California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



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Mollie's Troubles. 



AM little Mollie, 



Eit^ht years old to-day. 

 Never have done nofliQ' 



Only juHt to play; 

 Grau'iiia Ba.vB that idleness 



W'uihfi St kind o' sin; 

 Got to learn to work, I s'pose, 



Might as well hegin. 



So I hemmed a towel — 



Real well, mamma said — 

 Had a dre'l'ul time, though, 



Losin' out my thread; 

 For sonielin' ailed the needle. 



Don't know "zaely what. 

 Till mamma took and tied it 



In a little knot. 



Don't like hemmin' towels, 



"I'aint a bit of tun; 

 I was dre'ful thanklul 



When the thing was done. 

 'Cause then I sewed for dolly — 



Made a little dress. 

 And made it just as nice, too, 



Ab you couid, 1 guess. 



Made it wiz two ruffles, 



Overskirt and bnsiiue! 

 Now, what more, I wonder. 



Could a dolly ask; 

 *Twa8 much more iuterestin* 



Thau hemmin' towels, too — 

 I wonder why the good things 



Are so hard to do ? 



Then I pared some apples, 



Heliiiu' Kate, the eook; 

 Then I read my lessnu 



In the old spelliu' book. 

 Now, spelliu' books are awful 



Everybody knows; 

 Just matle to try our patience — 



Good for that I s'poso. 



"When night comes, I often 



Hear my mamma say: 

 *' Didn't 'sp(;ct,this moruin'. 



Such a busy day. 

 Seems to me I never had 



Quite so much to do." 

 Tell you I can sympatize^ 



Feel just that way, too, 



How a Lad Wheeled Himself Into 

 Fortune and Influence. 



At a meeting of the stockhokltTS of a prom- 

 inent railway corporation, recently held in 

 Boston, there were present two gentlemen, 

 both up in years, one, however, considerably 

 the senior of the other. In talking of the old 

 times gone by, the younger gentleman called 

 the attention of his friends, and told a ple;ts- 

 ant little story, which should be re:id with 

 l)rofit by every poor, industrious and striving 

 hid. We use his own language: 



" Nearly half a century ago, gentlemen, I 

 was put upon the world to make my own liv- 

 ing. I was stout, willing and able, consider- 

 ing my tender years, and secured a place in 

 a hardware store, to do all sorts of chores re- 

 quired. I was paid seveuty-tive dollars per 

 year for my services. One day, after I had 

 been at work three months or more, my friend 

 there, Mr. B., who h(jlds his age remarkably 

 well, came into the store and bought a large 

 bill of shovels and tongs, sad-irons and pans, 

 buckets, scrapers and scuttles, for he was to 

 be married next day, and was supplying his 

 household in advance, as was the groom's 

 custom in those days. The articles were 

 packed on a barrow, and made a load suffi- 

 cieutly heavy for a young mule. But, more 

 willing than able, I started oti', proud that I 

 could move such a mass on the wheelbarrow. 

 I got on remarkably well till I struck the mud 

 road, now Seventh Avenue, leading to my 

 friend B.'s house. There I toiled and tugged, 

 and tugged and toiliul, and could not budge 

 the load up the hill, the wheel going its full 

 half diameter in the mud every time I would 

 try to propel it forward. Finally a good-natured 

 Irishman passing by with a dray took my 

 barrow, self and all on his vehicle, and in 

 consideration of my promise to pay him a 

 'bit,' landed me iit my de.stin;dion. 



"I counted the iirtieles carc'fully as I deliv- 

 ered them, and with my empty barrow trudged 



my way back, whistling with glee over my 

 triumph over difficulty. Some weeks after I 

 paid the Irishman the 'bit,' and never got it 

 back from my emi)loyers. (Mr. B., I am 

 sure, would have remunerated me, but he 

 never before heard this story; so if he is in- 

 clined, he can compromise the debt by send- 

 ing me a bushel of his rare rijje peaches next 

 Fall.) But to the moral. A merchant had 

 witnessed my struggles, and how zealously I 

 labored to deliver that load of hardware; he 

 even watched me to the house, and saw me 

 count each piece as I lauded it in the door- 

 way. He sent for me the next day, asked my 

 name, told me he had a reward for my indus- 

 try and cheerfulness under difficulty, in the 

 shape of a five hundred dollar clerkship in his 

 establishment. I accepted, and now, after 

 nearly half a centui-y has passed, I look back 

 and say I wheeled myself into all I own, for 

 that reward of jjerseverance was my grand 

 stepping-stone to fortune." 



The speaker was a very wealthy banker, a 

 man of influence and position, and one uni- 

 versally respected for many good qualities of 

 head and heart. Boys, take a moral from 

 this story,' and be willing and industrious. 

 'You do not know how many eyes are upon 

 you to discover whether you are sluggish and 

 careless, or indirstrious and willing, or how 

 many there are who, if you are moral and 

 worthy, will give you a stepping-stoue to 

 wealth and i^osition. — Arthur's Magazine. 



Silk-Lined House. — I heard too little boys 

 down by the brook to-day, talking about their 

 fathers' houses, and boasting how grand they 

 were. Johnny said his house had a velvet 

 carpet in the parlor, and lace curtains at the 

 windows. Willie said his house had splendid 

 glass chandeliers, that sparkleil like diamonds; 

 and the walls were beautifully painted. I 

 thought I would like to tell them about a 

 house very much more wonderful than those 

 they lived in, because it is built by a small in- 

 fect. 



This house is made by a kind of spider that 

 lives in California, and is called the mason- 

 spider. His house is very marvelous for such 

 a little fellow to make all by himself, without 

 any hammer, or saw, or trowel, or axe, or 

 nails, or plaster, or any such things as men 

 use in building; and yet his mansion is fit for 

 a little queen; for it is Uned throughout with 

 white silk! 



This spider's house is nearly as large as a 

 hen's egg, and is built of a sort of red clay, 

 almost as handsome as the brown stone they 

 are so proud of in New York city. It is cy- 

 lindrical in shajie. The top opens with a 

 little trap-door, which is fastened with a hinge, 

 and shuts of itself. The door and inside are 

 lined with the most delicate white silk, finer 

 than the costliest dress ever worn by a lady. 



Mr. Spider builds his house in some crevice 

 or bores a cylindrical hole in the clay, so that 

 all is concealed from view except this tiny 

 trap-door. AVhen he sees an enemy approach- 

 ing, ho runs quickly to his silk-lined house, 

 swings open the little door, goes in, and, as 

 the door shuts tightly after him, holds it 

 firmly by placing his claws in two openings in 

 the white-silk lining of the door, just large 

 enough to admit his little hands or feet, 

 which ever you choose to call them; and hero 

 nestled in this luxurious retreat, he bids defi- 

 ance to all intrudefs. 



I heard all about this spider from a gentle- 

 man who had been to C;ilifornia, and who 

 had brought home one of these red-clay, silk- 

 lined houses. He was showing it to some 

 children as they were widking near me. I 

 wish you all could have seen it. — St. Nicholas. 



The Agricultural Society of Franco has of- 

 fered prizes of 100(1 frames ($'200) each for 

 the best method of artificial irrigation, lOr 

 the best means of destroying the l^hyliitxera 

 vastalrix, for the best econtmiical means of 

 utilizing the beet root and its products, and 

 for the educatiouid establishment which shall 

 have t;iken the best means to instruct in agri- 

 culture and horticulture. 



Mole and Toads. 



The mole is a much abused animal. He is 

 generally believed to be a vegetarian, but, on 

 the contrary, he is carnivorous, living upon 

 the larva or grubs of winged insects or upon 

 insects whose proj^er habitat is in the earth. 

 We have never detected a mole eating a plant, 

 but in evei-y case where the plant has been 

 under-run by the mole and consequently 

 wilted, we have found that its roots had been 

 previously eaten off by the larva of the cock- 

 chafer (June bug) or by some other insect. 

 Friend in the country, whom we visited dur- 

 ing the Summer, complained of the havoc 

 made by moles in a large bed of lilies. On 

 examination we found scores of the shoots of 

 the lilies, wilting and dying on the rows, 

 which had been under-run by the moles. 

 These shoots were found gnawed off, and in 

 a manner to indicate, beyond doubt, that they 

 were destroyed by the grub or the larva of the 

 cockchafer, and not by the moles. The bulbs, 

 jjlanted six or more inches deep, were un- 

 touched, and the burrows of the moles were 

 not more than three or four inches below the 

 surface of the soil. Searching in other parts 

 of the bed we found grubs busily at work — 

 the bed, part of a freshly tumed-under. piece 

 of grass laud, being full of them, as such 

 land is always sure to be. 



The mole, by burrowing about in our gar- 

 dens in search of his food, often does much 

 mischief by running under small, freshly set 

 out plants; but we have the choice of two 

 evils — the bearing with the small amount of 

 injury he does, or bearing the far greater an- 

 noyance and injury produced by grubs and 

 worms. His ijresence is a sure sign that our 

 gardens are, or have been, infested with these. 

 The accusation that he is a vegetable eater is 

 a curious instance of jumping to conclusions 

 and of the making of reliable evidence out of 

 mere coincidences. Because plants are found 

 gnawed through and die when over his bur- 

 row, it is concluded that he is the cause, 

 whereas he was only destroying the destroyer 

 — rendering a service instead of doing an in- 

 jury- 



The toad — almost universally despised and 

 upbraided for his ugliness — is, yet, a useful, 

 good-natured, quiet fellow, who recognizes 

 his friends and those who are kind to him. 

 We have some half dozen of them inoiu- small 

 garden, and among them one old patriarch 

 who, when we are digging or hoeing, will sit 

 winking and blinking at us with his pretty 

 eyes, and often compel us to lift or drive him 

 aside to get him out of harm's way. He will 

 stay by us for hours, evidently feehng that he 

 need fear no hurt. Like the sparrow, the toad 

 has been considered a nuisance, and in some 

 sections extei-minated; but the exterminators 

 have been only too glad, afterwai'ds, to get 

 him back by the expenditure of large sums of 

 money. So useful are toads in gardens that 

 they are sold in France by the dozen, for the 

 purpose of stocking gardens to free them 

 from many injurious insects. The toad lives 

 almost entirely on winged insect, and never 

 does harm to the plant. 



We trust thiit our readers ■will accept this 

 jilea for these useful laborers in our gardens, 

 and not destroy them on false accusation. By 

 observing their habits closely and discerningly 

 it will be found that they are friends, and 

 neither enemies nor intruders. The ant eats 

 the eggs of insects; the mole larva, and the 

 toad the winged insect itself.- — American Gar- 

 di-n. 



Drilling Wheat. — The Ainericnn Aariciil- 

 lurlst says every year's experience is in favor 

 of drilling wheat. It shows more and more 

 that, as against sowing the seed broadcast, it 

 is economical in labor and seed, and gives a 

 better crop. The difference in labor is at 

 least $1 an acre, or the cost of two harrowiugs 

 after so%ving, on one cultivating. The difl'er- 

 enco in seed is at least halt a bushel, (u- fitly 

 cents to $1 an acre, and the difference in the 

 crop is fully one-fourth, or upon fiiirly good 

 soil, six bushels, or SjfU per acre. 



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