Do not attempt to ride either far or fast at first. The bicycle brings into play a different set of muscles from any that you have exercised before, and you must give them time to become accustomed to their work. When they have done so, and you have obtained a perfect mastery of your machine, you will be able to take daily rides of from ten to fifty miles with less effort than you formerly expended in walking a third of those distances. To the wheelman. free to go when and where he will, to stop where and for as long as he pleases, to regulate his speed at will, and thus to have absolute control of his own movements, all other modes of conveyance seem tame and inadequate. With all this the bicycle is now among the cheapest of luxuries. Any boy or girl may earn one by obtaining a few new subscribers to his or her favorite magazine; while those whose means will permit them to purchase outright will find by consulting the advertisements that prices are tumbling all the time. Twenty years ago, I paid more for an old wooden-wheeled, iron-tired, plain bearing and springless velocipede, or "bone shaker" as it is now called, than would purchase a first-class safety bicycle to-day. Wherefore, my young WIDE AWAKES, be thankful that your youth has come to you in an age of bicycles, rather than in one of "bone shakers."

EHIND THE WARDROBE·

BE

HATE the old thing! So there, now!" cried Ned Langdon, throwing his loathed arithmetic with all his might across the room. just wish there were no such thing in the world as arithmetic, especially fractions. I know some one invented fractions just to torment boys."

Ned was far from being a stupid boy. He really shone in history and geography; he stood fairly well even in grammar; he was a great reader, and wrote the best compositions of any boy in his room. But he so detested arithmetic that a willful stupidity seemed to becloud and benumb all his faculties whenever he went into that class. The blunders he made, and the way in which he didn't know his lesson, and couldn't do his problems, were the despair of his unlucky teacher.

To-day he had fallen into even worse than usual disgrace, and had been kept after school to do problems, when the first skating of the winter had come, and the moment school was out, all the other boys had rushed off to Bullhead Pond to try it. Their merry voices echoed back into the gloomy, deserted schoolroom, darkening already as the short day declined toward evening, and in the growing shadows Ned and the master had staid until nearly supper-time.

It was too late to go skating when Ned was finally released, with the order to take his arithmetic home for evening study. He had rushed home, feeling himself an abused, persecuted martyr, and had amazed his mother by breaking into the room with the wail of despair already recorded.

"Ned, I am surprised." exclaimed his mother.

Before she could say more, she was further surprised by Ned's giving his arithmetic a hearty kick that sent it flying nearly to the ceiling.

"Ned," said his mother, "pick up your arithmetic, and go to your own room. Your supper will be sent to you, and by and by, when you are in a more reasonable frame of mind, I will come up and see you."

Ned sulkily obeyed, glaring at the hated arithmetic as he mounted the stairs,

feeling it the cause of all his troubles. His supper was brought up by goodnatured Nora, with whom Ned was a great favorite, and who did not hesitate to tell him that, in her opinion, "it was a shame a downright shame, so it was,' which rather comforted Ned, even though, at bottom, he knew he was in the wrong, and that he was getting no more than he deserved.

As the darkness deepened, Ned began to grow sleepy, and thought he would get his skates out of the wardrobe, and see if they were in good order for to-morrow, just to keep himself awake. Opening his wardrobe, he was surprised to see a small door in the rear that he never remembered noticing before. Opening it cautiously and peeping through, to his amazement he found

spread out a wide tract
farms, villages, rivers and
once that it was all strik-
country he had ever seen.
exact, precise. The fields were
squares, parallelograms, or tri-
the land like straight, deep
ever their course changed, they

S

country new to him. A pathway, wound invitingly away over that hid the distant landscape. turous turn of mind, so it to decide to squeeze

2

5

THE FIGURE

TREE.

5

door, and set forth on

solved to see what hills.

rapidly on, full of

soon found himhill. Below him lay of country, varied by brooks. But Ned saw at ingly different from any Everything was so regular, divided by fences into either angles. The rivers ran through ditches, with no curves. Whenmade a right angle instead of a

bend, and the little brooks, which were also rigidly straight, flowed into them. at exact right angles. All the houses were alike, square, with doors in the center, and precisely as many windows on one side as on the other.

As Ned walked wonderingly on down the hill, he could but notice that even the trees and bushes grew up perfectly perpendicular, like walking-sticks, with exactly as many branches upon one side as on the other. It seemed to him that their leaves and twigs took the form of figures. Ned thought this must be only his fancy, so he rubbed his eyes and looked again. No, wherever he looked, a bewildering lot of 5's, 6's, 7's, 8's, etc., waved about him.

"This is queer," thought Ned. He noticed, too, that the trees, instead of being scattered about the fields irregularly, here a clump, there a group, yonder scattered single ones, stood with almost painful regularity in rows, each just so many feet apart from its neighbors.

The effect of the whole landscape was very prim and precise, and Ned wondered at it greatly. As he saw some boys playing in front of a house he was approaching, he resolved to question them.

The boys had a game not unlike "Twelve Men Morris" marked out on the ground with pegs, and were jumping at right angles from peg to peg. stopped and stared as Ned advanced and asked them:

"What country do you call this?"

Why, Arithmetic Land, of course," answered the largest boy.

Ned hardly knew what this meant, but pursued his inquiries.

"What makes your trees grow so regularly?"

They

"Why, everything has to be planted by rule, of course," replied the boy, who, like his companions, looked extremely keen and wide-awake, was very thin and active, and seemed to cherish a fairly good opinion of himself. that field is twenty rods square, what is its area?"

"If

"I don't know," said Ned, without stopping to think, as was rather his habit

in arithmetic. In truth, he so detested it he would not try to think.

66

"He don't know! He don't know!" shouted all the little boys, derisively. Why, stupid," said the first boy, "it contains four hundred square rods, of course. Now, if you have three hundred and twenty-four trees you wish to set out in that field, in how many rows will you place them, and how far apart will the rows be?"

Ned, disgusted to find that this was what was involved in being in Arithmetic Land, answered again:

"I don't know. I should never set trees out like that. I should just let them come up any way."

"He'd just let them come up any way!" shouted the chorus of boys.

"What is your name?" asked Ned of the oldest boy, who seemed to be regarding him with silent scorn.

"My name is A," replied the boy; "and these others are B, C and D."

66

Ned shuddered. How often had he declared that he hated" A, B, C and D, who were always dividing things in such foolish, unnecessary ways, involving no end of fractions, and consequent trouble for boys.

But A was so small, yet his face looked so keen and old, that Ned was moved to ask one more question.

"How old are you?”

"That's easily told," replied A briskly. "D is six years old"

"But I don't care how old D is," interrupted Ned. "I asked your age.'

"No matter," replied A severely. "All questions must be solved by rule.

D is six years old. Two thirds of D's age is just one third of my age. What is my age?"

Ned would not answer, but noticing that C had some apples, and feeling hungry, he said:

"Give me an apple, will you ?"

"Ha!" exclaimed C, " don't you wish you might, now? I have only four apples. If I divided them equally among us five boys, what part of an apple would each boy receive?"

gone.

I don't know and I don't care," snapped Ned, his appetite for apples suddenly

He don't know and he don't care!" shouted all the boys.

Ned resolved to leave such disagreeable companions, and push on, hoping for better things ahead. Remembering that, as it was only Tuesday, he still had some of this week's pocket money left, he resolved to walk on toward a village in the distance, where he would, of course, be able to purchase a supper. He ventured one more question, however, as he turned to go.

"How far is it to that village?" he asked.

"If you walk at the rate of two and a half miles an hour, you will reach it in as many hours as one third of fifteen multiplied by two," rattled off A.

He can't tell! he can't tell! Stupid! stupid!" shouted the boys, as Ned, with a puzzled look, turned and walked off.

Presently a man overtook him, driving a fine horse.

Will you give me a ride, please?" asked Ned, uncertain how many miles of walking lay before him.

Certainly," said the man, who had a kind, pleasant face. "Hop in."

THE FRACTION BOYS.

In Ned hopped, and away trotted the horse with a good will.

"This is a fine horse," remarked Ned, by way of opening conversation with his new friend. "What does such a horse cost

here ?"

"Well, I'll tell you," said the man pleasantly. "I bought a cow and two sheep at the same time I bought the horse. The cow cost twice as much as the sheep, and the horse three times as much as the sheep, and they all together cost me one hundred

and eighty dollars; so you can easily see what the horse cost."
"O, yes, indeed!" said Ned hastily, hurrying to change the subject.

66

"What

"Yes," replied the man; "it's mine. This is my farm. One half of these trees bear apples, one quarter peaches, one eighth pears, seven trees bear plums, and three cherries. Now how many trees should you say there were in that orchard?'

Ned would have been puzzled to tell, but luckily, as he thought, just then he saw over the stone-wall a hound in hot pursuit of a fox. The fox was a