THE HEATHER IN AMERICA. 



"A few days ago, as the sun was busily employed 

 in gilding a very pretty landscape, the passers along 

 a quiet lane at Tewksbury, near Boston, were arrested 

 by a novel and curious sight. Several elderly men, 

 some of them stoutish, others scraggyish, but all of 

 solid and respectable appearance, were seen scattered 

 over an area of an acre or so in extent, apparently 

 occupied in the process of grazing, or pasturing them- 

 selves upon the scanty herbage, their postures being 

 of the fashion known as 'all-fours,' and their heads 

 close to the ground. It was some time before any 

 person had sufficient presence of mind to address him- 

 self to any of the strangers, as, if not grazing, they 

 might have been praying, and it is not Boston man- 

 ners to disturb decent-looking citizens either from 

 their prayers or their provender. At last, however, 

 a smart shower of rain came down, upon which the 

 mysterious grubbers arose precipitately to their feet 

 and toddled off to a neighboring farmhouse for shel- 

 ter. Here it transpired, upon inquiry, that the strang- 

 ers were certain Wise Men of Boston, forming in 

 the aggregate what is called the 'Flower Committee' 

 of that city, and that they had been occupied in in- 

 vestigating the subject of a 'native heather,' said 

 to have been discovered in the field just deserted by 

 them. They had secured several fine specimens of 

 the plant, and might have been now in fine spirits 

 about it had not the farmer, a Scotchman, informed 

 them that it was not Heather, but good, old-fashioned, 

 rough-and-ragged Scotch thistle, upon which they feed 

 donkeys in his country. This, combined with the 

 shower, was rather a damper, and the sages made 

 so 



