November 16, 2009

A FUNNY LITTLE FROG.

A Funny Frog. 1 of 4.ONCE a little Frog
Sat a-croaking on a log,
Oh, and a very funny frog was he!
For he longed to be a tar
And go journeying afar,
Seeing wonders on the deep blue sea.

A Funny Frog. 2 of 4.One night—oh, it was dark!—
A bit of birchen bark
Went a-drifting slowly down the stream;
And in this light canoe
Lay the little froggie, who
Imagined he was floating through a dream.

A Funny Frog. 3 of 4.But my! when he awoke
His astonishment he spoke
In language that all froggies understand;
His mouth he opened wide
And he cried, and cried, and cried.
Although, he wasn’t out of sight of land.

A Funny Frog. 4 of 4.The journey soon was oe’r,
And the froggie jumped ashore,
As happy and as frisky as could be;
And on a mossy log,
Sits that now contented frog,
And never, never, wants to go to sea!

Unknown

November 13, 2009

THE CORK BOAT.

The Cork Boat.

MY boy Charlie has made a cork boat, and is blowing it about to try and make it sink, but it is a life-boat, and will not go over. Did you ever see a life-boat? and do you know what makes it different from other boats? or why it is so called? Perhaps you don’t know, so I will tell you, for all knowledge is pleasant and useful.

A life-boat is so called because it is useful in saving life. When a ship is in distress, a life-boat can put off from the shore and reach the ship, and then come back laden with the poor people it has saved from drowning, because it can live in a sea where any other boat would just sink and be lost.

“Why is this?” you ask. That is just what I am going to explain. So, stop blowing, Charlie, and come and listen to me.

A life-boat is lined with cork; in other words, it has a compartment or inside casing that is filled with cork, or sometimes with large thin metal air-tight tubes; this is done to make it buoyant, that is, able to keep bounding along the stormy sea instead of sinking to the bottom. For cork will not sink. Stick a sail to it, and blow as Charlie has done, but you will not blow it over easily.

The brave men who man the life-boat must be made safe, too; so they wear cork jackets, and life-belts filled with cork, and take life-buoys with them. A life-buoy is a large round casing filled with cork, with a hole in the middle large enough to slip over a man’s head and shoulders, and it will keep him from sinking to have one on.

Unknown