. It was as cold at home as in the street. They were too poor to have a fire. They had to put rags in the windows to keep out the wind. Gretchen did not even have a bed. She had to sleep on a pile of rags. She sat down on a door step.",0.600508917,0.546849109
44b882d7b,,,"They made a big fire but the meat would not cook. They made the fire bigger and bigger, but the meat would not cook.
Then the gods were very cross.
Some one said, ""Give me my share, and I will make the meat cook."" The gods looked to see who was talking. There in an oak tree was a big eagle. The gods were so hungry that they said, ""Well, we will.""
The supper was ready in a minute.
Then the eagle flew down to get his share. He took the four legs and there was not much left but the ribs. This made Loki cross for he was very hungry. He took a long pole to hit the eagle. But the pole stuck to the eagle's claws. The other end stuck to Loki.
Then the eagle flew away. He did not fly high. He flew just high enough for Loki to hit against the stones.
Loki said, ""Please let me go! Oh, please let me go!""
But the eagle said, ""No, you tried to kill me. I will not let you go.""",0.051885921,0.495212136
cd0a82e55,,,"Sif was Thor's wife.
Sif had long golden hair. Thor was very proud of Sif's golden hair.
Thor was always going on long journeys. One day he went off and left Sif alone. She went out on the porch and fell asleep. Loki came along. He was always playing tricks.
He saw Sif lying asleep. He said, ""I am going to cut off her hair.""
So Loki went up on the porch and cut off Sif's golden hair.
When Sif woke up and saw that her hair was gone, she cried and cried. Then she ran to hide. She did not want Thor to see her. When Thor came home, he could not find Sif.
""Sif! Sif!"" he called, ""Where are you?""
But Sif did not answer.
Thor looked all around the house. At last he found her crying. ""Oh, Thor, look, all my hair is gone! Somebody has cut it off. It was a man. He ran away with it.""",0.700634685,0.546023901
bbaeb1277,,,"Long, long ago there lived a king in Greece. He had two little children, a boy and a girl. They were good children and loved each other very much.
One day they were playing in the garden.
""Oh, Helle, look!"" said the boy.
There on the grass was a fine large sheep. This sheep had a fleece of gold and his horns were gold, too. The children wanted to pat the sheep, but they could not catch him. When they went near, he ran away on the clouds.
Every day they played in the garden and every day the sheep came, too. By and by he grew tame and let the children pat his golden fleece.
One day the boy said, ""Helle, let us take a ride.""
First he helped his sister on the sheep's back.
Then he got on and held to the horns.
""Hold tight to me, Helle,"" he said.",0.500174428,0.475254527
9cdf5fe75,,,"The next day Jason went to the king and said, ""Now, give me the golden fleece.""
The king did not give it to him, but said, ""Come again.""
Then Medea said, ""If you want the golden fleece, you must help yourself. My father will not give it to you. A dragon is by the tree where the golden fleece is, and he never sleeps. He is always hungry and eats people if they go near him. I can not kill him but I can make him sleep. He is very fond of cake. I will make some cake and put in something to make the dragon sleep.""
So Medea made the cakes and Jason took them and threw them to the dragon.
The dragon ate them all and went to sleep.
Then Jason climbed over the dragon and took the nail out of the tree.
He put the golden fleece under his coat and ran to the ship Argo.
Medea went with him and became his wife.",1.27984618,0.545942996
2ac9d9f75,,,"Joachim took a pencil, and sat down. Now he thought he should be able to please his Mother; but, alas, he found to his surprise, that the fine faces he tried to recall had not left that vivid impression on his brain which enabled him to represent them. On the contrary, he was tormented and baffled by visions of the odd forms and grotesque countenances he had so often pictured. He seized the Indian-rubber and rubbed out nose after nose to no purpose, for he never could replace them with a better. Drawing was his favourite amusement; and this disappointment, where he expected success, broke down his already depressed heart. He threw the book from him, and burst into a flood of tears.
""Joachim! have you drawn him? What makes you cry?""
""I cannot draw him, Mother,"" sobbed the distressed boy.
""And why not? Just look here; here is an admirable likeness of squinting Joe, as you have named him. Why cannot you draw the handsome boy?""
""Because his face is so handsome!"" answered Joachim, still sobbing.",-0.962189373,0.457242223
9b4e8bd32,,,"Lady Madeline's eldest son, Roderick, always seemed most favoured by the Fairy in the pretty things she sent ashore, and certainly he was a very nice boy, and a very good one on the whole—cheerful and honest as the daylight, and very intelligent; but I cannot tell you, dear readers, that he had no faults, for that was not at all likely, and you would not believe it if I said so, even although he is to be the Hero of my tale.
Now I do not want to make you laugh at him, but the story requires that I should reveal to you one of his weak points. Well then, although he was six years old, he was afraid of being alone in the dark! Sometimes when he was in the large dining room with his Father and Mother at dinner time, she would perhaps ask him to fetch something for her from the drawing room which was close by; but, do you know, if there were no candles in the room, he would look very silly and refuse to go, even though there were a fire sufficient to see by.",-1.083530426,0.491859934
c2f833e93,,,"For what are Giants but great men and great women? and the world abounds with people who consider themselves as belonging to that class. And a great many of them—Giants of Cleverness, Giants of Riches, Giants of Rank—Giants of I know not how many things besides, who are walking about the world every day, very often feel themselves to be quite raised above the point of attending to trifles; so that you see I may (in an allegorical sense) say strictly of them that they cannot see carraway seeds. Oh my dears, however elevated you may be, or may become; however great or rich or learned, beware, I pray you, of being a Giant who cannot see a carraway seed!
For, as my explanation of the moral sense now goes on to show you; it is so far from being, as these Giants suppose, a proof of their superiority that they cannot see or notice things they consider beneath them—that it is, in fact, an evidence of some imperfection or defect in either their moral or intellectual structure.",-3.223202098,0.577421258
60acac5fa,,,"Poppypink sat up in bed and yawned. ""Why is everybody getting up so early?"" she asked. ""Is it a holiday?""
The older fairies were dressing themselves and brushing their long fine hair. ""Wonderwings is coming to see us,"" they said. ""Jump up, little Poppypink.""
""Who is Wonderwings?"" she asked.
""You will see when you are dressed. Hurry, or you will miss her.""
The older fairies were dressing themselves and combing
""The older fairies were dressing themselves and combing their long fine hair.""
""Oh dear! I am so sleepy,"" said Poppypink, and she yawned again. ""I don't care about Wonderwings."" She snuggled down into the bedclothes again, and went to sleep.
Presently she was awakened by the sound of the sweetest singing she had ever heard, and a flash of brilliant colour went past her window pane of crystal set in pearl.
""That must be Wonderwings,"" she said. ""Oh, I must see her. I hope I am not too late.""",0.123882554,0.486440172
ca2945337,,,"The Oldest Fairy of All sat thinking among her flowers, and her eyes were filled with peace. She looked at Fairy Tenderheart standing at the gate. ""Who enters here can never return to Fairyland,"" she said, and her voice was sweeter than the songs of birds.
Fairy Tenderheart pushed open the gate and stepped within the Garden. ""Who enters here finds joy,"" said the Oldest Fairy of All, and a crown of happiness sat on her hair.
""You come to work?"" she asked.
""I come to learn what I may do to help the suffering earth,"" said Fairy Tenderheart. ""Its cries of agony have beaten on my heart until there was no rest for me in Fairyland. Is there no way to make war cease? I come to you for wisdom.""
The Oldest Fairy of All rose up and smiled, and her face was brighter than the moon and stars. ""Look closely at my flowers,"" she said, ""and tell me which you think most beautiful.""",-0.197598803,0.468641988
3a4d65f8d,,,"These ten little live playthings can be held in every baby's hand, five in one and five in the other and be the baby ever so poor yet he always has these ten playthings because, you know, he brings them with him.
But all babies do not know how to play with them. They find out for themselves a good many ways of playing with them but here are some of the ways that a baby I used to know got amusement out of his.
The very first was the play called ""Ta-ra-chese"" (Ta-rar-cheese). It is a Dutch word and there was a little song about it all in Dutch. This is the way the baby I knew would play it when he was a tiny little fellow.
His Mamma would hold her hand up and move it gently around this way singing ""Ta-ra-chese, ta-ra-chese!"" Baby would look and watch awhile, and presently his little hand would begin to move and five little playthings would begin the play—dear, sweet little chubby pink fingers—for I think you have guessed these are every baby's playthings.",-1.342369273,0.499857473
e9292e4f6,,,"Arabella had a little red ball fastened to a long string, and Araminta had a little blue ball fastened to a long string. Arabella would roll her ball, and her little white kitty would run and jump for it. And Araminta would roll her ball, and her little black kitty would run and jump for it.
The kittens were so cunning and funny, and they were having such a splendid time.
Sometimes when Arabella's kitty would run very fast, or jump very high, Arabella would laugh until she tumbled right over on the floor.
And sometimes when Araminta's kitty would run very fast, or jump very high, Araminta would laugh until she would tumble right over on the floor.
Oh, they were having a splendid time.
But all at once their mamma looked up from her sewing, and said, ""Good-night, Arabella. Good-night, Araminta. The clock is on the stroke of eight.""",0.166417508,0.521731355
6aaa97050,,,"""How can I go to bed,"" said Penny, the flossy dog, ""till I say good-night to Baby Ray? He gives me part of his bread and milk, and pats me with his little, soft hand. It is bedtime now for dogs and babies. I wonder if he is asleep?""
So he trotted along in his silky, white nightgown till he found Baby Ray on the porch in mamma's arms.
And she was telling him the same little story that I am telling you:
The doggie that was given him to keep, keep, keep,
Went to see if Baby Ray was asleep, sleep, sleep.
""How can we go to bed,"" said Snowdrop and Thistledown, the youngest children of Tabby, the cat, ""till we have once more looked at Baby Ray? He lets us play with his blocks and ball, and laughs when we climb on the table.",-0.067349413,0.483399386
fa8918595,,,"The sun was up and the breeze was blowing, and the five chicks, and four geese, and three rabbits, and two kitties, and one little dog were just as noisy and lively as they knew how to be.
They were all watching for Baby Ray to appear at the window, but he was still fast asleep in his little white bed, while mamma was making ready the things he would need when he would wake up.
First, she went along the orchard path as far as the old wooden pump, and said: ""Good pump, will you give me some nice, clear water for the baby's bath?""
And the pump was willing.
The good old pump by the orchard path
Gave nice, clear water for the baby's bath.
Then she went a little further on the path, and stopped at the woodpile, and said: ""Good chips, the pump has given me nice, clear water for dear Baby Ray; will you come and warm the water and cook his food?""",-0.405085984,0.460526936
97311017,,,"After they had eaten all they wanted, they thought they would take a walk and see this strange world they had come to live in.
Pretty soon they came to a brook, and they all stood in a row and looked in. ""Let us have a drink,"" they said, so they put their heads down, when—
""Peep, peep!"" said Spottie. ""I see a little chicken with a spot on its head.""
""No, no,"" said Brownie; ""it has a ring around its neck, and looks like me.""
""Peep, peep!"" said Daisy. ""I think it's like me, for it is yellow and white."" And I don't know but they would all have tumbled in to see if they hadn't felt something drop right on the ends of their noses. ""What's that?"" said Fluffy.
""Cluck, cluck!"" said Mother Biddy. ""Every chicken of you come in, for it is going to rain, and you'll get your feathers wet.""
So they ran as fast as they could, and in a few minutes the six little chickens were all cuddled under Mother Biddy's wing, fast asleep.",-0.572767569,0.476274232
515e83b56,,,"Little Philip was very fond of horses, and as he was too old to sit on a chair or box or trunk and make believe a rocking-horse was pulling it along his bedroom floor, his father bought him a horse all spotted brown and white, with a beautiful white mane; and Philip loved to get up on his back.
In winter he would go out in his sleigh, even when the snow was deep. It was jolly fun to be in the sleigh all wrapped up cozy and warm in furry robes. He would crack his long whip and make it sound almost as loud as a fire-cracker. He used to carry a make-believe pistol when he dressed up in his ""Rough-Rider"" suit and went horseback-riding. But all the neighbors thought it was funny that Philip would always leave the saddle on his horse when he went out in his sleigh. But you won't think it is funny when I tell you a secret—maybe you have guessed it already—Philip couldn't get the saddle off, because, don't you see, his horse was only a make-believe, hobby-horse.",-0.339629515,0.471630809
51cbd03bc,,,"Elinor's grandmother had two beautiful dogs—""Bruno,"" a big collie, and ""Bounder,"" a little fox-terrier. And when they saw the little girl jump out of the carriage, they barked and barked because they were so glad to see her. And they said to themselves (I think they said to themselves): ""We will let her have a good sleep to-night, for she must be very tired and it is nearly dark. But to-morrow, bright and early, we will ask her to come for a romp with us in the garden, and show her how much nicer it is to live in the country than in the city, where little girls have to walk so quietly along the streets, and dogs have to be led along the sidewalk, and cannot frolic on the soft green grass.""
Elinor was very sleepy after her long ride in the train, and so, after she had had her supper, her grandmother told her she might go to bed early and get a good sleep, and that Nurse Norah would call her at seven o'clock in the morning.",-0.188191513,0.463406173
3c7597144,,,"All at once he heard some one talking, and he hid behind the broom and was as still as he could be.
It was the little boy Johnnie, who lived up-stairs. He had a big hammer and a saw in his hand, and he was talking to his little sister.
""I think that big, empty box down cellar would make a fine dolls' house, Maggie. I can fix a little porch on it, and make an up-stairs and a down-stairs,"" the little boy said.
""Oh, Johnnie, that will be lovely,"" his little sister said. ""I'll do something for you sometime. Maybe—maybe—I'll draw a whole slate full of el'phants, for you to look at!""
Then they started down the cellar steps.
Mr. Squeaky was so frightened that he almost tumbled down the stairs.
""Oh, my dear,"" he whispered, ""they are going to break up our house with a big hammer and a saw, and make a dolls' house out of it! Let's run as fast as we can!""
Poor little Mrs. Squeaky began to cry.",0.478576257,0.511426193
34ec7fa04,,,"Once, just as the long, dark time that is at the end of each day came, Mama Hare said to Tiny Hare, who was at play,
""Come in, now, it is time for bed. You know you must hide from Man, and Dog, and Hawk; but I must tell you that you are to hide from Cat, also.""
""Who is Cat?"" said Tiny Hare.
""Cat is not so big as Dog. She has soft fur and two big wild eyes.""
""She is just like me,"" said Tiny Hare. ""I have soft fur and big eyes; then Cat is just a Hare.""
""The very idea!"" said Mama Hare. ""You have not big wild eyes, and your tail is not long like Cat's. Cat is not good for a Hare to meet. She can run very fast, and she has a claw for each toe,"" and she gave Tiny Hare a wee bite.",0.213854327,0.505540979
736e95591,,,"Good Papa Hare took his nap, and Mama Hare took her nap. The Wee Hare shut his eyes, and put his ears down, but he took no nap. By and by he went out of the door, and ran and ran till he came to the wood. Then he ran and ran in the wood, but he did not come to the RED FIRE, and he ran and ran and ran till his feet were sore, but he did not come to the RED FIRE, and he ran and ran and ran and ran till he was not able to run any more, and no RED FIRE did he see. He lay down to rest in a bush, and very soon his eyes were shut, and he did not see or hear, for it was long past the hour for his nap. When he woke SNOW lay on all the open ways of the wood. The Wee Hare gave a leap from his bush, for he knew that SNOW can grow deep and deep, and a wee hare cannot walk in it. How he did wish he was at home!",-0.879892862,0.44566061
c70989c96,,,"One day a Donkey told Little Half Chick about the Good King and his Animal Farm. Little Half Chick at once started hoppity-hop for Mother Hen and said,
""Mother Hen, I am going to Madrid to see the Good King.""
""All right,"" said Mother Hen, ""good luck to you.""
So Little Half Chick started off, hoppity-hop, hoppity-hop along the road to Madrid to see the Good King.
Soon she met a Two-legged Cat going along hippity-hip, hippity-hip on her leg and crutch. The Cat said,
""Hello, Little Half Chick, where are you going so fast?""
Little Half Chick said, ""I am going to Madrid to see the Good King.""
""May I go too?"" said the Two-legged Cat.
""Yes,"" said Little Half Chick, ""fall in behind.""
So the Cat fell in behind. Hoppity-hop, hoppity-hop went Little Half Chick. Hippity-hip, hippity-hip went the Two-legged Cat.",-0.170251333,0.480152328
2e466993d,,,"The little pig squealed and squealed, and the black and white thing rolled him and rolled him over, and kept saying ""Bow wow!"" But by and by he turned and went away.
The little pig got up and tried to shake off the dust, but he couldn't shake it all off. He wanted to go home, but he had rolled over and over so much, that he couldn't tell where home was. So he ran into a cornfield to hide, till he was sure the black and white thing was gone.
Pretty soon a man came along and found him in the cornfield and said:
""Hello, pink pig, are you eating my corn?""
""Oh, no!"" said the little pig. ""I would not eat your corn.""
""Then you should keep out of my cornfield,"" said the man. ""I will take you home and shut you in a pen.""
And he took the little pink pig home and shut him up in a pen.
""I do not want to be shut up. Please let me out,"" said the little pink pig.",1.281422354,0.515233582
9e18f874b,,,"""We're near it, now,"" announced the squirrel. ""Come this way; and go softly, Fuzzy Wuz, because Juggerjook has sharp ears.""
They crept along through the bushes some distance after that, but did not speak except in whispers. Fuzzy knew it was a bold thing to do. They had nothing to carry to the terrible Juggerjook, and it was known that he always punished those who came to his den without making him presents. But the rabbit relied upon Chatter Chuk's promise that the tyrant of the forest would never know they had been near him. Juggerjook was considered a great magician, to be sure, yet Chatter Chuk was not afraid of him. So why should Fuzzy Wuz fear anything?
The red squirrel ran ahead, so cautiously that he made not a sound in the underbrush; and he skilfully picked the way so that the fat white rabbit could follow him. Presently he stopped short and whispered to his companion:
""Put your head through those leaves, and you will see Juggerjook's den.""",-0.44546144,0.476458704
df72292bd,,,"The little boy ran and brought parsley and cabbage leaves for the Rabbit; and when the Rabbit saw that, he trotted home in a hurry, for fear he might be tempted to eat before it was time.
The little girl brought a fine big mushroom for the Turtle, for she had once seen a turtle nibble all around the edge of a mushroom.
""The Owl will have to bring his own dinner,"" said the little boy, ""but I will get him a piece of bread to eat with it."" So he did.
That night the little girl and boy drove home by moonlight from their grandmother's farm. When they were in their own room they looked out of the window toward the corn-field. They saw the corn-shocks, like wigwams, with black shadows. They saw the tree dark against the sky.",0.664597941,0.501901018
4020d4527,,,"So they let down the bars, and the dog, and the cat, and the rooster, and the duck, and the little white pig with the curly tail, and the little boy, and the little girl, all went in to see the cow.
The little girl climbed on the cow's back, and the little boy climbed on the cow's back, and the dog jumped on the cow's back, and the cat jumped on the cow's neck, and the rooster flew up on the cow's head, and the little white pig with the curly tail, and the duck, walked behind the cow, and they all went down the road together just as happy as they could be.
""‘Good morning, pig, come and take a walk with us.'""
Pretty soon they met a carriage with two women in it.
""Mercy on me!"" said the two women. ""What's this!""
""This is a fine, good show,"" answered the little girl.
""Well, I should think it was!"" said the two women. ""It is a beautiful show.""
""Thank you,"" said the little boy.
""Good-by,"" said the two women.
""Good-by,"" said the little girl.",0.766971435,0.575944036
c14f4a3c3,,,"Once upon a time there were three bears who lived in a castle in a great wood. One of them was a great big bear, and one was a middling bear, and one was a little bear. And in the same wood there was a fox who lived all alone; his name was Scrapefoot. Scrapefoot was very much afraid of the bears, but for all that he wanted very much to know all about them. And one day as he went through the wood he found himself near the Bears' Castle, and he wondered whether he could get into the castle. He looked all about him everywhere, and he could not see any one. So he came up very quietly, till at last he came up to the door of the castle, and he tried whether he could open it. Yes! the door was not locked, and he opened it just a little way, and put his nose in and looked, and he could not see any one.",1.444384952,0.623119933
09ee04799,,,"""My master petted me and gave me some sugar, and I began to think that being photographed was possibly not so bad, after all. Presently a man came in. He looked very much astonished, and said, ‘Why, I thought you engaged a sitting for ""a descendant of one of the early settlers""?'
""‘So I did,' replied my master; ‘there it is,' pointing to where I stood up, blinking with all my might.
""‘Why, it's a cub bear!' exclaimed the man.
""‘Well, it is a relative of some early settlers, all the same,' my master answered.
""At this the man smiled good-humoredly, then he went into another room, while my master petted me and gave me so much sugar that I had the toothache from it. After a while the man came back and said he was ready, and I was taken into a room where there was a big thing like a gun on three legs, with a cloth over it.",-0.672698266,0.458735038
966bfb330,,,"As soon, then, as the Hedgehog's Wife was ready they set out together; and on the way he said, ""Now attend to what I say. On the long field yonder we shall decide our bet. The Hare is to run on the one side of the hedge and I on the other, and so all you have to do is to stop at one end of the hedge, and then when the Hare arrives on the other side at the same point, you must call out, ‘I am here already.'""
They soon came to the field, and the Hedgehog stationed himself at one end of the hedge, and his Wife at the other end; and as soon as they had taken their places the Hare arrived. ""Are you ready to start?"" asked the Hare. ""Yes,"" answered the Hedgehog, and each took his place. ""Off once, off twice, three times and off!"" cried the Hare, and ran up the field like a whirlwind; while the Hedgehog took three steps and then returned to his place.",-0.67345523,0.487836801
53cb4f181,,,"And the little shepherd says: ""Where are you going, wee Robin?""
And wee Robin makes answer: ""I'm going away to the King to sing him a song this glad Christmas morning.""
And the little shepherd boy says: ""Come here, wee Robin, and I'll give you some crumbs from my lunch.""
But the wee Robin says: ""No, no! little shepherd boy, no, no! You caught the Goldfinch, but you cannot catch me!""
So the wee Robin flew away till he came to the King; and there he sat on a plowshare, and sang the King a cheery song. And the King says to the Queen: ""What will we give to the wee Robin for singing us this cheery song?""
And the Queen makes answer to the King: ""I think we'll give him the wee Wren to be his wife.""
So the wee Robin and the wee Wren were married, and the King and the Queen, and all the court danced at the wedding. Then the wee Robin and the wee Wren flew away home to the wee Robin's own brookside, and hopped on the brier bush.",-0.66139437,0.465041578
4a90b4554,,,"When Tuesday came, Edith's nurse dressed her in a fresh, white frock, and Edith dressed her dolly in her best dress, and went out under the trees where her nurse had set the table for two. And then she sat in a chair at the table and waited. But the big town clock struck four and no Helen came; and then she waited for half an hour longer. Then Edith put her dolly down on the chair and went in the house to find her mother.
""Mama,"" she said, ""I think Helen is very rude, she doesn't come to my party and I invited her!""
""Just wait a little longer, dear,"" said her mother, ""and she will come. Maybe her nurse was busy dressing Helen's little sister and brother and couldn't get her ready in time.""
""But I invited her,"" was all Edith could say; ""but I invited her, and she doesn't come.""",0.639664825,0.561576238
edb591697,,,"On the morning of the first day of school, Dorothea was suddenly awakened by a loud ting-a-ling-a-ling. She sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. The room was flooded with morning light and the brass knobs on her bed gleamed cheerfully at her and seemed to say: ""Get up, get up!"" Now Dorothea was a ""sleepyhead"" and had seldom been known to get up when first awakened. It usually took at least three calls from her mother or the girls, and sometimes Jim stole in and administered a ""cold pig,"" that is, a few drops of chilly water squeezed upon her neck from a sponge, before she was ready to leave her comfortable bed.
""It's an alarm clock,"" thought Dorothea. ""But where is it?"" Her eyes traveled sleepily around the room but saw nothing that had not been there the night before. The ting-a-ling-a-ling sounded once more. ""It's in this room somewhere!"" she exclaimed, bouncing out of bed. She looked on bureau, washstand, bookcase, and window-seat, and then jumped, for the loud ting-a-ling came almost from underneath her feet.",0.73361431,0.524099515
a1ba30134,,,"When Doris got home she opened her paint-box. What do you think? Of course it was only a cheap paint-box and the paints were so hard that they would not paint at all. Doris cut out the dolls, but they were no better than those in any newspaper's colored supplement. Doris's mama said that the candy was too bad to eat at all, and the rubber balloons got wrinkled and soft in the night, because the gas went out of them. Doris cried when she saw them. ""Now,"" she said, ""I have nothing left of my beautiful dollar but 15 cents.""
""I'm sorry, Dearie,"" Doris's mama said, ""but it's bad enough to have wasted one dollar without crying about it, too. When you and I go out, we'll try to get such good things for the next dollar, that it will make up for our mistake about this one."" The next bright day they went to the bank and got another dollar.",0.198997768,0.474972418
ce1f3e26c,,,"It was after dinner that the tragedy happened. The children had all started out for a walk. Before they had gone more than a mile from the house the fog settled all around them—so dense, so thick, blotting out everything, that they could not see more than a step ahead. They were not frightened, however, as all they had to do was to turn round and go straight ahead toward home. The children took one another's hands at Gretel's direction, stretching themselves across the road, Katharine, who held Gretel's hand, being at one end of the line. They walked on slowly along the dike for a short time, talking busily, though not able to see where they were going, when suddenly Katharine felt her feet slipping. In trying to steady herself she let go of Gretel, gave a wild clutch at the air, and then rolled, rolled, right down a steep bank, and, splash! into a pool of water at the bottom.",0.331813697,0.46970418
92e3a54e8,,,"A square package appeared in the doorway, and she drew it toward her. Attached to it was a third block. This she untied as before, and removed the paper from her gift. It was a small trunk. She lifted the cover, and there were Dolly's missing garments! A blue dress, a pink dress, a white dress, dainty underwear, sash ribbons, a coat and hat, and even a tiny comb and brush, were found in that wonderful trunk. Of course, Dolly had to come out from her nook in the pillows, and be dressed. It took some time, because Little Cousin must stop to admire every separate garment. At last, however, the third present was pulled in, and it was a chair for Dolly to sit in.
The fourth package was big and rather heavier than the others. The Little Cousin wondered what it could be, and she found out just as soon as she could get it open. It was a dining-table for Dolly, with a real little table-cloth, and napkins, and a set of pretty china dishes.",-0.231295405,0.481308809
62dceff46,,,"One day her mother said to her: ""Come, Red Riding-Hood, I want you to go and see your grandmother, and take her a piece of cake and a bottle of wine; for she is ill and weak, and this will do her good. Make haste and get ready before the weather gets too hot, and go straight on your road while you are out, and behave prettily and modestly; and do not run, for fear you should fall and break the bottle, and then grandmother would have no wine. And when you pass through the village, do not forget to courtesy and say ‘Good-morning' to every one who knows you.""
""I will do everything you tell me, mother,"" said the child as she wished her good-by and started for her long walk.
It was quite half an hour's walk through the wood from the village to the grandmother's house, and no sooner had Red Riding-Hood entered the wood than she met a wolf.",1.465054812,0.607106748
f5fd15b56,,,"In the lake floated a large tulip leaf. This was Thumbelina's little boat. Seated there she sailed from side to side of her little lake, rowing cleverly with two white horse hairs. As she rowed backward and forward she sang softly to herself. The woman listening heard, and thought she had never known so sweet a song.
And now such a sad thing happened.
In through a broken window-pane hopped a big toad—oh, such an ugly big toad! She hopped right on to the table, where Thumbelina lay dreaming in her tiny cradle, under the pale pink rose leaf.
""How beautiful the little maiden is,"" she croaked. ""She will make a lovely bride for my handsome son."" And she lifted the little cradle, with Thumbelina in it, and hopped out through the broken window-pane, and down into the little garden.
At the foot of the garden was a broad stream. Here, under the muddy banks, lived the old toad with her son.",0.598522751,0.507944172
64ebce72c,,,"One evening—not long before Christmas—as he had cut out the usual quantity, he said to his wife before going to bed, ""What say you to stopping up this night, to see who it is that helps us so kindly?"" His wife was satisfied, and fastened up a light; and then they hid themselves in the corner of the room, where hung some clothes which concealed them. As soon as it was midnight in came two little manikins, who squatted down on the board; and, taking up the prepared work, set to with their little fingers, stitching and sewing, and hammering so swiftly and lightly, that the shoemaker could not take his eyes off them for astonishment. They did not cease until all was brought to an end, and the shoes stood ready on the table; and then they sprang quickly away.",-1.019399237,0.444002389
7f4525afa,,,"One morning in January, the weather being very severe, Mischief was taken into the kitchen to live, and a happier dog than he could not be imagined, trotting about after the cook and housemaid from morning until night, chasing the cats, stealing towels and brushes—in fact, attending to all the mischief that came in his way.
One day, about two weeks after he came into the house to live, a letter came from Milwaukee saying that he, too, must be sent off. And of course, Mischief knew about it. How could he help it, when the whole household were so sorry to have him go? And accordingly he began to make ready for the long journey he was so soon to take.
As he sat by the range, evidently trying to make up his mind what to take with him, his first thought was of the old coat he had had as a bed; so he crossed the room, took the coat in his mouth, and with his paws scratched it up into a bundle.",-0.183862181,0.474447565
4646af457,,,"Willie was a very little child and lived near a mill. One day he saw a big cruel boy come along and throw a little puppy into the mill-pond, and then run away. Willie cried out: ""O Papa, Papa, do come here!""
""What is the matter?"" said his papa.
""Oh, Papa! I want the little doggie! Please get him for me. He will be drowned!""
His papa took a long pole and put it under the puppy's neck and pulled it out of the water and gave it to Willie. He was very happy with his dog, which, by next year, grew to be a big, strong, shaggy fellow, and was named Diver. He used to go with Willie everywhere the boy went, and he loved Willie very much. Everybody said: ""What a beautiful dog!"" and Willie was proud of him.",0.304491108,0.490467762
91e87e7dc,,,"Hans stopped snoring and awoke at supper-time. He looked for Cowslip, but she had disappeared; he ran about calling for her, but she did not come; and at last he went home to his mother with a very sad face and said: ""Oh, mother, Cowslip ran away while I was asleep. I have looked for her and cannot find her anywhere.""
""You lazy, careless, naughty, careless, naughty, lazy Boy!"" cried Mrs. Stockchen. ""You have left my poor cow wandering all alone. She will lose her way in the dark. Just you go and find her this instant. You will get no supper till you bring her back, or my name is not Matilda Maria!""
Mrs. Stockchen had grown quite scarlet with rage and she shook the soup-ladle at her son to make him go faster. It was getting quite dark by the time Hans reached the field again and nowhere did he see any trace of the cow. He did not know in what direction she had gone, so he walked round and round the field, feeling very miserable.",-0.186014791,0.492730917
c092acf55,,,"The woman looked at the bag and said to herself: ""Now I wonder what it is that that sly old fellow carries so carefully? It will do no harm to see.""
So she untied the string and opened the bag and the ox jumped out and ran out into the yard, and the little boy who was playing there chased him off over the hill and into the wood.
When the Fox came back he saw that the string had been untied, and he said to the old woman: ""Where is my ox?""
""I opened the bag the least little bit, and the ox jumped out and the little boy chased him over the hill and into the wood,"" said the old woman.
""Then I must take the little boy,"" said the Fox.
So he gathered up the little boy and put him into the bag and tied the string and threw the bag over his shoulder and started off down the road.
When he came to the next house he knocked at the door and said: ""Good morning, Good Mother. The way is long and I am weary. May I leave my bag while I go to the store?""",-0.281015345,0.478122173
346a3a3b3,,,"Oeyvind was his name. A low barren cliff overhung the house in which he was born, fir and birch looked down on the roof, and wild-cherry strewed flowers over it. Upon this roof there walked about a little goat, which belonged to Oeyvind. He was kept there that he might not go astray, and Oeyvind carried leaves and grass up to him. One fine day the goat leaped down, and—away to the cliff; he went straight up, and came where he never had been before. Oeyvind did not see him when he came out after dinner, and thought immediately of the fox. He grew hot all over, looked around about, and called, ""Killy-killy-killy-goat.""
""Bay-ay-ay,"" said the goat, from the brow of the hill, as he cocked his head on one side and looked down.
But at the side of the goat there kneeled a little girl.
""Is it yours, this goat?"" she asked.
Oeyvind stood with eyes and mouth wide open, thrust both hands into the breeches he had on, and asked, ""Who are you?""",-1.122988261,0.494824104
f79f81e16,,,"The children laughed again, and Mollie said: ""Poor Mrs. Tomkins, I would look for a new house if I were you—you do have such meddlesome neighbors! Then she took the hen off, and Mrs. Tomkins picked up one of the kittens. ""Mrs. Tomkins gave a sharp ‘m-i-e-o-u,'
as if to say, ‘what do you think of that?'""
The children's mama was sitting in the library reading when the old cat came in, with a kitten in her mouth. She put it softly down, went out, and soon returned with another. She kept on doing this until she had moved all her family of five kittens. Then she settled herself in a cozy corner, and looked at the lady, and purred in this way: ""If you only knew how much trouble I have had with that bad old hen, you would let me and my children stay here.""
The lady laughed and said: ""I will see what I can do for you.""
Just then the children came in and begged to have the kittens stay. So a new home was made for them in a box in the woodhouse.",-0.26701251,0.492538065
74221a3fa,,,"Ned helped him to harness Rover in it like a horse, and Jack climbed in and took the reins. ""Get up!"" said Jack, and away they went out into the yard and on into a big field. But just then a little rabbit started up in front of them, and the minute Rover saw it, he began to race after the rabbit. Poor Jack couldn't hold him at all. Round and round they went, and they ran, and they ran, and they ran! Jack called out, ""Whoa, Rover! Stop, Rover!"" But Rover didn't stop. He wanted to catch the rabbit and he forgot about Jack.
At last the rabbit ran toward a hole under the wall, where Rover could not get him. But Rover dashed after him as fast as he could go. ""Bumpity-bump"" went the little wagon, and just as Rover missed the rabbit, the wheel struck a big stone and poor Jack tumbled out on the ground. But he didn't cry.",0.247029737,0.469739907
4e00b8403,,,"Polly had often had her picture taken, but it was always with her papa or her mamma, and she had never had her picture taken with her pets. So brother Ned had promised that on her birthday he would take her picture with all of her pets—if they would only keep still. This day was Polly's birthday, and, as the weather was fine, her brother had told her to follow him out to the orchard.
Ned fastened his camera on its three sprawling legs, while Polly tried to gather her pets around her. But by this time Blackie, the cat, was chasing a squirrel (though he did not catch him), and Banty, the hen, was away off scratching for worms; and Gyp, the dog, was barking at a bossy calf down by the brook, for, of course, Polly's pets did not know it was her birthday and that they were to have their pictures taken with her.",0.467264084,0.515437712
19118c7af,,,"Papa did not say another word. But he could not help thinking that the hole looked as if the iron spoon had neatly scooped it out.
Next morning he found the hole dug there again, and Chuckie Wuckie was still busy in her corner by the fence. He did not speak of it, however. There were prints of small feet on the edge. He only smoothed down the earth and raked the bed. He did this for three mornings, then he led Chuckie Wuckie again to the canna-bed.
""Papa,"" she said earnestly, ""I did not dig there. Truly, I didn't. The hole is there every morning. I found it today before you came out, but I did not dig it."" There were tears in her brown eyes.
""I believe you, Chuckie Wuckie dear,"" said her father, earnestly.
That night the little girl stood at the gate, watching for her father to jump off the car. She could hardly wait for him to kiss her. She took his hand and led him to the canna-bed.",-0.354378564,0.489101017
848ce782a,,,"Indeed, the fresh paint had such a smart appearance that a little girl passing down to the beach stopped and gazed at it with admiration.
'Look, Daddy,' she called to her father. 'Isn't it a dear little boat? Could we have it to go for a row?'
'It certainly looks broad and safe enough for a small girl who finds it difficult to keep still,' was the answer, and the result was an arrangement to hire the boat at intervals for the rest of the summer season.
And when the Mary Jane was laid up for the winter, Jack and his grandfather counted their earnings, and found that enough had been gained to make up the sum wanted for a new boat.
'That coat of paint was worth something after all,' the old man said. 'And remember, sonny, that ""taut and trim"" is a good motto to hold by whether your work lies among boats or not.'",-0.377535433,0.459870287
39cfe9fb1,,,"Hugh Martin had come home from Canada, where his father owned a ranch, on a visit to some English relations.
Willie Pearse was the cousin nearest him in age, and the two boys became great friends.
'It must be a jolly life out there, and money seems to be made much more quickly than in England,' Willie said one day. 'I wish Father would let me go out with you.'
'You would have to make up your mind to work harder than you do here,' Hugh told him, for he had noticed that his cousin was inclined to be lazy.
'Oh, I like that! Why, you were telling me how little there was to do in the winter, with everything frozen up! I thought that when you were not having a ripping time with sleighing parties and tobogganing, you just sat by the fire and read.'
'Compared with the summer, of course, the winter work is nothing. We just have to feed the calves every day, and ride round the field where our stock are wintering, to look up the cattle. But even that is more than you seem to get through, Will.'",0.40437854,0.510361363
0291a72fb,,,"When the ambassadors had returned to Rome the Senate commanded that there should be levied two armies; and that Minucius the Consul should march with the one against the Æquians on Mount Ægidus, and that the other should hinder the enemy from their plundering. This levying the tribunes of the Commons sought to hinder; and perchance had done so, but there also came well-nigh to the walls of the city a great host of the Sabines plundering all the country. Thereupon the people willingly offered themselves, and there were levied forthwith two great armies. Nevertheless when the Consul Minucius had marched to Mount Ægidus, and had pitched his camp not far from the Æquians, he did nought for fear of the enemy, but kept himself within his entrenchments. And when the enemy perceived that he was afraid, growing the bolder for his lack of courage, they drew lines about him, keeping him in on every side. Yet before that he was altogether shut up there escaped from his camp five horsemen, that bare tidings to Rome how that the Consul, together with his army, was besieged.",-3.218972393,0.551301414
37f8dab19,,,"The ten tables were therefore set forth, and when these had been sufficiently considered, and such corrections made therein as seemed good, a regular assembly of the people was called, and the laws were duly established. But now there was spread abroad a report that two tables were yet wanting, and that when these should have been added the whole would be complete; and thence there arose a desire that the Ten should be appointed to hold office a second year. This indeed was done; but Appius Claudius so ordered matters that there were elected together with him none of the chief men of the state, but only such as were of an inferior condition and fortune.
After this the Ten began more and more to set aside all law and right. Thus whereas at the first one only on each day was followed by the twelve lictors, each of the Ten came daily into the market-place so attended, and whereas before the lictors carried bundles of rods only, now there was bound up with the rods an axe; whereby was signified the power of life and death.",-3.078083218,0.635455555
bcd734621,,,"Midas was enjoying himself in his treasure-room, one day, as usual, when he perceived a shadow fall over the heaps of gold; and, looking suddenly up, what should he behold but the figure of a stranger, standing in the bright and narrow sunbeam! It was a young man, with a cheerful and ruddy face. Whether it was that the imagination of King Midas threw a yellow tinge over everything, or whatever the cause might be, he could not help fancying that the smile with which the stranger regarded him had a kind of golden radiance in it. Certainly, although his figure intercepted the sunshine, there was now a brighter gleam upon all the piled-up treasures than before. Even the remotest corners had their share of it, and were lighted up, when the stranger smiled, as with tips of flame and sparkles of fire.",0.943020903,0.537712944
d46185a7d,,,"The child promised to be as prudent as if she were a grown-up woman, and, by the time the winged dragons had whirled the car out of sight, she was already on the shore, calling to the sea-nymphs to come and play with her. They knew Proserpina's voice, and were not long in showing their glistening faces and sea-green hair above the water, at the bottom of which was their home. They brought along with them a great many beautiful shells; and, sitting down on the moist sand, where the surf wave broke over them, they busied themselves in making a necklace, which they hung round Proserpina's neck. By way of showing her gratitude, the child besought them to go with her a little way into the fields, so that they might gather abundance of flowers, with which she would make each of her kind playmates a wreath.",-0.788321808,0.477085939
cebfcfb33,,,"When gods and shepherds piped and the stars sang, that was the day of musicians! But the triumph of Phœbus Apollo himself was not so wonderful as the triumph of a mortal man who lived on earth, though some say that he came of divine lineage. This was Orpheus, that best of harpers, who went with the Grecian heroes of the great ship Argo in search of the Golden Fleece.
After his return from the quest, he won Eurydice for his wife, and they were as happy as people can be who love each other and every one else. The very wild beasts loved them, and the trees clustered about their home as if they were watered with music. But even the gods themselves were not always free from sorrow, and one day misfortune came upon that harper Orpheus whom all men loved to honor.",-0.813542601,0.471295076
ca7b204d2,,,"On the tower above the Scæan Gate, she found the Trojan elders. These, on account of their age, had ceased from war, but were still good orators, with voices like the grasshoppers which sit upon a tree, and send forth their lily-like voice; so sat the elders of the Trojans on the Tower. When those ancient sages saw the fair Helen coming to them, they were astounded, and whispered one to another, ""No wonder that the Trojans and the Achaians have suffered so many things for such a glorious woman! But, fair as she is, let her sail away, and not stay here to trouble us and our children after us.""
But the aged King Priam addressed her kindly. ""Dear Daughter! come hither, and see thy former husband and kinsmen! I do not blame thee, but the Gods, and especially Venus, by whom this sad war has been brought upon us. But tell me who is that huge Achaian warrior? Many are taller than he, but I have never seen a man so stately and royal.""",-1.82115147,0.477498278
2c94c9e34,,,"First, he made the shield, broad and strong, with many decorations. Around it he placed a triple bright rim, and a silver strap depended from it. The shield itself was formed with five zones, in each of which he fashioned many curious works.
Therein he fashioned the Earth, the Sky, the Sea, the unwearied Sun, the Moon at the full, and all the bright luminaries which crown the azure firmament: the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, the Hyades, the mighty Orion, and, turning about to watch Orion, the Bear, which alone of all the stars bathes not in the streams of Oceanus.
Also, on the shield, he sculptured two fair cities of articulate-speaking men. In one of these were wedding-festivals; and, with a blaze of torchlight, the brides were conducted from their chambers along the streets; while the hymeneal song was loud, and the youths whirled round and round in the giddy dance, to the music of flute and harp; while the women stood at their doors, watching and admiring.",-1.837760926,0.47386719
9ab841811,,,"The Sea-kings knew this harbor and rowed straight into it and ran their ship half a keel's length ashore. Then they lifted Ulysses out of the stern, wrapt in the rugs and coverlet, and laid him still asleep upon the sand. And the gifts they placed in a heap by the trunk of the olive-tree, a little out of the road, so that no passer-by might rob him as he slept.
Then they sailed away; and after they were gone Ulysses awoke, but he could not recognize the land where he lay, for Athene had cast a mist about him so that everything looked strange, though he was the lord of it all. There were the mountain paths and the sheltering creeks, the high, steep rocks and the trees in bloom; but he could not see it aright, and started up and smote his hands upon his thighs and cried aloud,—
""What land have I come to now? And what can I do with all this treasure?",-0.858525293,0.457123284
d78716d74,,,"Æneas and Anchises received the stranger kindly, assured him of his safety, and asked him who he was, and how he came to be in that desolate country. He answered that he was an Ithacan, his name Achæmenides, and that he had been one of the companions of Ulysses in his wanderings. He related the adventures of the Ithacan hero in the cave of Polyphemus, and told how he himself, having been by accident left behind when his comrades escaped, had since led a wretched existence in the woods, living on wild berries and roots, and continually in dread lest he should be seen by the Cyclops. He advised Æneas to lose no time in quitting the country, lest the ferocious shepherds should discover and destroy them. Even as Achæmenides spoke, Polyphemus was seen accompanying his flock to their pasture. So tall was he of stature that he carried the trunk of a pine-tree as a staff to guide his footsteps. Reaching the sea he stepped into it, and bent down to bathe the wound inflicted by Ulysses.",-2.249781502,0.485234943
9cbc92ce1,,,"The next contest was that with the cestus, the boxing-glove of the ancients, a formidable implement, intended not to soften the blows dealt by the boxers, but to make them more painful, for it was composed of strips of hardened oxhide. To the competitors in this sport—if such it could be called—Æneas offered two prizes,—the first a bullock, decked with gold and fillets, and the second a sword and a shining helmet. A noted Trojan warrior named Dares, a man of immense strength and bulk, who was also celebrated for his skill with the cestus, presented himself to contest this prize. He brandished his huge fists in the air, and paced vaingloriously backward and forward in the arena, challenging any one in the assembly to meet him. But there was no response; his friends were too well acquainted with his skill, and the Sicilians were awed by his formidable appearance. At last, therefore, imagining that nobody would venture to encounter him, he advanced to Æneas and asked that the prize might be given up to him.",-3.286064629,0.532321048
c7612744f,,,"Every one ran to the queen's room. But the queen could give no orders. They soon found out, however, that the princess was missing, and in a moment the palace was like a beehive in a garden; and in one minute more the queen was brought to herself by a great shout and a clapping of hands. They had found the princess fast asleep under a rose-bush, to which the elfish little wind-puff had carried her, finishing its mischief by shaking a shower of red rose-leaves all over the little white sleeper. Startled by the noise the servants made, she woke, and, furious with glee, scattered the rose-leaves in all directions, like a shower of spray in the sunset.
She was watched more carefully after this, no doubt; yet it would be endless to relate all the odd incidents resulting from this peculiarity of the young princess. But there never was a baby in a house, not to say a palace, that kept the household in such constant good humour, at least below-stairs.",-0.604038414,0.492834219
dab7bcf73,,,"""I could tell you my adventures—beginning from this morning,"" said Alice a little timidly; ""but it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.""
""Explain all that,"" said the Mock Turtle.
""No, no! the adventures first,"" said the Gryphon in an impatient tone; ""explanations take such a dreadful time.""
So Alice began telling them her adventures from the time when she first saw the White Rabbit; she was a little nervous about it just at first, the two creatures got so close to her, one on each side, and opened their eyes and mouths so VERY wide, but she gained courage as she went on. Her listeners were perfectly quiet till she got to the part about her repeating, ""You are old, Father William,"" to the caterpillar, and the words all coming different, and then the Mock Turtle drew a long breath, and said, ""That's very curious.""",-0.033046431,0.462764496
7e777d654,,,"""Well, this IS grand!"" said Alice. ""I never expected I should be a queen so soon—and I'll tell you what it is, your majesty,"" she went on in a severe tone (she was always rather fond of scolding herself), ""it'll never do for you to be lolling about on the grass like that! Queens have to be dignified, you know!""
So she got up and walked about—rather stiffly just at first, as she was afraid that the crown might come off: but she comforted herself with the thought that there was nobody to see her; ""and if I really am a queen,"" she said, as she sat down again, ""I shall be able to manage it quite well in time.""
Everything was happening so oddly that she didn't feel a bit surprised at finding the Red Queen and the White Queen sitting close to her, one on each side: she would have liked very much to ask them how they came there, but she feared it would not be quite civil. However, there would be no harm, she thought, in asking if the game was over.",-0.485596107,0.452897839
896fd296d,,,"We then came back to our castle; and there I fell to work for my man Friday; and first of all, I gave him a pair of linen drawers, which I had out of the poor gunner's chest I mentioned, which I found in the wreck, and which, with a little alteration, fitted him very well; then I made him a jerkin of goat's skin, as well as my skill would allow, and I was now grown a tolerably good tailor; and I gave him a cap which I had made of a hare's skin, very convenient, and fashionable enough; and thus he was clothed, for the present, tolerably well; and was mighty well pleased to see himself almost as well clothed as his master. It is true, he went awkwardly in these clothes at first: wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders and the inside of his arms; but a little easing them where he complained they hurt him, and using himself to them, at length he took to them very well.",-2.053791606,0.517827282
2617a9b90,,,"""Lost!"" I exclaimed, and the word went like a dagger to my heart; but seeing my children's terror renewed, I composed myself, calling out cheerfully, ""Take courage, my boys! we are all above water yet. There is the land not far off; let us do our best to reach it. You know God helps those that help themselves!"" With that, I left them and went on deck. What was my horror when through the foam and spray I beheld the only remaining boat leave the ship, the last of the seamen spring into her and push off, regardless of my cries and entreaties that we might be allowed to share their slender chance of preserving their lives. My voice was drowned in the howling of the blast; and even had the crew wished it, the return of the boat was impossible.",-0.732739145,0.484800007
5ab9aaeff,,,"By this time the sun was about to set, and all of a sudden the sky became as dark as if it had been covered with a thick cloud. I was much astonished at this sudden darkness, but much more when I found it occasioned by a bird of a monstrous size, that came flying toward me. I remembered that I had often heard mariners speak of a miraculous bird called the roc, and conceived that the great dome which I so much admired must be its egg. In short, the bird alighted, and sat over the egg. As I perceived her coming, I crept close to the egg, so that I had before me one of the legs of the bird, which was as big as the trunk of a tree. I tied myself strongly to it with my turban, in hopes that the roc next morning would carry me with her out of this desert island. After having passed the night in this condition, the bird flew away as soon as it was daylight, and carried me so high that I could not discern the earth; she afterward descended with so much rapidity that I lost my senses.",-0.766227024,0.471443308
ef23ee9af,,,"The next night Grendel came again and levied his second tribute, and again there was mourning and desolation in the land. Thus for twelve years the monster giant came at intervals and carried away many of the noblest in the kingdom. Then were there empty homes everywhere in the land, and sorrow and suffering came where joy and peace had rested. Strange as it may seem, Hrothgar himself was never touched, though he sat the night long watching his nobles as they slept in the mead-hall, hoping himself to deliver them from the awful power that harassed them. But night after night Grendel came, and while Hrothgar remained unharmed he was equally powerless to stay the ravages of the giant. Hrothgar bowed his head in sorrow and prayed to his gods to send help before all his noble vassals perished.",-1.291052921,0.472301948
67b57e1af,,,"Once upon a time, in a far-off country whose exact location no man knows, there lived a king whose chief glory and pride was in his three beautiful daughters. The two elder sisters were sought in marriage by princes, but Psyche, by far the most beautiful of the three, remained at her father's home, unsought. The fact was, she was so lovely that all the people worshiped her as a goddess, while no man felt that he was worthy to ask for her hand.
""Shall a mere mortal,"" they said, ""venture to seek the love of Venus, queen of beauty?""
When Psyche learned of the name they had given her she was frightened, for she knew well the jealous, vengeful nature of the goddess of beauty. And she did well to fear; for Venus, jealous, angry, was even then plotting her destruction.",-0.427601129,0.478028881
1.42E+17,,,"From this same dwarf he wrested a magic cloak or tarnkappe, that gave its owner wonderful strength, made him proof against every blow dealt him, and enabled him to become invisible. At length, when the remaining nobles had sworn allegiance to him, Siegfried rode away, lord of the Nibelunger's land and treasure.
At this time there dwelt in Burgundy, on the Rhine, a young princess of such rare virtue and beauty that noble youths had come from every land to win her as a bride. As yet, however, she had bestowed her favor upon no one. What, then, were the surprise and foreboding felt by King Siegmund and his queen, Siegelind, the parents of Siegfried, when he made known to them that he was about to fare forth to Burgundy, to sue for the hand of the princess Kriemhild. For they knew that King Gunther, Kriemhild's brother, was a man of great might, and that he and his powerful nobles might look with displeasure upon Siegfried's proud bearing.",-2.440718232,0.508607476
05a66a8b7,,,"Always a leader in these amusements was Henry Longfellow. His lively nature found especial delight in social pleasures. In fact, when he was but eight months old his mother discovered that he wished ""for nothing so much as singing and dancing."" Then, too, he was fond of playing ball, of swimming, coasting and skating and of all the other ordinary games and sports. However, he was an especially thoughtful boy, and even from his earliest years was a very conscientious student and took pride in making a good record at school. During the years passed at the Portland Academy, where he was placed when six years old, he worked so industriously and with such excellent results that although he found it very hard—too hard in fact—to be perfect in deportment, his earnest efforts were recognized by the master of the school who sent home from time to time a billet or short statement in which Henry's recitations and his general conduct were highly praised.",-1.360107173,0.489964392
44ed4b49d,,,"The sisters made up their minds from the first that they would have a home; they had a horror of the boarding-house atmosphere. Their first home was but two, or three rooms, high up in a big building in an unfashionable part of the town. Alice papered rooms, Phoebe painted doors and framed pictures; but the impress of their individuality was on the rooms, and every one who entered them felt their coziness and ""hominess."" Papers and magazines paid but little for contributions in those days, and it was only by living in the most economical and humble way that they managed to avoid their great horror—debt. But their life was by no means barren, for they became acquainted with many pleasant people, who were always glad and proud to be invited to the little tea parties in the three rooms under the roof.",-0.030670606,0.501500961
8990c710b,,,"When he was about eight or nine years of age, his mother took her children to live for a time upon property owned by her family on the shore of Lake Sebago, in Maine. Then began a period of great delight for the young boy and his sisters. As the land was mostly covered with woods and the settlements were far apart, there were endless opportunities for fishing and hunting and roaming about the woods or spending long, uninterrupted hours with favorite authors. In the winter Nathaniel passed much time in skating on Lake Sebago, feeling wholly free and at home in the midst of the wild life of nature.
So far as the boy's wishes were concerned, these days in Maine might have continued indefinitely; but his mother, feeling that he needed the discipline of regular study, sent him back to Salem to be prepared by a private teacher for entrance into Bowdoin College.",0.307291723,0.537699914
0cd8230f8,,,"When Joanna appeared, he had been on the point of giving up the struggle with the English, distressed as they were, and of flying to the south of France. She taught him to blush for such abject counsels. She liberated Orleans, that great city, so decisive by its fate for the issue of the war, and then beleaguered by the English with an elaborate application of engineering skill unprecedented in Europe. Entering the city after sunset on the 29th of April, she sang mass on Sunday, May 8, for the entire disappearance of the besieging force. On the 29th of June she fought and gained over the English the decisive battle of Patay; on the 9th of July she took Troyes by a coup-de-main from a mixed garrison of English and Burgundians; on the 15th of that month she carried the dauphin into Rheims; on Sunday the 17th she crowned him; and there she rested from her labour of triumph. All that was to be done she had now accomplished: what remained was—to suffer.",-2.255142197,0.494439285
94ff68620,,,"This great king, in the first year of his reign, fought nine battles with the Danes. He made some treaties with them too, by which the false Danes swore that they would quit the country. They pretended to consider that they had taken a very solemn oath in swearing this upon the holy bracelets that they wore, and which were always buried with them when they died; but they cared little for it, for they thought nothing of breaking oaths, and treaties too, as soon as it suited their purpose, and coming back again to fight, plunder, and burn, as usual. One fatal winter, in the fourth year of King Alfred's reign, they spread themselves in great numbers over the whole of England; and so dispersed and routed the king's soldiers that the king was left alone, and was obliged to disguise himself as a common peasant, and to take refuge in the cottage of one of his cowherds who did not know his face.",-0.801093115,0.446597956
e79369a60,,,"The transition was almost magical; it seemed as if we were at once transported into other times and another realm, and were treading the scenes of Arabian story. We found ourselves in a great court paved with white marble and decorated at each end with light Moorish peristyles. It is called the court of the Alberca. In the center was an immense basin, or fish-pool, a hundred and thirty feet in length by thirty in breadth, stocked with goldfish, and bordered by hedges of roses. At the upper end of this court rose the great tower of Comares.
From the lower end, we passed through a Moorish archway into the renowned Court of Lions. There is no part of the edifice that gives us a more complete idea of its original beauty and magnificence than this; for none has suffered so little from the ravages of time. In the center stands the fountain famous in song and story. The alabaster basins still shed their diamond drops, and the twelve lions which support them cast forth their crystal streams as in the days of Boabdil.",-1.581037089,0.507704999
f5ac1e0c3,,,"But the sting certainly does not exhaust the whole philosophy of the nettle. Look, for example, at the stem and leaves. The nettle has found its chance in life, its one fitting vacancy, among the ditches and waste-places by roadsides or near cottages; and it has laid itself out for the circumstances in which it lives. Its near relative, the hop, is a twisting climber; its southern cousins, the fig and the mulberry, are tall and spreading trees. But the nettle has made itself a niche in nature along the bare patches which diversify human cultivation; and it has adapted its stem and leaves to the station in life where it has pleased Providence to place it. Plants like the dock, the burdock, and the rhubarb, which lift their leaves straight above the ground, from large subterranean reservoirs of material, have usually big, broad, undivided leaves, that overshadow all beneath them, and push boldly out on every side to drink in the air and the sunlight.",-1.795783309,0.446372866
65e557a34,,,"Wherever the voyagers turned their eyes a new creation seemed to bloom around. No signs of human thrift appeared to check the delicious wildness of Nature, who here reveled in all her luxuriant variety. Those hills, now bristled, like the fretful porcupine, with rows of poplars (vain upstart plants! minions of wealth and fashion!), were then adorned with the vigorous natives of the soil—the hardy oak, the generous chestnut, the graceful elm—while here and there the tulip tree reared its majestic head, the giant of the forest. Where now are seen the gay retreats of luxury—villas half buried in twilight bowers, whence the amorous flute oft breathes the sighings of some city swain—there the fish-hawk built his solitary nest on some dry tree that overlooked his watery domain. The timid deer fed undisturbed along those shores now hallowed by the lover's moonlight walk and printed by the slender foot of beauty; and a savage solitude extended over those happy regions where now are reared the stately towers of the Joneses, the Schermerhornes, and the Rhinelanders.",-2.446228974,0.544825499
ee607c4d5,,,"Early on the following morning he reached Portsmouth; and, having despatched his business on shore, endeavoured to elude the populace by taking a by-way to the beach; but a crowd collected in his train, pressing forward to obtain a sight of his face;—many were in tears, and many knelt down before him, and blessed him as he passed. England has had many heroes, but never one who so entirely possessed the love of his fellow-countrymen as Nelson. All men knew that his heart was as humane as it was fearless; that there was not in his nature the slightest alloy of selfishness or cupidity; but that, with perfect and entire devotion, he served his country with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength; and, therefore, they loved him as truly and as fervently as he loved England. They pressed upon the parapet to gaze after him when his barge pushed off, and he was returning their cheers by waving his hat.",-1.438362148,0.498880933
b55a027aa,,,"Young people are liable to think that study is laborious and uninteresting, a nuisance and a bore. Nothing of that sort is true of the study of Shakespeare, because for every effort there is a present reward, there is no waiting to see results. Of course there are right ways and wrong ways to study, just as there are right ways and wrong ways of doing anything. Sometimes teachers fail entirely to interest their classes in Shakespeare, and parents say they cannot make their children like Shakespeare. None of this is the fault of the poet or of the children; the fault lies in the methods used to create an interest. If a person begins properly and proceeds as he should, there will never be a lack of interest. Teachers are not needed, and parents may leave their children to learn to be happy in reading by themselves, if the books are prepared properly for them.",-0.925525145,0.478492165
6a71cad2a,,,"The lively little sprite Ariel had nothing mischievous in his nature, except that he took rather too much pleasure in tormenting an ugly monster called Caliban, for he owed him a grudge because he was the son of his old enemy Sycorax. This Caliban, Prospero found in the woods, a strange misshapen thing, far less human in form than an ape: he took him home to his cell, and taught him to speak; and Prospero would have been very kind to him, but the bad nature which Caliban inherited from his mother Sycorax, would not let him learn anything good or useful: therefore he was employed like a slave, to fetch wood, and do the most laborious offices; and Ariel had the charge of compelling him to these services.
When Caliban was lazy and neglected his work, Ariel (who was invisible to all eyes but Prospero's) would come slily and pinch him, and sometimes tumble him down in the mire; and then Ariel, in the likeness of an ape, would make mouths at him.",-2.131611375,0.497781182
ae4dacb09,,,"If such is the case, what more important work can there be for the father than to read with his son, to watch these beginnings of education which mean so much more than the mere instruction in school, and to be a power in developing that right method of reading which means not only the acquisition of knowledge but also the acquirement of power and the making of character. The busy man is tired at night and inclined to think that he has no time to give to reading with his boys. He may think, too, that reading childish stories is beneath his dignity. Such is not the case. There is a great abundance of literature that is manly, and at the same time interesting to a boy. If the father feels that he is past the time when he has any sympathy with the fairy stories and the little poems that the infants like, if he thinks the nursery rhymes are silly and the fables too old to be true, that is because he has not recently read them.",-0.706431271,0.467637525
5b502970d,,,"While usually it is better to allow each person to learn the lines that most appeal to him, yet some help should be given children. No two people will select all of the same things, though probably all would agree on some few things as being of the highest excellence. Some lines should be learned because of their beauty in description, others because of beauty in phraseology, and still others because of beauty in sentiment. Search should be made, too, for those things which are inspirational, and which will be strong aids in the building of character.
We append a few pages of quotations taken at random from the volumes. They will prove handy when the parent or teacher is pressed for time, and the references to volume and page will enable the busy person readily to find the context, if that seems desirable.
The quotations below are arranged in the order of their appearance in Journeys Through Bookland. This will enable anyone to locate them easily. The lines cover a wide range of thought and will furnish an endless variety of material for stories, comment, question and conversation.",-1.281553402,0.46774904
87197d2c7,,,"You may lead a child to read Rab and His Friends for all the purposes we have suggested, and yet he may have passed over without understanding them many a word, phrase or even sentence. It is possible that there are whole paragraphs that convey little meaning to him. This is certainly not an unmixed evil, for it is well that a child should not exhaust the possibilities of such a masterpiece when he first reads it. In fact, it is a good thing for children frequently to read great literature even when much of it is quite beyond their comprehension. It will pique their curiosity, and some time they will return with wiser minds and broader experience to interpret for themselves the things that once were obscure. It is no sin for a child sometimes to pass over a word he cannot pronounce or does not understand. There could be few more certain ways of destroying his taste for reading than to require him to stop and find the meaning of every new word he meets.",-1.540992613,0.470755504
d4d707fb6,,,"Words alone are not a sufficient possession. They must be known in all their relations. A comprehension of the structure of the sentence is always necessary. A sentence is a unit of thought, an idea reduced to its lowest terms. It may not be necessary that each sentence be analyzed strictly by grammatical rules, but it is essential that the reader should recognize by study if necessary the subject and the predicate and the character and rank of all the modifiers of each. Even the practiced reader by unconsciously laying undue prominence upon some minor phrase frequently modifies the meaning an author intends to convey. This is particularly true in verse, where the poet, hemmed in by the rules that govern his meter and his rhyme, varies the natural order of the elements of a sentence to bring the accents where they belong or to throw the rhyming word to the end of a verse. The grouping of related sentences into paragraphs is an aid to the reader and should be noticed by him till the habit of expecting a slight change in thought with the indentation of a line becomes fixed and automatic.",-2.133114882,0.522257474
470ef2132,,,"Literature has something for every hour, every mood, every circumstance. It may be that there is one little vacant chair in this family circle, or that from some neighbor's family a child has gone. Fear clutches at the youthful hearts and Grief shudders behind each chair. Even the warm bed in the dark room is a dread, for we have so surrounded death with mystery and terror that even the young are aghast when it is mentioned. But our best-loved poet has a cheering message for every one, and into this little group the parent brings it. In soft and sympathetic voice he reads aloud, giving the slow and gentle music of the lines time to steal into the youthful hearts.
As he reads, he pauses now and then to speak to his little audience, watching ever not to be sharp in his questionings or anything but kindly in his comments.",-1.766723874,0.510588296
18724c21e,,,"Except for his lameness, he grew so well and strong that when he was about eight years old he was placed with his brothers in the upper class of the Edinburgh grammar school, known as the High School. Though he had had some lessons in Latin with a private tutor, he was behind his class in this subject, and being a high-spirited and sensitive boy, he felt rather keenly this disadvantage. Perhaps the fact that he could not be one of the leaders of his class made him careless; at any rate, he could never be depended upon to prepare his lesson, and at no time did he make a consistently good record. However, he found not a little comfort for his failure as a student in his popularity as a storyteller and kind-hearted comrade. Among the boys of his own rank in the school he won great admiration for his never-ending supply of exciting narratives and his willingness to give help upon lessons that he would otherwise have left undone.",-0.971027336,0.4456375
b95eb1d3e,,,"At thirteen years of age he was at work in New York, and soon was discovered to be the editor in secret of a paper called The Thespian Mirror. The merit of this juvenile sheet attracted the attention of many people, and among them of Mr. Seaman, a wealthy New Yorker who offered the talented boy an opportunity to go to college free of expense. Young Payne gladly accepted the invitation, and proceeded to Union College, where he soon became one of the most popular boys in the school. His handsome face, graceful manners and elegant delivery were met with applause whenever he spoke in public, and a natural taste led him to seek every chance for declamation and acting. Even as a child he had showed his dramatic ability, and more than once he was urged to go upon the stage. But his father refused all offers and kept the boy steadily at his work.",-0.556713185,0.47846667
35f8e37d1,,,"His early days were thus very happy; but when he was about eleven years old, money difficulties beset the family, and they were obliged to move to a poor part of London. Mrs. Dickens made persistent efforts to open a school for young ladies, but no one ever showed the slightest intention of coming. Matters went from bad to worse, and finally Mr. Dickens was arrested for debt and taken to the Marshalsea prison. The time that followed was a most painful one to the sensitive boy—far more painful, it would seem, than to the ""Prodigal Father,"" as Dickens later called him. This father, whom Dickens long afterward described, in David Copperfield, as Mr. Micawber, was, as his son was always most willing to testify, a kind, generous man; but he was improvident to the last degree; and when in difficulties which would have made melancholy any other man, he was able, by the mere force of his rhetoric, to lift himself above circumstances or to make himself happy in them.",-1.200206027,0.454397775
04ade0eb2,,,"While I was hailing the brig, I spied a tract of water lying between us, where no great waves came, but which yet boiled white all over and bristled in the moon with rings and bubbles. Sometimes the whole tract swung to one side, like the tail of a live serpent; sometimes, for a glimpse, it would all disappear and then boil up again. What it was I had no guess, which for the time increased my fear of it; but I now know it must have been the roost or tide-race, which had carried me away so fast and tumbled me about so cruelly, and at last, as if tired of that play, had flung out me and the spare yard upon its landward margin.
I now lay quite becalmed, and began to feel that a man can die of cold as well as of drowning. The shores of Earraid were close in; I could see in the moonlight the dots of heather and the sparkling of the mica in the rocks.",-3.31528229,0.544734924
9788d8043,,,"He would draw things towards him with a stick, and even use a swing for the same purpose. It had been put up for the children, and could be reached by Mickey, who now and then indulged himself with a swing on it. One day, I had put down some bird skins on a chair to dry, far beyond, as I thought, Mickey's reach; but, fertile in expedients, he took the swing and launched it towards the chair, and actually managed to knock the skins off in the return of the swing, so as to bring them within his reach. He also procured some jelly that was set out to cool in the same way. Mickey's actions were very human like. When any one came near to fondle him, he never neglected the opportunity of pocket-picking. He would pull out letters, and quickly take them from their envelopes. Anything eatable disappeared into his mouth immediately. Once he abstracted a small bottle of turpentine from the pocket of our medical officer. He drew the cork, held it first to one nostril, then to the other, made a wry face, recorked it, and returned it to the doctor.",-1.471859295,0.467703683
b727d1faf,,,"In Kate, however, I had a firm friend, and I knew it. She was a good girl, and told me very sweetly that I might have her (plum and all) whenever I could badger my granduncle, Rumgudgeon, into the necessary consent. Poor girl! she was barely fifteen, and without this consent her little amount in the funds was not come-at-able until five immeasurable summers had ""dragged their slow length along."" What then to do? In vain we besieged the old gentleman with importunities. It would have stirred the indignation of Job himself to see how much like an old mouser he behaved to us two little mice. In his heart he wished for nothing more ardently than our union. He had made up his mind to this all along. In fact he would have given ten thousand pounds from his own pocket (Kate's plum was her own) if he could have invented anything like an excuse for complying with our very natural wishes. But then we had been so imprudent as to broach the matter ourselves. Not to oppose it under the circumstances, I sincerely believe, was not in his power.",-2.206130433,0.479651727
f5c2d1c04,,,"My father went once upon a time about the country, in the idle season, seeing if he could make a penny at all by cutting hair or setting rashurs or pen-knives, or any other job that would fall in his way.
Weel an' good—he was one day walking alone in the mountains of Kerry, without a ha'p'ny in his pocket (for though he traveled afoot, it cost him more than he earned), an' knowing there was but little love for a County Limerick man in the place where he was, an' being half perished with the hunger, an' evening drawing nigh, he didn't know well what to do with himself till morning.
Very good—he went along the wild road; an' if he did, he soon sees a farmhouse at a little distance o' one side—a snug-looking place, with the smoke curling up out of the chimney, an' all tokens of good living inside. Well, some people would live where a fox would starve.",-2.542632398,0.501346701
c00b2023c,,,"Hawkeye moved away from the lookout, and descended, musing profoundly, to the shore. He communicated the result of his observations to his companions, in Delaware, and a short and earnest consultation succeeded. When it terminated, the three instantly set about executing their new resolutions.
The canoe was lifted from the water, and borne on the shoulders of the party. They proceeded into the wood, making as broad and obvious a trail as possible. They soon reached a water course, which they crossed, and continued onward until they came to an extensive and naked rock. At this point, where their footsteps might be expected to be no longer visible, they retraced their route to the brook, walking backward with the utmost care. They now followed the bed of the little stream to the lake, into which they immediately launched their canoe again. A low point concealed them from the headland, and the margin of the lake was fringed for some distance with dense and overhanging bushes. Under the cover of these natural advantages, they toiled their way, with patient industry, until the scout pronounced that he believed it would be safe once more to land.",-1.706167744,0.525039473
7448774f1,,,"Four days on the Platte, and yet no buffalo! Last year's signs of them were provokingly abundant; and wood being extremely scarce, we found an admirable substitute in the bois de vache, which burns exactly like peat, producing no unpleasant effects. The wagons one morning had left the camp; Shaw and I were already on horseback, but Henry Chatillon still sat cross-legged by the dead embers of the fire, playing pensively with the lock of his rifle, while his sturdy Wyandotte pony stood quietly behind him, looking over his head. At last he got up, patted the neck of the pony (whom, from an exaggerated appreciation of his merits, he had christened ""Five Hundred Dollar""), and then mounted with a melancholy air.
""What is it, Henry?""
""Ah, I feel lonesome; I never been here before; but I see away yonder over the buttes, and down there on the prairie, black—all black with buffalo!""",-1.059062701,0.450920802
ccecebc17,,,"On June twenty-eighth, 1838, after she had been queen for over a year, Victoria was formally crowned at Westminster Abbey. The crown worn by her predecessors was far too large for her, so a new crown was made at a cost of over five hundred thousand dollars. The spectacle was a most impressive and inspiring one, and the queen went through her part in it, as she had gone through her part at all ceremonies in which she had participated, in a manner which roused anew the enthusiasm of her subjects. When the prime minister finally placed the crown on Victoria's head, all the peers and peeresses placed their coronets on their heads and shouted God Save the Queen. Carlyle said of her at that time, ""Poor little Queen! She is at an age at which a girl can hardly be trusted to choose a bonnet for herself, yet a task is laid upon her from which an archangel might shrink.""",0.031372778,0.525968338
f0d06ab63,,,"Now as soon as the little boy had eaten all the food which his sister had left him, he went out into the woods and gathered berries and dug up roots, and while the sun shone he was contented and had his fill. But when the snows began and the wind howled, then his stomach felt empty and his limbs cold, and he hid in trees all the night and only crept out to eat what the wolves had left behind. And by and by, having no other friends, he sought their company, and sat by while they devoured their prey, and they grew to know him and gave him food. And without them he would have died in the snow. But at last the snows melted and the ice upon the great lake, and as the wolves went down to the shore the boy went after them. And it happened one day that his big brother was fishing in his canoe near the shore, and he heard the voice of a child singing in the Indian tone:
""My brother, my brother!
I am becoming a wolf,
I am becoming a wolf!""",0.136377219,0.472966613
228aa5585,,,"On their return, their mother, Who had kept watch for them all night long with her little bright eye, said, ""Well, children, what have you brought home for me?"" Then Sun (who was eldest) said, ""I have brought nothing home for you. I went out to enjoy myself with my friends - not to fetch dinner for my mother!"" And Wind said, ""Neither have I brought anything home for you, mother. You could hardly expect me to bring a collection of good things for you, when I merely went out for my own pleasure."" But Moon said, ""Mother, fetch a plate, see what I have brought you."" And shaking her hands she showered down such a choice dinner as never was seen before.
Then Star turned to Sun and spoke thus, ""Because you went out to amuse yourself with your friends, and feasted and enjoyed yourself, without any thought of our mother at home - you shall be cursed. Henceforth, your rays shall ever be hot and scorching, and shall burn all that they touch. And men shall hate you, and cover their heads when you appear.
(And that is why the Sun is so hot to this day.)",-0.581430381,0.474555744
4a1333b11,,,"""A fish laugh! Impossible! You must be dreaming.""
""I am not a fool. I speak of what I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.""
""Passing strange! Be it so. I will inquire concerning it.""
On the morrow the king repeated to his vizier what his wife had told him, and bade him investigate the matter, and be ready with a satisfactory answer within six mouths, on pain of death. The vizier promised to do his best, though he felt almost certain of failure. For live months he labored indefatigably to find a reason for the laughter of the fish. He sought everywhere and from everyone. The wise and learned, and they who were skilled in magic and in all manner of trickery, were consulted. Nobody, however, could explain the matter; and so he returned broken-hearted to his house, and began to arrange his affairs in prospect of certain death, for he had had sufficient experience of the king to know that His Majesty would not go back from his threat.",-1.598382296,0.445607838
c513ec92f,,,"Then the farmer told the whole story, and Rain, taking pity on him, gave him a conch shell, and showed him how to blow it in a particular way, saying, ""Remember! whatever you wish for, you have only to blow the conch that way, and your wish will be fulfilled. Only have a care of that money lender, for even magic is not proof against their wiles!""
The farmer went back to his village rejoicing. In fact the money lender noticed his high spirits at once, and said to himself, ""Some good fortune must have befallen the stupid fellow, to make him hold his head so jauntily."" Therefore he went over to the simple farmer's house, and congratulated him on his good fortune, in such cunning words, pretending to have heard all about it, that before long the farmer found himself telling the whole story - all except the secret of blowing the conch, for, with all his simplicity, the farmer was not quite such a fool as to tell that.",-0.960042463,0.449527255
bbee1c554,,,"One day he met a friend and related to him all his troubles. The friend sympathized very much with him, and promised to think over the matter, and call in a little while and tell him what to do. He did so; in a few days he visited the old man and put down four bags full of stones and gravel before him.
""Look here, friend,"" said he. ""Your sons will get to know of my coming here today, and will inquire about it. You must pretend that I came to discharge a long-standing debt with you, and that you are several thousands of rupees richer than you thought you were. Keep these bags in your own hands, and on no account let your sons get to them as long as you are alive. You will soon find them change their conduct toward you. Salaam, I will come again soon to see how you are getting on.""
When the young men got to hear of this further increase of wealth they began to be more attentive and pleasing to their father than ever before.",-0.889507777,0.491727561
76df6dcd0,,,"Once upon a time a Tiger was caught in a trap. He tried in vain to get out through the bars, and rolled and bit with rage and grief when he failed. By chance a poor Brahman came by.
""Let me out of this cage, oh pious one!"" cried the Tiger.
""Nay, my friend,"" replied the Brahman mildly, you would probably eat me if I did.""
""Not at all!"" swore the Tiger with many oaths; ""on the contrary, I should be forever grateful, and serve you forever!""
Now when the Tiger sobbed and sighed and wept and swore, the pious Brahman's heart softened, and at last he consented to open the door of the cage. Out popped the Tiger, and, seizing the poor man, cried, ""What a fool you are! What is to prevent my eating you now, for after being cooped up so long I am terribly hungry!""
In vain the Brahman Pleaded for his life; the most he could gain was a promise to abide by the decision of the first three things he chose to question as to the justice of the Tiger's action.",0.208936828,0.459709004
3c0447a11,,,"The cowherds loosened the buffalo's halter and began to tie it to the little animal's tail.
""No! no!' he called, in a great hurry. ""If the beast pulled, the skin of my tail would come off, and then where should I be? Tie it around my neck, if you please.""
So with much laughter the cowherds tied the halter round the Rat's neck, and he, after a polite leave-taking, set off gayly toward home with his prize; that is to say, he set off with the rope, for no sooner did he come to the end of the tether than be was brought up with a round turn; the buffalo, nose down, grazing away, would not budge until it had finished its tuft of grass, and then seeing another in a different direction marched off toward it, while the Rat, to avoid being dragged, had to trot humbly behind, willy-nilly. He was too proud to confess the truth, of course, and, nodding his head knowingly to the cowherds, said: ""Ta-ta, good people! I am going home this way. It may be a little longer, but it's much shadier.""",-1.835393935,0.505738093
0f3915450,,,"""Are you satisfied now?"" asked the Partridge.
""Well,"" returned the Jackal, ""I confess you have given me a very good dinner; you have also made me laugh-and cry-ahem! But, after all, the great test of friendship is beyond you-you couldn't save my life!""
""Perhaps not,"" acquiesced the Partridge mournfully, ""I am so small and weak. But it grows late, we should be getting home; and as it is a long way round by the ford, let us go across the river. My friend the Crocodile will carry us over.""
Accordingly they set off for the river, and the Crocodile kindly consented to carry them across, so they sat on his broad back and he ferried them over. But just as they were in the middle of the stream the Partridge remarked. ""I believe the Crocodile intends to play us a trick. How awkward if he were to drop you into the water!""
""Awkward for you, too!"" replied the Jackal, turning pale.
""Not at all! not at all! I have wings, you haven't.""",0.005043864,0.482219958
f9fffc984,,,"A man tied his horse to a tree and went into an inn. A Thief hid the horse in a wood, and stood near the tree as if he had not done it.
""Did you see my horse?"" said the man.
""Yes,"" said the Thief, ""I saw the tree eat up your horse.''
""How could the tree eat up my horse?"" said the man.
""Why it did so,"" said the Thief.
The two went to a Fox and told him of the case. The Fox said. ""I am dull. All last night the sea was on fire; I had to throw a great deal of hay into it to quench the flames; so come tomorrow, and I shall hear your case.
""Oh, you lie,"" said the Thief. ""How could the sea burn? How could hay quench the flames?""
""Oh, you lie,"" said the Fox, with a loud laugh; ""how could a tree eat up a horse?""
The Thief saw his lie had no legs, and gave the man his horse.",-0.010102659,0.455844832
80f1e0cfd,,,"Two fools heard a Drum sounding, and said to themselves, There is some one inside it who makes the noise.""
So, watching a moment, when the drummer was out, they pierced a hole in each side of it, and pushed their hands in. Each felt the hand of the other within the Drum, and exclaimed, ""I have caught him!""
Then one said to the other, ""Brother, the fellow seems to be a stubborn knave; come what will, we should not give in.""
""Not an inch, brother,"" said the other.
So they kept pulling each other's hand, fancying it was the man in the Drum. The drummer came up, and finding them in such an awkward plight showed them with his fist who the man in the Drum really was. But as his fine Drum was ruined, he said, with a sigh, ""Alas! Fools have fancies with a triple wing!""",-1.234616781,0.473956444
924ba4a14,,,"Jackdaw once ran up to a Glowworm and was about to seize him. ""Wait a moment, good friend,"" said the Worm, ""and you shall hear something to your advantage.""
""Ah! what is it?"" said the Daw.
""I am but one of the many glowworms that live in this forest. If you wish to have them all, follow me,"" said the Glowworm.
""Certainly!"" said the Daw.
Then the Glowworm led him to a place in the wood where a fire had been kindled by some woodmen, and pointing to the sparks flying about, said, ""There you find the glowworms warming themselves round a fire. When you have done with them I shall show you some more, at a distance from this place.""
The Daw darted at the sparks and tried to swallow some of them, but his mouth being burned by the attempt, he ran away exclaiming, ""Ah, the Glowworm is a dangerous little creature!""",-0.453051623,0.478866164
2b4024021,,,"They came to a garden, inclosed by a low wall without any opening. The Camel stood on this side of the wall, and reaching the plants within by means of his long neck, made a breakfast on them. Then he turned, jeeringly to the Pig, who had been standing at the bottom of the wall, without even having a look at the good things in the garden, and said, ""Now, would you be tall or short?""
Next they came to a garden, inclosed by a high wall, with a wicket gate at one end. The Pig entered by the gate, and, after having eaten his fill of the vegetables within, came out, laughing at the poor Camel, who had had to stay outside because he was too tall to enter the garden by the gate, and said, ""Now, would you be tall or short?""
Then they thought the matter over and came to the conclusion that the Camel should keep his hump and the Pig his snout, observing, ""Tall is good, where tall would do; of short, again, 'tis also true!""",0.090334665,0.497792837
d52ee40f0,,,"Paul then began felling trees and working away as hard as he could, but no matter how he cut and how he worked he could only turn out pig troughs. He did not give in, however, but worked away till far into the afternoon before he thought of taking any food; then all at once he became hungry and opened his bag, but not a crumb could he find. Paul became so angry he turned the bag inside out and struck it against the stump of a tree; then lie took his ax, went out of the forest, and set off homeward.
As soon as Paul returned, Ashiepattle wanted to set out and asked his mother for a bag of food.
""Perhaps I can manage to build the ship and win the princess and half the kingdom,"" said he.
""Well, I never heard the like,"" said his mother. ""Are you likely to win the princess, you, who never do anything but root and dig in the ashes? No, you shan't have any bag with food!""",-0.522768858,0.493903645
fa0b71d87,,,"""Just wait a bit,"" said the bear, who was furious. ""Never mind, grandfather; if you'll let me go you shall have a taste of my honey,"" said the fox.
When the bear heard this he let go his hold and the fox jumped up on the stone after the honey.
""Over this nest,"" said Reynard, ""I'll put a leaf, and in the leaf there is a hole, through which you can suck the honey."" He then put the nest right up under the bear's nose, pulled away the leaf, jumped on to the stone, and began grinning and laughing; for there was neither honey nor honeycomb in the nest. It was a wasp's nest as big as a man's head, full of wasps, and out they swarmed and stung the bear in his eyes and ears and on his mouth and snout. He had so much to do with scratching them off him that he had no the to think of Reynard.
Ever since the bear has been afraid of wasps.",0.150524028,0.474114971
79b698ba8,,,"So the Bear had a mind to learn to fish too, and bade the Fox tell him how he was to set about it.
""Oh! It's an easy craft for you"", answered the Fox, ""and soon learned. You've only got to go upon the ice, and cut a hole and stick your tail down into it; and so you must go on holding it there as long as you can. You're not to mind if your tail smarts a little; that's when the fish bite. The longer you hold it there the more fish you'll get; and then all at once out with it, with a cross pull sideways, and with a strong pull too.""
Yes; the Bear did as the Fox had said, and held his tail a long, long the down in the hole, till it was fast frozen in. Then he pulled it out with a cross pull, and it snapped short off. That's why Bruin goes about with a stumpy tail this very day.",0.53558468,0.52925649
dd7d0d74c,,,"The Town Mouse rather turned up his long nose at this country fare, and said: ""I cannot understand, Cousin, how you can put up with such poor food as this, but of course you cannot expect anything better in the country; come you with me and I will show you how to live. When you have been in town a week you will wonder how you could ever have stood a country life."" No sooner said than done: the two mice set off for the town and arrived at the Town Mouse's residence late at night. ""You will want some refreshment after our long journey,"" said the polite Town Mouse, and took his friend into the grand dining-room. There they found the remains of a fine feast, and soon the two mice were eating up jellies and cakes and all that was nice. Suddenly they heard growling and barking. ""What is that?"" said the Country Mouse. ""It is only the dogs of the house,"" answered the other. ""Only!"" said the Country Mouse. ""I do not like that music at my dinner.""",-0.661596356,0.49376186
a341fdf3e,,,"A man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: ""You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?""
So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: ""See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.""
So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn't gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: ""Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.""
Well, the Man didn't know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point to them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: ""Aren't you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor Donkey of yours-you and your hulking son?""",-0.033403452,0.470537327
3ee9d45f9,,,"""Oh, father,"" said a little Frog to the big one sitting by the side of a pool, ""I have seen such a terrible monster! It was as big as a mountain, with horns on its head, and a long tail, and it had hoofs divided in two.""
""Tush, child, tush,"" said the old Frog, ""that was only Farmer White's Ox. It isn't so big either; he may be a little bit taller than I, but I could easily make myself quite as broad; just you see."" So he blew himself out, and blew himself out, and blew himself out. ""Was he as big as that?"" asked he.
""Oh, much bigger than that,"" said the young Frog.
Again the old one blew himself out, and asked the young one if the Ox was as big as that.
""Bigger, father, bigger,"" was the reply.
So the Frog took a deep breath, and blew and blew and blew, and swelled and swelled and swelled. And then he said: ""I'm sure the Ox is not as big as ______"" But at this moment he burst.
""Self-conceit may lead to self-destruction.""",0.008935664,0.501651981
be4736207,,,"By Merlin's advice, Arthur sent for help overseas, to Ban and Bors, the two great kings who ruled in Gaul.
With their aid, he overthrew his foes in a great battle near the river Trent; and then he passed with them into their own lands and helped them drive out their enemies. So there was ever great friendship between Arthur and the Kings Ban and Bors, and all their kindred, and afterward some of the most famous Knights of the Round Table were of that kin.
Then King Arthur set himself to restore order throughout his kingdom. To all who would submit and amend their evil ways, he showed kindness; but those who persisted in oppression and wrong he removed, putting in their places others who would deal justly with the people. And because the land had become overrun with forest during the days of misrule, he cut roads through the thickets, that no longer wild beasts and men, fiercer than the beasts, should lurk in their gloom, to the harm of the weak and defenceless.",-1.216708721,0.474114997
679ea4f70,,,"When the ceremonies of the coronation were over, little Isabella's life became a quiet routine of study; for, although a reigning sovereign, she was in the position of that young Duchess of Burgundy of later years, who at the time of her marriage could neither read nor write. This duchess, who married a grandson of Louis XIV of France, was older than Queen Isabella—thirteen years old; and as soon as the wedding festivities were over, she was sent to school in a convent, to learn at least to read, as she knew absolutely nothing save how to dance. Queen Isabella, however, was not sent away to school, but was placed under the care of a very accomplished lady, a cousin of the king, who acted as her governess. In her leisure hours, the king, who was a fine musician, would play and sing for her, and, history gravely informs us, he would even play dolls with her by the hour!",-0.258269554,0.495401717
5d2a23a98,,,"We crowd into the cars and are soon in Cannon street. At the gates a boy meets us with little books for sale, shouting, ""Thirteen elephants for a penny! the other boys'll only give you twelve, but I'll give you thirteen. Sold again! Thirteen elephants for a penny!"" This wonderful book consists of a series of common gaudily colored pictures, supposed to represent the procession, which has done service at the show from time immemorial, but it is each year as welcome as ever to the children who each have a penny to buy one. Through the streets we have passing visions of pink silk stockings, canary-colored breeches, and dark green coats and gold lace, also tri-colored rosettes as large as saucers; and pass by shop-windows full of sweet, eager little faces, in the place of hose, shirts, sewing-machines, etc.
At last we arrive at our destination in Cheapside, where, through the kindness of a friend, a window on the first floor of a large building is waiting for us. How impatient we are until we hear the band of the Grenadier Guards, which heads the procession.",-1.415011332,0.436197912
2b02d86a5,,,"Under the willow shade, and from one of the branches, I had hung a miniature ""belfry,"" containing a tiny brass bell, and had led the string into the water, letting it go down to a considerable depth. At first, I tied bait at intervals upon the line, and the sticklebacks, of course, seized upon it, and thus rang the bell. Generally the ringing was done in a very grave and proper way, although sometimes, when the bait was too tightly tied, the quick peals sounded like a call to a fire.
I generally fed them first, about twenty feet up the bank; but one morning I found one or two had followed me down to the residence of the stickleback family. They met with a rude reception, however, and, to avoid making trouble, the next day I went to the willow first. But no sooner had the bell begun to ring, than I saw a lot of ripples coming down, and in a second the two factions were in mortal combat.",-1.177886917,0.490723663
f86db50bb,,,"""Here, sir! Please take this bird around to Albro's, and see how much it weighs.""
The idea! What would the folks over the way say, to see the ""professor"" walking out with a big turkey under his arm? That was the way the thing presented itself to the good-natured college-student acting as private tutor in the family. But Mrs. Simpson, the portly and practical housewife, had no such idea of the fitness of things.
It was the day before Thanksgiving, and the farmer who had agreed to supply her with a turkey had brought it, but had not weighed it, and, of course, they could not agree on its weight, all of which ended in the startling proposition with which we began.
""Well, if you aint the laziest man——! Just as though it was going to hurt you any to take this bird to the corner and back!"" she went on, as she saw me looking, apparently, for a hole to crawl into, but, in reality, for the broom, which, when I found, I made use of in putting into execution a plan I had formed for weighing the turkey at home.",-1.243383855,0.505092237
ac480ed26,,,"Now, dear fancy-workers, little and big, surely Mother Santa Claus has furnished you with ideas enough to keep you busy for more Christmases than one. Just one thing more, and that is the manner in which the presents shall be given. Nothing can be droller than to hang up one's stockings, and nothing prettier or more full of meaning than a Christmas-tree. But for some of you who may like to make a novelty in these time-honored ways, we will just mention that it is good fun to make a ""Christmas-pie"" in an enormous tin dish-pan, with a make-believe crust of yellow cartridge paper, ornamented with twirls and flourishes of the same, held down with pins, and have it served on Christmas Eve, full of pretty things and sugar-plums, jokes and jolly little rhymes fastened to the parcels. The cutting should be done beforehand, and hidden by the twirls of paper; but the carver can pretend to use his knife and fork, and spooning out the packages will insure a merry time for all at table. ",-1.507300932,0.456097739
23e330f4f,,,"One day there was a boy who came to visit the family who owned the birds, and very soon he went to see the big cage. He had never seen anything like it before. He had never been so close to birds that were sitting on trees or hopping about among the branches. If the birds at home were as tame as these, he could knock over lots of them, he thought.
There was one that seemed tamer than any of the rest. It came up close to him and said: ""Tweet! Tweet!""
The boy got a little stick and pushed it through the wires at little Tweet, and struck her. Poor little Tweet was frightened and hurt. She flew up to a branch of the tree and sat there, feeling very badly. When the boy found he could not reach her any more with his stick, he went away.",0.035570382,0.49643678
a44fe1d5a,,,"A great difference once thought to exist between Mars and the other planets was that he had no moons; but during the night of the 16th of August, Professor Hall, of the U.S. Naval Observatory at Washington, D.C., actually saw through his telescope that Mars has a moon. On the 18th of August another was seen, smaller than the first and nearer to the planet. The larger satellite is believed to be not more than ten miles in diameter: it is less than 12,000 miles distant from its primary, and its period of revolution about it is 30 hours 14 minutes. The distance of the smaller moon is 3,300 miles, and its period 7 hours 38 minutes. There is no doubt that these newly found celestial bodies are the smallest known.
From measurements made by Professor Hall, it is found, with a near approach to certainty, that the mass of Mars is equal to 1-3,090,000th part of the mass of the sun.",-0.656458538,0.468291965
6efcddc6e,,,"The next question is, what is the best time for seeing fairies? I believe I can tell you all about that.
The first rule is, that it must be a very hot day—that we may consider as settled; and you must be just a little sleepy—but not too sleepy to keep your eyes open, mind. Well, and you ought to feel a little—what one may call ""fairyish""—the Scotch call it ""eerie,"" and perhaps that's a prettier word; if you don't know what it means, I'm afraid I can hardly explain it; you must wait till you meet a fairy, and then you'll know.
And the last rule is, that the crickets shouldn't be chirping. I can't stop to explain that rule just now—you must take it on trust for the present.
So, if all these things happen together, you've a good chance of seeing a fairy—or at least a much better chance than if they didn't.",-0.125892568,0.486875821
4c5ee9852,,,"Elizabeth Eliza had heard at Philadelphia how much women had done, and she felt they ought to contribute to such a cause. She had an idea, but she would not speak of it at first, not until after she had written to the lady from Philadelphia. She had often thought, in many cases, if they had asked her advice first, they might have saved trouble.
Still, how could they ask advice before they themselves knew what they wanted? It was very easy to ask advice, but you must first know what to ask about. And again: Elizabeth Eliza felt you might have ideas, but you could not always put them together. There was this idea of the water-trough, and then this idea of getting some money for it. So she began with writing to the lady from Philadelphia. The little boys believed she spent enough for it in postage-stamps before it all came out.
But it did come out at last that the Peterkins were to have some charades at their own house for the benefit of the needed water-trough, tickets sold only to especial friends.",-0.810443543,0.476197136
ed65d0f3d,,,"The Giant, about midnight, entered the apartment, and with his bludgeon struck many blows on the bed, in the very place where Jack had laid the log; and then he went back to his own room, thinking he had broken all Jack's bones.
Early in the morning Jack put a bold face upon the matter and walked into the Giant's room to thank him for his lodging. The Giant started when he saw him, and began to stammer out: ""Oh! dear me; is it you? Pray, how did you sleep last night? Did you hear or see anything in the dead of the night?""
""Nothing worth speaking of,"" said Jack, carelessly; ""a rat, I believe, gave me three or four slaps with its tail, and disturbed me a little; but I soon went to sleep again.""
The Giant wondered more and more at this; yet he did not answer a word, but went to bring two great bowls of hasty-pudding for their breakfast.",0.183676938,0.503084298
d009573dd,,,"In France during World War I, the 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division, had a company of Indians who spoke 26 languages and dialects. Two officers were selected to supervise a communications system staffed by 18 Choctaw individuals. The team transmitted messages relating to troop movements and their own tactical plans in their native tongue. Soldiers from other tribes, including the Cheyenne, Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, and Yankton Sioux also were enlisted to communicate as code talkers. Previous to their arrival in France, the Germans had broken every American code used, resulting in the deaths of many soldiers. However, the Germans never broke the American Indians' ""code,"" and these soldiers became affectionately known as ""code talkers.""
During World War II, the Army used American Indians in its signal communications operations in both the European and Pacific theaters of operations. Student code talkers were instructed in basic military communications techniques. The code talkers then developed their own words for military terms that never existed in their own native tongue. For instance, the word for ""colonel"" was translated to ""silver eagle,"" ""fighter plane"" became ""hummingbird,"" ""minesweeper"" became ""beaver,"" ""half-track"" became ""race track,"" and ""pyrotechnic"" became ""fancy fire.""",-0.828123854,0.495119709
e60f4e31a,,,"King Edward, be it remembered, was a man of many and varied interests. He was a sportsman in the best sense, an ardent and discriminating patron of the Arts, and as well equipped as any man of his time for the give-and-take of social intercourse; wholly free from the prejudices and narrowing rules of caste; at home in all companies; an enfranchised citizen of the world. To such a man, endowed as he was by nature, placed where he was by fortune and by circumstances, there was open, if he had chosen to enter it, an unlimited field for self-indulgence. But, Sir, as every one will acknowledge who was brought into daily contact with him in the sphere of affairs, his duty to the State always came first. In this great business community there was no better man of business, no man by whom the humdrum obligations—punctuality, method, preciseness, and economy of time and speech—were more keenly recognized or more severely practised.",-1.208209756,0.472309426
575f6a437,,,"As a statesman, it was the good fortune of Mr. Gladstone that his career was not associated with war. The reforms which he effected, the triumphs which he achieved, were not won by the supreme arbitrament of the sword. The reforms which he effected and the triumphs which he achieved were the result of his power of persuasion over his fellow-men. The reforms which he achieved in many ways amounted to a revolution. They changed, in many particulars, the face of the realm. After Sir Robert Peel had adopted the great principle which eventually carried England from protection to free trade, it was Mr. Gladstone who created the financial system which has been admitted ever since by all students of finance, as the secret of Great Britain's commercial success. He enforced the extension of the suffrage to the masses of the nation, and practically thereby made the government of monarchical England as democratic as that of any republic.",-2.045048792,0.489359433
cc390cb43,,,"You would have to have 45 times the entire money supply of the United States today to pay the debts of the people of America, and then they would just have to start out from scratch, without a dime to go on with.
So, my friends, it is impossible to pay all of these debts, and you might as well find out that it cannot be done. The United States Supreme Court has definitely found out that it could not be done, because, in a Minnesota case, it held that when a State has postponed the evil day of collecting a debt it was a valid and constitutional exercise of legislative power.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, if I may proceed to give you some other words that I think you can understand — I am not going to belabor you by quoting tonight — I am going to tell you what the wise men of all ages and all times, down even to the present day, have all said: That you must keep the wealth of the country scattered, and you must limit the amount that any one man can own.",-0.400910655,0.461580076
00d4d251d,,,"In those days all cloth had to be made at home. Aunt Dinah, Aunt Chloe, and Aunt Dilsey were kept busy spinning and weaving to make clothes for the whole plantation.
One day Mary's mother said, ""Aunt Dilsey, Mary needs a new dress, and I want you to weave some cloth at once. Can you weave some very fine cloth?""
""Yes, ma'am,"" said Aunt Dilsey. ""I have some cotton I've been saving to make her a dress.""
Aunt Dilsey got out the cards and carded the cotton smooth and fine. Then she fastened a roll of this cotton to the spindle and sent the wheel whirling around with a ""Zum-m-m-m—Zum-m-m-m!""
Mary stood and watched the old woman.
""Aunt Dilsey,"" she said, ""the spinning wheel sings a song, and I know what it says. Grandmother told me. It says,
'A hum and a whirl,
A twist and a twirl,
This is for the girl
With the golden curl!
Zum-m-m-m-m-m!
Zum-m-m-m-m-m!'""
""And that means you, honey,"" said Aunt Dilsey.
When the yarn was ready, Aunt Dilsey fastened it in the loom and began to weave. The threads went over and under, over and under. As Aunt Dilsey wove, she hummed.",0.088763638,0.463817051
6c755953d,,,"""The little girl wants a warm plaid dress. I will give my wool. Who else will help?""
The kind shepherd said, ""I will."" Then he led the old white sheep to the brook and washed its wool. When it was clean and white, he said, ""The little girl wants a warm plaid dress. The sheep has given his wool, and I have washed it clean and white. Who else will help?""
""We will,"" said the shearers. ""We will bring our shears and cut off the wool.""
The shearers cut the soft wool from the old sheep, and then they called, ""The little girl wants a new dress. The sheep has given his wool. The shepherd has washed it; and we have sheared it. Who else will help?""
""We will,"" cried the carders. ""We will comb it out straight and smooth.""
Soon they held up the wool, carded straight and smooth, and they cried, ""The little girl wants a new dress. The sheep has given his wool. The shepherd has washed the wool. The shearers have cut it, and we have carded it. Who else will help?""
""We will,"" said the spinners. ""We will spin it into thread.""",-0.003054017,0.495868638
2a07d8b52,,,"One morning Hoangti and his wife were in the beautiful palace garden. They walked up and down, up and down, talking of their people.
Suddenly the emperor said, ""Look at those worms on the mulberry trees, Si-ling. They seem to be spinning.""
Si-ling looked, and sure enough, the worms were spinning. A long thread was coming from the mouth of each, and each little worm was winding this thread around its body.
Si-ling and the emperor stood still and watched the worms. ""How wonderful!"" said Si-ling.
The next morning Hoangti and the empress walked under the trees again. They found some worms still winding thread. Others had already spun their cocoons and were fast asleep. In a few days all of the worms had spun cocoons.
""This is indeed a wonderful, wonderful thing!"" said Si-ling. ""Why, each worm has a thread on its body long enough to make a house for itself!""",0.596820123,0.497427938
b858f1375,,,"""Oh, wise judge,"" he cried, ""I have come to you for justice. I had a beautiful, kind, gentle horse which has been killed by this man's savage horse. Make the man pay for the horse or send him to prison.""
""Not so fast, my friend,"" the judge said. ""There are two sides to every case.""
He turned to the poor man. ""Did your horse kill this man's horse?"" he asked.
The poor man made no reply. The judge asked in surprise, ""Are you dumb? Can you not talk?""
But no word came from the poor man's lips. Then the judge turned to the rich man.
""What more can I do?"" he asked. ""You see for yourself this poor man cannot speak.""
""Oh, but he can,"" cried the rich man. ""He spoke to me.""
""Indeed!"" said the judge. ""When?""
""He spoke to me when I tied my horse to the tree.""
""What did he say?"" asked the judge.
""He said, 'Do not fasten your horse to that tree. My horse is savage and may kill yours.'""
""0 ho!"" said the judge.",0.142539774,0.489714949
6b8476f7a,,,"So the old goat went on her way into the dark woods.
She had not been gone long when there came a loud rap at the door, and a voice cried: ""Open the door, my dear children. I have something here for each of you.""
But the young kids knew by the rough voice that this was the old wolf. So one of them said, ""We shall not open the door. Our mother's voice is soft and gentle. Your voice is rough. You are a wolf.""
The old wolf ran away to a shop, where he ate a piece of white chalk to make his voice soft. Then he went back to the goat's hut and rapped at the door. He spoke in a soft voice and said, ""Open the door for me, my dear children. I am your mother.""
But the oldest little goat thought of what his mother had said.
""If you are our mother, put your foot on the window sill, that we may see it.""
When the wolf had done this, all the little goats cried out, ""No, you are not our mother. We shall not open the door.""",0.627643273,0.536572413
daab29b47,,,"Forty years ago women were given no representation in conventions where political or industrial topics were discussed. Today nearly all the states have some degree of suffrage. New York and Minnesota have given women the power to vote for county superintendent of schools. Illinois gives them a vote on all school elections, including a vote for trustees of the state university; Kansas allows them to vote at all city elections, and Wyoming has given them full recognition, placing them on a level with the male voter. Two of the four territories, Arizona and Oklahoma, have granted women suffrage in school matters.
Delaware gives them school and municipal suffrage. Mississippi gives them a vote on some minor questions. Arkansas and Missouri allow them a vote on license questions. Kentucky gives suffrage to widows whose children attend schools. Tennessee and Texas give them voting power on minor matters. Most of the states give women the right to vote in business corporations of which they are stockholders, and nearly all give them a voice on questions of local improvements.",-1.291127806,0.531642125
818cd12b8,,,"Roosevelt was so active a person—not to say so noisy and conspicuous; he so occupied the centre of every stage, that, when he died, it was as though a wind had fallen, a light had gone out, a military band had stopped playing. It was not so much the death of an individual as a general lowering in the vitality of the nation. America was less America, because he was no longer here. He should have lived twenty years more had he been willing to go slow, to loaf and invite his soul, to feed that mind of his in a wise passiveness. But there was no repose about him, and his pleasures were as strenuous as his toils. John Burroughs tells us that he did not care for fishing, the contemplative man's recreation. No contemplation for him, but action; no angling in a clear stream for a trout or grayling; but the glorious, dangerous excitement of killing big game—grizzlies, lions, African buffaloes, mountain sheep, rhinoceroses, elephants. He never spared himself: he wore himself out. But doubtless he would have chosen the crowded hour of glorious life—or strife, for life and strife were with him the same.",-1.190053049,0.497372492
33836f881,,,"It is only within the last twenty years that chemists have attained to any comprehensive views at all in the domain of organic chemistry. It has been found possible to gradually range most carbon compounds under two categories, either as marsh-gas or as benzol derivatives, as fatty compounds or as aromatic compounds. To do this, methods of analysis very different from those used in mineral chemistry had to be applied. The mere finding out of percentage composition tells us little or nothing about an organic compound. What the elements are that compose the compound is not to be found out. That can be told beforehand with almost absolute certainty. What is wanted is to know how the atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are linked together, for, strange to say, these differences of groupings, which may be found to exist between these three or four elements, endow the compounds with radically different properties and serve us as a basis of classification.",-2.68107788,0.571414735
f8cb3c63b,,,"The brave Geraint, a knight of Arthur's court, a tributary prince of Devon, one of that great order of the Table Round, had married Enid, Yniol's only child, and loved her, as he loved the light of Heaven. And as the light of Heaven varies, now at sunrise, now at sunset, now by night with moon and trembling stars, so loved Geraint To make her beauty vary day by day, in crimsons and in purples and in gems. And Enid, but to please her husband's eye, who first had found and loved her in a state of broken fortunes, daily fronted him in some fresh splendor; and the Queen herself, loved her, and often with her own white hands array'd and deck'd her, as the loveliest, next after her own self, in all the court. And Enid loved the Queen, and with true heart adored her, as the stateliest and the best and loveliest of all women upon earth. At last, forsooth, because his princedom lay close on the borders of a territory, wherein were bandit earls, and caitiff knights, assassins, and all flyers from the hand of justice, and whatever loathes a law.",-2.321549629,0.561812035
2131211ce,,,"Then rose the King and moved his host by night, And ever push'd Sir Modred, league by league, Back to the sunset bound of Lyonnesse— A land of old upheaven from the abyss By fire, to sink into the abyss again; Where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt, And the long mountains ended in a coast Of ever-shifting sand, and far away The phantom circle of a moaning sea. There the pursuer could pursue no more, And he that fled no further fly the King; And there, that day when the great light of heaven Burn'd at his lowest in the rolling year, On the waste sand by the waste sea they closed. Nor ever yet had Arthur fought a fight Like this last, dim, weird battle of the west. A death white mist slept over sand and sea: Whereof the chill, to him who breathed it, drew Down with his blood, till all his heart was cold With formless fear; and ev'n on Arthur fell Confusion, since he saw not whom he fought.",-2.99484817,0.540557032
d5ae1bb57,,,"The new model which I inspected had a monoplane body, observer and pilot sitting tandem fashion, the Mercedes motor (several cylinders) being in front. It was designed, not for speed but for weight-lifting, as indicated by its formidable arsenal of bombs.
The beauty of workmanship and finish of these infernal machines was interesting. The forty-pounders and twenty-pounders looked like miniature torpedoes, with slightly bulb-shaped bodies and tapering rounded noses, with a tiny three-bladed propeller for a tail and a steel ring to serve as a hand grip. When the aviator is ready to drop a bomb all he has to do is to make a simple adjustment, taking not more than a second, which releases the propeller, and then throw the bomb overboard. As it drops the propeller is set into rapid motion and drives the clockwork mechanism inside the bomb. After a hundred-yard drop it is all ready to explode when it strikes. There are also round cannon-ball-shaped bombs, and special bombs for starting a conflagration when they strike.",-2.578989066,0.516950719
4b41bb2b5,,,"Gen. von Haenisch took me aloft and explained to me how business was done. A good telephone operator, it developed, was almost as important as a competent General—the telephone ""central"" the most vital spot of an army. Here were three large switchboards with soldiers playing telephone girl, while other soldiers, with receivers fastened over their heads, sat at desks busy taking down messages on printed ""business"" forms. In the next room sat the staff officers on duty, waiting for the telephone bell to jingle with latest reports from the front. There was no waiting because numbers were ""engaged"" or operators gossiping; you could get Berlin or Vienna without once having to swear at ""long distance."" Gen. von Haenisch had his chief of field telephone and telegraph trot out what looked like a huge family tree, but turned out to be a most minute chart of the entire telephone system of the —nth Army. It showed the position of every corps and division headquarters' regiment, battalion, and company, and all the telephone lines connecting them, even to the single trenches and batteries.",-2.037466473,0.496625173
99dd7d90f,,,"The advantages of the chemical engine are well summed up in the following statement:
The superiority of a chemical engine consists--
1st. In its simplicity. It dispenses with complex machinery, experienced engineers, reservoirs, and steam. Carbonic acid gas is both the working and extinguishing agent.
2d. In promptness. It is always ready. No steam to be raised, no fire to be kindled, no hose to be laid, and no large company to be mustered. The chemicals are kept in place, and the gas generated the instant wanted. In half the cases the time thus saved is a building saved. Five minutes at the right time are worth five hours a little later.
3d. In efficiency. Mere water inadequately applied feeds the fire, but carbonic acid gas never. Bulk for bulk, it is forty times as effective as water, the seventy gallons of the two smallest cylinders being equal to twenty-eight hundred gallons of water. Besides, it uses the only agent that will extinguish burning tar, oil, and other combustible fluids and vapors. One cylinder can be recharged while the other is working, thus keeping up a continuous stream.",-2.142987561,0.471377541
1f4a71220,,,"The rate at which electricity travels has been very variously estimated. Fizeau asserted that its velocity in copper wire was 111,780 miles a second; Walker that it only travels 18,400 miles through that medium during the same interval; while the experiments made in the United States during the determination of the longitudes of various stations there still further reduced the rate of motion to some 16,000 miles a second. Whichever of these values we adopt, however, we may take it for our present purpose, that the transmission of a message by the electric telegraph is practically instantaneous. But be it here noted, there is no such a thing as a hora mundi or common time for the whole world. What is familiarly known as longitude is really the difference in time, east or west, from a line passing through the north and south poles of the earth; and the middle of the great transit circle is the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.",-2.790745419,0.550654358
055df866f,,,"M. Tresca has lately presented to the Academy of Sciences some very interesting experiments on the development and distribution of heat produced by a blow of the steam hammer in the process of forging. The method used was as follows: The bar was carefully polished on both sides, and this polished part covered with a thin layer of wax. It was then placed on an anvil and struck by a monkey of known weight, P, falling from a height, H. The faces of the monkey and anvil were exactly alike, and care was taken that the whole work, T = PH, should be expended upon the bar. A single blow was enough to melt the wax over a certain zone; and this indicated clearly how much of the lateral faces had been raised by the shock to the temperature of melting wax.",-2.371111888,0.517603767
ee67170f5,,,"The lecturer then, by means of diagrams which he placed upon the blackboard, showed the forms of various makes of photographic lenses, and explained the influence of particular constructions in producing certain results; positive and negative spherical aberration, and the manner in which they are made to balance each other, was also described by the aid of diagrams, as was also chromatic aberration. He next spoke of the question of optical center of lenses, and said that that was not, as had been hitherto generally supposed, the true place from which to measure the focus of a lens or combination. This place was a point very near the optical center, and was known as the ""Gauss"" point, from the name of the eminent German mathematician who had investigated and made known its properties, the knowledge of which was of the greatest importance in the construction of lenses.",-2.330077146,0.559691445
130249280,,,"There has lately been held, at No. 31 Lombard Street, London, a private exhibition of the Holmes and Burke primary galvanic battery. The chief object of the display was to demonstrate its suitability for the lighting of railway trains, but at the same time means were provided to show it in connection with ordinary domestic illumination, as it is evident that a battery will serve equally as well for the latter as for the former purpose. Already the great Northern express leaving London at 5:30 P.M. is lighted by this means, and satisfactory experiments have been made upon the South-western line, while the inventors give a long list of other companies to which experimental plant is to be supplied. The battery shown, in Lombard Street consisted of fifteen cells arranged in three boxes of five cells each. Each box measured about 18 in. by 12 in. by 10 in., and weighed from 75 lb. to 100 lb.",-1.949838508,0.52074793
b9f5c5011,,,"Notwithstanding the tremendous calls upon the man power of the country for the ever-increasing needs of the army, the supply of munitions has steadily increased. In addition to large consignments to other fronts of the war, there has been an increase of 30 per cent. in all kinds of guns and howitzers, and of over 100 per cent. in heavy guns and howitzers in the recent offensive in France, as compared with those of last year. The weight of shell filled per month has been more than doubled since 1916. The output of high explosives has been sufficient to meet the increased demands of our armies, to build up stocks, and to supply part of the needs of the Allies. There has been a steady improvement in the detonating value of gun ammunition and a continuous reduction in the number of premature explosions. In addition to guns, shells, and rifles, the demands of the military and naval forces during the year for aircraft, tanks, mechanical transport, railway material, and equipment of every sort and kind have been endless. Despite the immensity of the demand, it has, on the whole, been supplied.",-2.670899861,0.506843175
6fceedb16,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/3764,CC BY 4.0,"It's carnival day. Hooray! shouts Little Mouse. Hooray! shouts Littler Mouse. Hooray! shouts Tiny Mouse.
They plan to ride every ride!
""But don't lose me!"" Tiny Mouse tells his brothers.
They race each other on toy cars. They go up and down on the merry-go-round. They ride the winding caterpillar coaster. They take a spin on the Ferris wheel.The brothers walk to the balloon cart and they each buy a balloon.
One balloon, two balloons...
""Wait, where is Tiny Mouse? ""
Little Mouse and Littler Mouse run to the toy cars.
Tiny Mouse isn't there.
They run to the merry-go-round.
Tiny Mouse isn't there.
They run to the caterpillar coaster.
Tiny Mouse isn't there, either.
They run to the Ferris wheel.
Thank goodness!
The Little Mice each buy a glass of sugarcane juice. One glass, two glasses, three glasses!",0.478452209,0.553224151
1ffdf1576,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/3836,CC BY 4.0,"Look! The sun is rising. The birds are chirping. The girls are ready to play.
Chunu says, ""Brrr, how cold!""
Munu says, ""Yes, so cold!""
Chunu says, ""I will wear warm clothes to protect myself from the cold.""
""Where's my warm hat?"" Chunu wonders.
""It was here yesterday. Where has it gone today?"" ""I can't find my warm socks!"" Munu cries. ""Where are my warm socks?""
""My feet are so cold, they're numb!""
""Mine too,"" Munu tells her sister.
""Brrr, so cold!""
""It's so cold!""
""We can't find my warm hat. We can't find your warm socks.
""Where could our clothes possibly be?"" Munu wonders.
""Here is my warm coat!"" Chunu says. ""But where are my other clothes?""
""Chunu, look here,"" Munu cries.
""Look into the hole."" Chunu and Munu looked inside the hole. They took their socks and warm hat and went to find all their other warm things. Then they would play!",0.069619504,0.450015027
6fa612e10,,,"When a soil expert visits an unproductive farm to determine its needs, he gives his chief attention to four possible factors in his problem: lack of drainage, of lime, of organic matter, and of available plant-food. His first concern regards drainage. If the water from rains is held in the surface by an impervious stratum beneath, it is idle to spend money in other amendments until the difficulty respecting drainage has been overcome. A water-logged soil is helpless. It cannot provide available plant-food, air, and warmth to plants. Under-drainage is urgently demanded when the level of dead water in the soil is near the surface. The area needing drainage is larger than most land-owners believe, and it increases as soils become older. On the other hand, the requirements of lime, organic matter, and available plant-food are so nearly universal, in the case of unproductive land in the eastern half of the United States, that they are here given prior consideration, and drainage is discussed in another place when methods of controlling soil moisture are described.",-1.312904807,0.443684048
bb2259bf6,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/1378,CC BY-NC-SA 4.0,"When Lavender arrived, it was very quiet. He didn't see anything but a log floating in the water and a bird nearby. Suddenly, the log swallowed the bird! Oh! It wasn't a log after all. It was Gator. As usual, Gator was sitting like a statue, waiting for his prey. Lavender gulped in fear and quickly flew away home before anyone saw him. He sat in the trees, while he shook with fear, and thought, ""Where's my house…oh yes! It's on the fourth tree. Ok, let me count then. One, two three, ten. Oh no! two, seven, five…No, I guess I am so afraid that I can't even count!"" When Lavender's friend, Plum, noticed he hadn't yet come home, he went to look for him. He found him shaking with fear and so he asked, ""Is there something scary around here?"" Lavender shakily replied, ""I never get scared, I'm just a little tired."" Lavender doesn't want anyone to know that he's scared.",0.021935308,0.484120673
80d312c02,,,"The king bade Joan choose her reward. Already horses, rich armor, jewelled daggers, had been given to her. These, adding to the beauty and glory of her aspect, had made men follow her more gladly, and for that she valued them. She made gifts to noble ladies, and gave much to the poor. She only wanted money to wage the war with, not for herself. Her family was made noble; on their shield, between two lilies, a sword upholds the crown. Her father was at Reims, and saw her in her glory. What reward, then, was Joan to choose? She chose nothing for herself, but that her native village of Domremy should be free from taxes. This news her father carried home from the splendid scene at Reims.
As they went from Reims after the coronation, Dunois and the archbishop were riding by her rein. The people cheered and shouted with joy.
""They are a good people,"" said Joan. ""Never saw I any more joyous at the coming of their king. Ah, would that I might be so happy when I end my days as to be buried here!""",-1.813850904,0.477005858
5612f85cc,,,"It was the time when Charles II wished to compel the most part of the people of Scotland to change their religion and worship as he bade them. Some obeyed the king; but most hated the new order of things, and cleaved in their hearts to their old ways and to their old ministers, who had been put out of their churches and homes at the coming of the king. Many even set themselves to resist the king in open battle rather than obey him in the matter of their consciences. It was only in this that they were rebellious, for many of them had been active in bringing him again to the throne.
Among those who thus went out to fight were William Gordon and his son Alexander. William Gordon was a grave, courteous, and venerable man, and his estate was one of the best in all Galloway. Like nearly all the lairds in the south and west, he was strongly of the Presbyterian party, and resolved to give up life and lands rather than his principles.",-1.443667018,0.491398823
1c9fe933e,,,"Between his apprehension and his trial no friend or kinsman had been allowed to visit him; but now that his death was assured, greater license had been granted. But, anxious to deprive his enemies of a chance to accuse his sons, he had sent them his earnest entreaties and commands that they should abstain from using this permission until the night before his execution. They had obeyed; but obedience of this sort did not satisfy the conscience of his daughter Grizel. On the very night of his condemnation he heard the key turn in his door; thinking it could only be the gaoler, he scarcely lifted his eyes. But the next moment a pair of soft arms were flung round his neck, and his daughter was weeping on his breast. From that day she had continued to visit him; and now as she sat beside him, staring at the light already fading in the narrow pane, both father and daughter knew that it was almost the last time.",-1.999922267,0.463279665
51bdca98c,,,"Hereupon all the old silver in the colony was handed over to Captain John Hull. The battered silver cans and tankards, I suppose, and silver buckles, and broken spoons, and silver buttons of worn-out coats, and silver hilts of swords that had figured at court,—all such curious old articles were doubtless thrown into the melting pot together. But by far the greater part of the silver consisted of bullion from the mines of South America, which the English buccaneers—who were little better than pirates—had taken from the Spaniards and brought to Massachusetts. All this old and new silver being melted down and coined, the result was an immense amount of splendid shillings, sixpences, and threepences. Each had the date 1652 on the one side and the figure of a pine tree on the other. Hence they were called pine-tree shillings. And for every twenty shillings that he coined, you will remember, Captain John Hull was entitled to put one shilling into his own pocket.",-1.221229701,0.458139808
6d9725cb4,,,"When the sun leaped up the next morning, and the tropic night flashed suddenly into the tropic day, Amyas was pacing the deck, with dishevelled hair and torn clothes, his eyes red with rage and weeping, his heart full—how can I describe it? Picture it to yourselves, picture it to yourselves, you who have ever lost a brother; and you who have not, thank God that you know nothing of his agony. Full of impossible projects, he strode and staggered up and down, as the ship thrashed close-hauled through the rolling seas. He would go back and burn the villa. He would take Guayra, and have the life of every man in it in return for his brother's. ""We can do it, lads!"" he shouted. ""If Drake took Nombre de Dios, we can take La Guayra."" And every voice shouted, ""Yes.""",-1.007687996,0.452444707
3b8487bd0,,,"The Persian army would have to march round the edge of the gulf. They could not cut straight across the country, because the ridge of mountains called Oeta rose up and barred their way. Indeed, the woods, rocks, and precipices came down so near the seashore, that in two places there was only room for one single wheel track between the steeps and the impassable morass that formed the border of the gulf on its south side. These two very narrow places were called the gates of the pass, and were about a mile apart. There was a little more width left in the intervening space; but in this there were a number of springs of warm mineral water, salt and sulphurous, which were used for the sick to bathe in, and thus the place was called Thermopylæ, or the Hot Gates.",-1.333100456,0.485153916
caa3eee41,,,"The first dispute between Rome and Carthage was about their possession in the island of Sicily; and the war thus begun had lasted eight years, when it was resolved to send an army to fight the Carthaginians on their own shores. The army and fleet were placed under the command of the two consuls, Lucius Manlius and Marcus Attilius Regulus. On the way, there was a great sea-fight with the Carthaginian fleet, and this was the first naval battle that the Romans ever gained. It made the way to Africa free; but the soldiers, who had never been so far from home before, murmured, for they expected to meet not only human enemies, but monstrous serpents, lions, elephants, asses with horns, and dog-headed monsters, to have a scorching sun overhead, and a noisome marsh under their feet. However, Regulus sternly put a stop to all murmurs, by making it known that disaffection would be punished by death, and the army safely landed, and set up a fortification at Clypea, and plundered the whole country round.",-1.564267941,0.469038965
4.59E+15,,,"This whole glittering army, at their head the king's great royal standard bearing the golden lilies of France quartered with the lions of England, and each troop guided by the square banner, swallow-tailed pennon or pointed penoncel of their leader, came marching to the gates of Calais, above which floated the blue standard of France with its golden flowers, and with it the banner of the governor, Sir Jean de Vienne. A herald, in a rich long robe embroidered with the arms of England, rode up to the gate, a trumpet sounding before him, and called upon Sir Jean de Vienne to give up the place to Edward, King of England, and of France, as he claimed to be. Sir Jean made answer that he held the town for Philippe, King of France, and that he would defend it to the last; the herald rode back again and the English began the siege of the city.",-2.44570688,0.50840638
3c8bc21a4,,,"In the year 1439 died King Albert, who had been appointed King of Hungary in right of his wife, Queen Elizabeth. He left a little daughter only four years old, and as the Magyars had never been governed by a female hand, they proposed to send and offer their crown, and the hand of their young widowed queen, to Wladislas, the King of Poland. But Elizabeth had hopes of another child, and in case it should be a son, she had no mind to give away its rights to its father's throne. How, then, was she to help herself among the proud and determined nobles of her court? One thing was certain, that if once the Polish King were crowned with St. Stephen's crown, it would be his own fault if he were not King of Hungary as long as he lived; but if the crown were not to be found, of course he could not receive it, and the fealty of the nobles would not be pledged to him.",-1.305305547,0.461432036
396ccfba1,,,"The Imperial Chancellor has declared that there was irrefutable proof that if Germany did not march through Belgium, her enemies would. This proof, as now being produced, is of the strongest character. So the Chancellor was right in appealing to the law of necessity, although he had no regret that it violated international law. This law of necessity has been recognized as paramount by nearly every prominent statesman, including Gladstone, and by all teachers of international law, even by the United States Supreme Court's decision, Vol. 130, Page 601, stating in regard to the treaty with China concerning Chinese immigration into the United States: ""It will not be presumed that the legislative department of the Government will lightly pass laws which are in conflict with the treaties of the country, but that circumstances may arise which would not only justify the Government in disregarding their stipulations, but demand in the interests of the country that it should do so, there can be no question. Unexpected events may call for a change in the policy of the country.""",-1.981870516,0.461366501
c4704e381,,,"Dr. Eder has for a considerable time directed especial attention to the soda and potash developers, either of which seems to offer certain advantages over the ammoniacal pyrogallol. This advantage becomes particularly apparent with emulsions prepared with ammonia, which frequently show with ammoniacal developer green or red fog, or a fog of clayish color by reflected, and of pale purple by transmitted light. Ferrous oxalate works quite well with plates of that kind; so do soda and potassa developers.
For soda developers, Eder uses a solution of 10 parts of pure crystallized soda in 100 parts of water. For use, 100 c.c. of this solution are mixed with 6 c.c. of a pyrogallic solution of 1:10, without the addition of any bromide.
More pleasant to work with is Dr. Stolze's potassa developer. No. 1: Water, 200 c.c.; chem. pure potassium carbonate, 90 gr.; sodium sulphite, 25 gr. No. 2: Water 100 c.c.; citric, 1½ gr.; sodium sulphite, 25 gr.; pyrogallol., 12 gr. Solution No. 2 is for its better keeping qualities preferable to Dr. Stolze's solution. The solutions when in well stoppered bottles keep well for some time.",-3.263930896,0.541968926
3c8cc67a6,,,"I have here in a test tube some water in which a small piece of meat was placed a few days ago. The test tube has been in rather a warm room, and the meat has begun to decompose. What has here taken place is the first step in this inquiry. This has been the question at which scientific men have been working, and from the study of which has come a valuable addition to surgical knowledge associated with the name of Professor Lister, and known as antiseptic. What happens to this meat, and what is going on in the water which surrounds it? How long will it be before all the smell of putrefaction has gone and the water is clear again? For it does in time become clear, and instead of the meat we find a fine powdery substance at the bottom of the test tube. It may take weeks before this process is completed, depending on the rate at which it goes on.",-0.988304549,0.473414454
698dcda87,,,"A certain amount of restraint is best for us all. As the just restraints of the law are best for men and women, so the proper restraints of home are best for boys and girls. A lad from whom all restraining influences are suddenly withdrawn—who can have his own way unmolested—stands in the greatest danger of wrecking his life. The temptations of power have been the cause of very much of the world's sadness and misery. And this temptation came to this boy King of Sweden called in his fifteenth year to supreme sway over a large realm of loyal subjects. Freed from the severity of his stern father's discipline, he found himself responsible to no one—absolutely his own master. And he did what too many of us, I fear, would have done in his position—he determined to have a jolly good time, come what might; and he had it—in his way.",-1.632634253,0.495880218
7a06ba0cd,,,"""Some phthisical sufferers, of whom there are here, alas! too many, were now admitted from time to time into St. Vincent's Hospital. They were admitted in all stages, from an early one to the most advanced. On each admission the case was carefully examined; the history, symptoms, and physical signs were exactly noted; and the patient was weighed on a stage balance with great accuracy. The patient was put as much as possible on the mullein treatment only. For obvious reasons, no cod-liver oil, koumiss, or other weight producer was given; the patients got the diet suitable to such sufferers; and, if the special symptoms became troublesome, received appropriate treatment. As much as possible, however, they were left to the mullein--a proceeding which was entirely satisfactory to themselves. In addition to the admission weighing, they were carefully weighed every week, and care was taken that this should be done as nearly as possible on the same day and hour, with the same clothes, and, in fact, as much as could be under the same conditions.",-2.49253904,0.587839891
620c94c7c,,,"But, although General Lee was now a very ardent American soldier, he could not forgive Mr. Washington for taking command above him. If that Virginia gentleman had had the courtesy and good sense which were generally attributed to him, he would have resigned the supreme command, and, modestly stepping aside, would have asked General Lee to accept it.
At least, that was the opinion of General Charles Lee.
As this high and mighty soldier was so unwilling to submit to the orders of incompetent people, he never liked to be under the direct command of Washington, and, if it were possible to do so, he managed to be concerned in operations not under the immediate eye of the commander in chief. In fact, he was very jealous indeed of Washington, and did not hesitate to express his opinion about him whenever he had a chance.",-0.212349302,0.490145198
76fe1a630,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/What_Is_Love-Helen_Keller-Biography_for_Children-FKB.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"Helen Adams Keller was born on 27th June 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, United States. Her family lived on an estate called Ivy Greens, built by Helen's grandfather. Her father, Arthur Keller, spent many years as an editor for the Tuscumbia North Alabamian newspaper, and had served as a captain in the Army. Her mother, Kate Adams, was the daughter of a confederate general. Helen was born with the ability to see and hear. At 19 months old, she became ill, and this illness left Helen both deaf and blind.
As she grew up, she found a way of communicating with the daughter of the family's cook; Martha Washington. They invented a kind of sign language and by the time Helen was 7 years old they had created more than 60 different signs for use in their personal communication.
Around this time, Helen became very frustrated and diffcult to control. She had violent temper tantrums and would giggle uncontrollably when she was happy. Her family was worried about Helen and went in search of help. Unaware of how to deal with Helen's disabilities, the family had indulged , which at this point it was to her detriment.",0.646549436,0.516288845
b300ba844,,,"In many industries there are operations that have to be repeated at regular intervals, and, for this reason, the construction of an apparatus for giving a signal, not only at the hour fixed, but also at equal intervals, is a matter of interest. The question of doing this has been solved in a very elegant way by Mr. Silas in the invention of the apparatus. It consists of a clock whose dial is provided with a series of small pins. The hands are insulated from the case and communicate with one of the poles of a pile contained in the box. The case is connected with the other pole. A small vibrating bell is interposed in the circuit. If it be desired to obtain a signal at a certain hour, the corresponding pin is inserted, and the hand upon touching this closes the circuit, and the bell rings. The bell is likewise inclosed within the box. There are two rows of pins--one of them for hours, and the other for minutes. They are spaced according to requirements.",-1.933358302,0.4885218
2a36e28fd,,,"Up to recent times, chloride of methyl in a free state had received scarcely any industrial application, by reason of the difficulty of preparing it in a state of purity at a low price. Mr. C. Vincent, however, has made known a process which permits of this product being obtained abundantly and cheaply. It consists in submitting to the action of heat the hydrochlorate of trimethylamine, which is obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of potash of beets. The hydrochlorate is thus decomposed into free trimethylamine, ammonia, and chloride of methyl. A washing with hydrochloric acid takes away all traces of alkali, and the gas, which is gathered under a receiver full of water, may afterward be dried by means of sulphuric acid, and be liquefied by pressure.
Pure liquid chloride of methyl is now an abundant product. There are two uses to which it is applied: first, for producing cold, and second, for manufacturing coal tar colors.",-2.498501377,0.488798199
3f4d05380,,,"One of the most remarkable and interesting mechanical arrangements at the Imperial Navy Yard at Kiel, Germany, is the iron clad plate bending machine, by means of which the heavy iron clad plates are bent for the use of arming iron clad vessels.
Through the mechanism of this remarkable machine it is possible to bend the strongest and heaviest iron clad plates--in cold condition--so that they can be fitted close on to the ship's hull, as it was done with the man-of-war ships Saxonia, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden, each of which having an iron strength of about 250 meters.
One may make himself a proximate idea of the enormous power of pressure of such a machine, if he can imagine what a strength is needed to bend an iron plate of 250 meters thickness, in cold condition; being also 1.5 meters in width, and 5.00 meters in length, and weighing about 14,555 kilogrammes, or 14,555 tons.",-1.729508565,0.4625767
a60686533,,,"In 1820 Mr. Cecil, of Cambridge, proposed the employment of a mixture of air and hydrogen as a source of motive power; he gave a detailed account of his invention in the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, together with some interesting theoretical considerations. The author observes here that an explosion may be safely opposed by an elastic resistance--that of compressed air, for example--if such resistance possesses little or no inertia to be brought into play; contrariwise, the smallest inertia opposed to the explosion of a mixture subjected to instantaneous combustion is equivalent to an insurmountable obstacle. Thus a small quantity of gunpowder, or a detonating mixture of air and hydrogen, may without danger be ignited in a large closed vessel full of air, because the pressure against the sides of the vessel exerted by the explosion is not more than the pressure of the air compressed by the explosion.",-3.11097387,0.566617057
aee4b497d,,,"The Russian government has just had built at the shipyards of Mr. Normand, the celebrated Havre engineer, a torpedo boat called the Poti, which we herewith illustrate. This vessel perceptibly differs from all others of her class, at least as regards her model. Her extremities, which are strongly depressed in the upperworks, and the excessive inclination of her sides, give the boat as a whole a certain resemblance to the rams of our navy, such as the Taureau and Tigre.
A transverse section of the Poti approaches an ellipse in shape. Her water lines are exceedingly fine, and, in point of elegance, in no wise cede to those of the most renowned yachts. The vessel is entirely of steel, and her dimensions are as follows: Length, 28 meters; extreme breadth, 3.6 meters; depth, 2.5 meters; draught, 1.9 meters; displacement, 66 tons. The engine, which is a compound one, is of 600 H.P. The minimum speed required is 18 knots, or 33-34 meters, per hour, and it will probably reach 40 kilometers.",-2.415178226,0.496564865
7aab1d5fd,,,"This stove consists of two or more superposed pipes provided with radiators. A gas burner is placed at the entrance of either the upper or lower pipe, according to circumstances. The products of combustion are discharged through a pipe of small diameter, which may be readily inserted into an already existing chimney or be hidden behind the wainscoting. The heat furnished by the gas flame is so well absorbed by radiation from the radiator rings that the gases, on making their exit, have no longer a temperature of more than from 35 to 40 degrees.
The apparatus, which is simple, compact, and cheap, is surrounded on all sides with an ornamented sheet iron casing. Being entirely of cast iron, it will last for a long time. The joints, being of asbestos, are absolutely tight, so as to prevent the escape of bad odors. The water due to the condensation of the gases is led through a small pipe out of doors or into a vessel from whence it may evaporate anew, so as not to change the hygrometric state of the air.",-1.697792052,0.446515573
196bb8e99,,,"As an experiment illustrating the advantage of this: let a camera be placed close to the wall, then the sitter arranged so that from that point of view a three-quarter face is obtained, and it will be noticed that there is very little need of the reflector at all. Let a negative now be taken, and the camera brought, say, five feet into the room, and the sitter, without changing his seat, turned round until a similar view of the face is obtained from that point. It will now be seen that the shadows are very much deeper than before, and the reflector will have to be brought pretty close in order to overcome them; nevertheless they may be obtained quite as soft and harmonious as in the former case. Let a second negative now be taken, giving the same exposure as before, and it will be found that if the first one were correctly timed the second will be considerably under-exposed. Yet the sitter was at the same distance from the window in each case.",-2.028694853,0.45849123
711f87410,,,"It is universally observable that where villages were shelled attempts were made to spare the peasants' houses, few of which were damaged, save by fires spreading from other buildings. Everywhere wanton destruction has obviously been avoided, and the percentage of towns in this zone where any damage whatever was done is small. The foregoing facts signify the restraint and soberness exercised both by the Cossacks and the following infantry. The natives were not unfriendly to the Russians, which would partially account for this, but such discipline as was exhibited is significant even in a friendly country, when one considers the size and extent of the invading armies.
Other conclusions based on conversations with Russian officials, which were obviously prejudiced, and with peasants, whose evidence was given to a correspondent who accompanied these officers, must be accepted guardedly. Such information as was obtained from these sources indicated no complaint against the Russian soldier. Little material was taken, and this, it is said, has been paid for. This I personally believe, as the merchants and natives appear to be genuinely friendly, the occupying troops stating that even the Cossacks were docile.",-2.830075383,0.54429953
cf48c7441,,,"Rhea which is also known under the name of ramie, is a textile plant which was indigenous to China and India. It is perennial, easy of cultivation, and produces a remarkably strong fiber. The problem of its cultivation has long being solved, for within certain limits rhea can be grown in any climate. India and the British colonies offer unusual facilities, and present vast and appropriate fields for that enterprise, while it can be, and is, grown in most European countries. All this has long been demonstrated; not so, however, the commercial utilization of the fiber, which up to the present time would appear to be a problem only partially solved, although many earnest workers have been engaged in the attempted solution.
There have been difficulties in the way of decorticating the stems of this plant, and the Indian Government, in 1869, offered a reward of £5,000 for the best machine for separating the fiber from the stems and bark of rhea in its green or freshly cut state.",-1.198192324,0.472505356
4c542ae57,,,"For those who do not know, the City of Penang lies on the western coast of the Malay Peninsula, just below the Siamese border. It is the shipping point of the Federated Malay States, where 65 per cent. of the world's tin is produced, as well as a great amount of rubber and copra. With a population of 246,000, it is growing by leaps and bounds and gives every indication of soon becoming one of the largest ports in the Far East.
The thing that makes this city a point of importance in the present war is the fact that it is the last port of call for ships going from China and Japan to Colombo and Europe. As a result, it has been made more or less of a naval base by the English Government. Large stores of Admiralty coal have been collected and all vessels have been commanded to stop here for orders before crossing the Bay of Bengal.",-1.050635191,0.478971515
060fc57c6,,,"The owner of the island and sheep, A.P. Moore, a few years ago purchased the property from the widow of his deceased brother Henry, for $600,000. Owing to ill health, he has rented it to his brother Lawrence for $140,000 a year, and soon starts for Boston, where he will settle down for the rest of his life. He still retains an interest in the Santa Cruz Island ranch, which is about 25 miles southeast of Santa Barbara. This island contains about 64,000 acres, and on it are 25,000 sheep. On Catalina Island, 60 miles east of Santa Barbara, are 15,000 sheep, and on Clementa Island, 80 miles east of that city, are 10,000 sheep. Forty miles west of the same city is San Miguel, on which are 2,000 sheep. Each one of these ranches has a sailing vessel to carry freight, etc., to and fro between the islands and the mainland, and they are kept busy the greater part of the time.",-2.099604652,0.47237676
46e7240c8,,,"The building of rotary presses for printing illustrated papers was attempted as early as 1874 or 1875 in London, by the Times, but apparently without success, as no public mention has ever been made of any favorable result. The proprietor of the London Illustrated News obtained better results. In 1877 an illustrated penny paper, an outgrowth of his great journal, was printed upon a rotary press which was, according to his statement, constructed by a machinist named Middleton. The first one, however, did not at all meet the higher demands of illustrated periodical printing, and, while another machine constructed on the same principle was shown in the Paris Exposition of 1878, its work was neither in quality nor quantity adequate to the needs of a largely circulated illustrated paper. A second machine, also on exhibition at the same time, designed and built by the celebrated French machinist, P. Alauzet, could not be said to have attained the object. Its construction was undertaken long after the opening of the Exposition, and too late to solve the weighty question.",-1.51834981,0.460732346
cfdf06155,,,"Schoene has given the results of an extended series of experiments on the use of thallium paper for estimating approximately the oxidizing material in the atmosphere, whether it be hydrogen peroxide alone, or mixed with ozone, or perhaps also with other constituents hitherto unknown. The objection to Schönbein's ozonometer (potassium iodide on starch paper) and to Houzeau's ozonometer (potassium iodide on red litmus paper) lies in the fact that their materials are hygroscopic, and their indications vary widely with the moisture of the air. Since dry ozone does not act on these papers, they must be moistened; and then the amount of moisture varies the result quite as much as the amount of ozone. Indeed, attention has been called to the larger amount of ozone near salt works and waterfalls, and the erroneous opinion advanced that ozone is formed when water is finely divided. And Böttger has stated that ozone is formed when ether is atomized; the fact being that the reaction he observed was due to the H2O2 always present in ether. Direct experiments with the Schönbein ozonometer and the psychrometer gave parallel curves; whence the author regards the former as only a crude hygrometer.",-2.302414545,0.538326931
253dccf1b,,,"Z. acuminata is one of the most useful and valuable of Japanese timber trees. It was found near Yeddo by the late Mr. John Gould Veitch, and was sent out by the firm of Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons. Maximowicz also found the tree in Japan, and introduced it to the Imperial Botanic Gardens of St. Petersburg, from whence both seeds and plants were liberally distributed. In the Gardeners' Chronicle for 1862 Dr. Lindley writes as follows: ""A noble deciduous tree, discovered near Yeddo by Mr. J. G. Veitch, 90 feet to 100 feet in height, with a remarkably straight stem. In aspect it resembles an elm. We understand that a plank in the Exotic Nursery, where it has been raised, measures 3 feet 3 inches across. Mr. Veitch informs us that it is one of the most useful timber trees in Japan. Its long, taper-pointed leaves, with coarse, very sharp serratures, appear to distinguish it satisfactorily from the P. Richardi of the northwest of Asia.""",-1.991155658,0.480845481
2130335c8,,,"My first visit was to the largest hall in Warsaw, called the Swiss Valley, where the large Philharmonic concerts are usually held and which in ordinary times is the gathering place of society. It is now converted into a refuge for 600 or 700 homeless fugitives, who have left their all behind them and fled in terror, frequently on foot, for many miles, and carrying their possessions on their backs. The majority are old men, women, and children. In the babel of voices are frequently heard pitiful cries of poorly fed children, shrieks of more hearty ones, and groans and wailings of mothers who still seem stunned and stupefied by their frightful experiences.
Dinner was being served when I arrived. At several tables sat women, many with babies in arms, and children, while men were being served in one of the large corridors. Standing in endless rows, they took their turn at the steaming pots. In the main hall many fugitives were crouching on the floor, some on mattresses, and piled about them were little mounds of household effects that they had succeeded in saving from their wrecked and ruined homes.",-0.26127875,0.46622016
afe0798cc,,,"The world has put a big investment in blood and treasure, and all that they imply, into the education of England. It is satisfied—the world's response to Germany's insolent challenge is the proof of it—that its pains have been well bestowed. England is more nearly fit than any other nation to wield the power that is hers. That is not to deny the peculiar virtues of other nations; indeed, these virtues have largely contributed to the result. Italy has educated her; France has educated her; we have done something; and Germany. In result, she is not perfect—the English would perhaps least of all assert that—but she has learned a great deal and held herself steady while she learned it. It is a bigger job than the world cares to undertake to teach any other nation so much. Nor would it be at all likely to succeed so well. For what England has to offer the world in return is not simply her institutions; it is not merely a formula for the effective discharge of police duty throughout the world; it is the English freeman, whether he hail from Canada, Australia, Africa, or the uttermost isles of the sea.",-2.857489634,0.532095824
ad5b96b41,,,"I could see that the room beyond the window was bare. I never saw any one in it. The heat must have been terrible, for it could have had no ventilation. Once I missed the boy from the balcony, but saw his white head moving about slowly in the dusk of the room. Gradually the little fellow became a burden to me. I found myself continually thinking of him, and troubled with that remorse that thoughtless people feel even for suffering for which they are not in the slightest degree responsible. Not that I ever saw any suffering on his face. It was patient, thoughtful, serious, but with never a sign of petulance. What thoughts filled that young head—what contemplation took the place of what should have been the ineffable upspringing of childish emotion—what complaint or questioning were living behind that white face—no one could guess. In an older person the face would have betokened a resignation that found peace in the hope of things hereafter. In this child, without hope or aspiration, it was sad beyond expression.",-0.940478103,0.486535136
a0d80fffb,,,"The agitator is an important part of the apparatus. Its object, in this instrument, is twofold. First, it serves to produce a uniform temperature throughout the body of water in the instrument; and secondly, it answers as a support to the heat-carrier of platinum or other metal, often intensely hot, which would injure or destroy the delicate metal of the bottom if allowed to fall on it. For this second purpose, no spiral revolving agitator, such as that commended by Berthelot, would suffice. A concave disk of sheet-brass, made to conform to the shape of the bottom of the cell, with a narrow rim turned up all around, of about 0.02 inch thickness, is liberally perforated with holes to lighten it, and to give free passage to water. The concave form causes the streams of water, produced by slightly raising and lowering the agitator, to take a radial direction downward or upward, so as to cross each other and promote rapid mixing.",-2.487055521,0.484599888
299c356fb,,,"In 1832 Dr. James Mease, of Philadelphia published a monograph on ""The Cause, Cure, and Prevention of the Sick Headache,"" which is substantially a treatise on the dietetics of this particular form of headache. The work, however, is conspicuously lacking in those philosophical qualities which are so necessary to a true understanding of the questions involved. Dr. E.H. Sieveking published in 1854 a most interesting paper on ""Chronic and Periodical Headache."" The views therein expressed are remarkable for their succinct and thoroughly scientific elucidation of the two great physiological principles involved in the consideration of by far the greater majority of instances of cephalalgia. I refer namely to the importance ascribed by this eminent physician to the fluctuations of the blood-stream within the cranial vault. In speaking of this subject Dr. Sieveking says: ""Nothing is of more importance in reference to the pathology and therapeutics of the head than clear and well-defined notions on the physiological subject of the circulation within the cranium; for, among the various sources of medical skepticism, no one is more puzzling or more destructive of logical practice than a contradiction between the doctrine of physiology and the daily practice of medicine.""",-2.758743415,0.53428627
252d9e8ad,,,"All things considered, there is no way of keeping apples quite so good and practicable as packing in light barrels and storing in cool cellars; the barrel forms a room within a room, and prevents circulation of air and consequent drying and shrinking of the fruit, and also lessens the changes of temperature, and besides more fruit can be packed and stored in a given space than in any other way. The poorest of all ways is the large open bin, and the objections are: too much fruit in contact; too much weight upon the lower fruit; and too much trouble to handle and sort when desirable to market. It was formerly the almost universal custom in Western New York to sort and barrel the apples as fast as picked from the trees, heading up at once and drawing to market or piling in some cool place till the approach of cold weather, and then putting in cellars.",-0.86241702,0.484848579
bf0d08b6a,,,"I believe there is no permanent greatness to a nation except it be based upon morality. I do not care for military greatness or military renown. I care for the condition of the people among whom I live. There is no man in England who is less likely to speak irreverently of the Crown and Monarchy of England than I am; but crowns, coronets, mitres, military display, the pomp of war, wide colonies, and a huge empire, are, in my view, all trifles light as air, and not worth considering, unless with them you can have a fair share of comfort, contentment, and happiness, among the great body of the people. Palaces, baronial castles, great halls, stately mansions, do not make a nation. The nation in every country dwells in the cottage; and unless the light of your Constitution can shine there, unless the beauty of your legislation and the excellence of your statesmanship are impressed there on the feelings and condition of the people, rely upon it, you have yet to learn the duties of government.",-1.506474394,0.449046561
85cdc2533,,,"To coat the metal plate, place it on a turning table, to which it is made fast at the center by a pneumatic holder; to assure the perfect adhesion of this holder, it is as well to wet the circular elastic ring of the holder before applying it to the metallic surface. When this is done, the table may be made to rotate quickly without fear of detaching the plate by the rapidity of the movement. The plate is placed in a perfectly horizontal position, where no dust can settle on it; the mixture is then poured on it, and distributed by means of a triangular piece of soft paper, so as to cover equally all the parts of the plate. Care should be taken not to flow too much liquid over the plate, and when the latter is everywhere coated, the excess is poured off into a different vessel from that which contains the filtered mixture, or else into a filter resting on that vessel.",-1.891061968,0.459118263
1e1a86396,,,"Policemen and Sheriffs, followed by military officers, are taking by force everything in the way of foodstuffs, entering the bakeries and other shops selling victuals, boarding ships with cargoes of flour, potatoes, wheat, rice, &c., and taking over virtually everything, giving in lieu of payment a receipt which is not worth even the paper on which it is written.
In this way many shops are forced to close, bread has entirely disappeared from the bakeries, and Constantinople, the capital of a neutral country, is already feeling all the troubles and privations of a besieged city. Prices for foodstuffs have soared to inaccessible heights as provisions are becoming scarce. Actual hand-to-hand combats are taking place in the streets outside the bakeries for the possession of a loaf of bread, and hungry women with children in their arms are seen crying and weeping in despair.",-0.882008168,0.448719757
97fddd32f,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/1391,CC BY-NC-SA 4.0,"All the animals burst out laughing as they looked at Bonney. 
Bonney stopped and looked at them and asked, ""What is so funny?"" ""Are my back doors opened? Are my front tires flat? Is my rearview mirror out of place?"" Rabbit came up to Bonney and said, ""Why are you pretending you are a car? 
Bonney said, ""I'm not pretending. I am a car. I have four doors. Beep! Beep! Beep…Vroom!"" Mrs. Goose pointed to Bonney's reflection in the lake and said, ""Bonney, you are a h-o-r-s-e."" Bonney looked at her image and opened her mouth to look at her teeth and shook her head saying, ""I don't see a horse."" Then she opened her mouth and said, ""Look at this engine, I put oil in it, so it won't overheat."" Mrs. Duck laughed and tried to convince her saying, ""You are a horse, with four hooves, Look!!"" 
Bonney looked at her hooves and shook her head saying, ""I have four tires, and I drink gas to move.""",0.426255688,0.473350761
1052d28f3,,,"Our little habitation was situated at the foot of a sloping hill, sheltered with a beautiful underwood behind, and a prattling river before; on one side a meadow, on the other a green. My farm consisted of about twenty acres of excellent land. Nothing could exceed the neatness of my little enclosures, the elms and hedgerows appearing with inexpressible beauty. My house consisted of but one story, and was covered with thatch, which gave it an air of great snugness; the walls on the inside were nicely whitewashed, and my daughters undertook to adorn them with pictures of their own designing. Though the same room served us for parlor and kitchen, that only made it the warmer. Besides, as it was kept with the utmost neatness,—the dishes, plates and coppers being well scoured and all disposed in bright rows on the shelves—the eye was agreeably relieved and did not want richer furniture. There were three other apartments: one for my wife and me; another for our two daughters within our own; and the third, with two beds, for the rest of the children.",-1.156798852,0.465383598
55e342232,,,"Suddenly, as Theresa sat there, her head, filled with its tender thoughts of me, held in her gentle hands, I felt Allan's step on the carpeted stair outside. Theresa felt it, too,—but how? for it was not audible. She gave a start, swept the black envelopes out of sight, and pretended to be writing in a little book. Then I forgot to watch her any longer in my absorption in Allan's coming. It was he, of course, that I was awaiting. It was for him that I had made this first lonely, frightened effort to return, to recover.... It was not that I had supposed he would allow himself to recognize my presence, for I had long been sufficiently familiar with his hard and fast denials of the invisible. He was so reasonable always, so sane—so blindfolded. But I had hoped that because of his very rejection of the ether that now contained me I could perhaps all the more safely, the more secretly, watch him, linger near him. He was near now, very near,—but why did Theresa, sitting there in the room that had never belonged to her, appropriate for herself his coming?",-1.785984364,0.485515116
0d48a121f,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/1366,CC BY-NC-SA 4.0,"Junior felt so sad and misunderstood and thought to himself, ""I'll run away to a place where no one will take away my things and I can do what I want. But just where should I go?"" Then he got an idea. He'll run away to space. How? In a space ship that will take him up and away from Earth's gravity and everyone that is upset with him. He won't find this space ship in any showroom or a garage. As a matter of fact, Junior will just have to make it himself. He ran to the kitchen and attic, collecting any metal items that he could find. He gathered pots, utensils and other scraps - even an old television antenna! He glued everything together until it was finally secure and ready for take off. He thought, ""Now, to break through Earth's gravitional field, I'll have to accelerate at sixty thousand kilometres per second. How could I possibly do that?""",0.309697434,0.514996308
ecf99de57,,,"The Germans have made a routine of their attacks, always making them at night and always ineffectually. They advance as far as the barbed wire, 30 yards in front of the trench. There they encounter the full force of the Russian rifle fire and fall back again. The Germans shell without ceasing. All the Russians speak of their profuse expenditure of ammunition. The commander of the trench told me that at the lowest they fired over 3,000 shells on a single day.
Although intermittent firing continued through the night, no attack was made. With the morning the German guns resumed their exhaustive questing along the rear of the trenches, and a big factory to the southward once more became their target. Its great chimney began to acquire a kind of sporting significance, it was so obviously the object of fire in that direction; and bets were going in the trench backing the chimney against the German gunners.",-1.188593065,0.43370786
1063b23ce,,,"The day of a definite victory has not yet come. Our task until then will be heavy, and it may be long. Let us bring all our strength to bear in the carrying out of this task. Our allies know that we will do so, as well as the neutral nations, and it is in vain that a wild campaign of false news has been set on foot. If Germany at the outset pretended to have any doubt as to the attitude of France, she no longer doubts.
Let Germany bear witness now that when the French Parliament reopened after over four months of war, it has renewed before the world the spectacle it offered on the day when, in the name of the nation, it took up the challenge.
To conquer, heroism at the frontier will not suffice. It is necessary also to have internal union. Let us continue to preserve this sacred union from any blemish today, as in the past, and in the future. Let us keep before our minds the one cry of victory, the vision of our motherland, and the ideal of right.",-1.523820601,0.488337146
5fc294936,,,"The brilliant little scarlet berries of this plant render it, when well grown, one of the prettiest of ornaments for the hothouse, conservatory, or even for a warm room. It is quite easily managed, stray seeds of it even growing where they fall, and making handsome specimens. For indoor decoration few subjects are more interesting, and a few plants may be so managed as to have them in fruit in succession all the year round. Any kind of soil will answer for this Rivina. Cuttings of it strike freely, but it is easiest obtained from seeds. Either one plant or three may occupy a 6 in. pot, and that is the best size for table decoration. Usually it is best to raise a few plants every year and discard the old stock, but some may be retained for growing into large specimens. These should be cut back before they are started into growth. The berries yield a fine, but fugitive red color.",-1.014886441,0.450996485
7b3323c17,,,"Take whale oil. Take the funny old buildings on Front Street, out of paintings, I declare, by Howard Pyle, where the large merchants in whale oil are. Take salt fish. Do you know the oldest salt-fish house in America, down by Coenties Slip? Ah! you should. The ghost of old Long John Silver, I suspect, smokes an occasional pipe in that old place. And many are the times I've seen the slim shade of young Jim Hawkins come running out. Take Labrador cod for export to the Mediterranean lands or to Porto Rico via New York. Take herrings brought to this port from Iceland, from Holland, and from Scotland; mackerel from Ireland, from the Magdalen Islands, and from Cape Breton; crabmeat from Japan; fishballs from Scandinavia; sardines from Norway and from France; caviar from Russia; shrimp which comes from Florida, Mississippi, and Georgia, or salmon from Alaska, and Puget Sound, and the Columbia River.",-2.071271224,0.474331987
163c67ac2,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/FKB-Kids-Stories-Inside-the-Internet.pdf,CC BY 3.0,"Have you heard of the World Wide Web? No? Never mind. Now, have you heard of the Internet? Yes? Great! But what IS the Internet? Did you say ""I am not quite sure, but I know it has something to do with computers""? You're right – it does. But that's not the whole answer. What's the WHOLE answer then? Hmmm. We need an EXPERT to answer that. And guess what - I know JUST the person! She's usually to be found near a computer, so let's go straight to the computer now.
Hi Nettikutti! Here is a group of kids to meet you! Come on out, come on out, wherever you are! THERE you are! Go on, kids, say hello! And don't be fooled by her cuteness and her size – she holds a LOT of information in her little head!
So Nettikutti, here's what everyone wants to know - What IS the Internet? Ooooh. BIG question. Let's see how I can put it simply. The Internet (short for ‘INTERconnected NETworks') is a large, large, LARGE collection of computers from all over the world that are connected to each other.",-0.61404138,0.447611614
83ef18d6b,,,"Our attention was called to the fact that there was ""practicing"" going on, and we could, at 8:07, see quick flashes. That these flashes pointed directly at Scarborough we did not for a few minutes comprehend. Then, the fog slowly lifting, we saw a fog that was partly smoke. The castle grew into its place in the six miles distance. It seemed for a moment that the eight-foot-thick Norman walls tottered; but no, whatever tottered was behind the keep. Curiously enough we could barely hear the cannonading, for the wind was keen in the opposite direction, yet we could, as the minutes crept by and the air cleared, see distinctly the flashes from the boats and the flashes in the city.
After about fifteen minutes there was a cessation, or perhaps a hesitation, that lasted two minutes; then the flashes continued.",-1.71147614,0.490714146
e3b9b8ac4,https://www.africanstorybook.org/#,CC BY 4.0,"Grandma is coming to visit. And always she brings Thabo some peanuts and wild fruits or mealies and a melon, sometimes. Thabo wants to give Grandma something special too. A book would be lovely, but can Grandma read? If he went to the mall, would he get something nice? ""Let's make her a bag,"" says Thabo with a smile. ""A big strong bag in denim blue."" Mother takes out the fabric they bought at the shop. She spreads out the pattern and begins to cut. First, the two main sides that are big and wide. Then two smaller ones to give it some shape. Thabo folds them together with the two main sides. He watches as Mother takes the pattern again. She cuts out the bottom in two long pieces. This is what will make the bag really strong. Thabo folds them as Mother takes the pattern again. She cuts out four straps that are wide and long. Two will be sewn together to make one strap. This will give the bag double strength.",-0.194649153,0.491303131
257eed703,,,"It is not surprising that the German Chancellor should show anxiety to explain away his now historic phrase about a treaty being a mere 'scrap of paper.'
""The phrase has made a deep impression because the progress of the world largely depends upon the sanctity of agreements between individuals and between nations, and the policy disclosed in Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg's phrase tends to debase the legal and moral currency of civilization.
""What the German Chancellor said was that Great Britain in requiring Germany to respect the neutrality of Belgium 'was going to make war just for a word, just for a scrap of paper'—that is, that Great Britain was making a mountain out of a molehill. He now asks the American public to believe that he meant the exact opposite of what he said; that it was Great Britain who really regarded the neutrality of Belgium as a mere trifle, and that it was Germany who 'took her responsibilities toward the neutral States so seriously.'",-1.502453987,0.459906041
cc1a9a3e8,,,"When Cedric the Saxon saw his son drop down senseless in the great tournament at Ashby, his first impulse was to order him into the care of his own attendants, but the words choked in his throat. He could not bring himself to acknowledge, in the presence of such an assembly, the son whom he had renounced and disinherited for his allegiance to the Norman king of England, Richard of the Lion Heart. However, he ordered one of the officers of his household, his cupbearer, to convey Ivanhoe to Ashby as soon as the crowd had dispersed. But the man was anticipated in this good office. The crowd dispersed, indeed, but the wounded knight was nowhere to be seen.
It seemed as if the fairies had conveyed Ivanhoe from the spot; and Cedric's officer might have adopted some such theory to account for his disappearance, had he not suddenly cast his eyes on a person attired like a squire, in whom he recognized the features of his fellow-servant Gurth, who had run away from his master.",-1.394596543,0.445547836
b56b87069,https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6pcGxi_-Y9PdWJhVXVrVnIzVnM/view,CC BY 3.0,"Have you heard the word 'sphere' before? Do you know what it means? A sphere is normally used when talking about a round shape (like a ball). Now, what do we mean when we talk about the biosphere? The prefix 'bio-' indicates something to do with life. For example, 'biology' is the study of living organisms. So, can you put these two meanings together to work out what 'biosphere' means? The biosphere is the place where life exists on planet Earth. When we talk about the biosphere, we are talking about a huge system (the whole world!) and how all the different parts work together to support life. We will look at these different parts in more detail a bit later. We can also use the term biosphere in different ways. When we speak of all life on Earth as it interacts with the non-living rocks and soil, water and air (atmosphere), we call this the biosphere. We can also call a specific part or region on Earth that supports life, a biosphere, especially when we refer to the living organisms and the environments in which they live.",0.176243348,0.49050575
4eedcc112,https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6pcGxi_-Y9PRzdONUY2a1Y5aTg/view,CC BY 3.0,"Our bodies need energy to move and do work. Where do we get our energy from? The energy is obtained from the food that we and all other organisms eat. If you think back to the work you did on fuel and energy in previous grades in Energy and Change, you will remember that fuels, such as wood, coal, and oil, contain chemical potential energy. When this fuel is burned in the presence of oxygen, the chemical potential energy is transferred into light and heat energy. In the same way, the glucose from the food that you eat is combined with oxygen in a series of chemical reactions to release the energy. The glucose is broken down and the energy is released. This energy is then used to drive all the other processes in your body. This process is called respiration. We can define respiration in all living organisms as the process by which energy is released from glucose in a series of chemical reactions. Respiration takes place in all organisms, even plants. However, plants do not need to eat any food as they make their own food during photosynthesis.",-0.284613235,0.485510309
3e854ccc5,,,"For staining Bacillus tuberculosis the following is confidently commended as preferable to the materials and methods heretofore in use. Take glycerine, 20 parts; fuchsin, 3 parts; aniline oil, 2 parts; carbolic acid, 2 parts.
The solution is readily and speedily effected, with no danger of precipitation, and can be kept in stock without risk of deterioration. When wanted for use, put about two drops into a watch glass (a small pomatum pot is better) full of water and gently shake or stir. Just here there is some danger of precipitating the coloring matter, but the difficulty is easily avoided by gentle instead of vigorous stirring. After the stain is once dissolved in the water no further trouble occurs; if any evaporation takes place by being left too long, it is the water that goes, not the main solvent. The color should now be a light, translucent red, much too diffuse for writing ink. Put in the smeared cover glass, after passing it a few times through a flame, and leave it, at the ordinary temperature of a comfortable room, half an hour.",-3.527563909,0.568355853
723b24b58,,,"It is well known that the sun's distance has been determined from the velocity of light. It has been found, by terrrestrial experiments, about how fast light travels, and, knowing from certain astronomical phenomena the time light requires to pass from the sun to the earth, we have been able to determine the sun's distance.
There are several methods of determining the velocity of light, but hitherto only two plans have been used to detect the time light occupies in passing from the sun to the earth. This time was first discovered by observations of the satellites of Jupiter. It was found that the interval between the eclipses of these bodies was not always the same--that the eclipses occurred earlier when Jupiter was nearest the earth, and later when he was at his greatest distance. Roemer, a Danish astronomer, first detected the cause of this variation. The second method by which this time has been found is the aberration of stellar light. This refined method was detected by the great English astronomer Bradley.",-1.865442606,0.511814899
6adf32ac0,,,"We are daily approaching a crisis. The Government has not swerved from its warlike attitude, and is threatening not only Greece, but Russia and the Triple Entente as well, while, on the other hand, it has failed to secure Rumanian or Bulgarian co-operation in its militant policy. At the same time, the Porte has learned that efforts are being made in the Balkans for common action against Turkey. It also became known that the Governments of London and Petrograd agreed to indemnify Bulgaria by giving her Adrianople and Thrace, while Greece was to have Smyrna, with a considerable hinterland.
During this period the Turkish press maintained an active campaign against England and the Allies. The following extract from an editorial article published in the Terdjumani-Hakkikat thus characterizes the situation:
Everybody knows that the Balkan States are traversing a period of doubts, and that the belligerent parties are doing their best in order to secure the sympathies and the assistance of the Balkan States.",-2.158626155,0.484145908
628d70a38,,,"Your Majesty! I have the honor to deliver to your Majesty the letters with which his Majesty, my august sovereign, has deigned to confirm my quality as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to your Majesty, a mission which I had already the honor of filling under the glorious reign of the great King Carol I., the founder of the Rumanian dynasty.
I happened to be a witness of the most brilliant period of the history of new Greece, during which your Majesty at the head of his Government has succeeded, by his military talents, in bringing into realization the great achievements of ancient Greece, whose majestic relics are serving still as an inimitable example to the whole of mankind.
The military effort of your Majesty has been crowned by the Treaty of Bucharest, which was a common pacifying work of Greece and Rumania, and which was so instrumental in strengthening the bonds of friendship and interests which so happily unite the two peoples.",-1.871531787,0.455056052
46f9e5b96,,,"Dear Mr. Morse:
It was very pleasant to me to get a letter from you the other day. Perhaps I should have found it pleasanter if I had been able to decipher it. I don't think that I mastered anything beyond the date (which I knew) and the signature (at which I guessed).
There's a singular and perpetual charm in a letter of yours—it never grows old; it never loses its novelty. One can say to one's self every morning: ""There's that letter of Morse's. I haven't read it yet. I think I'll take another shy at it today, and maybe I shall be able in the course of a few days to make out what he means by those t's that look like w's, and those i's that haven't any eyebrows.""
Other letters are read, and thrown away, and forgotten; but yours are kept forever—unread. One of them will last a reasonable man a lifetime.
Admiringly yours, T.B. Aldrich.",-0.531951852,0.460174353
95413908b,,,"At 4:15 there was an attack ""simultaneously"" by British and German destroyers which resulted in a lively fight, but no damage to any of the capital ships. Yet the possibilities of such torpedo attacks were so evident, here and later in the battle, that the destroyer at once attained a greater value as an auxiliary of the battleship. It should also be noted that German submarines were reported present at this stage, but they accomplished nothing against the screened fighting ships. A British airplane had been sent up from a mother ship just before the engagement, though Admiral Beatty reports that it was forced to fly low on account of the clouds, and had a hard task ""to identify four enemy light cruisers."" There was apparently no chance of a wide observation that would have warned Admiral Beatty of the approaching German High Seas Fleet. In this short hour were concentrated many new problems of naval warfare.",-0.967701693,0.477968274
67142a9ad,,,"The women went away.... And now, with water from the stream, royal Odysseus washed his skin clean of the salt which clung about his back and his broad shoulders, and wiped from his head the foam brought by the barren sea; and when he had thoroughly bathed and oiled himself and had put on the clothing which the chaste maiden gave, Athene, the daughter of Zeus, made him taller than before and stouter to behold, and she made the curling locks to fall around his head as on the hyacinth flower. As when a man lays gold on silver,—some skillful man whom Hephaestus and Pallas Athene have trained in every art, and he fashions graceful work; so did she cast a grace upon his head and shoulders. He walked apart along the shore, and there sat down, beaming with grace and beauty.",-1.002340694,0.461045182
b4b620ce2,,,"The empress had lost her costly diadem, and it could not be found. They searched in every direction, but all in vain. Half distracted, for the mishap boded no good to her or her house, the empress redoubled her exertions to regain her precious possession, but without result. As a last resource it was proclaimed in the public streets: ""The empress has lost a precious diadem. Whoever restores it within thirty days shall receive a princely reward. But he who delays, and brings it after thirty days, shall lose his head.""
In those times all nationalities flocked toward Rome; all classes and creeds could be met in its stately halls and crowded thoroughfares. Among the rest was a rabbi, a learned sage from the East, who loved goodness, and lived a righteous life in the stir and turmoil of the Western world. It chanced one night as he was strolling up and down, in busy meditation, beneath the clear, moonlit sky, he saw the diadem sparkling at his feet. He seized it quickly, brought it to his dwelling, where he guarded it carefully until the thirty days had expired, when he resolved to return it to the owner.",-2.251709791,0.453959682
ec967b467,https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz69EszGvRvaYnlFU1Zfb0hHNXc/view,CC BY 3.0,"Imagine you are indoors on a sunny day. A beam of sunlight through a window lights up a section of the floor. How would you draw this sunbeam? You might draw a series of parallel lines showing the path of the sunlight from the window to the floor. This is not exactly accurate — no matter how hard you look, you will not find unique lines of light in the sunbeam! However, this is a good way to draw light and to model light geometrically.
We call these narrow, imaginary lines of light light rays. Recall that light can behave like a wave and so you can think of a light ray as the path of a point on the crest of a wave.
We can use light rays to model the behaviour of light relative to mirrors, lenses, telescopes, microscopes, and prisms. The study of how light interacts with materials is called optics.
When dealing with light rays, we are usually interested in the shape of a material and the angles at which light rays hit it.",0.095745084,0.49430097
68e9c3414,,,"When a whaling ship is beset in the ice of Davis Straits, there is little work for her second engineer, once the engines have been nicely tallowed down. Now, I am no man that can sit in his berth and laze. If I've no work to do, I get a-thinking about my home at Ballindrochater and the ministry, which my father intended I should have adorned, and what a fool I've made of myself, and this is depressing. I was not over-popular already on the Gleaner on account of some prophecies I had made in anger, which had unfortunately come true. The crew, and the captain, too, had come to fear my prophetic powers.
At last I bethought me of sporting on the ice. There was head-money offered for all bears, foxes, seals, musk-oxen, and such like that were shot and gathered. So I went to the skipper, and he gave me a Henry rifle, well rusted, and eight cartridges.""",-2.441540897,0.526019067
ced0db116,,,"In the town of Durdlebury, Doggie Trevor began to feel appreciated. He could play the piano, the harp, the viola, the flute, and the clarionette, and sing a mild tenor. Besides music, Doggie had other accomplishments. He could choose the exact shade of silk for a drawing-room sofa cushion, and he had an excellent gift for the selection of wedding-presents. All in all, Marmaduke Trevor was a young gentleman of exquisite taste.
After breakfast on a certain July morning, Doggie, attired in a green shot-silk dressing-gown, entered his own particular room and sat down to think. In its way it was a very beautiful room—high, spacious, well-proportioned, facing southeast. The wall-paper, which Doggie had designed himself, was ivory white, with trimmings of peacock blue. Vellum-bound books filled the cases; delicate water-colors adorned the walls. On his writing-table lay an ivory set: inkstand, pen-tray, blotter, and calendar. Bits of old embroidery, harmonizing with the peacock shades, were spread here and there. A spinet inlaid with ivory formed the center for the arrangement of other musical instruments—a viol, mandolins, and flutes. One tall, closed cabinet was devoted to Doggie's collection of wall-papers.",-1.822256378,0.512250665
08c96cd09,,,"The leading fallacy which is urging the electro-maniacs of the present time to their ruinous investments is the idea that electro-motors are novelties, and that electric-lighting is in its infancy; while gas-lighting is regarded as an old, or mature middle-aged business, and therefore we are to expect a marvelous growth of the infant and no further progress of the adult.
These excited speculators do not appear to be aware of the fact that electric-lighting is older than gas-lighting; that Sir Humphry Davy exhibited the electric light in Albemarle Street, while London was still dimly lighted by oil-lamps, and long before gas-lighting was attempted anywhere. The lamp used by Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution, at the beginning of the present century, was an arrangement of two carbon pencils, between which was formed the ""electric arc"" by the intensely-vivid incandescence and combustion of the particles of carbon passing between the solid carbon electrodes.",-2.430305441,0.504937856
90c128b48,,,"Let us turn to another example in a different branch of science. Whichever of our modern discoveries we may consider to be the most startling and important, there can I think be no doubt that the most beautiful is that of the spectroscope. It has enabled us to do that which but a few years before its introduction was taken for the very type of the impossible, viz., to study the chemical composition of the stars; and it is giving us clearer and clearer insight every day into the condition of the great luminary which forms the center of our system. Still, however beautiful and interesting such results may be, it might well be thought that they could never have any practical application, and that the spectroscope at least would remain an instrument of science, but of science alone. This, however, is not the case.",-1.572981576,0.467227609
ddadb6092,,,"But she did not fall from the horse, neither was she riding fast. A year or so ago she used to go like the wind. But that habit was broken, and she used the horse to get into the open to get fresh, hard exercise, and to work off a certain surplus energy that welled up in her and needed a physical outlet. That need has been in her heart for years. It was back of the impulse that kept the dauntless, little brown-clad figure on the streets and country roads of this community and built into a strong, muscular body what had been a frail and sickly frame during the first years of her life. But the riding gave her more than a body. It released a hardy soul. She was the happiest thing in the world. And she was happy because she was enlarging her horizon. She came to know all sorts and conditions of men; Charley O'Brien, the traffic cop, was one of her best friends. W. L. Holtz, the Latin teacher, was another.",-1.208734075,0.475070768
2236a8045,,,"If he is a good-hearted boy, as I have reason to think, the very first thing he will do, before inspecting the contents of the hamper, or cutting into them with the knife which Master Brown has so considerately lent him, will be to read over the letter from home which lies on top of the parcel. He does so, as I remarked to Miss Raby (for whom I happened to be mending pens when the little circumstance arose), with a flushed face and winking eyes. Look how the other boys are peering into the basket as he reads—I say to her, ""Isn't it a pretty picture?"" Part of the letter is in a very large hand. That is from his little sister. And I would wager that she netted the little purse which he has just taken out of it, and which Master Lynx is eyeing.",-0.980452714,0.456859602
81d9f2f4f,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/1383,CC BY-NC-SA 4.0,"Termites are blind, and without the ants they wouldn't be able to reach the plants and quench their thirst. The amber ants protect termites from the ladybugs that surround them everywhere in the pasture. Termite wings are short and they can't fly and escape the ladybugs when the ladybugs attack. That's why the termites are so thankful for the ants, day and night. The ants are also responsible for the termites' eggs too. The ants carry them for the termites and hide them underground. When the eggs hatch, they lead them to feed on the roots of the juicy plants. That's why the termites are so thankful for the ants, day and night. One day, while the ants were carrying the eggs underground, one of the eggs fell and rolled over and over, away and away. The ants didn't notice the missing egg and went along their way. The egg ended up on a small leaf and hatched after a few days. A little insect came out. It was Terry the Termite.",0.373124454,0.497793716
9eea14ccb,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00018,CC BY 4.0,"Just as wildebeest are the main grazers of the Serengeti, so Calanus are the great grazers of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, feeding on aquatic meadows of phytoplankton, microscopic plant-like algae that bloom in spring. Calanus filter the chlorophyll-rich phytoplankton out of seawater using rapid movements of their feathery mouthparts and their sense of touch.
The bodies of Calanus are transparent, which may explain why the famous eighteenth century Norwegian bishop and scientist Johan Ernst Gunnerus named them after the philosopher Kalanos (Calanus), who refused to wear clothes! For an apparently ""simple"" animal, Calanus has a complicated life cycle. The cycle begins in spring when adult females release batches of 50 or more eggs into the water. The eggs hatch a day or so later and, being cold-blooded, develop at a rate that is largely controlled by water temperature. Like all crustaceans, Calanus has a rigid external skeleton (exoskeleton) that it must shed in order to grow and develop. In total, there are 12 development stages to their life cycle. During the first 6 they are known as nauplii. These ""baby"" stages adopt a swimming-by-jumping approach to movement and look like tiny pulsating hands.",-2.459245642,0.502968493
6a7e5f932,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_monarchy,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Absolute monarchy or despotic monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch has absolute power among his or her people. An absolute monarch wields unrestricted political power over the sovereign state and its people. Absolute monarchies are often hereditary but other means of transmission of power are attested. Absolute monarchy differs from constitutional monarchy, in which a monarch's authority in a constitutional monarchy is legally bounded or restricted by a constitution.
In theory, the absolute monarch exercises total power over the land, yet in practice the monarchy is counterbalanced by political groups from among the social classes and castes of the realm, such as the aristocracy, clergy, and middle and lower classes.
Some monarchies have weak or symbolic legislatures and other governmental bodies that the monarch can alter or dissolve at will. Countries where the monarch still maintains absolute power are Brunei, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the individual emirates composing the United Arab Emirates, Swaziland, and Vatican City.",-2.169683991,0.519567562
b2f57788e,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_zero,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"In theory, absolute zero is the temperature at which the particles of matter (molecules and atoms) are at their lowest energy points. It is a common misconception that at absolute zero particles lose all energy and stop moving. This, however, is false. In quantum physics there is something called zero point energy, which means that even after all the energy that can be extrapolated from particles is extrapolated, particles still have some energy. This is due to the Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty, which states that the more you know about a particles position, the less you know about it's momentum, and vice versa. Therefore, you cannot have a particle that is stopped, because then you would know both its exact position and momentum. In practice, it is impossible, because, much like reaching the speed of light, the amount of energy required is too vast. Some people have created temperatures very close to absolute zero: the record temperature was 100 pK (one hundred picokelvin, equal to 10-10 kelvin) above absolute zero. Even getting close to absolute zero is difficult because anything that touches an object being cooled near absolute zero would give heat to the objects.",-1.671930447,0.482984625
eb7ccf8a3,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abyssal_plain,CC BY-SA 3.0,"An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) and 6,000 metres (20,000 ft). Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth's surface. They are among the flattest, smoothest and least explored regions on Earth. Abyssal plains are key geologic elements of oceanic basins (the other elements being an elevated mid-ocean ridge and flanking abyssal hills). In addition to these elements, active oceanic basins (those that are associated with a moving plate tectonic boundary) also typically include an oceanic trench and a subduction zone.
Abyssal plains were not recognized as distinct physiographic features of the sea floor until the late 1940s and, until very recently, none had been studied on a systematic basis. They are poorly preserved in the sedimentary record, because they tend to be consumed by the subduction process. The creation of the abyssal plain is the end result of spreading of the seafloor (plate tectonics) and melting of the lower oceanic crust.",-1.411310796,0.506032482
dc8bb7a8c,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceleration,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Acceleration is a measure of how fast velocity changes. Acceleration is the change of velocity divided by the change of time. Acceleration is a vector, and therefore includes both a size and a direction. An object was moving north at 10 meters per second. The object speeds up and now is moving north at 15 meters per second. The object has accelerated.
An apple is falling down. It starts falling at 0 meters per second. At the end of the first second, the apple is moving at 9.8 meters per second. The apple has accelerated. At the end of the second second, the apple is moving down at 19.6 meters per second. The apple has accelerated again.
Jane is walking east at 3 kilometers per hour. Jane's velocity does not change. Jane's acceleration is zero.
Tom was walking east at 3 kilometers per hour. Tom turns and walks south at 3 kilometers per hour. Tom has had a nonzero acceleration.
Sally was walking east at 3 kilometers per hour. Sally slows down. After, Sally walks east at 1.5 kilometers per hour. Sally has had a nonzero acceleration.",-2.362779263,0.487427837
30a6fa2ca,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"An acid is a substance that can donate a hydrogen ion (H+) (generally speaking, this will be a proton) to another substance. Acids have a pH less than 7.0. A chemical can donate a proton if the hydrogen atom is attached to an electronegative atom like oxygen, nitrogen, or chlorine. Some acids are strong and others are weak. The weak acids hold on to some of their protons, while the strong acids let go of all of them. All acids will release hydrogen ions into solutions. The amount of ions that get released per molecule will determine if the acid is weak or strong. Weak acids are acids that partially release the hydrogen atoms that are attached. These acids, then, may lower pH by dissociation of hydrogen ions, but not completely. Weak acids generally have a pH value of 4-6 while strong acids have a pH value of 1 to 3.
A base is an acid's ""chemical opposite."" A base is a substance that will accept the acid's hydrogen atom. Bases are molecules that can split apart in water and release hydroxide ions. Acids and bases typically exist together in equilibrium.",-1.681544004,0.451403889
5.72E+22,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_noise_control,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Active noise control (ANC), also known as noise cancellation, or active noise reduction (ANR), is a method for reducing unwanted sound by the addition of a second sound specifically designed to cancel the first. Sound is a pressure wave, which consists of alternating periods of compression and rarefaction. A noise-cancellation speaker emits a sound wave with the same amplitude but with inverted phase (also known as antiphase) to the original sound. The waves combine to form a new wave, in a process called interference, and effectively cancel each other out - an effect which is called destructive interference.
Modern active noise control is generally achieved through the use of analog circuits or digital signal processing. Adaptive algorithms are designed to analyze the waveform of the background aural or nonaural noise, then based on the specific algorithm generate a signal that will either phase shift or invert the polarity of the original signal. This inverted signal (in antiphase) is then amplified and a transducer creates a sound wave directly proportional to the amplitude of the original waveform, creating destructive interference. This effectively reduces the volume of the perceivable noise.",-1.961734318,0.456802314
253d55031,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerodynamics,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Aerodynamics, from Greek (dynamics), is a branch of fluid dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a solid object, such as an airplane wing. Aerodynamics is a sub-field of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, and many aspects of aerodynamics theory are common to these fields. The term aerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas dynamics, with the difference being that ""gas dynamics"" applies to the study of the motion of all gases, not limited to air. Formal aerodynamics study in the modern sense began in the eighteenth century, although observations of fundamental concepts such as aerodynamic drag have been recorded much earlier. Most of the early efforts in aerodynamics worked towards achieving heavier-than-air flight, which was first demonstrated by Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903. Since then, the use of aerodynamics through mathematical analysis, empirical approximations, wind tunnel experimentation, and computer simulations has formed the scientific basis for ongoing developments in heavier-than-air flight and a number of other technologies.",-2.189229756,0.521133857
10e99972d,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"As he ran to Fred's shop, Walugo remembered crunchy fried tail and fins. And the eyes, so sweet and tasty! Eventually, Walugo chose his three fishes. Fred added a fourth fish, but it was tiny. On the way home, Walugo stopped to eat the tiny fish. He ate slowly, including all the soft bones. It was delicious. He began to think about the three fishes in his bag. Three fishes with crunchy fins and tails. When Walugo finally arrived home, his angry mother asked, ""Where have you been all this time?"" She opened the bag and looked inside. ""What happened here?"" she asked. The fishes had no fins, or tails, or heads! Walugo wished that he had not been so greedy. He finally said, ""I don't know what happened."" His mother looked at him, but did not say anything. That night, Walugo and his family sat down to eat. His mother served each person, except Walugo. They began to enjoy the fried fish and ugali. Walugo asked, ""Where's my food?"" ""I don't know where your food is,"" answered his mother. ""Perhaps your food is with the fins, tails and heads that disappeared,"" said Walugo's father.",-1.055061636,0.482755996
6060b06be,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Many of the Founding Fathers of the United States believed the Enlightenment's ideas. For example, the idea that a government's job is to benefit all of a country's people not just the people in power was very important to them. They made this idea about a government ""for the people"" one of the most important parts of the new United States Constitution and the new American government they created.
The Enlightenment's ideas were also important to the people who fought in the French Revolution of 1789.
In some countries, kings and queens took some of the Enlightenment's ideas and made changes to their governments. However, they still kept power for themselves. These kings and queens were called ""enlightened despots."" Examples include Catherine the Great of Russia, Frederick the Great of Prussia, and Gustav III of Sweden.
During the Age of Enlightenment, as more and more people began to use reason, some began to disagree with the idea that God created the world. This caused conflicts - and, later, war.",-0.250208993,0.464270192
49dc9c57f,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment,CC BY-SA 3.0,"John Locke, one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, based his governance philosophy in social contract theory, a subject that permeated Enlightenment political thought. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes ushered in this new debate with his work Leviathan in 1651. Hobbes also developed some of the fundamentals of European liberal thought: the right of the individual; the natural equality of all men; the artificial character of the political order (which led to the later distinction between civil society and the state); the view that all legitimate political power must be ""representative"" and based on the consent of the people; and a liberal interpretation of law which leaves people free to do whatever the law does not explicitly forbid.
Both Locke and Rousseau developed social contract theories in Two Treatises of Government and Discourse on Inequality, respectively. While quite different works, Locke, Hobbes and Rousseau agreed that a social contract, in which the government's authority lies in the consent of the governed, is necessary for people to live in civil society.",-1.366705243,0.46451098
72e6d3add,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agora,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The agora (agorá) was a central public space in ancient Greek city-states. It is the best representation of city form's response to accommodate the social and political order of the polis.The literal meaning of the word is ""gathering place"" or ""assembly"". The agora was the center of the athletic, artistic, spiritual and political life in the city. The Ancient Agora of Athens is the best-known example. 
Early in Greek history (10th–8th centuries BC), free-born citizens would gather in the agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later, the agora also served as a marketplace, where merchants kept stalls or shops to sell their goods amid colonnades. This attracted artisans who built workshops nearby.
From these twin functions of the agora as a political and a commercial space came the two Greek verbs, agorázo, ""I shop"", and, agoreúo, ""I speak in public"".
The term agoraphobia denotes a phobic condition in which the sufferer becomes anxious in environments that are unfamiliar – for instance, places where they perceive that they have little control.",-1.753996148,0.493957373
075672d6f,https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00057,CC BY 4.0,"Executive functions are thinking abilities that allow us to achieve our goals. For example, executive functions allow you to stay on task, plan ahead, hold onto thoughts, solve problems, and refrain from inappropriate actions (like talking back to a teacher). In patients who had experienced TBI more than 4 years ago, we studied an executive function called working memory T, which is the mental workspace that holds information for immediate use. For example, remembering the numbers the teacher writes on the board as you write down the problem in your notebook. Working memory differs from what is called long-term memory, which is what we use to remember events over years. For example, working memory helps us do addition in our heads, long-term memory is what allows us to remember our first day at school.
Working memory has three stages: encoding (putting information in), maintenance (holding on to that information), and retrieval (remembering that information and using it). Usually, people can hold about 3–5 things in working memory at a time. Working memory requires cooperation between regions in both the front and back of the brain. If brain cells in either of these regions are damaged, working memory could suffer.",-0.949229822,0.530304726
701f51d86,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a civil war in the United States of America. It is sometimes called ""The War Between the States"". Eleven Southern states in which slavery was legal wanted to leave the United States of America. They formed the Confederate States of America, also called ""the Confederacy"". They wanted the Confederate States of America to be its own country, separate and independent from the United States. Jefferson Davis was chosen as president of the Confederacy. The U.S government and the states that remained loyal to it were called the Union. The Union is sometimes called ""the North"". Every state where slavery was illegal supported the Union. Most of these states were in the North. Five states where slavery was legal also supported the Union. These were called the ""border states"". War began on April 12, 1861 when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter held by a Union garrison.",0.223365705,0.497588725
944aa5331,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_Plan,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Anaconda Plan is the name applied to an outline strategy for suppressing the Confederacy at the beginning of the American Civil War. Proposed by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, the plan emphasized the blockade of the Southern ports, and called for an advance down the Mississippi River to cut the South in two. Because the blockade would be rather passive, it was widely derided by the vociferous faction who wanted a more vigorous prosecution of the war, and who likened it to the coils of an anaconda suffocating its victim. The snake image caught on, giving the proposal its popular name.
In the early days of the Civil War, General-in-Chief Winfield Scott's proposed strategy for the war against the South had two prominent features: first, all ports in the seceding states were to be rigorously blockaded; second, a strong column of perhaps 80,000 men should use the Mississippi River as a highway to thrust completely through the Confederacy. A spearhead consisting of a relatively small amphibious force, army troops transported by boats and supported by gunboats, should advance rapidly, capturing the Confederate positions down the river in sequence.",-1.564986263,0.494755506
475802be3,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BCE to the 6th century CE. It is often roughly divided into the Archaic period (9th to 6th centuries BCE), Classical period (5th and 4th centuries BCE), and Hellenistic period (3rd century BCE to 6th century CE). It is antedated in the second millennium BCE by Mycenaean Greek.
The language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine (common). Koine is regarded as a separate historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek and in its latest form it approaches Medieval Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects.
Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of classical Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a standard subject of study in educational institutions of the West since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language.",-2.128637056,0.490294675
9611b9cfb,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_galaxy,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, our galaxy. Andromeda is sometimes called M31 or NGC 324 by astronomers. It is about 2.6 million light years away from us.
Andromeda is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which consists of the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies. Although the largest, Andromeda may not be the most massive. Recent findings suggest that the Milky Way contains more dark matter and may be the most massive in the grouping.
The 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that M31 contains a trillion stars (1012). This is more than the number of stars in our own galaxy, which is estimated to be c. 200-400 billion.
Andromeda is estimated to be 7.1×1011 solar masses. In comparison, a 2009 study estimated that the Milky Way and Andromeda are about equal in mass, while a 2006 study put the mass of the Milky Way at ~80% of the mass of Andromeda.",-1.929076672,0.52014275
02817cbd1,https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/123172-why-do-sunbirds-eat-all-day-1.pdf,CC BY 4.0,"Meet Loten. He is a long-billed sunbird. His feathers are purple and maroon. The yellow and grey bird is his sister, Lily.
Sunbirds like Loten and Lily live in parts of India and Sri Lanka. They are as long as a 100-rupee note and weigh as much as a ten-rupee coin.
Loten and Lily have curved beaks and tube-shaped tongues to gather nectar from flowers. 
When Loten and Lily were babies, the had short, wide beaks so that their parents could feed them easily. Their parents digested the food a little in their stomachs before feeding it to them.
When they grew strong enough, Loten and Lily learnt to fly. They also had to learn to find their own food.
Loten and Lily get energy from what they eat and drink. This energy allows them to use their muscles to fly. 
Unlike us humans, Loten and Lily cannot store much energy in their bodies as fat. They have to stay very light. Otherwise, they will not be able to fly.
This is why sunbirds have to eat many times a day. In fact, they spend most of their days flying around, looking for food.",-0.949682356,0.465011449
2985f4021,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriation_bill,CC BY-SA 3.0,"An appropriation bill or running bill or supply bill is a legislative motion (bill) that authorizes the government to spend money. It is a bill that sets money aside for specific spending. In most democracies, approval of the legislature is necessary for the government to spend money.
In a Westminster parliamentary system, the defeat of an appropriation bill in a parliamentary vote generally necessitates either the resignation of a government or the calling of a general election. One of the more famous examples of the defeat of a supply bill was the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, when the Senate, which was controlled by the opposition, refused to approve a package of appropriation and loan bills, prompting Governor-General Sir John Kerr to dismiss Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and appoint Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister until the next election (where the Fraser government was elected).",-1.7524997,0.444109668
a895fc4a7,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_cardiac_pacemaker,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A major step forward in pacemaker function has been to attempt to mimic nature by utilizing various inputs to produce a rate-responsive pacemaker using parameters such as the QT interval, pO2 – pCO2 (dissolved oxygen or carbon dioxide levels) in the arterial-venous system, physical activity as determined by an accelerometer, body temperature, ATP levels, adrenaline, etc. Instead of producing a static, predetermined heart rate, or intermittent control, such a pacemaker, a 'Dynamic Pacemaker', could compensate for both actual respiratory loading and potentially anticipated respiratory loading. The first dynamic pacemaker was invented by Anthony Rickards of the National Heart Hospital, London, UK, in 1982.
Dynamic pacemaking technology could also be applied to future artificial hearts. Advances in transitional tissue welding would support this and other artificial organ/joint/tissue replacement efforts. Stem cells may be of interest in transitional tissue welding.
Many advancements have been made to improve the control of the pacemaker once implanted. Many of these have been made possible by the transition to microprocessor controlled pacemakers. Pacemakers that control not only the ventricles but the atria as well have become common. Pacemakers that control both the atria and ventricles are called dual-chamber pacemakers.",-2.434505315,0.518322245
4d403fd57,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence exhibited by machines. In computer science, an ideal ""intelligent"" machine is a flexible rational agent that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goal. Colloquially, the term ""artificial intelligence"" is applied when a machine mimics ""cognitive"" functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as ""learning"" and ""problem solving"". As machines become increasingly capable, facilities once thought to require intelligence are removed from the definition. For example, optical character recognition is no longer perceived as an exemplar of ""artificial intelligence"" having become a routine technology. Capabilities still classified as AI include advanced Chess and Go systems and self-driving cars.
AI research is divided into subfields that focus on specific problems or on specific approaches or on the use of a particular tool or towards satisfying particular applications.",-1.161745881,0.458396011
14972af78,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_muscle,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Artificial muscle is a generic term used for materials or devices that can reversibly contract, expand, or rotate within one component due to an external stimulus (such as voltage, current, pressure or temperature). The three basic actuation responses – contraction, expansion, and rotation – can be combined together within a single component to produce other types of motions (e.g. bending, by contracting one side of the material while expanding the other side). Conventional motors and pneumatic linear or rotary actuators do not qualify as artificial muscles, because there is more than one component involved in the actuation.
Due to their high flexibility, versatility and power-to-weight ratio compared with traditional rigid actuators, artificial muscles have the potential to be a highly disruptive emerging technology. Though currently in limited use, the technology may have wide future applications in industry, medicine, robotics and many other fields.",-1.67345497,0.471585318
3ba0b1f96,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_photosynthesis,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Artificial photosynthesis is a chemical process that replicates the natural process of photosynthesis, a process that converts sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and oxygen. The term, artificial photosynthesis, is commonly used to refer to any scheme for capturing and storing the energy from sunlight in the chemical bonds of a fuel (a solar fuel). Photocatalytic water splitting converts water into hydrogen ions and oxygen, and is a main research area in artificial photosynthesis. Light-driven carbon dioxide reduction is another studied process, that replicates natural carbon fixation.
Research developed in this field encompasses the design and assembly of devices for the direct production of solar fuels, photoelectrochemistry and its application in fuel cells, and the engineering of enzymes and photoautotrophic microorganisms for microbial biofuel and biohydrogen production from sunlight. Many, if not most, of the artificial approaches to artificial photosynthesis are bio-inspired, i.e., they rely on biomimetics.",-2.128850065,0.485316393
24288b9a5,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Assyrian architecture, like that of Babylonia, was influenced by Sumero-Akkadian styles (and to some degree Mitanni), but early on developed its own distinctive style. Palaces sported colourful wall decorations, and seal-cutting (an art learned from Mittani) developed apace. Schools for scribes taught both the Babylonian and Assyrian dialects of Akkadian, and Sumerian and Akkadian literary works were often copied with an Assyrian flavour.
The Assyrian dialect of Akkadian was used in legal, official, religious, and practical texts such as medicine or instructions on manufacturing items. During the 13th to 10th centuries, picture tales appeared as a new art form: a continuous series of images carved on square stone steles. Somewhat reminiscent of a comic book, these show events such as warfare or hunting, placed in order from the upper left to the lower right corner of the stele with captions written underneath them. These and the excellent cut seals show that Assyrian art was beginning to surpass that of Babylon. Architecture saw the introduction of a new style of ziggurat, with two towers and colorful enameled tiles.",-2.033737526,0.476486741
1686d6ea3,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Asteroids are minor planets, especially those of the inner Solar System. The larger ones have also been called planetoids. These terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disc of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet. As minor planets in the outer Solar System were discovered and found to have volatile-based surfaces that resemble those of comets, they were often distinguished from asteroids of the asteroid belt. In this article, the term ""asteroid"" refers to the minor planets of the inner Solar System including those co-orbital with Jupiter.
There are millions of asteroids, many thought to be the shattered remnants of planetesimals, bodies within the young Sun's solar nebula that never grew large enough to become planets. The large majority of known asteroids orbit in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, or are co-orbital with Jupiter (the Jupiter trojans). However, other orbital families exist with significant populations, including the near-Earth asteroids.",-0.894009394,0.48286023
2b3f1f54e,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_object,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The universe can be viewed as having a hierarchical structure. At the largest scales, the fundamental component of assembly is the galaxy. Galaxies are organized into groups and clusters, often within larger superclusters, that are strung along great filaments between nearly empty voids, forming a web that spans the observable universe.
Galaxies have a variety of morphologies, with irregular, elliptical and disk-like shapes, depending on their formation and evolutionary histories, including interaction with other galaxies, which may lead to a merger.
Disc galaxies encompass lenticular and spiral galaxies with features, such as spiral arms and a distinct halo. At the core, most galaxies have a supermassive black hole, which may result in an active galactic nucleus. Galaxies can also have satellites in the form of dwarf galaxies and globular clusters.
The constituents of a galaxy are formed out of gaseous matter that assembles through gravitational self-attraction in a hierarchical manner. At this level, the resulting fundamental components are the stars, which are typically assembled in clusters from the various condensing nebulae.",-2.000163711,0.504156095
4f53dd071,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Astronomy is a natural science. It is the study of everything outside the atmosphere of Earth.
It studies celestial objects (such as stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets and nebulae) and processes (such as supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, and cosmic microwave background radiation). This includes the physics, chemistry of those objects and processes.
A related subject, physical cosmology, is concerned with studying the Universe as a whole, and the way the universe changed over time.
The word astronomy comes from the Greek words astron which means star and nomos which means law. A person who studies astronomy is called an astronomer.
Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Ancient people used the positions of the stars to navigate, and to find when was the best time to plant crops. Astronomy is very similar to astrophysics. Since the 20th century there have been two main types of astronomy, observational and theoretical astronomy. Observational astronomy uses telescopes and cameras to observe or look at stars, galaxies and other astronomical objects. Theoretical astronomy uses maths and computer models to predict what should happen.",-0.123139093,0.537257947
f79dfc781,https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysics,CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL,"Astrophysics is the study of how stars and planets work, and how we can learn about them. Astrophysicists use physics to explain what astronomers find and see.
Astrophysics is also the study of how the Universe started and how it is changing with time. This part of astrophysics is called cosmology. For a long time bodies in the sky seemed to be unchanging spheres moving in a circle. But on Earth growth and decay happened, and natural motion was in a straight line. Therefore, people thought the celestial region was made of a fundamentally different kind of matter from that found on Earth.
During the 16th and 17th century, natural philosophers such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton, began to maintain that the celestial and terrestrial regions were made of similar kinds of material and were subject to the same natural laws.",-0.675336111,0.449333437
f482c02a0,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one's current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one. Augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally manipulable. Information about the environment and its objects is overlaid on the real world. This information can be virtual or real, e.g. seeing other real sensed or measured information such as electromagnetic radio waves overlaid in exact alignment with where they actually are in space.",-2.251382021,0.552186765
df6f22f73,https://www.africanstorybook.org/,CC BY 4.0,"Likhutu was enticed by the aroma of the mandazi. He longed to buy some. 
One day, Likhutu went to the woman selling the mandazi. ""Is there something I can do for you to earn a few mandazi?"" he asked her. 
""Yes, you can watch my shop for me while I go to Chama Women's Group,"" replied the woman 
While the woman was away, Likhutu became tempted by the sizzling mandazi. He said to himself with relish, ""I will eat as many as I can. And then I will keep some in my hat."" Likhutu had not finished talking to himself when he saw the mandazi woman from afar. 
He stuffed his hat with mandazi straight from the boiling oil. Then he pulled the hat onto his head. Immediately, Likhutu began to twist his neck from the scalding mandazi. When the woman arrived, she was surprised to see him twisting vigorously. She asked, ""Is anything wrong?"" ""Nothing is wrong!"" declared Likhutu.
He hurried away to his cousin's house. He found his cousin with visitors, so he sat outside to wait. Likhutu continued to twist his neck while he waited. When Likhutu's cousin saw him twisting his neck, he was puzzled.",-1.375344838,0.482629173
7382b7a7a,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_head-up_display,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Reaction time, and more specifically delayed reaction, is widely cited as a key contributor to vehicular accidents. Reaction time in relation to the ERB is defined as the time it takes for a motorist to react to an external hazard or stimuli and then carry out the appropriate reaction, or evasive maneuver such as braking when a vehicle in front stops. The feedback offered by an HUD is projected onto the windshield of a vehicle with the aim of integrating outside stimuli and the instrumental feedback; thus removing the need to remove a driver's eyes from the road. Studies of reaction time to hazards in HUD vs HDD designs have found that the average reaction times for HUD are faster. This trend appears to continue across demographics, including both categories of experience level and age.
Speed maintenance is the extent to which a driver maintains a speed and adjusts their speed to suit traffic laws and environmental conditions. The use of HUDs appears to produce better speed maintenance in drivers under experimental conditions when compared to HDDs.",-1.680656465,0.505475536
dc68539f2,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boom,CC BY-SA 3.0,"A baby boom is any period marked by a greatly increased birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds. People born during such a period are often called baby boomers; however, some experts distinguish between those born during such demographic baby booms and those who identify with the overlapping cultural generations. The causes of baby booms may involve various fertility factors. One common baby boom was right after WWII during the Cold War.
The U.S. birthrate exploded after World War II. From 1945 to 1961, more than 65 million children were born in the United States. At the height of this baby boom, a child was born every seven seconds. Many factors contributed to the baby boom. First, young couples who had put off getting married during World War II and the Korean War could finally begin their families. Also, the government encouraged the growth of families by offering generous GI benefits for home purchases. Finally, popular culture celebrated pregnancy, parenthood, and large families.",0.026327432,0.491167983
e3809434d,http://static.ehe.osu.edu/sites/beyond/penguins/downloads/feature-stories/erebus-23-text.pdf,CC BY-SA 3.0,"But Mt. Erebus isn’t just a mountain. It is a volcano. A volcano is an opening in Earth’s surface. Melted rock called lava flows out of the opening. When this happens, it is called an eruption. 
There are volcanoes all over the world. Some of them are very old. They do not erupt anymore. But many volcanoes still erupt. Mt. Erebus erupts almost every day! 
Ross Island is a cold place. It is near Antarctica. This means that Mt. Erebus is covered by snow and ice all year long. But the inside of the volcano is very hot. Steam from the inside of the volcano comes out the sides through cracks in the rock. The steam makes the ice melt and forms caves made out of ice. When the hot steam moves into the cold air, it freezes into pillars. They look like icicles that point up into the sky! 
At the top of the volcano is a lake. But this lake isn’t made of water. It’s made of lava! Sometimes, a big bubble of gas inside the volcano shoots a big chunk of lava out into the air.",0.851171224,0.581774968
3bb83a8d7,http://static.ehe.osu.edu/sites/beyond/penguins/downloads/feature-stories/ice-sculptures-23-text.pdf,CC BY-SA 3.0,"You probably know that wind and water can shape Earth’s land. But did you know that glaciers can too?
Glaciers are made of ice. Ice is a solid. But glaciers are so large and heavy that they can flow like a river.
Glaciers are found on high mountains. It is cold there, so snow doesn’t melt. Instead, the snow piles up and gets squished together, forming ice. Over many years, the ice builds up and forms a glacier.
The glacier becomes so heavy that it slowly moves down the mountains. The glacier scrapes and shapes the mountains’ sides as it moves.
Glaciers are also found in the Arctic and in Antarctica. They press and grind the land below as they move.
Glaciers have shaped the world in surprising ways. Millions of years ago, glaciers covered the desert of South Africa. The glaciers slowly moved, scraping across the desert’s rocks. Today, we see flat, polished rocks and know that glaciers were once there.",0.490577969,0.558682556
d709d7022,https://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/a-sense-of-place/the-top-and-bottom-of-the-world,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Imagine you are standing on the North Pole. What do you see? First of all, you don’t see any land. In fact, you aren’t standing on land at all, but instead you are atop a sheet of ice floating over a cold, deep ocean. At the South Pole, you would be over land, and atop a high, flat plateau. So strangely, the “bottom of the world” is actually pretty high!
Bundle up, because even in the summer the North Pole is cold. The average summer temperature is around 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). If you decide to go to the South Pole instead, you’ll get even colder. The average summer temperature at the South Pole is a chilly -18 degrees Fahrenheit (-28 degrees Celsius).
If you do make your trip in the summer, another thing you won’t see is nighttime. In the polar summer, the Sun never sets.",0.584865593,0.511811885
b9d1695e2,https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:Bugs/Cricket,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Crickets are omnivores and scavengers. They feed on leaves, flowers, bark, and seeds. Some species are predatory, feeding on other insects, snails or even small vertebrates such as snakes and lizards.
Field crickets eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants. They eat live or dead insects, grasshopper eggs, and pupae of flies, moths and butterflies. Sometimes they steal prey from spider webs.
Spotted camel crickets come out on warm humid nights to feed. They eat fungi, roots, fruit, and dead insects, including other crickets. Bush crickets eat leaves, flowers, and fruits of living plants. Ant-loving crickets eat ants’ young.
Tree crickets feed on aphids. Snowy tree crickets eat small insects. They also feed on fruit crops such as apples and peaches.
If keeping a cricket as a pet, they will eat fish food. Crickets will also eat potatoes.",0.566717326,0.510923432
6e030ff29,https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:Bugs/Moth,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Some moths lay eggs in clothing. Others lay them in dry food, like flour or rice. When the eggs hatch, the larvae will then eat the clothing or dried food. In the same way, larvae have damaged crops, trees and ornamental plants. Have you ever found strange holes in your clothes? They might have been made by a hungry moth larva!
Humans use mothballs to keep moths out of their clothing. Mothballs are round, white balls treated with chemicals that poison moths. Since the poison may also harm humans, the balls should never be tasted or eaten. You should wash your hands immediately after touching mothballs.
At the same time, moths also do things which help people. For example, moths help flowers grow by pollinating them. The downside of this is that the moths also lay their eggs in the leaves of the plant. When the eggs hatch into caterpillars, the munching of the plant begins! Have you ever seen the holes that caterpillars make as they chew on the leaves of plants?",0.123378824,0.500902371
7005971ef,https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:Human_Body/Digestive_System/Stomach,CC BY-SA 3.0,"At the top of the stomach is a tube where food comes in from the esophagus. When you swallow, this tube opens so food can go in the stomach.
The stomach is made of muscle. These muscles help to break down food by mashing it into smaller pieces. The muscles also make waves pushing the food further down the digestive track. This is called peristalsis and happens from the esophagus all the way to the large intestine.
The stomach is lined with glands. These special cells make a liquid that is released into the stomach. This liquid is called gastric juice. The gastric juice has acid in it and helps break down or digest food.
The bottom part of the stomach is called the pyloric area. At the bottom of the stomach is another opening. This leads to the small intestine.",1.029667868,0.539303396
9c5ff50d5,https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:Human_Body/Eyes,CC BY-SA 3.0,Eyes are made of several different parts. The white part of the eye is called the sclera.(It is interesting to note that only in Human Species among all other creatures that sclera is visible when the eyes are open). This part covers the surface of the eyes except at the very front. At the front of an eye is a cornea. This part acts like a shield for the eye. It can still let light pass through because it is transparent. Under the cornea is the iris and pupil. The pupil is the black circle in the middle. It is actually a hole that lets light pass through into the back of the eye. The iris is a coloured diaphragm around the pupil. It is a muscle that opens and closes around the pupil to let more or less light through. Behind the pupil is a lens that focuses the light that passes through it onto the retina.,0.120457641,0.468217748
25f93b2f6,http://static.ehe.osu.edu/sites/beyond/penguins/downloads/feature-stories/getting-warmer-k1-text.pdf,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The Sun’s light shines on Earth. The light makes our air, land, and water warm. But some things get
warmer than others.
Pretend it is a sunny day. If you wore a black shirt, you would feel hot. But if you wore a white shirt, you wouldn’t feel as hot. The dark color absorbs more of the Sun’s energy. That makes the black shirt warm.
Light colors reflect more of the Sun’s energy. This makes the white shirt cooler to wear. See for yourself! You need a piece of black paper and a piece of white paper. You also need two thermometers and a lamp. Ask an adult to help you.
Fold the black paper so it makes a pocket. Do the same thing to the white paper. Next, put a thermometer into the black pocket. Do the same thing to the white pocket. Then put the pockets under the lamp. Turn the lamp on, and wait for 10 minutes. Then check the thermometers.
Which pocket got hotter — the black pocket or the white one? Do you know why?",0.747774563,0.504809161
b8733aeb1,http://static.ehe.osu.edu/sites/beyond/penguins/downloads/feature-stories/partners-23-text.pdf,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Have you ever gone for a walk in the woods? If you have, you may have seen colorful things growing on tree trunks and rocks. They look like plants, but they aren’t. They are called lichens. Lichens are made of two living things: a fungus and an alga. They live together and help each other.
How do these living things help each other? The alga makes food from air and water. The fungus protects the alga by growing around it.
Lichens have no roots. They don’t need soil to grow. They can grow in strange places—on rocks, cliffs, and tree trunks. In the Arctic and Antarctica, lichens grow on rocks.
Lichens grow slowly. They can grow in cold temperatures. They can even keep growing when covered in snow!
Lichens are tough. If a lichen gets dry and cold, it might crumble and blow away in the wind. But it isn’t dead. When it is warmer or wetter, the lichen might start growing again.
Lichens are important. Caribou eat them in the winter. People use them to make dyes and medicines. Scientists study how they can warn us about pollution.",1.196247777,0.53504596
2baf404d8,http://static.ehe.osu.edu/sites/beyond/penguins/downloads/feature-stories/white-wolf-k1-text.pdf,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Have you heard of the Arctic? It is a place at the top of the world. Many animals live on the land and in the water there.
One of these animals is the arctic wolf. It is a wolf with snowy white fur. Imagine that you are a wolf. What would your life be like?
You would live with your mother, father, brothers and sisters in a group. This group is called a pack. Other wolves would live in the pack, too.
You would like to play with your brothers and sisters. This would teach you how to hunt. Your pack would hunt together. You might hunt caribou, rabbits, and musk oxen.
Your life would be hard. Hunting is dangerous. You might not be able to find food. Then you would be hungry.
You would be cold and hungry during the winter. You would huddle with the other wolves to stay warm.
But summer would be different. There would be plenty of animals to hunt. Then you could sleep in the warm sunlight with your packmates. Zzzzz…",0.546674687,0.48808641
f301ff005,http://static.ehe.osu.edu/sites/beyond/penguins/downloads/feature-stories/tundra-k1-text.pdf,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Near the top of the world is land called tundra. The tundra is flat and has no trees. It is covered by snow and ice most of the year. 
In the spring, the snow and ice melt. Beneath the ground, the soil stays frozen. The ground gets very soggy. It is a marsh.
Small yellow flowers grow from the cold, wet ground. They are called marsh marigolds.
Flies hide in the flowers. They soak up the Sun’s energy and get warm.
The flies fly from flower to flower. They help the flowers make seeds.
Caribou eat the flowers. The caribou also give the plants the nutrients they need to grow.
Mother flies lay their eggs inside the caribou’s nose. It is warm there. The young flies eat and grow.
The young flies get bigger. AH-CHOO! The caribou sneezes. The flies land on the ground. Soon, they will be adults.
These plants and animals need each other. Can you think of others?",0.608107952,0.505921413
25ca8f498,https://sites.ehe.osu.edu/beyondpenguins/files/2011/06/dinosaurs_45_text.pdf,CC BY-SA 3.0,"When you think of dinosaurs and where they lived, what do you picture? Do you see hot, steamy swamps, thick jungles, or sunny plains? Dinosaurs lived in those places, yes. But did you know that some dinosaurs lived in the cold and the darkness near the North and South Poles?
This surprised scientists, too. Paleontologists used to believe that dinosaurs lived only in the warmest parts of the world. They thought that dinosaurs could only have lived in places where turtles, crocodiles, and snakes live today. Later, these dinosaur scientists began finding bones in surprising places.
One of those surprising fossil beds is a place called Dinosaur Cove, Australia. One hundred million years ago, Australia was connected to Antarctica. Both continents were located near the South Pole. Today, paleontologists dig dinosaur fossils out of the ground. They think about what those ancient bones must mean.",1.711389827,0.646899678
2c26db523,https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:The_Elements/Solids,CC BY-SA 3.0,"So what is a solid? Solids are usually hard because their molecules have been packed together. The closer your molecules are, the harder you are. Solids also can hold their own shape. A rock will always look like a rock unless something happens to it. The same goes for a diamond. Even when you grind up a solid into a powder, you will see tiny little pieces of that solid under a microscope. Liquids will move and fill up any container. Solids keep their shape.
In the same way that a solid holds its shape, the atoms inside of a solid are not allowed to move around too much. This is one of the physical characteristics of solids. Atoms and molecules in liquids and gases are bouncing and floating around, free to move where they want. The molecules in a solid are stuck in place. The atoms still spin and the electrons will still fly around, but the entire atom will not change position.",0.189475669,0.535648059
cd19e2350,https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:The_Elements/Liquids,CC BY-SA 3.0,"The second state of matter we will discuss is a liquid. Solids are hard things you can hold. Gases are floating around you and in bubbles. What is a liquid? Water is a liquid. Your blood is a liquid. Liquids are an in-between state of matter. They can be found in between the solid and gas states. They don't have to be made up of the same compounds. If you have a variety of materials in a liquid, it is called a solution.
One characteristic of a liquid is that it will fill up the shape of a container. If you pour some water in a cup, it will fill up the bottom of the cup first and then fill the rest. The water will also take the shape of the cup. It fills the bottom first because of gravity. The top part of a liquid will usually have a flat surface. That flat surface is because of gravity too. Putting an ice cube (solid) into a cup will leave you with a cube in the middle of the cup; the shape won't change until the ice becomes a liquid.",0.255209381,0.48386583
15e2e9e7a,https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Geometry_for_Elementary_School/Solids,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Solids are shapes that you can actually touch. They have three dimensions, which means that the have length, width and height. These shapes are what make up our daily life, and are very useful. Points on a solid must not be coplanar or colinear. The edge of solids are called the edge, and the surfaces are called faces. The corners, like angles and plane figures, are called vertices.
A solid with only straight edges is called a polyhedron(pol-ee-HEE-dron). The plural form of polehedron is polyhedra(pol-ee-HEE-drah). Your chocolate bars are polyhedra, The Great Pyramids are polyhedra – a lot of things are. We will go into detail about them later.
When dealing with these solid figures, there are two measurements we will need to know: the total surface area and the volume. The former is the sum of the faces of the solid; the latter is how big the solid is.",-0.215279181,0.514128423
5b990ba77,https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:Biology/Kingdoms/Animals,CC BY-SA 3.0,"Animals are made of many cells. They eat things and digest them inside. Most animals can move. Only animals have brains (though not even all animals do; jellyfish, for example, do not have brains).
Animals are found all over the earth. They dig in the ground, swim in the oceans, and fly in the sky.
Humans are a type of animal. So are dogs, cats, cows, horses, frogs, fish, and so on and on.
Animals can be divided into two main groups, vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates can be further divided into mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Invertebrates can be divided into arthropods (like insects, spiders, and crabs), mollusks, sponges, several different kinds of worms, jellyfish — and quite a few other subgroups. There are at least thirty kinds of invertebrates, compared to the five kinds of vertebrates. Vertebrates have a backbone, while invertebrates do not.",0.300778753,0.512379279