&&000 CANADIAN SCHOOLBOOKS CA507.TXT GRADE 7, 1946-1959 [i.e. the '50's] Samples in Toronto by dph on 9-10 Dec 2003 1st edited by dph on 20 dec 2002 Re-edited on 20 June 2005 &&111 Death of a Giant. A man with a mechanical saw attacked a huge =Douglas fir tree near here today and quickly felled the work of several centuries. I counted the annual rings of growth on the butt and reached a total of =703 when those circular lines, the record of recent times, became too thin for the naked eye. Through something over =703 years that tree had stood indestructible, until a revolving belt of steel ended its labors in less than half an hour. The man with the saw said that the tree stood in the way of his new garage and had to be removed. He is a practical man, not given much to speculation and careless of history. But any historian would have found food for thought in the spectacle of that mighty stump, cleanly severed, and the prostrate mass of wood-enough material to build a house which might last, with care, for a single lifetime. King =John must have been signing a certain document on the island of =Runnymede about the time when a seed sprouted on an unknown continent and a tiny sprig of green thrust itself up, among many others, from the floor of the jungle. When =Columbus discovered the new world the seedling had become a tree two and a half centuries old, had hardly reached its prime, was just getting into its stride and stood a mere hundred feet high. When an =English axe was severing the neck of a =Stuart king the tree, safe from any axe stroke, was approaching healthy middle age. It had begun to decline at the time of =Waterloo. How often the tree had grasped the spring wind and transformed it into the music of the first harp, shredded it through innumerable fingers in the rustle and dry tick of summer and uttered the organ tones of the winter gale when no ear was present to hear it! How many billion tons of water were sucked from the earth over the years and hoisted into the trunk and limbs We listened; but we only heard The feeble cheeping of a bird That starved upon its perch: And, listening still, without a word, We set about our hopeless search. We hunted high, we hunted low; And soon ransacked the empty house; Then over the Island, to and fro, We ranged, to listen and to look In every cranny, cleft or nook That might have had a bird or mouse: But, though we searched from shore to shore We found no sign in any place: And soon again stood face to face Before the gaping door: And stole into the room once more As frightened children steal. Yes: though we hunted high and low, And hunted everywhere, Of the three men's fate we found no trace Of any kind in any place, But a door ajar, and an untouched meal, And an overtoppled chair. And as we listened in the gloom Of that forsaken living-room. A chill clutch on our breath We thought how ill-chance came to all Who kept the =Flannan Light: And how the rock had been the death Of many a likely lad: How six had come to a sudden end, And three had gone stark mad: little =Arthur was overwhelmed with the novelty of his position. The idea of sleeping in the room with strange boys had clearly never crossed his mind before, and was as painful as it was strange to him. He could hardly bear to take his jacket off; however, presently, with an effort, off it came, and then he paused and looked at =Tom, who was sitting at the bottom of his bed and talking and laughing. "Please, =Brown," he whispered, "may I wash my face and hands?" "Of course, if you like," said =Tom, staring; "that's your wash hand-stand, under the window, second from your bed. You'll have to go down for more water in the morning if you use it all." And on he went with his talk, while =Arthur stole timidly from between the beds out to his wash hand-stand, and began his ablutions, thereby drawing for a moment on himself the attention of the room. . On went the talk and laughter. =Arthur finished his washing and undressing, and put on his night-gown. He then looked around more nervously than ever. Two or three of the little boys were already in bed, sitting up with their chins on their knees. The light burned clear, the noise went on. It was a trying moment for the poor little lonely boy; however, this time he didn't ask Tom what he might or might not do, but dropped on his knees, by his bedside, as he had done every day from his childhood, to open his heart to Him who heard the cry and bears the sorrows of the tender child, and the strong man in agony. =Tom was sitting at the bottom of his bed unlacing his boots, so that his back was towards =Arthur, and he didn't see what had happened, and looked up in wonder at the sudden silence. Then two or three boys laughed and sneered, and a big brutal fellow who was standing in the middle of the room picked up a slipper, and shied it at the kneeling boy, calling him a snivellng young shaver. Then =Tom saw the whole, and the next moment the boot he had just pulled off flew straight at the head of the bully, who had just time to throw up his arm and catch it on his elbow. =Mother that we would hire a motor car and take her for a beautiful drive away into the country. =Mother is hardly ever able to have a treat like that, because we can only afford to keep one maid, and so =Mother is busy in the house nearly all the time. And of course the country is so lovely now that it would be just grand for her to have a lovely morning, driving for miles and miles. But on the very morning of the day we changed the plan a little bit, because it occurred to Father that a thing it would be better to do even than to take =Mother for a motor drive would be to take her fishing. =Father said that as the car was hired and paid for, we might just as well use it for a drive up into hills where the streams are. As =Father said, if you just go out driving without any object, you have a sense of aimlessness, but if you are going to fish, there is a definite purpose in front of you to heighten the enjoyment. So we all felt that it would be nicer for =Mother to have a definite purpose; and anyway, it turned out that =Father had just got a new rod the day before, which made the idea of fishing all the more appropriate, and he said that =Mother could use it if she wanted to; in fact, he said it was practically for her, only =Mother said she would much rather watch him fish and not try to fish herself. So we got everything arranged for the trip, and we got =Mother to cut up some sandwiches and make up a sort of lunch in case we got hungry, though of course we were to come back home again to a big dinner in the middle of the day, just like =Christmas or =NewYear'sDay. =Mother packed it all up in a basket for us ready to go in the motor. Well, when the car came to the door, it turned out that there hardly seemed as much room in it as we had supposed, because we hadn't reckoned on =Father's fishing basket and the rods and the lunch, and it was plain enough that we couldn't all get in. Father said not to mind him, he said that he could just as well stay home, and that he was sure that he could put in the time working in the garden; he said that there was a lot of slouching up along the faintly marked trail which led close past her doorway. Her own great tracks on the trail had been hidden that morning by a soft and t wing fall of belated spring snow "the robin snow," as it is called in =NewBrunswick and the man, absorbed in pi king his way by this unfamiliar route over the mountain, had no suspicion that he was in danger of trespassing. But the bear, with that tiny black form at the bottom of the den filling her whole horizon, could not conceive that the man's approach had any other purpose than to rob her of her treasure. She ran back to the little one, nosed it gently into a corner, and anxiously pawed some dry leaves half over it. Then, her eyes aflame with rage and fear, she betook herself once more to the entrance, and crouched there motionless to await the coming of the enemy. The man swung up the hill noisily, grunting now and then as his foothold slipped on the slushy, moss-covered stones, He fetched a huge breath of satisfaction as he gained a little strip of level ledge, perhaps a dozen feet in length, with a scrubby spruce bush growing at the other end of it. Behind the bush he made out what looked as if it might be the entrance to a little cave. Interested at once, he strode forward to examine it. At the first stride a towering black form, jaws agape and claws outstretched, crashed past the fir bush and hurled itself upon him. A man brought up in the backwoods learns to think quickly, or, rather, to think and act in the same instant. Even as the great beast sprang, the man's gun leaped to its place and he fired. His charge was nothing more than heavy duck-„ shot, intended for some low-flying flock of migrant geese or brant. But at this close range, some seven or eight feet only, it tore through its target like a heavy mushroom bullet, and with a stopping force that halted the animal's charge in mid-air like the blow of a steam hammer. She fell in her tracks, a heap of huddled fur and grinning teeth. "That was a close call!" remarked the man. Entering the half darkness of the cave, he quickly discovered the cub in its hiding-place. Young as it was, when he picked done with =ModGuj while you're away. You know that he will only obey your orders." "May the light of the heavens live forty thousand years. I shall be absent but ten little days. After that, upon my faith and honor and soul, I return. As to the inconsiderable interval, have I the gracious permission of the heaven.. born to call up =ModGuj?" Permission was granted, and in answer to =Deesa's shrill yell, the mighty tusker swung out of the shade of a clump -of trees where he had been squirting dust over himself till his master should return. "Light of my heart, mountain of fight, give earl" said =Deesa, standing in front of him. =ModGuj gave ear, and saluted with his trunk. "I am going away," said =Deesa. =ModGuj's eyes twinkled. He liked jaunts as well as his master. "But you, you fussy old pig, must stay behind and work." The twinkle died out as =ModGuj tried to look delighted. He hated stump hauling on the plantation. It hurt his teeth. "I shall be gone for ten days, oh, delectable one! Hold up your near forefoot and I'll impress the fact upon it, warty toad of a dried mud puddle." =Deesa took a tent peg and banged =MotiGuj ten times on the nails. =Mod Guj grunted and shuffled from foot to foot. "Ten days," said Deesa, "You will work and haul and root the trees as =Chihun here shall order you. Take up =Chihun and set him on your neck!" =ModGuj curled the tip of his trunk, =Chihun put his foot there and was swung on to the neck. =Deesa handed =Chihun the heavy iron elephant goad. Chihun thumped =MotiGuj's bald head as a paver thumps a curbstone. =Mod Goj trumpeted. "Be still, hog of the backwoods! =Chihun's your mahout for ten days. And now bid me good-bye, beast after mine own heart. Oh, my lord, my king! Jewel of all created elephants, lily of the herd, preserve your honored health; be virtuous. Adieu!" ball, tried to change the position of his fingers, and ended by making a bad throw. The runner was safe on second with only one out. =Roberts' voice came to him like a prayer. "=Bill! Oh, =Bill!" =Bill's pitch was clean. The batter slashed it on the ground. =Roberts came in on it like a ferret. A figure was dashing for third. From a crouched position the first baseman whipped the ball across the diamond. He could not hear the umpire's voice, but the upward wave of his hand was visible above the dust cloud that was raised by the slide. "That's pitching, =Bill," =Roberts' voice carried a note of triumph. Bill was conscious that his throat had been contracted and that the air, rushing to his lungs in great gulps, tasted good. =Gunn had made a mess of that first runner. Perhaps the boy on first, counting on another sloppy throw, would also try to steal. He would have to go down before the batter was forced to hit, else a safe rap would merely move him around instead of scoring him. So =Bill, with a slight signal to =Gunn, sent another pitch-out. The runner was away with the pitch. But this time =Gunn got the ball secur y. His whistling shot to =Wally caught the runner by the feet. All the way to the bench, =Bill was conscious that something was pressing on him. Not until he sat down did he realize that it had been =Roberts' hand patting his shoulder. "I got through it," he kept muttering. "I got through it." =Gunn was demanding why he had not dusted them. He did not hear the catcher's voice. =Jerry, score book open, was watching the field and smiling that slow understanding smile. For seven innings the game stayed a scoreless tie. =Gunn had been a good prophet, runs were scarce. In the eighth inning, =Wally, first up, was safe on an infield error. =Bill, clutching his knees, prayed for a hit. =Gunn, second up, forced =Wally at second. =Jerry touched the pitcher with the score book. We feel so athletic that we may even try to break our own jumping records. It ought not to be difficult to break both our own and everybody else's; a good high jumper ought to jump about =36 feet, and the long jump of a fair athlete ought to be at least =120 feet. If we feel inspired to play cricket, the ball will simply soar off our bat, so that if it is not to be entirely a batsman's game, the pitch and field must each be six times the size they are on earth. Unfortunately, all this will make the game six times as slow as on earth, and perhaps cricket, played six times as slowly as on earth, would not be much of a game after all. If we fire a gun, our shot will travel a terrific distance before falling back to earth-or rather to moon. We remember the big guns which fired shells nearly eighty miles in the War; if similar guns were mounted on the moon, their projectiles would go right off into space and never return. We shall not want to start setting big guns up on the moon, but we can produce the same effect with something much simpler a breath of air from our breathing apparatus. For we know that ordinary air consists of tiny particles; called molecules, which are incessantly jumping about-some quite slowly, the majority at about the speed of a rifle bullet, and a few at far higher speeds. Some move faster than any projectile which has ever been fired from a gun. We had to start our rocket from earth with a speed of about seven miles a second, in order that it might overcome the earth's gravitational pull; with any lower speed it would have merely fallen back to earth like a cricket ball. And a projectile of any other kind needs precisely the same speed if it is to get clear of the earth. Now it is only at very rare intervals that molecules of air attain a speed of seven miles a second, so that they seldom jump right off the earth into space-this is why the earth retains its atmosphere. On the other hand, a projectile only needs a speed of one and one-half miles a second to jump entirely clear of the moon, and molecules of ordinary air frequently attain speeds as high as this. We see at once that an atmosphere of air could not survive on the. illegally trades, with the =Indians, goods originally given to the latter by the King of =France in return for their support in the struggle to hold =NewFrance from the =English. In the following selection, =Peter takes part in a plot to give back to the =Indians the furs wrongfully taken from them by "=LaFriponne." The sun was setting when the coureurs de bois brought the two boats alongside the wharf of the =LowerTown. =Peter looked at the giant warehouses, closed and shuttered, forbiddingly dark against the grey evening. He shivered. Even though the furs belonged rightfully to the Indians, his palms felt cold and wet at the thought of stealing them from the warehouse. Philippe spoke to him in a low voice. "=Bomazeen will keep watch near our boat. You must enter the storehouse through a window-then reach the loading doors. Wait until you hear me call that all is clear outside before you lift the bar and open the door." =Peter nodded and pointed to one of the middle sections. "The furs are stored there," he said. "Open only wide enough for a man to come through with a pack of furs," =Philippe said. "We want no gaping door if a guard passes." "Yes, =Peter said, his heart thumping. He made himself cross the wharf slowly, as if he were taking an evening stroll. Beside the warehouse, he flattened himself in the shadows. He heard no sound except the lapping of the water against the pilings. He followed along the wall of the warehouse until he came to a pile of lumber which he knew to be there. It smelled as fragrant as the pines of the forest as he climbed it. From the top of the pile he was able to reach a small high window used for ventilating the building. He opened the shutters, climbed through and dropped down into the pitch-blackness of the room. For seconds he crouched there listening. Could anyone have heard his fall? The darkness was as quiet as a tomb. of reactor operations, said later. "But our calculations weren't quite good enough. It was a million-to-one gamble that the remaining emergency devices wouldn't all fail at the same time. But they did." In one enormous burst, the atomic chain - reaction burgeoned to a hundred million watts of heat, blasting molten metal, radioactive ashes and steam through the bottom of the machine into the basement. Every employee at =ChalkRiver had been alerted by years of drill for just such an emergency. As soon as the siren cut loose, doors and windows were slammed shut in offices and laboratories, cafeterias and guardhouses. Telephone lines were cleared for emergency use. Then down the deserted street strode Dr =AJCipriani, Chief of =RadiationHazardControl, adjusting his respirator. Behind him teams of monitor men fanned out among the buildings, Geiger counters in hand. The watching employees knew that this was not just another drill. Radioactive ash had already escaped through the tall stack into the winter air. The siren wailed again, this time the long sustained note that meant evacuation. Holding handkerchiefs to their faces to keep from breathing radioactive dust, workers filed out to long lines of buses. In a few moments they were rolling away through the snow. =ChalkRiver was deserted-save for the handful of men converging on =NRX to fight this first major battle against atoms that had burst their bonds. Thereafter, for fourteen dangerous months plucky pioneers were to stage a clean-up under constant menace of deadly radioactivity. These ingenious men established once and for all that human beings can safely build, repair and maintain useful peacetime atomic engines saturated with death. The crew on duty that afternoon had done the one thing left to do when all normal controls go. Opening valves under the machine, they had dumped the heavy water out of the reactor tank. This stopped the wild chain-reaction and ended. The =Thomsons had an old rowboat of their own. =Tom persuaded his father to let him fix it up with mast and sails. The first day there was a good stiff breeze blowing offshore, =Torn and his friend, =David, put out into the open water of the =Bay, and soon caught sight of =JoeClture doing a bit of leisurely trolling. The boys' spirits rose, and they tacked until they carne alongside =Joe's boat, then they skimmed past him, with excited shouts and wavings, and boasts about the superiority of their homemade craft! This episode called for a glowing account afterwards of how they had outsailed the two-master. =Tom was more than ever determined now to be a sailor, and own a fishing boat. When he left school, =Tom faced a problem that troubles most young people-what career should he take up? He knew what he didn't want to do, but not what he did want. Not till he was twenty-one did =Toni get himself a job, and then it didn't last. With the help of a small legacy from his grandfather, lie apprenticed himself in a machine-shop. He liked learning to handle tools and machines, but couldn't get on with the foreman. So he left and took up a business course, thinking he might settle down to office life. But this didn't suit his out-of-doors tastes at all, and he soon gave it up. It was about this time that he found a job that really interested him-working on a new method of reproducing illustrations, called photo-engraving. =Toni studied photoengraving and learned how to use the method in reproducing advertisements. Lettering and titles had still to be added by hand to the metal plate, and =Tom became specially skilled in this branch of the work, and by it earned enough money to keep himself. Also, as he became more interested in art, he began, in his spare time, to make his first sketches in crayons and in water colors. In =1905, =Tom returned to =EasternCanada and settled in =Toronto, where he worked for an engraver, took a few art lessons, and learned to paint in oils. However, they did give him considerable encouragement and this meant a great deal to Bell, as most people who knew what he was trying to do said frankly that he was wasting both time and money; that his hopes were doomed to utter failure. But day after day he went on experimenting, evidently believing in himself and not discouraged by ridicule or opposition. A friend of his who was an ear specialist secured for him the ear of a dead person, and after many careful experiments he succeeded in making the sound of his voice travel from the drum of the ear along a delicate straw. He said to himself: "Why could not a very fine, sensitive iron plate take the place of this eardrum, and why could not copper wire take the place of this straw?" At this time Mr =Sanders and Mr =Hubbard became persuaded that the invention was impossible and refused to give him any further help. This was a severe blow to =Bell, as he was almost penniless. The outlook seemed dark indeed. He had applied to =Washington for a patent for his invention, and he received a letter summoning him there. Mr =Sanders loaned him enough to pay his fare, and off =Bell went. While in =Washington he called upon a distinguished scientist and electrician, Professor =JosephHenry, and showed him the instrument he had so far developed. Very carefully the old scientist examined the instrument while the young inventor awaited the verdict with his heart in his mouth. At last the professor spoke: "You have made a beginning of a marvellous invention," he said. "Do not stop until it is finished." These words gave =Bell, who was just twenty-eight years old, a tremendous thrill. "I will never give up," he said. When Mr =Sanders and Mr =Hubbard heard what the scientist had said, they were greatly pleased and agreed to supply him with the money to continue his experiments. In order to get certain delicate instruments made, =Bell went to an electrical shop where he formed an acquaintance with a young man named =ThomasWatson. This man was keenly interested in =Bell's invention, and the two spent a great. &&000