The Mystical River.

197

gence, and in awaiting the result of my experiment. At length the younger said 'Papa! where did you get all these pretty stories?' I then explained that they were all printed in books that all who would learn to read, could read such pretty stories for themselves, besides many others much prettier, that we read by letters, and we must learn them firstthat letters put together made the words, and the words made the stories. The little one was so interested that she went to work, and, of herself, learned the whole alphabet. No one asked, or forbid her to do it but she persevered in asking the names of the characters, until she had mastered them all. I do not mean that she shall be put to dry book study, until she is.ten or twelve years of age. True education is the gratification of awakened desire." This is what our Colonel said. Is he not right? Truly yours. TWENTY-ONE-FIFTY-SIX.

THE MYSTICAL RIVER.

(BY ALLIE WELLINGTON.)

A silvery stream in the morning light
Evermore dashes its waters bright,

With a charming melody and magical chime,
Purling along through the realms of Time,
'Mid verdant banks, where the rose and thyme
Their fragrance blend, while on and away
Dance the fairy-like circles of spray.

A troubled river, it onward flows
'Neath the noontide ray, where no repose
It's wild waves find, but breakers dark
Lie deep concealed, and many a bark
Lone wreck and waif, its borders mask,
And many a willow and cypress tree
O'er the turbid billows bend mournfully.

With a broad, broad sweep and a solemn sway
Rolls the silent river in the twilight gray;

No musical ripple with varied tone

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An Impediment to Schools.

O'er its surface plays,—no surging waves moan,
But the beauteous tints of the daylight flower
On its bosom rest like a fairy dream,—

While with the deep sea, blends the mystic stream.

Oh wondrous river! once launched on thy tide
No bark e'er returns to thy flowery side!—

Where, where are those barges of bright hopes and love,
For which in life's morning gay garlands we wove,
And trusting sent forth o'er thy waters to move?

Faith whispers "With many a storm they have striven,
Now-argosies sailing in the bright port. of heaven."

AN IMPEDIMENT TO SCHOOLS.

OUR school system lacks no excellency to increase its efficiency in spreading education among the masses of the people. Our officers, we have reason to believe, are using their utmost efforts to make this system answer the great end for which it was designed. The friends of education are making many sacrifices, and doing much to advance popular education. But yet the system meets with impediments; and strange to say, these impediments come from those to be benefited. The two greatest hindrances of our public schools are the insubordination and absence of scholars. As the latter evil is the more chargeable to parents, and may be the most readily cured, yet to the real progress of the school, is, if possible, the greater of the two. We call attention more particularly to that. Neither parents nor scholars are aware how deadening to the progress of a school absences are. Lessons which succeed each other like the links of a chain, can not be broken into without destroying the interest and pleasure in study, and making the path of the scholar a course of dark perplexity. Scholars that are absent occasionally, not only find study dry and irksome, but they find themselves in difficulty from every quarter, so that they are hardly able to proceed at all. The teacher can not allow them to fall behind their classes, for to create new classes to suit all

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irregular scholars would throw the school into a mass of confusion; and consequently, the course he is obliged to pursue, is to rather restrain the natural progress of his classes, and urge his delinquents along as fast as possible. Thus do irregular scholars make themselves a thorny path and greatly impede the progress of the whole class of which they are members, and of the entire school. Hardly a school can you visit, or a record examine, but you will find a large portion of the scholars in the habit of absenting themselves occasionally from school; and in a majority of cases the reasons assigned for irregular attendance are of the most trivial nature. For the least excuse, parents allow their children to stay at home; and they in turn will keep them, if their going to school will clash in the least with their own arrangements. A child wants to make some visit, or spend a day in some special recreation, and, therefore, he is allowed to remain from school. Parents have some work that their children can do to some advantage, hence, without further ceremony, they are taken from school "a few days," though by a little extra trouble and planning their services might have been dispensed with and they continued at school. But parents do not consider the time of their children at school of enough value for this trouble. They seem rather to regard school as a pen in which to keep their children when they have no use for them. The secret of the whole matter is, parents are too indifferent about the education of their offspring. They acknowledge education to be good, but neglect to open their eyes to all its benefits. They fail to see that education is of greater moment to their children than their meat and drink. They care not to place it above a few momentary comforts or conveniencies. It is this apathy on the subject of education, and not the necessities of the case, that induces parents to excuse, so often, their children from school. Let parents look at the education of their offspring as they do at their financial interests, and how differently would our schools be attended. Let parents center their hopes for the welfare of their children in their education, and there will not be so many obstacles between them and the school house.

CROMWELL.

S. D. J.

200

Problem of the Eggs.

PROBLEM OF THE EGGS.

WE have received solutions, from three different sources, of the problem in our last,-and we give them below. The wish of the person who sent the problem was to know how to make the solution clear to pupils.

FIRST SOLUTION.

In the June number "H. C. S." presents the following problem, desiring "an explanation sufficiently brief and clear to be given to children." "Two women having thirty eggs each, offered them to a grocer, the first lot at two for a cent, the second at three for a cent. This he refused, but said if they would put them together, he would take all at the rate of five for two cents. They accepted the offer, and lost one cent by it. How?"

I will attempt to give both the how and the why. For convenience, designate the two women as A and B. A offered her eggs at two for a cent; she would have received 15 cents. B offered hers at three for a cent, and would have received 10 cents; together they would have obtained 25 cents. But they put the eggs together, and sold the 60 at 2 cents for every 5 eggs: there are twelve 5's in 60, consequently they received 24 cents. 25-24-1.

I presume the scholars would readily understand how they lost one cent, but they would not at first thought see the why. I think I should proceed to explain something as follows:

Since A offered her eggs at two for a cent, and B at three for a cent, and since 2 and 3 are 5, you do not see why putting the two and three together, and selling the 5 for 2 cents, would not be the same as selling the 2 and 3 separately. It would. Then why does it not come out the same in selling the whole lot? It would if B had as many 3's as A had 2's -and here is the whole secret. (Here, having given the clue, I should stop, and let the child exercise his own ingenuity. Many, think, would need no further explanation.) Suppose each woman's eggs remain in her own basket, and they commence selling by 5's, A taking two from her basket,

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and B 3, the grocer giving them 2 cents; when B has taken out ten 3's, her eggs are gone, and they have received 20 cents. A has ten left: if she sells them by 2's, as she offered, she will get 5 cents, which to the 20 makes 25, but, according to the grocer's offer, she must sell them by 5's, and receive only 4 cents.

The grocer offered them 2 cents for 5, "if they would put them together;" if they had kept them separate, selling as above, B might have "seen the point." There were 60 eggs and they sold them all by 5's; there are twelve 5's in 60that is, twelve 2's and twelve 3's. If A had sold her eggs by 2's she would have had fifteen 2's; so you see that in selling them by 5's, three 2's, or 3 cents, were lost, because there were only twelve 5's. Also, two 3's, or 2 cents, were gained, because B had only ten 2's,. Then if 3 cents were lost on the 2's, and 2 cents gained on the 3's, the result was one cent lost.

Now will some teacher tell us how and why, the women ought to divide their 24 cents? T.

SECOND SOLUTION.

The first woman sold her eggs at of a cent apiece, the other woman at of a cent. And find the price of the whole by multiplying the whole number of eggs offered for sale by each woman by the price of one egg.

Thus 30 eggs at of a cent apiece=15 cts.

of a cent apiece. He of

fered to take them all at the rate of 5 eggs for 2 cts., or of

When one woman gives 3 eggs for a cent, and the other 2 eggs for a cent, it would seem that they give 5 eggs for 2 cents; so they do as long as they both have eggs, but the woman who gives 2 for a cent as often as the other gives 3,