36 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



It is not altogether cleanly to use one s knife to scrape 

 boots, to cut harness, to skin cats, to cut tobacco, and then 

 to cut apples which other people are to eat. 



It is an unthrifty trick to bring in eggs from the barn in 

 one s coat pocket, and then to sit down on them. 



It is a filthy trick to borrow of or lend for others use, a 

 tooth-brush, or a tooth-pick ; to pick one s teeth at table 

 with a fork, or a jack-knife ; to put your hat upon the din 

 ner table among the dishes ; to spit generously into the fire, 

 or at it, while the hearth is covered with food set to warm ; 

 for sometimes a man hits what he don t aim at. 



It is an unmannerly trick to neglect the scraper outside 

 the door, but to be scrupulous in cleaning your feet aftei* 

 you get inside, on the carpet, rug, or andirons; to bring 

 your drenched umbrella into the entry, where a black 

 puddle may leave to the housewife melancholy evidence 

 that you have been there. 



It is soul-trying for a neat dairy woman to see her &quot;man&quot; 

 watering the horse out of her milk-bucket ; or filtering 

 horse-medicine through her milk-strainer ; or feeding his 

 hogs with her water-pail ; or, after barn-work, to set the 

 well-bucket outside the curb and wash his hands out of it. 



ELECTRO-CULTURE. 



A FEW years ago, all the world was agog about electri 

 city applied to vegetation. Sanguine persons grew red in 

 the face with excitement, and enterprising schemers hoped 

 to supersede all past processes of culture by this magical 

 fluid. Things were to be made to grow not only as fast as 

 lightning but by lightning. Those mischievous bolts which 

 had played their dangerous pranks with chimneys, oaks, 

 and towers, were to be regularly harnessed and set to 

 work in the field like horses or oxen. Many of our readers 



