126 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



hard as stones, lay at one end of it on separate 

 pieces of ex-white paper, and through their coating 

 of dust feebly indicated the three primary colors, 

 blue, red and yellow^ with a sort of gray for the 

 fourth. Over several tiers of newspapers between 

 the windows, at the further end of the room, lay 

 at full length two " new and improved " Drainage- 

 levels out of Spirit though for each was care- 

 fully tied up with a direction card to the maker : 

 "rejected addresses," evidently. Old combinations, 

 unmeaning and half meaning, disported themselves 

 over the confusion of the little den : the end of a 

 large pruning-knife peered out between the sheets 

 of a new half-cut volume marked "Dendrology," 

 suggesting something about Theory and Practice, 

 and clearly exhibiting by the jagged leaves, the 

 moral as well as physical truth that sharp knives 

 are bad paper cutters. An old quarto volume of 

 Raleigh's History of the World, in black letter, lay 

 open on a little table near the fire-place, with a bun- 

 dle of Cigars and some papers of Potato-seed on 

 one page : and a small sharp Ax on the other. 

 A small hone lay near, and a drop of blood, along 

 the edge, had left mark of some awkardness or haste 

 and had smeared the page below with an ugly 

 red lino under the word GEATITUDE. Except a 



