I MET a friendly Sea-gull one day upon the shore.

We sat to watch the sunset, and hear the billows roar.

The Sea-gull perched upon a wreck. "Good day to you," I said.

He looked as if he 'd like to smile, but had to bow instead.

"You 've seen some curious things," said I, "while skimming o'er the sea.

This is vacation-time, you know; come, spin a yarn for me."

The Sea-gull stretched his snowy wing before he said a word,

And then he laughed, as Sea-gulls laugh, and said: "I've often heard Most curious things in many climes; but never, till to-day,

RAN AWAY TO SEA.

I am a merry sailor-boy,
With a yo-heave-ho, belay!
The dark-blue sea it is my joy,
With a heave-ho, haul away.
Upon the main top gallant yard,
With a yo-ho, 'vast, ahoy,

I stand and furl the halyards hard.
I am a sailor-boy.

At least that's what I mean to do,
With a yo-heave-ho, belay!

When once I 'm entered in the crew,

For I've just joined to-day.

Just now, whene'er the ship does heave,
With an Oh, my! - there she goes!
I'm tempted to resign and leave;
My head unsteady grows.

Oh, Captain, let me go ashore,
No matter what the cost.
I'll promise to return no more,
I'm sure the ship is lost!
My father keeps a hardware-shop-
I wish I were at home!

Why can't they make this rolling stop?
Why did I ever roam?

They say the pilot still is here, Oh, joy!—I can return.

MANY readers of ST. NICHOLAS have spent hours over those delicately colored wonders, the soap-bubbles. Most of us have wondered how to explain their beauty and form; or, while idly blowing these balloons, we have connected them with some fairy fancy, and have been led to think of charms and enchantments. Many of us believe still, as we believed when children, that no gem surpasses a soap-bubble in beauty; and one cannot help feeling really sorry when each exquisite plaything bursts.

Nor do children alone mourn over their short existence. Sir Isaac Newton, who sought out the secret that a falling apple hinted, said of the soap-bubble that a man or child who could blow one that would last would confer a great benefit upon mankind. You will wonder at this saying, but the truth of it will soon be apparent.

No one yet has been able to make a soap-bubble that will not burst, but by care we can make one that lasts for some time. Its length of life will depend largely upon the mixture used in blowing it, and the care we take in protecting it from drafts. Perhaps some of you do not know how to make a good soap-bubble mixture, so I will give you directions for preparing

one.

Put into a pint-bottle two ounces of best white Castile soap, cut into thin shavings, and fill the bottle with cold water which has been first boiled and then left to cool. Shake well together, and allow the bottle to stand until the upper part of the solution is clear. Decant now of this clear solution two parts, and add one part of glycerin, and you will have a soap-bubble mixture very much like one suggested by Professor J. P. Cook of Harvard College.

Some of you may wonder why bubbles cannot be blown from water alone. It is because the particles do not possess sufficient attraction

for one another to form a film. Mysteriously, the soap increases this attraction, even if the quantity be as small as one-hundredth part of the solution. We add the glycerin to make the film more gorgeous by bringing about a greater play of colors. Bear in mind that a carefully prepared mixture will save you much disappointment.

The solution now being at hand, we use the ordinary clay tobacco-pipe in blowing. Always use a new one, for one in which tobacco has been smoked is poisoned. With a little practice, and a moderate amount of patience, bubbles measuring eight or ten inches in diameter may be produced, and even larger ones if the lungs be refilled. The pipe, of course, should be held steadily, and the breath forced into the bubble evenly. In order to watch a bubble carefully, we may wish to support it in some way. A common table-goblet will make a good stand if its edge is first dipped into melted paraffin, or well soaped, which prevents it from cutting into the film.

Now as to the soap-bubble being a sphere. We find that all bubbles and drops are round. All liquids, when free to act, tend to take on the spherical form. So it is with milk when it falls upon a buttered plate, a rain-drop when it descends, or the dew that glistens so beautifully in the morning sun. In each case the drop is composed of tiny particles that are equally attracted by a central particle, and as they cling regularly around it give the drop. a round shape. Your school-books have told you that this attraction that causes all things to try to come together is gravitation. Here is a pretty little stanza written by Samuel Rogers, teaching this truth:

That very law which molds a tear,
And bids it trickle from its source,
That law preserves the earth a sphere

And guides the planets in their course.

In the case of the soap-bubble the case is reversed. The particles of air within press with equal force outward upon the film in all directions, producing the curved surface and making a hollow sphere. If the room is free from drafts, the bubble will be a perfect one, and will teach us the principles that underlie the making of a sphere. This perfect form, however, is seen only when the bubble floats. When resting upon the goblet, it appears very much like an orange. - that is, an oblate spheroid, the true shape of the earth. Putting it into the simplest language, the form of a bubble is due to the holding together of the soap solution, to the outward pushing of the air within and the resistance of the film.

If the air in the room is moderately cool, the bubble will float like a tiny balloon. The mouth and lungs at all times having a temperature of nearly one hundred degrees, the air blown into the toy bubbles is warmer, and consequently lighter than the air which surrounds them; therefore they float, and it is their lightness and grace that, with their beauty, give them such a charm. As soon as the air within the bubble cools, it slowly sinks till it reaches the floor, and the jar of its contact usually ruptures the film.

The extreme thinness of the bubble is indeed wonderful. It is estimated that the film in some places is only one three-millionths of an inch in thickness. Probably few of us can conceive of such thinness. Let me express it in another way. The Old and the New Testament contain some three millions of letters. Now one three-millionth is such a part of an inch as the first letter of the Bible is a part of the sum of all of its letters.

The bubble, however, is not of equal thickness at all points, and it is for this reason that it has the various colors. For instance, wherever the film is orange-red it measures about three onemillionths of an inch; where it is blue, eighty one-millionths of an inch; and at a point where lemon-yellow is prominent, about twenty onemillionths of an inch. Perhaps you wonder why the colors change from one part of the soap

bubble to another. This is because the film of the soap-bubble evaporates and grows thinner, but unequally so at different portions. A greenish blue with a pale rose-red spot near it indicates an extreme thinness, and at such a point the film is ready to give way at the least jar.

You will be glad to know the source of the beautiful colors. Every one is delighted with them, even if not interested by the explanation of their origin. We may say that they come from the light. Light gives color to all objects, but not exactly as it does to the soapbubble. White light from the sun can be broken into the seven colors which we have seen in the rainbow. In that instance the raindrops separate it into its parts. A glass prism will do the same, as you may prove by looking through a glass pendant from a hanging lamp. When the light reaches the surface of the soap-bubble a part is reflected from it, and we see images on its surface as if it were a curved mirror. Another portion of the light, however, enters the film and is separated so that a part of the seven colors are thrown into the bubble, and we can see them at various portions of the opposite surface. Another part of the light, after being broken by the film, is reflected by its inner surface back to our eyes, so that we see colors at the point where the light enters.

After you have observed these things to which I have referred, you may learn very many more by consulting a work on physics and studying light and the laws that govern it. If you care to, you can study the composition of water, soap, and air by reading of these substances in some work on chemistry. Such a simple line of investigation as the study of a mere soap-bubble has often awakened the natural liking for some particular group of studies, and thereby started a boy or girl properly upon a life work.

It is our supposed familiarity with common things that frequently robs them of the study and interest that might otherwise be profitably bestowed upon them.