Many a young man was then educated in the "chimney-corner," mainly, acting as his own teacher. Toiling by day at some hard muscle work, because compelled by poverty, he made long evenings from a thirst for knowledge; his only light would be from the open fire-place; special light was obtained by burning" pitch pine knots," such as he could find for this purpose in the pastures, where logs had decayed and left them. Such a fire-place would now

be a curiosity to the readers of this magazine — as great as would have been such a beautiful magazine to the young of those days; they never saw anything to be compared with it, since none had ever been made; what they had was exceedingly rude. Did my young readers ever see an open fire-place containing a huge back-log" three feet long and about as thick, a "fore-stick" of twice that length, resting on rude "andirons" or on two large stones? Such were usual when their grandmothers were housekeepers in the country.

In those early times almost everything used in the family was produced on the farm, the lights included. As cattle were raised in abundance, tallow was easily obtained; from this candles were made. There were two ways in which these were made, the simpler being

running" them in a mold, generally

two at once. A pair of tin molds were used, just in the proper form for a candle; the wicks ran through the center of the mold, passing through at the point, and were fastened at the other end by a stick, the pointed end of which was stuck into a potato! The melted tallow was poured into these molds, cooled, then slightly warmed on the surface, that the candles might be easily slipped out. These were set in a block of wood, or in a rude candlestick. A pair of "snuffers" was at hand when the candle was lighted, for the purpose of removing the burned wick when it grew so long as to be in the way, and affected the light, which may have been equal to about one eighth of that of the ordinary kerosene lamp.

By the next method about ten wicks were tied around a small stick; these wicks were the length of the candles. These were "dipped" into a vessel nearly full of warm water, with melted tallow floating on the top, a small quantity of which adhered to this cotton or flax wick, and this was hung away to cool while the rest were being dipped." This process was continued till the candles were of the desired size. The next in order was the tin " 'petticoat lamp," japanned, of a size to be put in a boy's trousers pocket, a cheap kind of whale oil being used, the first lamps having only one wick, the later ones two. A little later lamps were made of glass, various and fantastic shapes being adopted, none of these affording a light to be compared with the modern lamp, to say nothing of the gas and electric lights. As society advanced, the sperm oil took the place of the cheap and inferior oil, at least in families

Still rock oil"

in which it could be afforded, for the mass of the people sixty years ago had, relatively, but few of the luxuries, many scarcely the necessaries, of life. later, when the whales had become scarce, (kerosene) was introduced. It was made by heating cannel coal. The price at first was one dollar and fifty cents a gallon. It was economical at that price, since it burned a long time, though smoking badly on account of the excess of carbon allowed to remain in it. Still later, when the crude oil was found in the earth ready made, the demand made it necessary to have a larger and cheaper supply, and now the price is but a small fraction of the former one, and nearly all of the illuminating properties are now removed, partly to prevent the smoking.

cism.

A request for criticism may usually Candid Criti- be interpreted as a request for admiration; this was illustrated in the case of a certain distinguished marine artist who, on kindly complying with a young lady's express wish, was dismayed by the recipient of his invaluable criticism bursting into tears. Few have the candor of a certain little girl who read the first chapter sixtyseven pages in length of a projected novel to her sister, and received the asked-for criticism with this fiery indignation: "I don't want you to say it's very good or very prettily written. I want you to say it's perfectly splendid!'

Needle.

E. R.

Deaf people often make very quaint Cleopatra's mistakes, especially those people who are only slightly deaf. It happened one autumn evening that about a bright open fire in a pretty Alabama parlor some young people were gathered. They were amusing themselves with the old game of Forty Questions. Everybody knows how the old-time game is played. The company is divided into two sides. One side chooses secretly some object about which many questions may be asked or answered without divulgement of the object itself. The other side asks the forty questions. each questioner striving to bring out an answer that will disclose the chosen "object" of the side on the defensive.

Her side began to wonder what such answers could mean. It was not possible this intelligent girl had not heard of Cleopatra's Needle.

At length one of her division asked her in a whisper: "What do you think we have chosen ? "

Something I would not in a hundred years have thought of choosing: A New Mattress Needle."

Martha Young.

Worsted was first made at the vilAbout Names. lage of Worsted, in the County of Norfolk, England.

With regard to blankets, authorities differ. They are said to have been so called because they were first made, in 1340, by one Thomas Blanket, an inhabitant of Bristol." But a high authority in lexicography derives the word directly from the French blanchet, giving the Latin equivalent, panus albidus. If this statement be correct, then "one Thomas Blanket of Bristol" might be said to have been named from the article of his manufacturea very common practice.

Surnames are comparatively modern. In early times many methods of distinguishing individuals were adopted. Some were named from some remarkable feature, as Scipio, called Nasica; Horatius, surnamed Cocles; or from an event of importance, as when one Scipio was called after his conquests in Africa, Africanus, and another Asiaticus.

In the old English record, the “ Domesday Boke " of William the Conqueror, appear some surnames, but they were not common and hereditary until much later. They were of various derivations. Henry I. bestowed on an illegitimate son the surname of Fitz-roy, "son of the king." The prefix, a corruption of the old French filz, came to denote illegiti mate descent, the fashion having been followed by monarchs of later date; witness the Fitz-Jameses and Fitz-Charleses of the last Stuarts, and the FitzClarences, children of William IV.

Hereditary surnames gradually became common among all classes. Some were formed from the name of the parent, as Johnson, Hobson (John's son, Robert's son); some from localities, as Hill, Underhill. Field; some from the rank or office, as the Clerk, the Chamberlain. Very many were named from their occupation.

Smith (from the Anglo

Saxon smitan, to strike) was a name common to many artificers, and has come in later days to have many compounds. In Scott's "Fair Maid of Perth " (a story of the fourteenth century), Simon the glovemaker is called, from his trade, Simon Glover, while Henry the Smith is called by the various names of Harry Wynd, from his place of abode, Harry Gow or Harry Smith, as the speaker chose the Highland or Lowland name of his occupation. In this way surnames were a long time becoming settled, and even descendants of one family might not always be known by the same.

Pamela McArthur Cole.

Young Philosophers.

The funny things which the little folks say at bedtime would doubtless fill a very large volume. Here are three bedtime queries and remarks which excited much amusement in their respective households.

Little Richie wanted to omit his prayers the other evening when his room was quite cold. So his mamma asked him:

"Don't you want to ask God to take care of you through the night?"

"Oh!" was the naïve reply, "you don't catch God comin' round such a cold night as this."

Little Marion was told to include the petition "and make me a good girl" in her evening prayers.

At a small fire in our town, there Our Village was an old lady who indignantly Fire. inquired of every one she met (as though she were custodian of public welfare, and every one else public incendiaries), "Who set that barn a-fire? Say, who set that barn a-fire?"

She finally explained it lucidly: "It was them small boys. Every one of them toy pistols and firecrackers has matches in his pockets."

It was presumably one of those same ubiquitous small boys whose voice rose above the cries of the firemen, in reply to a distracted parent, concerning his whereabouts: "Here I am!" and he resumed his feast of candy, a huge box of which some absentminded individual had carefully brought from the burning grocery store, and deposited in a yard near by, to the great delectation of the small boys, who considered it free plunder.

It was a good, though hysterical, wife who, mindful of her husband's welfare, thus exhorted him as he stood quietly watching the progress of the fire:

"Now, don't get excited, Charlie! Do be careful! You know your heart troubles you, and it makes it jump around so! They've got it under control! It's all going out! Don't get nervous," and the little woman was too concerned to notice the smiles on the faces of those around her.

There was a touch of poetic mystery with all the rest when, lonely and ghostly, out of the darkness a white dove came flying, which had been startled from its sleep by the light and noise. It circled about for a moment over the fire, and then flew off into the surrounding gloom.

Nena Thomas Medairy.