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BLUE JAT.
BT CELESTE M. A. WINSLOW.
What clear note wakes the wintry air,
And Bends a thrill of sudden cheer
Through these dark last days of the year,
When skies are cold and trees are bare?
A flash o* blue lights up the gray,
Defying every wintry ill,
Small wraith of summer lingering still
On icy ground or leafless spray.
I see yon v.ith a fad surprise;
I thought the jrloom had taken wing,
And th? soft splendors of the spring
old bloom before my weary eyesl
All summers of the long ago,
Too sweet to loiter by the way,
In those brief notes find voice to-day,
Lone singer, passionate, plaintive, slow!
And still the barren branchos sigh;
The heavy clouds more grim appear;
My hear: finds sorrow ever near,
While faint hopes tremble, droop and die.
And yet, hope flickers in your song,
A hint of brightness, warm and true;
Erave Blr.e Jay, still I wait, with you.
I wait— although the time be long!
PAT DELANEY.
It lias very often, indeed, been said—
and I am one who believes in the truth
of it — that there is no general rule, but
there is an exception to it, and so it was
with the subject of our sketch, Pat De
lanoy.
I am not sure I am correct in naming
Pat as the subject of tho story, inas
much as his gray mare figures as con
spicuously in it as he himself does; in
. the story is not of Pat Delaney, .
. ''Pat Delaney and His Old Gray
."
h h are proverbially charitable,
itable in the extreme. All who
have seen or written of them agree in
lity is one oi the chief
of the Irish people, but
is particular respect Pat Delaney
:ided exception.
stingy, grasping, miserly
sition, utterly regardless how ho
aey, .so that he made it, and
deal to the applications of the needy
who sought relief at his hands.
He was a farmer — one of the better
class — and cultivated a large farm in
one of the northern counties of Ireland,
and. though possessed of considerable
wealth, was so mean and despicable in
his nature that a stranger, judging from
his appearance, would readily take him
for a mendicant, because Pat consid
ered it vastly extravagant to be guilty
of a trifling outlay to clothe liimself
anew, while he could by any means
manage to make his old garments cover
him.
Among his cattle was an old gray
mare, which Pat himself always drove,
and the trappings of this associate of
many years were in strict accordance
with the proprietor's character — worth
less.
When told that, in addition to being
so exceedingly avaricious, Pat was also
us ;:: the extreme, the reader
will be ab'.e to form .some idea of his
charai I
produce of the farm,
another source of wealth Pat
• by. This was selling
meal on er dit at a very exorbitant
■r of the locality, who,
of small farms, were thus
Iviug him a note on the grow
cure its payment.
satisfy him beyond tho
of a doubt that he would be
he certainly would not supply the
wants of those who appealed to him;
but. when thus satisfied, the desire to
add to hi.s wealth more than balanced
the feeling of regret he always experi
enced at parting with anything even for
a time.
Now to our story. It was a hot, sul
try day in July that Pat put the well
worn harness on his gray mare and pro
ceeded toward the mountain for a load
of turf.
The American reader may not know
what i; turf" is. "Turf" is a fuel, and
serves the Irish peasantry of the rural
districts as coal does our citizens here.
Moss, cut into pieces the shape of a
brick, but about twice the length, is,
when thoroughly dried, called "turf,"
and makes an excellent fire. "Turf "is
cut with a turf spade, peculiar in shape,
and well adapted for this special use.
Seated in his old, creaking wagon,
and every once in a while urging along
his miserable animal that was attached
to it, Pat proceeded.
He passed close to the cottage of Mrs.
Hogarty, a very poor widow who had
for some days previous been meditating
an appeal for meal; but, Pat's character
istics being well known to her, she had
but little hope of succeeding in getting
any.
She saw Pat approaching, and at
once resolved to embrace the oppor
tunity, and set her mind at rest con
cerning the meal. She accordingly
came down J Axe path to the highway,
and accosted him with :
"Good-morrow, Pat. How are ye,
sir?"
"Good-morrow, Peggy," he replied,
"I'm bravely, troth, conshidering the
kind iv times we hey."
"The kind iv times did ye say, Pat?
Musha, it's meself that thinks you know
little indeed iv the times ; it's me and
the likes o' me knows the times is hard,
very hard, and no mistake !"
"It's thrue for you, poor crethur,"
said Pat, in a sympathetic tone, and he
got out of the wagon and walked up to
the cabin to get a light for his pipe,
while the mare, taking advantage of
the opportunity, began cropping the
grass by the wayside.
"It's thrue for ye," said he, as he re
turned, smoking, and again entered the
wagon, 'but yer mistaken whin ye say
I_don"t know the kind iv time that's in
it as well as anybody else, for it's hard
pressed I am, not a doubt iv it."
To give a verbatim report of their
conversation is not believed necessary,
but let it suffice to state that after a
good deal of by-play and a great many
broad hints on the part of Peggy, and a
well-assumed ignorance of their mean
ing on the part of Pat, she at length
said:
"Well, seeing as how I am so short iv
money and manes at the prisint speak
ing, might I venture to ask ye for a
hundhered weight iv meal until sich
tunes as I can pay ye, which won't bo
long, praise goodness?"
"A hundhered iv meal, did ye say ?"
said Pat, as though he doubted his ears.
"Troth it's glad I would be to sarve ye,
but it's beyant my power, so it is, or it's
myself wid do it, 'cead-meal-a-fatha.'"
Peggy was by no means surprised —
it was just such an answer she ex
pected ; yet until she heard the word
there was a little glimmer of hope — a
glimmer which his answer at once ex
tinguished, for well she knew that fur
ther application was useless.
Nor did Pat wait for further applica
tion, but, continuing to mutter his hyp
ocritical regrets, he applied the whip
to his old mare, and moved slowly
away, while the poor widow sat down
by the wayside and began to weep.
Pat had proceeded but a short dis
tance, when a gentleman, going in the
Same direction, approached the widow,
and seeing her distress inquired tho
cause.
Peggy at once told him briefly the
scene just recorded, giving an outline
of Pat's character as she proceeded.
That gentleman consoled her, saying
that perhaps Pat's mind would change,
and that the meal might be sent during
the day or evening ; and, so saying, he
hurried on in the direction Pat had
taken.
In the meantime Pat proceeded in
his okl wagon, every now and then
lashing his old mare to increase her
speed, and very necessary it was to lash
her, for net infrequently she came to a
stand until the whip and voice of her
master were called into requisition.
On one of these occasions Pat spoke
as usual to the poor creature, saying :
"Go up out iv that!" and was in the act
of applying the whip also, for the voice
alone was seldom effectual in making
her move, when the mare in a good,
rich Irish brogue, replied :
"The devil a sthir I'll do!"
It would be an act of the greatest
presumption on my part to attempt to
picture the effect this answer had on
Pat, or the terror it inspired him with.
The mare had spoken ; had absolutely
refused to go any further — could any-
thing be more appalling? — so the whip
dropped from Pat's hand, nor was ho
conscious of anything until lie foniid
himself running at the top of his speed
homeward.
It happened that the mare had
spoken at a part of the road v
there was a high fence on cither side,
which was fortunate, as otherwise, now
that she was alone, she might have
tumbled into one of the many ravines
that fringed it.
Panting for breath, Pat at lent*th
came to a pause. What was he to do ?
To proceed homo and leave tho mare
seemed foolish; to return again, and
take her in charge, he was afraid; but,
as something must be done, he decided
to return, and, keeping at a safe dis
tance, demand, or rather request, an
explanation.
Having arrived at this conclusion,
Pat again approached the mare, which
had, during his absence, been regaling
herself by the roadside, but acknowl
edged his return by looking up and ob
serving :
"So yer come back, are ye? Troth,
it's a shame for ye, so it is, to be afraid
iv yer ould sarvint that way."
This was said in a consolatory tone,
and somewhat reassured Pat, whose as
tonishment was by no means removed
thereby.
Keeping at a safe distance, and in a
very tremulous voice, Pat said :
"Will you go on for the turf now?"
intending, by thus speaking business, to
make the mare believe he was not afraid
of her, or astonished at her talk.
"Indeed I will not !" replied the mare,
"and if ye thry and make me do so by
whipping me it will be the worse for ye
— that is all. "
"And what are ye going to do?" said
Pat.
"11l tell ye that," said the mare.
"You get into the wagon, take the reins
in your hand, dhrive me home again. "
"I will," said Pat.
"Put five bags iv meal on the wagon."
"What more?" said Pat.
"Bring it to the widow," said the
mare.
"To Widow Hegarty ?"
"Yes, Widow Hegarty. n
"All right," said Pat. "Is that all?"
"No, it's not all," said the mare.
"Well, what else?"
"Tell her she is never to pay for it."
"Murdher!" said Pat. "What wud I
say that for?"
"For charity, Pat; what ye know little
about."
"But five hundhered !" said Pat, terri
fied at the idea of giving so much away
for nothing. "She only asked ne for
wan hundhered."
"No matther," said the mare. 'Give
her five."
"Five be it, then," said Pat. "Is that
•all?"
" Xo. Then take me to my stall and
give me some oats."
"I will," srid Pat.
"And thrate me better from this on."
"What way?"
"Give me a sheaf iv oats every morn
ing and a feed iv bran every night. "
"Every night?"
"Yes, every night. Do ye consult?* 5
"I do," said Pat.
"Well, then, set about it at wanst,"
resumed the mare. But I want ye to
undherstand afore we sthart, I'll be the
same good-natured old mare that I hey
always been. Do as I say, and you'll
niver hear me again."
Pat got into the wagon, drove home
again, and rather surprised Widow
Hegarty by bringing to her little cab
in no less than five hundred weight of
meal, when all she had asked was one
hundred.
On his saying he wanted no pay at
any time for it, she was still m ore sur
prised, and ever afterward was loud in
her praise of Pat Delaney, while all
others continued to despise him, as he
deserved to be despised.
Widow Hegarty got her meal, and
since Pat would take no money for it
he got what were to him, let us hope,
more serviceable; — the prayers of the
poor widow.
Nor were the other requests of the
mare unheeded. Every morning Pat
gave her the sheaf of oats, and at night
the bran, which sorely troubled his
miserly heart, and to be relieved of do
ing so he would gladly have sold her,
but his fear prevented his doing so.
He did not work her so hard, either,
since the memorable day she spoke to
him, but always treated her with great
respect.
The mare, on her part, kept her
promise. She never .again said cne
word to her master, but continued while
she lived to serve him with the most ex
emplary patience.
That the mare spoke to Pat he kept
for a time a profound secret, but by
degrees it crept out, as does every se
cret, until it was generally talked of in
the district, though few believed it.
We will say, in conclusion, that dur
ing the week the mare spoke to Pat
there was a ventriloquial entertainment
being given in the village close by, and
that it was by the ventriloquist that the
widow was consoled.
CURIOUS TRANSFORMATIONS.
The students of the school at Hamp
ton Eoads, which is doing good work in
educating Africans and Indians, have
an odd way of illustrating the meaning
of English words and phrases :
One altered a line of Gray's "Elegy,"
"Nor cast one longing, lingering look
behind," into "Nor cast one longing,
loathsome look behind," "because," he
explained, "lingering meant that they
were loath to leave."
Another, to illustrate the opposite
meanings of the affixes "pro and con,"
quite innocent of satire, suggested pro
gress and congress.
One of the colored students gave an
anatomical turn to Macanlay's stirring
verse, "And be your oriflamme to-day,
The helmet of Navarre, " by the impos
sible exhortation, "And be your dia
phragm to-day, The helmet of Na
varre."
This suggests the story of the little
girl who, in her examination paper; de
fined the diaphragm as an "important
porous tissue organ extendin' from tho
collar bone to the hips."
ABOUT STRIKES.
From the ninth annual report of the
Pennsylvania Bureau of Labor Statis
tics is taken the following summary of
154 strikes occurring in the State in
the last forty-five years. Of these 42
were of coal miners, 18 of factory opera
tives, 12 of puddlers and boilers, 9 of
laborres, and 10 of railroad employes.
There were 28 in Allegheny county, 68
in Philadelphia and 16 in Lackawanna.
The causes were: To secure better
wages, 77 ; against reduction, 42 ; to se
cure shorter days, 16 ; against the or
ganization of labor, 3 ; to enforce union
rules, 10 ; against the boss, for regular
pay, and against store orders, one each.
The result was: Successful, 45; un
successful, 66; partly successful, 11;
compromised, 13 ; result unknown, 17.
DEXOHIXATIOAS FOR 2UOXET.
In his "Thesaurus," worthy old Dr.
Eoget says it is cash, funds, bullion,
coin, dust, shiners, tin, blunt, rhino,
specie, the needful, etc. Washington
Irving canonized it as "the almighty
dollar." In slangy America it is fur
ther denominated in the bonds as cap
ital, pewter, ducats, greenbacks,
stamps, boodle, rags, shekels, brads,
hard stuff, stakes, divy, scrip, lucre,
dingbats, pocketrlining, coupons, pad
ding, soan, root-of-evil, cent-per-cent,
retainer, bar-veneer, sugar, tough-to
get, easy-to-go, sinews-of-war, letter-of
introduction, characteritest, and titles
"ad infinitum." — American Queen.
A farmer hired a harvest hand on his
assurance that he was never tired. The
same morning he found his man
stretched full length on the ground.
After the farmer had finished hi.s opin
ion of that method of harvesting, and
reminded him that he said he was nevei
timl, the ingenuous man admitted that
if he didn't lie down and rest a good
deal he would soon be as tired as the
other fellows ; and that was the only
way to keep from being so.
All the while thou livest ill thot 1
hast the trouble, distraction, inconven
iences of life, but not the sweets and
true use of it. — Fuller.
The Madagascar Times, published at
Antananarivo, the capital of that distant
island, known also as the Island of St.
Lawrence, is printed in the English,
French and native lansuases.
EGYPT.
Conic Interesting Bits of History.
[From Harper's Young People]
Egypt is the most interesting of coun
tries, because it is probably the oldest.
We borrow from it nearly all our arts
and sciences, and have only improved
upon what the Egyptians taught us.
Our alphabet and the art of writing
came from the banks of the Nile. It
was carried to Phoenicia, then to Greece
and Pton.e, and then to Europe and
America. The Egyptians invented the
lever, by which all engines are moved,
and electricity made useful. Egyptian
glass-makers, goldsmiths, painters?
weavers, builders and stone-cutters'
miners, gardeners, and even poets and
historians, have taught their arts to all
the Western nations ; Moses studied in
the Egyptian colleges, and Joseph and
his father looked upon its pyramids and
temples with wonder.
The land of Egypt is a deposit of mud
brought down by the floods of the Nile
from the mountains of Middle Africa.
Every year the river overflows its banks,
and renews the fertility of the soil by a
new deposit, and these regular inunda
tions have been so provided for by em
bankments and canals as to be seldom
dangerous. The Nile scarcely ever
sv, eeps away the flocks and harvests of
the farmers, like the Mississippi. It
would be avcll if the Mississippi could
be made as useful as the Nile.
This flat land of mod rests on rocks
and Band. On each side of it is a des
ert, bare, hot and stifling. A desert
di rides it from Asia. It is isolated from
the world, and here for several thou
sand year the Egyptian Pharaohs ruled
over an obedient people, and
their people invented and prac
ticed those useful arts which they were
afterward to teach to others. The first
King of Egypt is supposed to have been
Menes; he reigned about 3000 B. C.
Thirty-one dynasties or families of
Kings follow Menes, and the Egyptian
kingdom had lasted more than 2,500
years when it was conquered by Alex
ander the Great. The Assyrians, Per
sians and even the Ethiopians had con
quered it before, but had been driven
out by the rising of the people. For
2,000 \ears the Egyptians were free and
united. The oldest modern kingdom
counts scarcely 800 years, and our own
Government 100.
The Egyptians were a dark-colored
race, and came probably from Asia.
They lived alone upon the banks of the
Nile, shut out from the world. All
Europe was then a wilderness filled
with wild beasts and a few savage men.
All was waste and desolate. The savage
people who surrounded Egypt were like
our American Indians, ignorant and
treacherous. Had they been able they
would have broken in upon the indus
trious Egyptians, sacked and burned
their cities, and robbed thorn of all they
possessed. They would have destroyed
temples and palaces, houses and gar
dens, ships and factories, and left us
without any of the Egyptian inventions
and improvements. But fortunately
the desert and the sea for 2,000 years at
kept the savages away. The coun
try grew rich and flourishing ; the banks
of the Nile were lined with farms as fer
tile as those of Kansas or Dakota. The
wheat was full and white. The gardens
of Egypt produced beans, onions, cab
bages, and were filled with flowers.
Countless towns and cities sprang up
along the Nile. Some of them were as
large, perhaps, as Chicago or New York.
The rich land swarmed with people.
The families of the Egyptians lived in
comfortable houses; the children were
usually taught in the temples to read
and write; all were taught to work;
they were well dressed and very neat ;
and when Joseph governed the land
with discretion and good sense there
was no part of the Western world that
could equal the intelligence and civili
zation of Egypt. Its cities, temples,
palaces, farms and gardens were the
wonder of the ancient historians.
To-day Egypt is an impoverished
country, distracted by civil war. Alex
andria, once one of the most magnificent
cities of the world, lies in ashes, and
t;ie people throughout the land are
cufering all the horrors of famine
: "■;:' . l their plundered and ruined
<s. Long ages of misrule and ig
: vmcc have brought the fruitful and
•. spcrons land to this terrible condi
ti:u. In the days of Joseph the armies
'• F/Tvpt might have withstood the
.'(•rid. Now the conqueror is at her
• ■ s. ill.. oiuer rages within, and peace
:•> verity can return to her bor-
1 1 •>••-. only under the protection of a
i'oieign power.
MOTHER.
"But, after all, she used to be good
bo us."
It v. as a son who said this of his
->:>*;>.;•. whom some nervous malady had
overtaken, and who was certainly a very
>«:vi:-.n.s trial to her family.
Tlie young iron's life, too, wa-s a weary
nn i i. He was a" clerk' on a salary. He
vrrti hard-worked through the day, and
it v.v, depressing to go home at night
to fault-lidding and to fretfulness. .
E.trder stfll was it to sleep, as thi3
pon tlid, wedk after week and month
:».": ■<: month, with all his senses half
i&Tiie, that he might hear his mother's
:' ■tip; if they passed his door, and
Unrry after her to keep her from wan
ilericg out into the night alone, as her
melancholy half-madness often led her
I".) try to do.
Strangely enough she had turned
against her husband and her daughters.
Only this one son had any power to per
snade her for her good. His work by
day and his vigils by night wore on him
sorely, but he never complained.
One day his sisters asked him how he
could bear it and be always patient,
when she— mother though she was — was
in the house only as a presence of gloom
and foreboding and unrest. And tha
answer came :
"But, after all, she used to be good
to aw."
And Kien the thoughts of all the
group went back to the years before
this nervous prostration came upon her
— when she had nursed them in illness
Bad potted them in childhood — when
she had boon "good to them," one and
dl.
"I know," the boy said, thoughtfully,
a tli»t I was a nervous, uncomfortable
child myself the first three years of my
life. Father said he thought they'd
never raise me, but mother said, ' Yes,
she would;' and she tended me day and
night for three years, till I began to get
strong like the rest cf you. I owe her
those three years, anyhow."
And so lie girded himself afresh for
his struggle. It will not last forever.
T: re are signs which the doctors can
recognize that the cloud is lifting some
what, and no doubt before long she
will be her old self again. And then
v.ill couio her son's reward. He will
feel that he has paid a little of the debt
Ik- owed to the love that watched over
his weak babyhood.
To many mothers, worn by long care,
such years of melancholy and nervous
tration must come. And the sons
an 1 daughters who find their homes
saddened by such a sorrow should lov
ingly remember the days in which they
were helpless and mother was "good to
them." — Youth's Companion.
FEMALE FARM HANDS.
Astonishing Evidence Elicited at a Parlia-
mentary Inquiry.
[From the New York Times.]
Americans visiting some parts of Eu
rope are apt to be shocked by the labor
imposed upon women, who work in the
lields, load dung carts and sometimes
harnessed with a dog help to draw their
produce to market. But very often
"things are not what they seem" in this
matter more than in any other. A re
markable illustration of the attraction
that field labor has was afforded some
years ago in England. A contractor for
various kinds of agricultural work
formed a gang of young women whom
he took from place to place in the East
ern counties to perform hedging, ditch
ing and draining for farmers. This went
on for several years, until at length the
rumors of the evils from it assumed so
«erio«is a character as to result in a Par
liamentary inquiry. The evidence was
remarkable. It all went to show that
the women positively delighted in
this free, active and nomadic life, and
one of its chief charms was the aston
: 3 health end strength they attained.
: limbs became muscular, they
I: 1 tho digestion of ostriches, and
and pains wers unknown to
. b 1 •:. enjoyed the
most exq data of nil human sensations
— perfect health. How many American
■ lat for even five years of
their lives after 15? The other side to
: matter was that the moral well
f these agricultural Amazons was
a a par with the physical.
I'oro children whom they regarded
;: i xn in tolerable incumbrance, inasmuch
as they kept their mothers from work,
and, consequently, it was ascertained by
a volume of evidence, put these children
out to nurse. The nurse with whom
most children died was the prime favor
ite, and a significant feature in the evi
dence was that of druggists, who testi
fied to the enormous consumption in the
district of those soothing sirups which
so effectually succeed in soothing in
fants out of their existence. It was in
view of the dreadful infant mortality
that Parliament interfered and sup
pressed the gang system. But the case
of the German, Flemish or Dutch wom
en who help husband or father in his
fields, is not open to this objection. If
the labor be not excessive it is desirable.
It produces the strong, hardy women
who rear a stalwart race. Half the fine
ladies who now find a few turns on a
piazza ulmost too much for them would
bo all the better for a graduated scale
ox garden work. Beginning with a
quarter of an hour a day, they would
find at the close of a month that they
could easily do their two hours, and
that they r.te and slept as they had
never done before, while they forgot
that such evils as blue devils and nerves
had any existence.
A QUEER MODE OF SELF-DEFENSE.
Oddest of all defensive methods is
that off snapping off the tail. The
blind worm, or slow worm, is a little
snake-like lizard common in the Old
"World. "When alarmed it contracts its
muscles in such manner and degree as
to break its tail off at a considerable
distance from the end. But how can
this aid it? The detached tail then
dances about very lively, holding the
attention or the offender, while the
lizard himself slinks away. And for a
considerable time . the tail retains its
capability of twisting and jumping every
time i- is struck. The lizard will then
grow another tail, so as to be prepared
for another adventure. There are other
lizards which have a similar power,
though in less degree. Popular Sci
ence Monthly.
Talk about "unkissed kisses" and
"unthunk thoughts." It is unvoted
votes that make half the mischief in pol
itics.New Haven Register.
FARM AND HOME.
Farm, Makings.
The brown or rusty orange is sweeter
and can be kept longer than the bright
fruit.
Sorghum seed is teadily eaten by
poultry, and is better for small chick
ens than corn.
Buckwheat given to hens makes the
yelk of their eggs a very bight yellow.
More corn will increase the color.
Two cows well sheltered in winter will
produce more milk and butter than will
three who have no shelter, though no
more than half the feed required for the
three should be given the two.
In some parts of Southern Illinois
vegetables are raised in advance of the
season in open ground by conducting
heated air or steam in pipes running at
some distance under the surface of the
earth.
There is a large demand for good
road and carriage horses. Farmers who
have sound, well-bred, stylish animals,
from fifteen and a half to sixteen hands
high, are receiving good prices for
them.
Notwithstanding the stringent meas
ures adopted by Great Britain to extir
pate pleuro-pneumonia and foot and
mouth disease, outbreaks of both of
these contagious diseases are not in
frequent.
Henry Quiuby, of the Western New
York Farmers' Club, thinks that a 100
--acre farm will produce more with ono
fif th of it judiciously planted to timber
than if the whole surface were kept
under the plow.
A New Jersey farmer reports that a
dressing of eight bushels per acre of
salt to land badly infested with white
grubs enabled him to raise good crop 3
for three years past, which was impos
sible previous to this application.
By all means, says the American Bee
Journal, kee-keepers should provide for
the future by planting honey-producing
trees. One of the best is the basswood.
Do not let a spring pass without doing
something in the line of providing for
the future in this way.
"H. G." sends the Cultivator and
Country Gentleman a cure for kicking
cows, as follows : "Take a rope or strap
long enough to go around her body, put
it around just behind her forelegs ; tie
or buckle it, then take a stick one or
two feet loDg, put it through under the
strap and twist it tight. It is a sura
cure."
J. N. Nixon, of Warsaw, 111., cleared
his orchard of canker-worms by
spraying the trees once with a solution
made as follows, according to the Far
mers' Review, and applied with a force
pump: "He boiled six pounds of arsenic
in sixty gallons of water to dissolve it,
and then reduced it to one pound in 150
gallons."
The New England Homestead puts
forth the following potato notes: "The
Burbank Seedling potato is 'soggy' al
though a great yielder. It will have to
'step down and out.' I planted some
Magnum Bonum potatoes last spring
and they yielded twice as much as the
Early Eose, Tha quality 13 as good
and they are perfectly free from rot."
Tun Cultivator and Country Gentle
man says of seeding with oats : "Seed
ing with cats is quite uncertain, and
often fails unless the quantity of oats
sown is small. By using one bushel or
less of oats to the acre, the success is
fair, but not so good as sowing the clov
er seed with a rather thin crop of spring
wheat. Winter rye is the best crop with
which to sow grass seed."
Marshal P. Wilder, the veteran
horticulturist, thinks the statement that
the Franconia raspberry is unproductive
is a mistake, and says that many of the
so-called Franconias are not the true
sort. He adds that it is not judicious
to plant a new variety where a previous
bed of raspberries has stood, for the
roots of the old kind sometimes remain
in the ground and come up again.
The London Livestock Journal gives
two methods of starting a balky horse I
" First, tire your steed out by remain
ing perfectly quiet until he starts of his
own accord. Second, when a horse re
fuses to draw at all, put him in a cart
in a shed and keep him there until he
walks out. In one instance the obsti
nate one was thirty hours in the shafts
before he gave in."
Quinby, the well-known writer on bee
culture, says of catnip for bees : "I*
there is any article that I would culti
vate especially for honey, it would be
catnip. I find nothing to surpass it.''
This is high authority, and ought to en
title this common but little-utilized pro
duct of nature to a place among the val
uable things of the farm. It is but an
other instance that goes to show that
our people fail to utilize the native re
sources of their farms as they should,
They have not learned the value of the
things they tread upon and often ruth,
lessly destroy.
Although garden seeds, originally
good and carefully preserved, will often
germinate and grow at a much-greater
age than that given in the following
table, their vitality is likely to be more
or less impaired, as proved by practical
experiment, which has fixed upon the
figures cited as covering in years the
limit of safety : Beans, 2; beet, 5; cab
bage, 4; carrot, 2; cauliflower, 3; cel
ery, 3; corn, 2; egg plant, 2; cucumber,
5; lettuce, 3; melon, 5 ; onion, 2 ; pars
ley, 3; parsnip, 1; peas (round), 2; peas
(wrinkled), 1; pepper, 2; pumpkin, 4; rad
ish, 4; squash, 5; spinach, 2; tomato, 5;
turnip, 5; salsify, 2.
An exchange gives the following state
ment of an orchard successfully past
ured by sheep and hogs : " The orchard
cccuuies thirty-two acres, and is made
the run of thirty hogs and 150 or 200
sheep and lambs during the summer.
Enough grain or bran are given them to
place them in good condition. They eafc
every blade of grass and green things
close down, and every fallen apple as
soon as dropped, for which purpose
cheep are better than hogs, which sleep
so soundly as not to hear an apple fall,
but sheep are always on hand and de
vour everything as soon as it touches
the ground. The fruit each year grows
fairer, with fewer wormy specimens,
and the manure, from feeding so much
grain, has given a healthy growth to
the trees. To prevent the animal gnaw
ing the bark tho trunk is washed over
once a month with a mixture of seap
suds, whale oil and sheep manure."
Domestic Economy.
Crullers. — Three eggs, three table
spoonfuls melted butter, six table-spoon
fuls sugar, a piece of soda the size of a
pea ; mix soft with flour ; cut and fry
in hot lard.
Tea Cakf. — Break two eggs in a cup ;
fill this with thick cream ; add one cup
of sugar, one teaspoonful cream tartar,
one-half teaspoonful soda, one-half cup
flour ; flavor to taste.
Broytn Bread. — One cup sour milk,
two cups sweet milk, three cups corn
meal, one cup flour, one-half cup mo
lasses, two teaspoonf uls soda ; steam two
hours ani bake half an hour.
Ginger Cake. — Three cups of mo
lassos, one cup of sour milk, not quite a
cup of butter, ono teaspoonful of salera
tus, one teaspoonful of ginger, some
nutmeg and orange peel.
SncE Cakes. — Spice cakes to servo
with coffee are made of one pound of
sugar, four eggs, ona teaspoonful each
of cloves, connamon, nutmeg and a pinch
of pepper. Stir in flour enough to mako
dough which can be rolled out ; cut out
with a plain cookey cutter; let them stand
for from ten to twelve hours ; then bake.
King George's Pudding:. — One pint of
bread crumbs, half a pint flour, tea
spoonful of baking powder sifted in the
flour, a little salt, half a pound of raisins,
quarter of a pound of currants, quarter
of a pound of chopped suet, coffee-cupful
of milk, one egg ; tie tightly in a bag
and boil three hours ; to be eaten with
hard sauce.
Chocolate Caramels. — Take one
cupful of molasses, one of sweet milk,
half a cupful of grated chocolate, a
piece of butter the sise of an English
walnut. Boil all together, stirring con
stantly as it boils, for twenty or twenty
five minutes. Try it on snow or ice ; if
stiff enough, turn into buttered tins and
mark into small squares so that they Avill
break apart when cold.
White Cream Candy.— Ono pint of
boiling water, two cupfuls of granulated
sugar. Boil all together for twenty min
utes, adding two table- spoonfuls of
cider vinegar when it is put over the.
fire. Try it on ice or snow ; if not brit
tle enough boil a little longer. Let it
cool in a buttered pan till in condition
to pull ; add vanilla, one or tv/o tal >!e-
Bpoonfuls. Pull very white ; cut in sticks,
and keep in a cold room till next day.
Layer Tea Cake.— Bub one cup of
sugar and one- half cup of butter to a
cream ; add the well-beaten whites of
three eggs, half a cup of sweet milk, two
cups of flour — not heaping cups, but
just even full — one teaspoonful of bak
ing powder. Bake in two layers in a
hot oven for fifteen minutes. For tho
frosting use the yelks of the three eggs,
stir in a cup of pulverized sugar, one
teaspoonful of vanilla ; beat for fifteen
minutes ; then spread between the lay
ers and on the top and sides of the cake.
Rye Bread. — Take two cups of Indian
meal ; make in a thick batter with scald
ing water ; when cool add a small cup of
white bread sponge, a little sugar and
salt and a teaspoonful of soda, dis
solved. In this stir as much rye as is
possible with a spoon ; let it rise until it
is very light, then work in with your
hand as much rye as you can, but da
not knead it, as that will make it hard ;
put it in buttered bread-tins and let it
rise for about fifteen minutes, then bake
for an hour and a half, cooling the oven
gradually for the last twenty minutes.
THE FIGURE *'. 14" AUD LOUIS XIV.
Louis XrV. was King of France. It
is a singular fact that if you want to
recollect the prominent events of his
life, all you have to do is to resolve the
dates at which they took place into the
figure 14. Thus, Louis XIV. became
King in 1643; 1, 6, 4, 3, equals 14.
Again, he was born on the 14th day of
September; count the letters in the
words "day of September " and you will
find them to be 14. Again, he became
of age at 14, the legal age for Kings of
France. Again, he began his personal
government, at the death of Mazarin, in
1661 ; 1, 6, 6, 1, equals 14. Again he
reigned 72 years ; multiply 7 by 2,
equals 14. Again, he died at 77 ; 7 and
7 equals 14. Again, his father, Louis
XITL died May 14, 1643.; 1, 6, 4, 3,
equals 14. His grandfather, Henry IV
died May 14. • Louis XIV. died in 1451,
and so kept the 14 up even to his death,
for 1, 7, 5, 1, equals 14. ~ ■ ."/
IMMATERIAT.
"Don't you have any bgLlOols here?"
"Had a kind of Bcnool here last chow
; der season, but the teacher was too
willing."
"How so?"
"Oh. some of the bine fishers asked
him it' he taught that the world was
round or square, and he : aid r.xljx' as
be was outer, a job he'd teach har round
or sijiwre— just as the .School' Board
vvnv,tt\l i: teacbed. S:ti ii: was iiuina
h-rial." —Km York Star
There are epidemics 01 noblpneas v\
well as epidemics of diaease. — Frond*. .
