anon1 manufacturing, and giving to just the people that they would most please. A screw nut-cracker—was it not the very thing to delight a lad like me? A bone apple-scoop—why, it was a treasure to some old person. A mouse-trap, or a moletrap, or a fly-cage- he was the man that came quietly walking in with it just as you were lamenting the want of it. Nay, he was the man to set them, and come regularly to look after them, till they had done what they were wished to do. 9. If you wanted å person to carry å message, or go on some important little matter to the next village, you thought directly of William Worley, and he was sure to be in the way, and ready to take his stick and be off åbout it as seriously and earnestly as if he were to have ample reward for it. And ample reward he had - the belief that he was of service to his neighbors. Honèst old William! he was one of a simple and true-hearted ġeneration, and of that generation himself the simplèst and trụèst. Peace to his memory! M III. 3. CHINESE KITES. 3 OST läughable are the contrasts 4 presented in many of the habits of the Japanese 5 and Chinese to those of Western nations. They mount their horses on the opposite side; their carpenters plane toward the person instead of from it; the men fly kites and spin tops, while the boys look on; their books read from top to bottom, and so on. Perhaps of all the odd practices thus indulged in, the one mōst easily to be accounted for, is the practice of kite-flying by grown-up men. 2. In China, people say, and there is some truth in it, that the swaddled babe appears almost as solemn and as staid as a măndarïn,10 and that thêre, more than anywhere else, the child 1 A non', quickly; in å short time. 2 Gěn'er a'tion, måss of people 6. Peu calie time; an age. "a bl). 1 Can't (känt), can netion of things 2 Been (bin). 3 Flō'rist, one skilled in of Japan, tivation or câre of flowers. 4 Au rĭc'u la, å kind of prin. 6 Chi nese', the natives, or language, of Chinȧ. 7 Truth (troth). 8 Swad'dled, bound tightly with a bandage or clothes. 9 Staid, sober; grave; steady. 10 Mandarin (măn ́da rēn'), a Chineşe officer, either civil or military. CHINESE KITES. 61 is father of the man. The mandarin looks like å giant child, the child a dwarf mandarin. The sobriety of age is combined with the plastic nature of youth, and the amusements of the little child are shared by the fäther, the grandfather, and the great-grandfather-all are kite-flyers. This may be still better understood, when it is explained that the kites of China and Japan are not the simple articles we usually know by that name, but are toys that vary greatly in sort, size, and shape, and are often high in price. 3. Let us transport the reader to the subûrbs 3 of some Chinese city, where a whole group of boys are gathered together to see the wonders worked by their elders in the kite-flying art. There is a whiz, a buzz, å whĩrring music in the air; all sorts of grotesque objects are floating about, rising and falling and dancing to and fro; there are broad-winged birds, and manycolored dragons, lizards, bees, and butterflies, and painted cîrcles and squares, and radiated 5 suns and moons and stars. 4 4. Most of the kites have pendent 6 tails, and strings in their centers, the linking line which connects these aërial monsters with the earth. Up these strings you see messengers ascending, and věry pretty and clever ones they are too. The butterfly messenger, which is about the best, is so made that it flutters ōpen-winged right up to the kite, whence it instantly and quickly descends, having been collapsed and closed, on coming in contact with the kite, by means of a little spring which forms part of its mechanism.8 9 5. The form of the ancient French kite was probably that of a beast, and not of a bird, as they call it a cerf-volant, a flying stag. The English kite took its name, no doubt, from the bird, 1 Sō'bri'e ty, the habit of soberness or temperance, as to the use of spirituous liquors; eälmness. 2 Plăs❜tic, having power to give fashion or form to å måss of matter; capable of being molded or formed. 3 Sub'urbs, places near to a city or large town. 4 Grotesque (grō těsk'), like the figures found in grottoes or caves; wildly formed; droll; läughable. 'Ra'di a'ted, formed of rays of light diverging or påssing out from a center. "Pěnd'ent supported from åbove; suspended; hanging. 'Col lapsed', closed by falling or sinking together. 8 Mechanism (měkʼan ĭzm), the parts taken together, by the action of which a machïne produces its effects. 9 Ancient (an' shent), old; that happened or lived many years ago. of which its first form was ȧ rude imitation; but the Chinese names are věry numerous: fung-tsang, the wind-guitär; chi-yan, paper-hawk; kwin-chi, neither more nor less than the English kite, bird, and toy; and all sorts of fanciful and poëtical titles. 6. To describe all kinds of kites to be seen in Chinȧ would be to undertake too much; so we will only venture to speak of a sort věry common among the Chinese, and particularly effective in appearance-namely, the bird kite. The hawk, or common kite, is the bird usually represented; and to make this they cut a piece of paper the exact shape and size of the natural bird when on the wing; this they paint the natural color and stretch on ribs of bamboo arranged very much in the shape of the old English cross-bow when strung, leaving the parts which represent the ends of the wing and tail-feathers unbound by twine, so as to shiver in the wind. 7. Thus constructed, the kite rises with great ease, and flies with wonderful grace of motion, imitating the real bird to a nicèty by now and then taking a long swoop, then soaring again, and then poising itself with a flutter before repeating the process. At times, a number of these kites are flown at once by attaching them at different intervals to the string of some larger kite, and the effect is thereby much increased; for the reäl kites are in the habit of sailing in a flock together as they circle over their prey. 8. What man among ourselves but has had his eyes attracted upward, and more or less of his interest engaged, by seeing a fire-balloon sailing in mid-air, or a sky-rocket bursting in the sky; or, indeed, anything out of the common happening overhead'? And is the Chinese or Japanese to be läughed at, if he relishes the still stränger sight of a couple of fantastically1 dressed friends walking arm-in-arm in the clouds with an umbrella over their heads; a hideous 2 ogre 3 face, roaring as it sails ȧlong; a pretty but immense butterfly flapping its wings like its living modèl; birds flying åbout so life-like that one can 1 Fan tǎs'tic al ly, fancifully; whimsically; wildly. 2 Hid'e ous, frightful or offensive to the eye or the ear; dreadful to behold. 3 Ogre (o'ğer), a monster, or frightful giant of fâiry tales, who lived on human beings. 1 Pretty (prit'tĭ), pleasing by delicacy, grace, or neatness. CHINESE KITES. 63 hardly believe them to be made of paper; a huge dragon or centiped,1 which, with its scaly joints stretching out some sixty to a hundred feet in length, its thousand legs, and slow, undulating motion, looks marvelously like a giant specimen of that horrible creature creeping down upon one out of the clouds-and many other curious things that an American would scârcely dream of? 9. Yet sights such as these may be seen in Japanese and Chinese cities at any time during the kite-flying season; and, while they can not fail to attract the attention of the observant 2 stranger, in common with many other novelties he sees åbout him, lead him to conclude that the old men and adults 3 of those countries have, at any rate, some excuse for the frivolity 4 they are accused of. 10. The ability to make such extraordinary kites is mainly owing to the toughnèss, tenuity, and flexibility of the Chinese and Japanese paper, and the abundant material for ribs and frames afforded by the bamboo,-a plant which has not its equal for the lightness, strength, flexibility, and elasticity of its fibrous wood. 11. With these simple materials, and with the wonderful neatness and ingenuity 10 the Chinese and Japanese are famous for, it is astonishing how rapidly and easily they construct the odd and complicated " figures which they fly as kites. : Cĕn'ti ped, å kind of manyjointed, worm-shaped, land animal, wingless, having many feet, and powerful biting fangs. 2 Ob serv'ant, taking notice; cârefully attentive; obedient. 'Flex'i bil'i ty, the quality of being flexible, or capable of being bent or twisted without breaking; pliancy. 8 E las tic'i ty, ability of a thing to return to its former shape when 3 A dūlt', a person or thing grown compressed or expanded. to full size or strength. 4 Fri vŏli ty, fondness for vain or foolish pursuits; triflingness. 5 Extraordinary (eks trôr'di nari), out of the common course; more than common. 9 Fi'brous, containing, or consisting of, fibres, or the thread-like portions of plants or muscles. 10 In'ge nu'i ty, the quality or power of ready invention; skill. 11 Com'pli cat ed, folded or twist "Te nu'i ty, râreness, or thinness; ed together; containing many parts; slenderness. not simple. T SECTION II. I. 4. THE SPRING. HE WIND blows in the sweet rose-tree: 3 'Tis not for any one, I trōw:4 The gentle wind blowèth, The happy cow lōwèth, The měrry stream flōwèth, For all below. O the Spring, the bountiful5 Spring! 2. Whence come the sheep? From the rich man's moor.6 Where comèth sleep? To the bed that's poor. Peasants must weep, |