222 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



POPULAE PSOGNOSTICS OF RAIN. 



The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep, 

 Ami spidi-rs from ihtir eobwi'bs erocp; 

 Last night ihe sun went pule t<i bed, 

 The niDon in halos hid her head ; 

 The boding shepherd heaves a sipii — 

 A morning rainbow spans the sky ; 

 The walls !i'e damp, the diichrs smell, 

 Closed is the pink-eyed pimpernel; 

 The squalid toads at dusk are seen, 

 Slo'.v|y erawlin;; o'er the green ; 

 Loud quacks ihe ducks, tiie peaoocks cry, 

 The distant hifis are look ng nigh; 

 Hark, how the chairs and tables crack, 

 Old Betty's joints are on the rai'.k ; 

 And see youii;; rooks, how odd their flight, 

 They imitate the gliding kite. 

 Or seem precipitate to fall, 

 As if they felt tne piercing ball ; 

 How restless are the snorting swine, 

 The busy flies disturb the kine; 

 Low o'er the grass the swallow wings. 

 The crii;ket, too, how loud she sings; 

 Puss on the hearth, with velvet paws, 

 Sits wiping o'er her whisUcrM jaws ! 



Peksexce of Mind. — The famous Lord Chancellor, Sir 

 Thomas More, once resided at Chelsea, and attached to 

 his mansion was a gate-house, according to the old fashion. 

 From the top of this gatehouse a very pleasant and de- 

 lightful prospect was obtained. His Lordship vras in the 

 habit of recreating himself in this place with his little 

 dog. It happened that an insane man got up the stairs 

 on one occasion when his Lordship was there, and com- 

 ing to him cried, "Leap, Tom, leap!" offering Sir 

 Thomas violence, and attempting to throw him over the 

 battlements. The Lord Chancellor was a feeble old man, 

 and being in his robe he was not able to make any 

 effectual resistence; but having great presence of mind, 

 said, "Let us first throw this little dog over." The in- 

 sane man threw the dog down. " Pretty sport," said the 

 Lord Chancellor; "go down and bring him up and try 

 again." While the madman went down for the dog, his 

 Lordship made fast the door of the stairs, and called for 

 help ; and but for his ready wit he would in all probabil- 

 ity have lost his life. 



Thb Glacier Trade. — Glaciers have become an im- 

 portant article of commerce! A great ice traffic is 

 springing up in Switzerland, and the orders already re- 

 ceived are enormous. At Grindehvald, hundreds of 

 workmen are employed in cutting ice into blocks for sale. 

 At the glaciers, after penetrating several layers, the la- 

 borers arrived at a natural grotto, one hundred and sixty 

 feet long, eight feet wide, and eighty-five feet high.. The 

 men who first entered were lost in admiration at the mag- 

 nificent spectacle. The grotto has since been lighted up 

 with torches and illuminated with Bengal fire, and the 

 light reflected from these walls of crystal, it is said, pro- 

 duces quite a dazzling effect. 



"How many legs would a dog have, if you called his 

 tail one?" "Five, of course." "No; only four. It 

 wouldn't make his tail a leg to call it one." 



He who seeks to increase the quantity of his lands by 

 prosecuting groundless claims, will probably soon find 

 hioxself as groundless as his claims. 



A Musical Lesson. — A Highland piper, having a schi 

 to teach, disdained to crack his brains with the names 

 semibreves, minims, crotchets and quavers. "Hi 

 Donald," said he, " tak' yer pipes, lad, and gie us a bl 

 So, verra weel blawn, indeed ; but what's a sound, Don 

 without sense? You may blaw forever without mak 

 a tune o't, if I dinna tell you how the queer things on 

 paper maun help you. You see that big fellow, w 

 rouud open face, (pointing to a seinibreve,) between 

 lines of a bar, he moves slowly from that line to t 

 while ye beat aiie with the fist and gie a long blast; 

 now, ye put a leg to him, ye mak' twa o' him, and h 

 rhove twice as fast; and if ye black his face, he'll 

 four times faster than the fellow wi' the white face; 

 if, after blacking his face, ye'll bend his knee, or tie 

 leg, he'll hop eight times faster than the white-faced c 

 I showed you first. Now, whene'er you blaw your pi] 

 Donald, remember this— that the tighter those felh 

 legs are tied, the faster they'll run, and the quic 

 they're sure to dance." 



LovK OP THE Feench FOR Flowers. — The passioT 

 love of flowers is a marked characteristic of the Pa 

 ians, and the sale of flowers is in Paris an extensive 

 lucrative branch of trade. It is computed that the v 

 ous little patches of ground in the vicinity of the Fre 

 Capital, appropriated to floral cultivation, realise an 

 nual income of over $6,000,000, and give employmen' 

 500,000 persons. In Paris alone there are no fewer t 

 284 florists, and on occasions of public festivity their c 

 joint traffic not unfrequently amounts to $14,000. £ 

 fete given last season by one of the foreign ambassad 

 the cost of the flowers was S;4,400. 



Origin of Black Coats in the Clergy. — In the j 

 18.54, Luther laid aside the monk's costume, and hei 

 forth dressed according to the fashion of the world, 

 chose black cloths, and consequently the color has 

 come the fashion of the clergy. His reason for choos 

 this color was, the Elector of Saxony took an interesi 

 him, and now and then sent him a piece of black ch 

 being at that time the Court fashion, and because Lut 

 preferred it; so his scholars thought it became them 

 wear the same color as their master. From thai ti 

 black has been the color mostly worn by the clergy. 



An Australian correspondent of an English pa 

 writes: "In a stony creek, fifteen miles from Gas 

 maine, were found the bodies of three aboriginals, qv 

 whole, and not wanting in the smallest details, but wb 

 were petrified into solid marble. Wlien I last saw th< 

 I thought they were actually alive, until on going clos 

 I noticed the eyes. They are in a sitting posture, a 

 the veins, muscles, Ac, may be distinctly traced throu 

 what is now a group of stone blocks; they are in a sph 

 did state of preservation, even the finger-nails, teeth, <4 

 are as perfect as they were five hundred years ago. 

 of them has a stone ux by his side without any haft." 



A MODXRN cotemporary calls veal "unfiniflhed bee 

 This is pretty good ; but why not extend the vocabular 

 Suppose we term lamb "incipient mutton/' and denon 

 nate pig "premonitory pork ?" 



