Clearing Up 



died of consumption, and some of fever ; 

 but the survivors are growing tall and 

 stout on their poor pickings, and will do 

 us credit yet. 



There is one of them, nicknamed Epis- The history 

 copus, from its birthplace in the church 

 lot, which is a beautiful illustration of 

 that fable called Nature and Education, 

 in " Evenings at Home," a book which 

 was the delight of the childhood of a pre- 

 vious generation, and an infinite bore to 

 the present advanced infant. 



I spied the poor thing one day hanging 

 by one root to the side of a sandhill, which 

 was being graded to a smooth slope, and 

 asked the men who were working there to 

 let me have it. Though much ridiculed 

 for its shapeless and unpromising aspect, 

 it was given a comfortable shelf pretty 

 well down on the slope, and coaxed to 

 hold its head up by various devices. Un- 

 used to kind treatment, this wayside waif, 

 which had got used to growing nearly up- 

 side down, hung its head and sidled up 

 against the hill, and seemed to find its 

 branches as much in its way as the legs 

 and arms of a guttersnipe in a parlor ; but 

 45 



