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interesting and various information Mr. Ingersoll has collected into this delightful volume.

SOME OLD STORIES

I 've already spoken, in other articles, of such fine old sea stories as those by Whyte-Melville, "Moby Dick" and "White Jacket," and Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast." Then there is Captain Marryat's splendid "Masterman Ready," which none of you should miss. It is one of the best sea and wreck stories in the world. Full of fun and adventure, full of the true sea life of that day, with characters who will be your friends through life, you will laugh and be thrilled all the way out to that Pacific island where the ship was wrecked, and until you and young Ready and his companions are safe back once more.

Another excellent story by Marryat is "Mr. Midshipman Easy." This was written for older readers, but it is a favorite boys' book nowadays. There are some delightful scenes and amusing adventures in the West Indies in this book, besides the life of the ship, and never were there two merrier youngsters than Easy and his chum. In the time when Marryat wrote, Cuba and Jamaica were at the height of their prosperity, and the planters lived on their plantations like veritable princes. Both these books are rollicking and jolly as Jack himself, and though there is some moralizing, as was the old-fashioned manner, there is not enough to spoil excellent stories, such as these are.

Other old sea yarns are those by James Fenimore Cooper, his "Sea Tales," and I pity the boy or girl who misses reading them. They are n't so well known as his Indian stories, yet several of them are better. There was a lot of privateering, and America was a great sea-power in Cooper's day, and these stories are full of vivid pictures and exciting adventures that show us that past time in a romantic, stirring light, such as Cooper loved.

A sea tale that is not exactly a story is Coleridge's wonderful "Ancient Mariner." In this poem there is something of the mystery and magic and terror of the ocean. You feel its immensity, its loneliness, its power and cruelty, as well as its beauty, while you read. A queer tale it is, to be sure, ghostly and eery, but the ghosts are sea-ghosts, as the Albatross of which the Mariner tells is a sea-bird; and we all have to listen to the end, like the Wedding Guest, while the Mariner has his will with us.

SOME NEW STORIES

BUT there are as good stories in the sea as ever came out of it, and this is proved by the stories

There are Frank T.

that are being told to-day. Bullen's, for instance, and Joseph Conrad's. I've told you before of Bullen's "Cruise of the Cachelot." That is a book you must certainly read, but it is n't the only one. Bullen is a sailor, and he knows how to write-which is true of Conrad, too. Sailors always were yarn-spinners, and it 's the same to-day. You cannot get a better yarn than Bullen's "Frank Brown: Sea Apprentice," and its sequel, "The Call of the Deep." There is another of this writer's stories that goes well with these, "The Compleat Sea Cook," which contains sketches of real seamen at work on ship or at play, sometimes, unluckily, in trouble, ashore. The first two books are specially written for you youngsters, however, and you will become sailors while you read them; you simply can't help it, they are so vivid, so fascinating; they put the sea and the ship so clearly before you; take you voyaging, in fact, for you get launched in these books precisely as you might in a brig or a schooner. Oh, but it 's adventurous and rough and sane and healthy, this life of the sea, as Mr. Bullen tells of it; hard, too, but manly, and cramful of "doing things."

Mr. Conrad's books are, perhaps, too old for you just now, and had better be kept to enjoy later. There is a story of his called "Typhoon" which you will read some day, however, and never forget it, it gives such a marvelous impression of the actual occurrence. Both these sailor writers have an extraordinary power for getting the things they 've seen and experienced into words, and so making their readers live the very happenings with them; and reading their books is an adventure in itself.

Then there is another writer of the sea whom I 've spoken of before, Howard Pyle. He was an artist, and had precious little to do with the sea himself, but he loved it, and he loved the many stories of pirates which lie buried in old musty manuscripts and records. He dipped his pen into the very brine of old ocean when he wrote of them; his pages almost smell of the sea. And what splendid adventures he tells us! There is his "Stolen Treasure." It is full of turbulent buccaneers, who are up to mischief every minute, if you can call their wild deeds by so mild a term. Then there is "Jack Ballister's Fortune," a magnificent mixture of sea and pirate and the Colonies, of kidnapping and England, brave acts and wicked ones. Read it, and you'll have a week of glorious fun, and won't mind the hottest weather August can manufacture, you'll be so busy following Jack.

Frank Stockton wrote a good book about the sea, "Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coast,"

which will fit in finely with Pyle's. All the more famous sea rovers are included in this delicious book. You get some notion of how the pirates themselves considered their "profession," for it was a real business in its way. Kept within certain bounds, people regarded it as excusable, if not precisely respectable. More than one pirate retired on his fortune, and became a stout, kindly old gentleman in his declining years.

Akin to the more law-abiding pirates, according to the law of those wild days, were the privateers, and there is a book on them by Jessie Peabody Frothingham, called "Sea Fighters from Drake to Farragut." Of course many of the men she writes of belonged to the regular Navy, but whoever they were, all the stories are good, and the roll-call of both men and ships in the volume is a noble one. They were men it is good to hear about, those old fighters of the sea, and the time you spend in their society will be well spent. It is not only the danger, and the daring and judgment they show, it is something fine and simple in their characters, that makes them lovable as well as admirable; though a few were grim enough, and fierce enough, more eager to meet a foe than a friend.

One great sailor you ought to know about is Captain Cook, and there is a story about his wonderful voyages written by a naval man, Lieu

tenant Charles R. Low. Three times he sailed around the world, quite a feat a century ago, and it is nearly that. The ports he stopped at were some of them entirely unused to seeing a European ship, and many were his adventures with foreign potentates and savage chiefs. He was a very interesting man, and Lieutenant Low has not missed any of the romance of the tale.

Charles Ledyard Norton is another sea-story writer, mingling history with story, and most of you are sure to enjoy his three books, “Jack Benson's Log," "The Medal of Honor Man,” and "Midshipman Jack." They are set in Civil War days, and give an excellent notion of the seafights and seaways of that time, of the gallantry of the men in the service, and the hardship's they experienced.

So here you are, with quite a shelfful of sea tales to choose from. An old sailor I knew, and a writer as well, Charles Warren Stoddard, who had run away to sea when he was a boy, and gone to the islands of the Pacific, where he lived for a time with the savages, once told me no book could ever describe the sea as it was to the man who lived upon it. Perhaps not; but I believe these books I 've been telling you about come pretty close to doing it—at any rate, they are among the best reading on earth, and that is a good deal.

EDITORIAL NOTES

WE print this month a biographical sketch of a unique historical character, Charles George Gordon, that strange combination of the dreamer and the man of action whose brilliant career held much of grandeur and came to such a tragic, solitary close when Khartum was captured by the desert tribes, in 1885. The article will appeal strongly to our older readers, and it has a double interest for young and old because it was written by a boy of sixteen-Hamilton Fish Armstrong, son of Mr. D. Maitland Armstrong, the well-known artist.

AMONG the many responses received from League members this month were two "storiettes" which we cannot forbear giving to our readers, both because they are so quaintly told, and because they came from two little ST. NICHOLAS readers in far-off Russia.

AN UNUSUAL EXPERIENCE

BY ELIZABETH LEONTIEFF (Age 8)

I WANTED to make an Easter present for my mother, so I took a picture of one of Raphael's angels and glued it on a round piece of cardboard. Around the edge of the cardboard, I glued coffee-beans, and filled the other

space with millet. Then I gilded the coffee-beans and the millet, and put the picture on top of a cupboard where Mother could n't see it.

I took it down to look at it the next day, and I found, to my great astonishment, that the angel had a mustache. At first I did n't know where it came from, but then I saw that it had come from the gold, which had run over the angel's face. Of course I was sorry the picture was spoiled, but it looked so funny that I could n't help laughing.

If I ever see the real painting the angel was copied from, I shall surely laugh very much, because I shall remember how the angel looked with a mustache.

AN UNUSUAL EXPERIENCE

BY NICOLAS LEONTIEFF (AGE 9) WHEN I was a little chap five years old, my mother, my aunt, my brothers and sisters and I, went to the zoological garden to see the animals. We went all around the zoo, and sat down in front of the bears.

Suddenly a bear began to climb over the iron fence. When we saw that, we were very frightened, and got up and ran away as fast as we could. While we were running away, a very hard rain began to fall. Luckily we were near the house where butterflies were kept, so we waited there for the carriage to come and take us home. I don't know whether the bear really got out or not, for I never heard any more about him.

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DOUBLE ZIGZAG. Constitution.
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Old Ironsides. Cross-words: 1.

Crop. 2. Cool.
4. Asti. 5. Tire. 6. Fido. 7. Tune.
8. Puns. 9. Toil. 10. Tied. 11. Obey. 12. Ants.

FRACTIONAL CAPITALS. Montgomery, Alabama. Sacramento, Phoenix, Baton Rouge, Olympia, Salem, Denver, Cheyenne.

MUSICAL ZIGZAG. Giuseppe Verdi. 1-11, Il Trovatore; 12-17, Ernani; 18-26, Rigoletto; 27-30, Aïda; 31-37, Macbeth; 38-48, Luisa Miller: 49-54, Nabuco; 55-63, Don Carlos; 64-71, Falstaff. Crosswords: 1. Georgia. 2. Riddler. 3. Unusual. 4. Consort. 5. Salient.

6. Attempt. 7. Develop. 8. Scarlet. 9. Bolivia. 10. Enfeoff. II. Abraham. 12. Adoring. 13. Illicit.

DOUBLE ACROSTIC. Major André. 1. Main. 2. Asia. 3. Jest. 4. Oath. 8. Dora. 9. Reel. 10. Erie.

ILLUSTRATED NUMERICAL ENIGMA. tion, one destiny."

Nathan Hale. Cross-words: 5. Rana. 6. Avon. 7. Noah.

CONCEALED SQUARE WORD. 1. Panic.
Inane. 5. Cedes.

CONNECTED CENTRAL ACROSTIC.

"One country, one constitu

2. Atone. 3. Nomad. 4.

I. 1. Dogma. 2. Opera. 3

Parch. 4. Eerie. 5. Egypt. II. 1. Pecan. 2. Other. 3. Brain. 4. Resin. 5. Arena. III. 1. Times. 2. Irony. 3. Nerve. 4. Girls. 5. Tried. 6. Fusee. IV. 1. Syria. 2. Droop. 3. Dodge. 4. Tunic. 5. Ocean. 6. Drier. V. 1. Ephod. 2. Drays. 3. Ranch. 4. Paces. 5. Ghost. 6. Decoy. 7. Takes. VI. 1. Orbit. 2. Joust. 3. Meter. 4. Salty. 5. Greed. 6. Sorts. VII. 1. Sense. 2. Spend. 3. Calls. 4. Cases. 5. Evoke. 6. Lines. VIII. 1. Ropes. 2. Stage. Unite. 4. Tenet. 5. Chess. IX. 1. Stain. 2. Cedar. 3. Pearl. 4. Nomad. 5. Issue.

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TO OUR PUZZLERS: Answers to be acknowledged in the magazine must be received not later than the 10th of each month, and should be addressed to ST. NICHOLAS Riddle-box, care of THE CENTURY Co., 33 East Seventeenth Street, New York City.

ANSWERS TO ALL THE PUZZLES IN THE MAY NUMBER were received before May 10 from Elizabeth Goldbeck-Ferris Neave-Arnold Guyot Cameron-Harry Guthmann-Theodore H. Ames-Elsie K. Reid-"Queenscourt"-Catherine G. Ames-Thankful Bickmore-Mary O'Connor-"Marcapan"-Judith Ames Marsland-Lois R. Fowler-Ernest S. Crosby-Helen Wouters-William D. Woodcock.

ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE MAY NUMBER were received before May 10 from Claire Hepner, 9-Philip Franklin, 9-"Claire and Jean," 9Alexander C. Bartley, 9-Dorothea Morelock, 9-Harmon B., James O., and Glen T. Vedder, 9-Margaret B. Silver, 9-" Dixie Slope," 9Edith H. Baumann, 9-Marion L. Hussey, 9-Vivian Sauvage, 9-Frances D. Etheridge, 8-Blanche Baumann, 8-George S. Cattanach, 8Frederick W. Van Horne, 8-Guy R. Turner, 7-Gladys S. Conrad, 7-Marjorie A. Ward, 6-Henry Seligsohn, 6-Edward C. Heyman, 5— Horace B. Davis, 5-Eleanor O'Leary, 5-Kate Menendez, 4-Ruth Dorchester, 3-Leonard Kimball, 3-Helena Braun, 2.

ANSWERS TO ONE PUZZLE were received from P. R. B.-A. M. B.-K. G. C.-C. O.-M. M.-E. M. P.-B. L. B.-A. M. P.-N. B.-E. C.-C. H. S., Jr.

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My 15-10-37-32-46 is what many wish to be. My 41My 17-1-42 comes in winter. My 9-27-16 is a kind of bed. My 26-12-20-8-34-19-29 grows in Scotland. My 11-53-33-39 is a fable. My 13-4-14-51-44-5 is a tract of low land.

EACH of the nine pictured objects may be described by 48-30-22 is a crowd. a word of five letters. When written one below the other, the zigzag, beginning with the first letter of the first word, will spell the name of a famous queen.

GEOGRAPHICAL NOVEL ACROSTIC

ALL the words described contain the same number of letters. When rightly guessed and written one below another, one row of letters, reading downward, will spell the name of a modern explorer, and the primals will spell the name of his most famous discovery.

CROSS-WORDS: 1. A city of ancient Greece. 2. A city of Canada. 3. An island and bay southwest of Alaska. 4. A former tributary of the Thames. 5. A large island off the coast of China. 6. A range of mountains in Greece. 7. A seaport of Russia. 8. A town in Beira, Portugal. 9. A town in the Department of Saône-etLoire, France.

DOROTHY B. GOLDSMITH (age 14), League Member.

DOUBLE BEHEADINGS

EXAMPLE: Doubly behead a musical drama, and leave a period of time. Answer, Op-era.

In the same way doubly behead: 1. Figures of speech, and leave uncloses. 2. To involve, and leave part of a bird. 3. A garment fabric, and leave a natural covering. 4. To deliver a sermon, and leave every one. 5. To enroll, and leave slant to one side. 6. Comfort, and leave a kind of trimming. 7. The finding of anything, and leave above.

All the words described contain the same number of letters. When rightly guessed and written in order one below another, the primals of each set of words will spell the name of a famous play.

EUGENE SCOTT (age 14), Honor Member.

WORD-SQUARE

1. SMALL craft. 2. Made of a kind of meal. 3. To expiate. 4. Strained. 5. An unlovely thing.

NELLIE ADAMS (age 13), League Member.

NUMERICAL ENIGMA

I AM composed of fifty-three letters and form a quotation from "Macbeth."

My 31-43-7-21-45-49 is a planet. My 23-6-36-2838-24-50 is reflection. My 35-2-52-18 is to wander.

HELENA A. IRVINE (age 12), League Member. MUSICAL CONNECTED WORD-SQUARES

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PRIMAL ACROSTIC AND ZIGZAG EACH of the words described contains five letters. When rightly guessed and written one below another, the primals, and the zigzag through columns five and four will each spell the name of a character in Tennyson's poems.

CROSS-WORDS: 1. To sneak. 2. An architectural order. 3. A product of turpentine. 4. A measure. 5. A Greek letter. 6. To acquire knowledge. 7. To turn aside. 8. An English town on the Strait of Dover. 9. A good-by. 10. A marriage portion.

HELEN A. MOULTON (age 15), League Member.

THE DE VINNE PRESS, NEW YORK.

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