192 



tSE CANADIAN SORTICULTUElST. 



DEACON DAY AND THE HIGHWAY 

 COW. 



The best o' bein's will hev their cares — 

 There's alwus somethin' to cross our way, 

 To worry and fret us in our affairs — 

 An' sech wus the lot o* old Deacon Day ; 

 He had his trials — I'll tell you how 

 He was tempted an' tried by a highway coW. 



The hue o' her hide wus a dusky brown : 

 Her body was lean, an' her neck was slim; 

 One horn turned up, and the other down ; 

 She wus sharp o' sight, and wus long o* limb, 

 With a peaked nose, and a short stump tail, 

 And ribs like the hoops on a home-made pail. 



Many a day hed she passed in pounds 



Ji*ur meanly helpin' herself to corn. 



Many a cowardly cur and hound 



Had been transfixed by her crumpled horn, 



Many a tea-pot and old tin pail 



Had the farm boys tied to her stumpy tail. 



Old Deacon Day was a pious man, 



A frugal farmer, upright and plain ; 



And many a weary mile he ran 



To drive her out o' his growin' grain. 



Sharp were the pranks that she used to play 



To git her fill and to git away. 



He used to sit on the Sabbath day 

 With his open Bible upon his knee, 

 Thinkin' o' loved ones far away, 

 In the better land that he longed to see- 

 When a distant beller, borne thro* the air, 

 Would bring him back to this world o' care. 



When the Deacon went to his church in town, 



She watched and waited till he went by, 



He never passed her without a frown, 



And an evil gleam in each angry eye. 



He would crack his whip and would holler " Whay" 



Ez he drove along in his " one-hoss shay." 



Then at the homestead she loved to call, 

 Liftin' his bars with her crumpled horn, 

 Nimbly seal in' his garden wall, 

 Helpin' herself to his standin' com, 

 Eatin' his cabbages one by one— 

 Scamperin' h(»me when her meal was done 



Off'en the Deacon homeward came, 

 Hummin' a hymn from the house of prayer. 

 His kindly heart in a tranquil frame. 

 His soul ez calm ez the evenin' air, 

 His forehead smooth ez a well worn plough- 

 To find in his garden that highway cow. 



Over his garden, round and round, 

 Breakin' his pear and apple trees, 

 Trampin' his melons into the ground, 

 Tippin' over his hives of bees. 

 Levin' him angry and badly stung, 

 Wishin' the old cow's neck was wrung. 



The mosses grew on the garden wall ; 

 The years went by, with their work and play ; 

 The boys of the village grew strong and tall. 

 And the gray-haired farmers dropped away. 

 One by one ez the red leaves fall- 

 But the liighway cow outlived them all. 



The things we hate are the last to fade. 



Some cares are lengthened through many years ; 



The death of the wicked seems long delayed, 



But there is a climax to all careers. 



And the highway cow at last was slain 



In runnin' a race with a railway train. 



All to pieces at once she went, 

 Just like a savin's bank when they fail ; 

 Out of the world she was swiftly sent, 

 Leetle was left but her own stump tail. 

 The farmers' gardens and corn fields now 

 Are haunted no more by the highway cow. 



Eugenie J. Hall. 



Lemon Ice. — Soak half of one box of 

 gelatine in a pint of cold water, put it in 

 a porcelain kettle, pour on nearly one pint 

 of boiling water ; when the gelatine is 

 dissolved, put in two-thirds of a coffee-cup 

 of white sugar and a half a coffee-cup 

 lemon sugar boiling long enough to make 

 jelly ; remove from the fire, then pour in, 

 slowly, three beaten yolks of eggs, the 

 whites of the eggs beaten to a froth ; 

 flavor with two teaspoonfuls extract lemon ; 

 pour into a mold and set to cool. This 

 IS a delicious desert, nourishing and relish- 

 able for the convalescing siok. 



Fences. — According to the Prairie 

 Farmer, 40 rods of rail fence, in con- 

 struction and repairs, costs in 11 years 

 (after which it is supposed to be worn 

 out), together with 5 per cent, interest, 

 $110. Board fence, 40 rods as above, 

 costs $80. Hedge fence, 40 rods as above, 

 $164. Steel wire netting, 40 rods as 

 above, $73 85. In our opinion, 100 acres 

 will require about 500 rods of fence, cost- 

 ing here nearly $1,000, besides occupying 

 considerable soil. The interest on the 

 $1,000, the annual cost of repairs, the use 

 of the waste land, and the excess of feed 

 secured by mowing one's pasturing, will 

 much more than pay the wages of help to 

 care for stock kept in stables and yards. 

 We consider farm fences a relic of bar- 

 barism, and confidently look forward to 

 the time when our farms will be made 

 conspicuously attractive by their absence. 

 A fenced yard or field cannot be made so 

 attractive as one unfenced, though mil- 

 lions are invested. They are ruinously 

 expensive to farmers, are perpetual abomi- 

 nation, and should be converted to ashes, 

 in which form they can accomplish some 

 good. Of all fences, the stone wall is the 

 most vexatious. Every passing hunter sets 

 it crumbling as he scrambles over, and 

 when in ruins what shall be done ? If you 

 don't want the fence again it is worse than 

 the old man of the sea who clung so per- 

 sistently to the back of Sinbad, the Sailor. 



PRINTED AT THE STEAM PRESS ESTABLISHMENT OF COFP, CLARK ft CO., COLBORNE 8TREF.T, TORONTO. 



