USES TO WHICH [Chap, 



the fable-poetj talks cf the carrier who " heard 

 his horses grind with pleasure ;" and it is very 

 pleasant to the owner, to hear them grind 

 heartily and nimbly ; but, I think it is still 

 pleasanter to hear the sheep cracking and grind- 

 ing corn. You scarcely hear the hog at it 5 but 

 a hundred sheep eating corn, is, I think, the most 

 pleasant music that ever met the ear of man. An 

 old farmer in Hampshire, who was very rich, 

 and v/hose silly neighbours were persuadin.g him 

 to have his daughter taught music, said " Na I 

 talk of muzic indeed ; gi me two flails and a 

 cuckoo." I dare say, that this saying was as 

 old as the English language. The two flails 

 make a very pretty sound at all times. The 

 voice of the harbinger of summer is also delight- 

 ful ; but, here was the idea of wealth most aptly 

 associated with that of pleasant sounds. The 

 cuckoo never comes until old May-day, and, two 

 flails going in the same barn at that time of the 

 year, indicates that there is a good store of grain 

 in the barn at that distance from the preceding 

 harvest, and that, therefore, the farmer is rich. I 

 like two flails and a cuckoo very well, and they 

 have charmed my heart many and many a time, 

 even when I was a little boy ; but, to hear the 

 sheep grind, in their troughs in the field, while the 

 cuckoo is singing over their heads, is as pleasant 

 to hear, and in this case the thought of the dila- 

 pidations of the rats and mice in the barn, do not 



