Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 44, Number 267, 23 August 1919 — Page 22

PAGE FOUR

THE RICHMOND PALLDIUM, SATURDAY. AUGUST, 23, 1919

Playful Polly Learns to Read

The last thing la all the world that appealed to Polly as desirable was reading. "What for?" she would say, when come meddling grown person thrust a volume upon her attention. "I'd

rather do thing3 myself. People in j books are 60 stupid." And, with an Impatient swish of her huge black

hair ribbon, she was off to her play. She would play with the girls, with - the boys, dolls, prisoners' base, anyanything at all, so long as it involved fun and action. Polly was practically never still except when she was asleep; there were games which she liked for evening3 in front of the open fire, or colored

crayons with which to paint vivid pictures. Never did it occur to her to .perch upon the big couch In fmnf'nf (hu flro nlnro nr tn lie

on the hearthrug, book in hand. Shewas just a little girl who did not like reading, and she consistently Ignored all suggestions of her playmates and older relations, to the effect that some day she might be orry about the omission. Polly concerned herself with exactly one day at a time. But, at length, there came a day wfcn older siBter, Elizabeth, announced that she was going to give a party on the following Saturday

rill her friends had come home from school or college or the city. "Goody!" cried Polly, jumping up and down in her glee. "I love parties better than anything, almost. Wht kind of a party will it be this time?" "It's going to be a queer kind of a party, Pollykins, and I doubt it it will interest you as much as usual; for it's going to be a bookish party. I mean," she added, "every Bingle person who comes to the party will be dressed to represent a character in a book. It will be

something- different, and I think

my friends will be amused."

"Well, I shan't be then." put in Polly, pouting disgracefully. "I call that the horridest kind of a party

I've ever heard of. Isn't a party to have fun at? What have the

books to do with it? I shan't come

at all. The boys will be out on the

common until dark, and I'll play

with them." "Very well," replied sister Eliza beth. wisely doing no urging what

ever. Every body knew that Polly

could not be urged. Polly Is Red Ridino Hood

Preparations went on apace.

There was giggling in corners between Elitabeth and her girl friends: there were Berious consul

tations with mother and the seam

stress; there were cllckings of the scissors and flauntings of all sorts of bright-colored materials. But Polly went on her own sweet way, quite oblivious, so far as anyone could notice. However, on the eve

of the party she declared that, af

ter all, she would attend.

"I think I might as well," she said

soberly. "It will probably rain and

-the boys will not be out. Mother,

which dress shall I wear?" "Well, Polly, you haven't any

thing that is right to wear. You ought to have told me before, that "you wanted a costume. Whatever shall I do for you now, at the last moment? This isn't the sort of party that you can go to in your white dress with the blue sash. If vnn vn that vmi wnnld nnlv he

- Polly; if you go you must be some

body from a book. "Oh," Baid Polly, nervously stand

ing on one foot, while grasping the other in her hand, a habit she

had when thinking deeply. Then:

"Suppose I should be Little Red Riding Hood? There's my blue cape with the red lining wrong side out. It's perfectly good on

the other Bide, you know." "That will do very well," replied Mother, as she and Elizabeth exchanged 8ignficant glances. So it was decided that Polly should after all, wear her white dress with the blue Bash, but with the red cape over it; and, when the anticipated evening arrived, she looked the part of Little Red Riding Hood Burprisedly well for a little girl who was not supposed to know

anything about people in books, even nursery rhymes. Polly In Distress Mother, when she reappeared, was, most appropriately, the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, only her cheeks were pink, her eyes shone with anticipation, and she scarcely looked more grown-up than her own daughter, Elizabeth, who

II U I

V ft 1

Looking at the Stars with a Big Eye "Mother dear, is that the Buscrvatory over there?" asked a wee Junior once a3 he stood on the grounds of the Yerkes observatory near Williams' Bay, Wisconsin, looking at the beautiful big building in the center. "It's the Observatory, dear," corrected his mother. Then we went to see the big telescope, quite a famous one too, which the University of Chicago has placed in this beautiful building. It was so interesting that I want to tell you Juniors about it. By the way, an observatory is a place built especially for telescopes through which the stars and the sun are studied. There are many telescopes in the Yerkes observatory, but the biggest one is the most interesting, for it multiplies the power of a man's eye about as much as a locomotive throttle multiplies the strength in an engineer's arm. This telescope is in a room whose roof is a dome, and everything in this room moves, from the telescope, itself, which can move up and down, and around about to the roof, which can move around and the floor underneath it which can move up and down. Do you know why these things move this way? When you want to take a picture do you get where you want to be and then ask the sun to please move around so that you can take the picture. Naturally not, because the sun moves on a little road and schedule of its own, and if you want a good picture, you get where the sun shines in the face of the person you want to take, don't ycu? That is just why these parts of the telescopes and the room move, so that people can see any planet, or star they wish to see at any time they wish to study it, and they know that the planets and stars will probably not turn around and come and stand still right over the place where the telescope is. The lens in this biggest telescope weighs 1,000 pounds and is held up in the top end of a metal tube, which is 62 feet long and weighs 6 tons. It is sometimes called the "big gun" because it looks like some of the big cannon that were used at the front. This telescope is 40,000 times as powerful as a man's eyes, and an eye would have to be 25 feet in diameter to be as powerful as this telescope, and a man big enough for such an eye would have to be 1,200 feet high. It is so powerful that a person looking through it can see the tiniest spots on objects millions and millions of miles away. Because the sun is so bright, no one studies it looking directly at it through the telescope as he does at the moon and stars at night. If they did they would go blind. In the daytime they put a photographing machine on the telescope and take pictures of the sun and study these. This is the largest telescope of its kind, and is called a refracting telescope. Every year there are many students that go to this observatory to study all the interesting things they have read about the stars and moons and suns (oh yes, here are many, many more suns than the one that wakes us up every morning) and to find out new facts about their habits, some of which are very strange. Some day we shall tell you some of these things, and about the mountains on the moon and things like that, that are just as interesting and just as far away. AUNT POLLY.

was dressed as Lorna Doone, Father was almost frigntemng, in his fierce costume of Fagin, in "Oliver Twist." They were a queerlooking lot, thuught Polly, as she viewed them with distain. Vaguely even she had oeard of the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, but the other characters were strange to her. She began to be quite uncomfortable In her ignorance, and this feeling only increased as the guests began to arrive, toward eight o'clock. Even girls and boys whom Polly knew perfectly well, on ordinary days, looked so strange that she shrank away from them, taking refuge in a corner of the

hall, behind the door where in her little red cloak, she could watch

without being seen herself. To escape being interested she found

was out of the question, as time

went on. They were all so dif

ferent, bo gay, and so unlike the people Polly met on the com

mon, some or tnem wore cioines

the like of which she had never

dreamed existed. There was a lady

in tremendously wide skirts of bro

cade; with a stiff white thing at the

neck: she wore beads In her hair,

and had a fan hanging from a belt

by a chain. Who was she? Polly

wondered. There was a gentleman in long flowing robes and sandals,

wearing a wreath of leaves on his

head, carrying a stiff staff, and a scroll of a sort of stiff paper tied

with ribbons. Whatever should she know about such a man as this?

Memories of history lessons, which

Polly had made it her business to

forget as quickly as ever she could, forced themselves upon her now, whether she would or not. She

pushed the door open ju3t a crack

more, so that she could see more or the room, full of laughing and chatter, of music, of me flash of bright colorB, the sweep of plumes, and waving of fans. Polly was frankly puzzled. She wished she knew who they all were, and why they were enjoying themselves so much. At last they began to dance, and, then there were stranger sights than ever before. For instance, one girl, small and fair, was dressed In a lovely flowered silk, with panniers; she had a tall stick in her hand, a crook of the top of it, and under

her arm was a tiny wooly lamb

Her partner was tall and shining

in an old suit of armor, which

covered him all up except for his

face under the peaked helmet In spite of herself Polly laughted; and

when these two sat down to rest,

near her own private retreat, Bhe

suddenly came out and confronted

them.

"Who are you?" she asked, point ing a finger at the lady.

"Why," said the pretty lady.

"don't you know me? I'm Bo-Peep. See my lamb," and she thrust the toy out at Polly, at the time pressing something which caused the lamb to make a rasping little bleat. "I should think you would have known me, little girl. Red Riding and I should be acquainted." Polly made no reply to this laugh

ing explanation. 'Who are you?" she said again, and pointed a finger

at the lady's companion. "To be sure," came a deep voice from out of the shining suit, "I'm none other than King Arthur, just come out of Camelot."

Polly stared, and she was deciding upon a retreat to her corner behind the door, when, suddenly she found herself surrounded by numbers of taunting people. "Hello. Little Red Riding Hood." they cried; "where did you come from? When did you last see the wolf?" But all that Polly could do was to stare at them. . "I'm Peggotty," said one, who was stout and lumbering,, rather shabby as to clothes. "How do you like me?" "I'm Amy March,' said another dainty one. "I'm Pierrot, and here's Pierrette," cried still another. Then they came on so fast, and they talked so loudly and laughed so much that Polly's face grew longer and longer in her dismay. Very much she desired to get out of that noisy circle of boys and girls but she could not; and on they came in their attack. "I'm Dick Whittington," cried one. Tm Portia." . "I'm Aurora Leigh ' ' r "I'm Queen Elizabeth." "I'm Don Quixote."I'm the Carpenter Who Walked on the Strand." 'Tm Adam Bode." Each made an elaborate bow to

Polly, and swept by to make way

Riddles

1. A houseful, a barnful. and cannot catch a spoonful. Thelma Marie Nicholson. 2. What has four" eyes and cannot see? 3. What letter in the alphabet is most useful to an old woman? 4. Here is a miser named Coincare, Who always saved his trolley fare. Until he had so much to keep He had to count it in his sleep. Change one letter in his name 'Twill then be one one well known to fame.

ANSWERS TO RIDDLES FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 9 1. A clock. Margarite Justi3, Grade, 3 A Starr school. 2. Death Marguerite Justis. 3. Apple Pie. The apple pie is very, very good. Who said so? Why Mary said so. Clare Longfellow, grade SB, Finley school. 4. A table. Thelma Marie Nicholson. 5. Cabbage. Thelma Marie Nicholson.

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for the next strangely clad figure;

to Polly they were only unfamiliar names she knew nothing of Cleopatra, of Julius Caesar, of Francis Drake and innumerable others. All at once, she pulled her little red hood over her face and began to cry. Then Motner came, took her by the hand and led her upstairs. "You've done enough for this time," she said to the company, over her shoulder, as they mounted the steps, "Go on with your dancing.', Polly Begins to Read When the tears were over, Polly found she was quite ready for bed; so Mother tucked in a rather pathetic and puzzled little girl, and went off, leaving her to the most disturbing dreams Polly had ever known. But the very next morning she deliberately walked over to the neglected little white bookshelf in the play room, selected a bright red-bound volume of "Alice in Wonderland," and sat herself down comfortably In the exact corner of the couch which the family had long wished Polly would deign to occupy. Never again did she say that she didint' like to read.