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* Tt. I rr <*> ‘ % “ ? AT ; 4 v> . t ti Ku Iu i. du 20a } 4% i, a} * ‘ Ee ae TP Sine CAAT CE SPS PTS Se Le Sce ver disclosed during our stay: nor 431 we + : ' , a er Fr Gisctosea during our stay; nor did we trouble our-; She tumbled her into the sleigh like a shot from a

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C jes at anv IO] LAS f vyi cy! } 9 1 ve) Yj 4 r ‘ . re o 3 r+ + els i as Hoises we night hear in the middle of a shovel, or a cart load of pumpkins into a gondola. It was MON Ee! ‘ " Ne ry > war oo stor (\. t } i | oe BUS might, although they were very different from, chuck full of her. O, she’s a whopper, i tell you. tnose With Lic ve were firs wrreete Tha y rate ‘Why 9 \r °C en wha which we were first greeted. The myste-| ‘Why, Johnny Beedle,’ say Mrs. Bean, ‘in my day,

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rlous visits Only seemed to replenish our stock, and our they used te pack us layer on layer.’ Te ae ee re apie om dieovering) | ACs hint Tnenked round ty Patty, to ogin the art or oe oe — second lay er on her lap. But the oe was wide a- tel eee ce A awccr yy de ated hy the anarchy wake, She clenched me by the collar, and patting up-|

i seness ef the government at ail on Dolly’s knees—‘Here’s the driver’s seat,’ says she. |

| re pe he tree, ee it deed of gree t charity in ‘Plant your feet ilat and firm, neice—jump up, Johnny, | rising With everytuing in the way of stores, two and now, away with her, my lad.’ niest discreet lieutenants | By this time I had gotso ravin’ mad that I could hold! uncle, after the in no longer. I fell foul of the old mare, and if{ didn’t!

se 1 ¢ . gavine _ [ began by saying,” added my

4 er es eet lM ie a SER ! . . bow ; ’ 2. | re I or the disappointed ghost-lovers had subsided, | give it to her about right, then there’s none o’ me, that’s “bt that vont 1? ean <« et, , hy ‘ enseita>e an ¢ ‘ " j i iat t would teil you a story avout spirits; and, hadjall, The Deacon counted the welts on her side a week|

wo Seer enel “V2 eo ’ y 7c mariva halen ra . ¢ oc ur . 1} y . | = seen suc h as we did, you would have believed in afterwards, when he called on me fora reckoning, | chem ever after. | Which was made with chalk upon the upper flap of his every day lat. Sukey, not understanding such jokes, |took the bit in her teeth, and shot off, right on end, like }a streak of true Connecticut lightning. Jemima! how | : we skimmed over it. And the houses, and barns, and _ As was going past John Caster’s tavern the other’ the fences, and pig-styes, flew by us like clouds by the a heard a terrible noise in the bar-room, and thinks moon.) ‘Yonder is Hank’s corner—Whoorah! and ane Just put my head in, and see what's the matter. * Whoorah ! answered all the ladies and gentlemen with i. ee — Nang of fellows, * here’s Johnny one voice. Sukey, scared with the noise, turned the meinemeeg on. CMMMLURCHMELEOEL hice PR tenet ler net me in 2m. rat's the occz 2” says I. in a—-—! 10a, there, whoa! e ing ti: sleigh ride over to Shaw’s (every body goes 4 Shaw’s! knew I in { be \e 2 oe | gh ri Shaw's, | y ye Shaw 's' knew, I was in the bottom of a snow bank, jammed) me a : sleigh ding) we gals, eras 47: ee \down under halfa ton of Dolly Fisher! I thought I) “ Whoorah!” says I, motion,” says Dr. Partridge a ‘hahet cents beeen ce c we ae oe wae see daylight again, and when they hauled “that every gentl go rig aight now, and get me out, eft a print in the snow very much like a cock-' his sleigh and his lady, and meet at Hank's corner; ,ed up hat knocked into the middle of next week, as the| and a another whoorah, we burst out of doors and sailors say. 3 scattered, ; ' Howsomever, no bones were broken. We shook our| I ran full speed to the widow Bean’s. Ter daughter feathers and crept into our nest again, laughing as loud : atty is the handsomest girl in Casco Bay. I had given|as the best of them. ‘The sleighs were now formed into her some pretty broad hints, and only waited for a good|a string, the fiddler following, and away we started on chance to pop the question, And out it shall come,|the road to Shaw’s—bells jingling, fiddles sounding, this very night, nye f. ’ jand every body hallooing and screaming for joy.

{ bounced into the widow Bean’s out of breath, and| Peter Shaw heard the racket two miles off; for he was was near catching Patty in the suds, She had just al ways om the look out ofa moon shiny night. He fell done washing, and eh wringing ¢- ane in the) to kicking up a dust in the best room to put it to rights,

‘ I u > r i 5 g , oer r r ~ ; preset ie oe s “ ~ ne am ree ope = +d dare ed, the floor was sw ept, the best japan can- struck all of a heap at the sight of her spark, and wou estick paraded, the fire place filled with green wood, have blushed nicely, I guess, if she hadn t been as red/and little Ben was anchored close under the jamb, to as she could be already, ‘A word in your ear Patty,’ tug at the broken winded bellows. No fire appeared, a . . " . i . * 4 - . cays | gvit hor ¢ wink, and stopping into ¢ comer i} but there was strong symptons oft for there was o ° , ; ac of smoke ; and part of it missing the w im- deacon’s sleigh, and come back right away,’ ‘O, you|ney, strayed about the room, which cave oe slitnadi needn’t be in such a tearing hurry,’ says she, ‘for l’ve'to | ff : i Patty’ such ¢ g y, say ’ o ht off another compliment upon Patty’s beauty, as

got to shift from top to toe. You see what a pickle being the cause of drawing the smoke. I’m in.—‘ Ah, Patty,’ says I, ‘ beauty when ner Every body laughed at the idea.—But there was no adorned the > ©Well, I vow,’ says Patty, says she.|time for chat. As soon as we had taken a swig at the And off I shot, for how was I to follow up such a bold! hot stuff all around, we sat the fiddler down in the jamb, speech; but I couldn’t help sniggering all the way to took the floor, and went to work, might and main, the the deacon’s to think how swimmingly matters were go-|fiddler keeping time with the bellowses. Not to be ing on. {was so full of this, that I entirely forgot to! prolix, we kept it up, frolicking and drinking hot stuff —-_ a to ma } the deacon, till I ee mop and while it lasted, the fun was real gin- almost to the door; for the deacon is a sworn enemy to’ niwine, [ tell ye. 1eep’ Ms

- -_ eae _ Be ce Pe ae »itellye. Butas I cast a sl eep’s eye at Patty, all frolicking, an oo a Pony a ; — : : — a sir se that she and Siah Golding were rather to carry a gristto mill. u at wi e found out.| thick, considerin’, i somie : _ i g Se he salen helices ae Reader ’ erin Thinks I, she wants to make jealous, No matter, so it is after election, ¢ ep y.” to spur me on; so seeing them in close confab, as I was

The deacon gave a mortal squint at my face, when I cantering down outside, I poked my head between them did my errand, but I was safe behind a shirt collar./and cried boo! But the cat was soon out of the bag. He then fell chewing his cud and considering.—* Mo-|We paid the reckoning—four and six-pence apiece. ther’s clean out,” says I, ‘both rye and injun.” The|Think of that. Every body grumbled, but Peter Shaw deacon spit. ‘Well, neighbour, if you are afeared to| didn’t care. Then followed the crowding of sleighs, trust a feller, there’s two shillings beforehand.” ‘Poh,'taking in the ladies at the door. Such a hubbub and

ttt tte

THE SLEIGH RIDE, °

BY JOHN NEAL.

SEL PN SPE EF OM OE EY OPEL aY HES. YUE ISIT <TR LS

date its carbon and sulphur; but sucha theory has a great many weighty objections,

Ist, Nitric Acid ina free state cannot exist in the prepared cotton, since it has been ascertained that when this prepared cotton is immersed, and allowed to stand in water for many days, the cotton is but slightly inju- red. Now it is evident that if nitric acid did exist in a free state, it must have combined with the water, by reason of its intense allinity, and thas the cotton would lose all of its explosive properties.

2d, No carbonization takes place, for the carbonized would appear black.

3d, Nitric Acid would not vive off its os was united with some base. _

‘Therefore this Theory totally fails to give a satisfac- tory explanation of its operations.

| now propose to givea Theory of its formation, which will fully and satisfactorily explain all its opera- tions under any circumstances. Itis well known to the agriculturist as well as to the chemist, that nearly all vegetables require for their support certain salts or alkaline bases, such as lime, potash, soda, &c., and that they absorb them into their structure by their roots, which may be proved by burning the plants, for the ashes which remain consist principally of the bases above mentioned. Now this is the same case with cotton ; it extracts from the soil these bases, which are received into the structure of the plant, and assimilated ; consequently, then, the fibres of the cotton contain in their structure potash, lime,or soda, and ina state of exceedingly minute division, finer than can be procured by any operation of art. Therefore, when cotton is immersed in the nitric acid, it unites with these bases, which may be present in the fibres of the cotton, potash, lime, or soda, to form nitrate of potash (saltpetre,) of lime, or of soda, and which remain in the cells of the fibres of the cotton. Nitrate of Lime, or soda, will make gunpowder full as well as nitrate of potash, (salt- petre,) only it will damage by age.

Carbon, sulphur and saltpetre constitute common gunpowder. Now, instead of this, we have in the pre- paration of cotton, carbon, hydrogen and saltpetre, in a much finer state of division than in common gunpow- der ; and therefore the only real difference between gun cotton and gunpowder is in the substitution of hydrogen for sulpur, and in the finer division of its particles. By this theory it is easily perceived how explosive pre- parations are made from other vegetables, as saw dust, &c.; the nitric acid uniting and saturating the alkalies present in the wood, in the same manner precisely as cotton. Consequently, to furnish a superior article of gun cotton, the cotton must be raised upon land contain- ing plenty of these bases.

cotion it

vgen until it

* Our correspondent’s opinion is probably predicated upon the amateur article inade from the flying recipes of the Press, but it is claimed for the genuine Schon- bein preparation, that it is as innocuous as the best of gunpowder.

MATHEMATICAL ASTRONMY.

Le Verrier, who has been appointed Professor of Mathematical Astronomy, took for his opening address the pre-eminence of mathematical astronomy over that of simple observation. The following sentence gives 2 tolerably fair idea of the lecturer’s views of the subject: “When,” said he, “armed with your instruments you observe the heavens, you advance with difficulty to-

poh, John, says he, walking up and pocketing the mo-|confusion !

ney, ‘not trust you? hear that. Now, Joshua, tackle up Suckey. You'll drive the critter slow, John; and now I think on’t, you may bring my grist, that is now at the mill—and look sharp to the miller, John, when he strokes the toll measure.’ It was too late to stick at lies now. So I promised every thing, jumped into the sleigh, and steered to the widow’s, with flying colors. It is the height of gentility, you must know, fora lady to make her beau waitas long as possible on such an oc- casion. I sat over a heap of warm ashes in the widow Bean’s parlor, listening to Patty stamping about in her stocking feet, in the chamber over head, for one good hour. Then I stood up to the looking-glass and frizzled up my hair, changed my spirt-pin to a new place, thought over some speeches to make under the buffalo skin, and finally laid a plot to lug in the awiul question in a sort of slantindickular fashion.

At last Patty appeared in all her glory ;1 was just,

crooking my elbow to lead her out, when in came Mrs. Bean. e

‘Where are you going to, Patty =

‘ Over to Shaw’s, a sleighing.’

‘What, and leave your cousin Dolly all alone, to suck her fingers? A pretty how d’ye do that, after coming all the way from Saco to see you.

Here was a knock-down argument. All my plans of cannot supercede gunpowder, since a gun, after few

courting and comfort melted down and ran off in a mo-

ment. I saw directly that the widow was resolved to,

push big Dolly Fisher into my sleigh, whether or no; and there was no remedy, forthe widow Bean isa stump that is neither to be got round nor moved out of the way. [said something about the small size of the sleigh, but it wouldn't do—she shut my siouth instantly.

‘Let me alone,’ says she—‘I went a sleighing afore you was born, youngster. If I don’t know how to pack a sleigh, who does? Patty Bean, stow yourself away here, and shrink yourselfup small. Tfghere aint room, we must make room, as the fellows used tossy. Nov, Dolly, hoist yourself in there ?

: But when my turn come, lo and behold: wards the mountain, and at last you climb it slowly; atty Bean was missing, and so was Si Golding! whereas by the omnipotence of mathematical analysis,

Here is the end of my story; and whoever wants to you tell the mountain to come to you, and it comes and know the particulars that happened on the ride home,|bhends with humility at your feet.”

must ask Dolly Fisher. The Deacon will tell you what spidiaehdin a pickle Sukey ame home in, and how muchI paid) Tas Moon.—Sir John Herschell, at a late meeting ‘for the whistle.’ Finally, whoever went to your meet-|of the British Association for the advancement of Sci- ing-house the next Sunday morning, knows very well| ence, expressed the opinion that the temperature of the how Patty Bean and Josiah Golding are to square ac-|moon’s climate must be very high, “far above that of boil-

Comme, ing water.” And the reason given is, that its surface is _ exposed for fourteen days at a time to the unmitigated wow _a SCIEN DEN

and continual heat of the sun. At the full, and fora THE SCIENCE OF GUN COTTON.

few days afterward, the moon must certainly be the re- fiector of some heatto the earth. Sir John has no doubt

_ This preparation, which has attracted so much atten-

tion in the civilzed world since its discovery, is pre-

of the fact, but as it has the character of culinary rather pared by immersing the raw material in strong nitric

than solar heat, that is to say “it emanates from a bedy below the temperature ofignition,” it will be arrested by the upper strata of earth’s atmosphere and thus absorbed. There its only effect will be to convert visible clouds into transparent vapor. He asserted that the phenomena of the rapid dissipation of clouds in moderate weather, soon after the appearance of the full moon, could easily be accounted for on this principle, and that his own obser- vations confirmed the theory.

‘acid, and after it is completely saturated, washed in pure water, until every trace of acidity is removed, ‘and then perfectly dried; it then possesses powerfully explosive properties, far surpassing common gunpowder ‘in its effects, and highly dangerous, since some prepar- ation of it have been found to explode ata degree of heat not exceeding that of boiling water; therefore it

An Enemy’s Covrresy.—When the Crusaders, un- ‘discharges, would become heated to such a degree as\der King Richard of England, defeated the Saracens, ‘to explode the cotton, and thus produce most disastrous | the Sultan,seeing his troops fly, asked what was the num- -consequences.* ber of the Christains who were making all this slaugh- | No satisfactory theory has as yet been found to ex-|ter? He was told that it was only King Richard and his plain this curious transformation of cotton into a highly|men, and that they were all on foot. ‘Then,’ said the sul- ‘dangerous preparation. Some have supposed that the|ian, ‘God forbid that sucha noble fellow as King Rich- nitric acid carbonized the cotton, and thus rendered its|ard should march on foot,’ and sent him a noble char- particles of carbon free to unite with the oxygen of the|ger. The messenger took it, and said, ‘ Sire, the Sultan ‘nitric acid, and have supposed that in this manner it/sends you this charger, that you may uot be on foot.’

‘resembles and actually constitutes gunpowder, and that} The king was as cunning as his enemy, and ordered one the nitric acid added to the cotton gives off oxygen tojof his squires to mount the horse in order to try him. oxidate the carbon of the cotton, in the same manner|The squire obey tthe animal proved fiery ; and the that saltpetre in gunpowder gives off its oxygen to oxi-|squire being unable to hold him in, he set off at full speed

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