DESCRIPTION, HISTORY, [Chap. 



whicli I did, for the first time, at the house of a 

 farmer, of the name of Smith, who had come 

 from Rhode Island, who was a loyal man, had 

 left the rebels in the United States, and who 

 had, in my esteem, the additional recommenda- 

 tion of having brought a very pretty and gay 

 daughter along with him ; when I came to go to 

 this husking frolic^ I found that the husk con- 

 sisted of the delicate leaves which envelop the 

 ears of corn ; and since that time I have seen 

 scores of waggon loads of ears in their green 

 state, with the husks on, for sale in the markets 

 of Philadelphia and New York. Now, then, 

 I understand why the man brought from Baal- 

 shalisha full ears of corn in the husks, and why 

 it was that he tendered them to the people that 

 they might eat. 



17. I had met with another stumbling block, 

 in the 24th verse of the 24th chapter of Job, 

 where it is said, that the wicked, though they 

 flourish and hold up their heads for a while, are 

 '' cut off as the tops of the ears of the corn." This 

 puzzled me exceedingly. I wondered how it 

 could possibly be the custom in any country to 

 clip off the tops of the ears of the corn when it 

 was standing ; and it must have been the custom, 

 or else this simile could not have been made use 

 of. What a strange people it must have been, 

 I said to myself, to be in the habit of cutting off 



