Couple who survived an amazing 66 days at sea

A couple from Miami, Bill and Simone Butler, spent sixty-six days in a life-raft in the seas of Central America after their yacht sank. They survived in very good condition.

Twenty-one days after they left Panama in their yacht, Siboney, they met some whales. "They started to hit the side of the boat,' said Bill, 'and then suddenly we heard water. Two minutes later, the yacht was sinking". They jumped into the life-raft and watched the boat go under the water. For twenty days they had tins of food, biscuits, and bottles of water. They also had a fishing-line and a machine to make salt water into drinking water - two things which saved their lives. They caught eight to ten fish a day and ate them raw. Then the line broke. “So we had no more fish until something very strange happened. Some sharks came to feed, and the fish under the raft were afraid and came to the surface. I caught them with my hands”.

About twenty ships passed them, but no one saw them. After fifty days at sea their life-raft was beginning to break up. Then suddenly it was all over. A fishing boat saw them and picked them up. They couldn't stand up, so the captain carried them onto his boat and took them to Costa Rica. Their two months at sea was over.

A Good Lesson

Once a rich English woman called Mrs. Johnson decides to have a birthday party. She invited a lot of guests and a singer. The singer was, but he had a very good voice.

The singer got to Mrs. Johnson is house at exactly six o'clock as he had been asked to do, but when he went in, he saw through a door that the dinning-room was already full of guests, who were sitting round a big table in the middle of the room. The guests were eating, joking, laughing, and talking loudly. Mrs. Johnson came out to him, and he thought she was going to ask him to join them, when she said, "We're glad, sir, that you have come. You will be singing after dinner, I'II call you as soon as we're ready to listen to you. Now will you go into the kitchen and have dinner, too, please?"

The singer was very angry, but said nothing. At first he wanted to leave Mrs. Johnson is house once, but then he changed his mind and decided to stay and teach her and her rich guests a good lesson. When the singer went into the kitchen, the servants were having dinner, too. He joined them. After dinner, the singer thanked everybody and said, "Well, now I am going to sing to you, my good friends." And he sang them some beautiful songs,

Soon Mrs. Johnson called the singer.

" Well, sir, we're ready."

"Ready?" asked the singer. "What are you ready for?"

"To listen to you," said Mrs. Johnson in an angry voice.

"Listen to me? But I have already sung, and I am afraid shan't be able to sing any more tonight."

"Where did you sing?"

"In the kitchen. I always sing for those I have dinner with."

Cherry Blossoms

Their snowy petals fall

slowly, one by one

until next year's April.

Petals

Fragile as snow,

first harbinger of spring

fleeting as a swallow's wing.

Spring has come to Washington, D.C.! This season is welcomed in by the Cherry Blossom Festival every spring. The pink and white blossoms of the Japanese cherry trees near the Washington Monument create a wonderfully delicate fairyland of nature. Their breathtaking loveliness is reflected in the shining waters of the Tidal Basin and forms an enchanting archway that stretches over the curving paths along the Potomac River.

Originally, these trees were a gift from the City of Tokyo to the City of Washington in 1912. Their buds were carefully selected from the descendants of an original species in the Japanese Imperial Horticulture Section. The trees planted around the Basin in the West Potomac Park are single-flowering, pale pink or white in color; they bloom first and when their petals begin to flutter to the ground, the double-flowering, deeper pink blossoms of the trees in the East Potomac Park are ready to bloom. All during the month of April throne of tourists walk through the parks, past the polo field and memorials, along the riverbank, under the giant weeping willows near the seawall, just to catch a glimpse of the famous trees in bloom. No one who has ever seen them forgets their beauty. Many have photographed or painted the scene, others have been inspired to write poetry, such as these Japanese-style haikupoems.