THE YOUNG FOLKS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 2712, 23 January 1892, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE YOUNG FOLKS.

A DEVIL-BOX. The following account of the purchase of a devil-box was lately received by Mr. Andrew Lang, the well-known litterateur , from a friend of a wandering disposition.— I sent you yesterday to your London address a devil box from Apemama, Kings mill Islands. Mr. gave it in my charge for you, and directed me to explain to you how it came into his possession. The little Equator dropped us on the island, assisted the king’s people to build and fit out our camp, and sailed awav, leaving us for a couple of months. One day Mr. wandered away to a devil-tree where an old gentleman was engaged in Sequah cures with the assistance of this invaluable box. With British gold Mr. endeavoured to get the box from the aged devil-man. First one sovereign was offered, then another, with due pauses to allow the old gentleman time to think v twice before refusing. One sovereign did not move him, two shook him; at the third he began to tremble and biß eyes to bulge out: at four he gasped, and a huge silence fell upon the assembled populace; at five there was the iutensest excitement, and a dozen fellows were hanging to the box, in very fear leßt it should tty away of its own accord. Then the King’s sister arrived on the scene—dramatic and livid with auger. She made a little B]>eech. “What! Part with your children’s health, your fathers*, your mothers’ peaceful old age,’* etc.—and completely shrivelled them up. Seven sovereign —an incredible sum therethe value of a gun—failed to change the situation. “And you’ll let your children die for seven sovereigns !’* said the King’s sister. A little after returning to the camp, up came King Tentenoka—puffing and blowing—with a eervant carrying the box. “ I like make present,** said his Majesty, tersely, and laid the box on the mat. “ You like devil-box, more better you take him. Man plenty ’fraid—King no ’fraid—King make present.” Mr. thereupon informed the King that as the man had made such a hard fight, and had resisted temptation, it would be the handsome thing to give five sovereigns to the worthy devil-worker. This quite staggered the King. “ No,’’ he said. “ All belong me ; island belong me; people, they belong me ; what belong people belong me. I like you too much ; I make present.” But insisted. “ Perhaps more better,*’ said the King, reflectively. “ Tuppostv [suppose] you give money. I tink you good man. You like give, all right; you no like give, all right, all same.’’ And so five sovereigns were handed over to the dazed devil-worker. On our return to the island lately, I believe the King would have bought back the box for fifty pounds. Measles had reached the group, and hundreds had died. - —Andrew Lang, in Longman's for October.

THE LARGEST AND SMALLEST OF THEIR KIND. The three tallest trees in the world are believed to be a sequoia near Stockton, California, which is 325 ft. high, and two eucalypti in Victoria, Australia, estimated to be 435 ft. and 460 ft. respectively. The lake which has the highest’elevation of any in the world is Green Dale, Colorado. Its surface is 10,252ffc. above the level of the sea. In some places it is over 300 ft. deep. The greatest depth of the ocean is 27,930 ft. The largest sheet or pane of glass in the world is set in the front of a building on Vine street, Cincinnati, Ohio. It was made in Marseilles, France, and measures 186in. by 104in.

At Alleghany city, Pennsylvania, there was recently rolled a steel spring (iin. wide, £in. thick, and 310 ft. long. It is the largest coiled spring ever rolled. The order was tendered to all the large European iron works, but none of them would undertake the task. The smallest known species of hogs are quartered at the London Zoological Gardens. They came from the southern part of Australia, and are known as “ the pigmy hogs of the Antipodes.’* They axe well formed, frisky, and good-natured, and about the size of a musk rat. They are real hogs, and not to be confounded with guinea pigs, which are a species of rodent.

John J. Taylor, of Streator, Illinois, once wrote 4,100 words on the plank side of a postal card without artificial aid. The words on that single card, if printed in regular newspaper type, would fill two and three quarters columns of any of the great metropolitan dailies. Leuwenhock has computed that 10,000 threads of the web of a full-grown spader are not larger than a single hair of a man’s beard. He calculates that when .young spiders begin to spin, 400 of their threads are not larger than one from a full-sized insect. If this be a fact, 4,000,000 webs of a young spider axe not as laxge as a single hair from a man’s face. — Harper's Younq People.

A CUNNING HILL FOX. Some years ago we used frequently to interview a year-old fox chained to a small wooden kennel in the barnyard of a neighbouring farm, and the way the rascal managed to secure an occasional fowl by way of lunch was exceedingly clever and amusing. His principal meat for the day consisted of a mixture of porridge and milk, which was laid down within his reach in a wooden bowl. Of this he ate heartily; but as the allowance was always liberal, it was generally the case that a little was left over, and it was with this remainder that the wily rascal managed occasionally to entice a fowl within reach. Hxs modus operandi was as follows: When he had taken a fair quantity of his p>orridge and milk, he struck the edge of the bowl smartly with his paw, 60 that it was overturned and the contents scattered around. He then lay down, curling himself dogwise, as if to sleep; but always with his face towards the spilt porridge, over which he still continued to watch with half an eye, even when he pretended to be locked in profoundest slumber. By-and-bye the fowls, attracted by the scattered bait, began to gather round ; and, although it was clear that their instinct warned them to be cautious in venturing within reach of so treacherous a customer, even in his sleep, it occasionally happened that, sooner or later, a stnpid cockerel, or still stupider duck, would venture to the near neighbourhood of the overturned bowl, and begin to eat, thus giving the fox his opportunity. With a single bound he had that duck or cockerel by the neck, and

with a second bound he was out of sight into his kennel; and within a very short time nothing of unfortunate fowl remained except the feathers and a few bones, aud these the cunning rascal always took care to hide away under the etraw that formed his bed in the darkest corner of his den. When at last the good wife of the farm began to miss her fowls, and the trick was discovered, the fox’s chain was shortened and his allowance of porridge slightly diminished, in the expectation that he would now eat it all, and thus be deprived of the wherewithal to entice

the poultry within reach. It was no use, however. He still left over a little porridge for bait, and by following the same tactics as before, be continued to snap up an occasional fowl in spite of every precaution. Although a great favourite with everybody about the farm, such perseverance in evil-doing became at last intolerable, and the fox was Bbot. It was not tfll then, and when the kennel was being cleaned out, that a layer of feathers and bones, hidden away underneath the straw, bore witness to the extent of his depredations. —Pod and Gun. ________________