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XLI.-PINS.

A boy once said pins had saved thousands of lives. When he was asked to explain how pins had saved thousands of lives, he answered, By not swallowing them!" But the boy did not know that pins really do save thousands of lives, by giving thousands of men and children employment.

Do you know how many pins are made in a day? I am afraid you will doubt the figures. England makes about one-sixth of the pins of

the world, and if a boy were to take the pins made in England alone in one day and lay them in a row, it would make a pin-line eight hundred miles long. This is only another way of saying England makes more than fifty million pins every day.

Pins were not used much before 1543, when in England a law was passed called an "Act for the true making of pins." They were so much prized then that a gross was regarded as a fine Christmas present.

Ladies could not always buy as many as they wanted. Many husbands gave their wives what they called "pin-money." With it they would be ready to buy pins just as soon as they had a chance.

Now pins are so plenty and so cheap that when a boy thinks a thing is of no use he says, I would not give a pin for it.”

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About sixty years ago it twenty men to make a pin. one part of the pin to make. this way were not beautiful.

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An American named Lemuel Wright invented a machine that makes pins faster than

all the boys in a school could count them. This wonderful machine does the work of hundreds of men and boys.

Some boys and girls are busy collecting stamps of all kinds. If you were to make a collection of all the kinds of pins, you might be surprised to know that your collection would number hundreds of pins.

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Four boys from the same town once met at a summer resort. They were glad to be out in the sunshine and air. They took long walks over the mountains and through the cool, shady valleys. They did not forget to play. James had brought a ball along from home. It was great fun and good exercise for the boys to play ball.

One day they went far up into a mountain. ravine to fish for trout. A clear stream, that

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flashed in the sunshine and lingered in the shadows, made an ideal home for trout. The boys could see the speckled beauties in the clear pools. They were not long in casting their lines. But the trout were wide awake, and the boys did not catch as many as they thought they could.

William caught four. Each of the other boys caught

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as many as I can," answered Henry. are fish for, if they are not to be caught?" "We'll talk that over at lunch," said Harry, as the boys made their way to a cool spring under a tall pine tree.

As they sat upon a mossy bank eating their lunch, the boys began to think about Harry's words.

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It seems to me," said James, "that Harry is right. We ought not to kill anything unless we really need it for food or for shelter."

"But," said Henry, "what's the fun of catching fish for food?"

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There is no real pleasure in doing what is not right," said William. "The truth is, boys, the fish and birds have the same right to live that we have. If we could live without destroying living things, I would say, never kill anything."

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Suppose, boys," said Harry, "that we form a 'Let Live League,' and promise to prevent persons from killing birds or animals as far as possible."

Out there by the mountain stream, with the birds singing in the trees and the fish sleeping

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