XL] CONCLUSION. 



while there are ahvays some red ears^ as the 

 Americans call them, in a field of corn ; if you 

 plant the red grain, the fruit will not he red, 

 except in the usual proportion . The variety of 

 colours is, however, attended with one very de- 

 lightful circumstance, to young people in par- 

 ticular. All those who are not naturally fond 

 of work (and that seldom happens to young- 

 people), like to work in company; and it is the 

 fashion with the American farmers to call the 

 husking " a frolic.^' The cunning fellows know, 

 that if they were to call dancing ivork, it would 

 be a pretty hard matter to get a party together. 

 There can be no other reason than this for all 

 the families of a whole neighbourhood collecting 

 together, to husk farmer Jonathan's corn 

 to-night, and farmer Eeenezer's to-morrow 

 night, and so on; for, it is as plain as the 

 nose on your face, that twenty families would do 

 the same work in twenty nights, each family 

 sticking to their own corn. Long-headed far- 

 mers know that they would not stick to it, and, 

 therefore, they resort to this svstem of frolics ; 

 and I dare say that the same will be done in Eng- 

 land after a little time. Young women and their 

 sweethearts do not think about toping, and yet 

 there must be something to amuse, something to 

 prevent the mind from entertaining the gloomy idea 

 that this is work. The red ears come very op- 



