316 



glea:nings in hee cultuue. 



Apk. 



" Now, friends, you see who the enemy is. 

 Instead of going to the foreman of the room, 

 and saying, ' I want a piece of wire so large 

 and so long,' he undertakes to get it himself, 

 thinking, probably, that any fool ought to 

 know how to cut off a piece of wire ; while 

 the truth is, few wise men, unless they are 

 wire-cutters by trade, know what kind of a 

 tool is needed, and how to do it without in- 

 juring the tool. A great many people will 

 pick up a steel wire, with too high a temper 

 to be cut with any tool, and, seeing some 

 shears or nippers, imagine they can do it. 

 This enemy is just that sort of a fellow. 

 Sometimes I catch glimpses of his coat-tails 

 as he is just getting out of some room. Once 

 or twice I have cornered him up, and got 

 hold of him ; but he always talks so fair, 

 and explains so well that he didn't mean 

 any harm, that I let him olf and let it go ; 

 but witli the rush of business we are now 

 having, I am getting to be almost like David 

 in his imprecatory Psalms. We must catch 

 this chap, and I don't know but we shall 

 have to put him in jail if he does not stop." 



At this point in my talk, tht' anxious and 

 alarmed expressions' on the faces of many 

 l)egan to give place to a knowing look. One 

 ventured to remark, " Mr. Eoot. he has got 

 my pruning-knife." This came from the 

 friend who sends out grapevines. Another 

 remarked. '' lie lias taken our rule out of 

 our room." After the service was over, the 

 pruning-knife came to light. The owner 

 lent it to a fellow-workman, to cut the tops 

 off the turnips while it was raining. lie 

 slipped it, for the time being, into his over- 

 coat pocket ; and when the sun came out, 

 the overcoat was laid aside, and it could not 

 be found. I told them that what was want- 

 ed was, that we should all light against 

 these careless ways of doing business, and 

 all such besetting sins. We sliould be care- 

 ful about touching a tool in somebody's else 

 room, even though we want it only one min- 

 ute ; and to avoid doing daningo to tools 

 inadvertently, we should make it a point to 

 go to the foreman, or to the proper work- 

 man, and have him do wliat we want 

 done. 



Now, this very matter has troubled me 

 sorely. I have prayed over it, I have ''scold- 

 ed" over it, and I have sometim^is begun to 

 feel in despair, as if my project of having 

 so many industries carried on under one 

 roof would have to be given up as a failure, 

 because of this enemy of whom I have 

 spoken. 



Now, friends, do you see the value of this 

 noonday service in a factory like ours V 

 With God at our head, and a feeling in our 

 hearts that we are his children, it helps us 

 to be neighbors in the truest sense of the 

 word. It helps us to tight unitedly, and 

 with a will, any common enemy ; Jtnd it 

 helps us to claihi the promise in the two 

 little verses at the head of this chapter about 

 myself and my neighbors. Do you not see 

 it soV It helps us to recognize that the 

 worst enemies we have in this world, and the 

 one most to be feared, are those that lurk 

 (unknown and unrecognized, perhaps) in our 

 own hearts, and not in the hearts of our 

 neighbors. 



GOING TO A SCHOOL EXHIBITION. 



MRS. CHADDOCK TEI.LS US HOW SHE ENJOVEU THE 

 EXERCISES. 



T AST night I went to a school exhibition. I 

 l^j knew better, but my girls ai-e just crazy to go 

 rl *° every thing, and they coaxed me to go 

 ■*" with them. The roads were just awful; but 

 by driving slowly down, and walking slowly 

 up the hills, we managed to get there at last. All 

 one end of the schoolhouse was curtained off with 

 three-cent calico, and they had a stage with a 

 lounge and an organ on it, and some chromes 

 adorned the wall. Tlie crowd came pouring in, and 

 every third man had a big looking-glass or a screen, 

 or something that had to be handed over the peo- 

 ple's heads, while dusky ghosts flitted to and fro 

 behind the curtain. 



The house was packed; there was no more stand- 

 ing-room, and everybody leaned against everybody 

 because there was no help for It. I am a large 

 woman, and am always getting smothered; and as 

 fate would have it, I had to have a seat in the very 

 hottest corner, where the window-fastening was 

 bi'okeu, so that the window could not be raised. 

 The reason 1 had to sit there was because none of 

 the other seats were large enough to hold me. 



The curtain parted at last, and the "school marm" 

 stuck her head out and said, in a high thin voice, 

 " We mvist have better order or we will dismiss and 

 go home;" then when all the folks had changed 

 feet she went on, " The first thing will be a select 

 reading, called Betsey and I are Out." Then the 

 American colonies fought and bled anew, and gain- 

 ed their liberties, with many a reference to ancient 

 Rome. Next thing was a dialogue by two little 

 girls, then a song by the big girls and boys. Then 

 they read " a paper." The teacher announced " the 

 paper "to be in " two parts;" but as a matter of 

 fact, it was in half a dozen parts. One boy read till 

 he gave out, then another took up the strain; and 

 after reading all that he held in his hands he began 

 fishing around in his pockets, and brought forth 

 "paper " after " paper," till ray head seemed to be 

 swimming with a confused murmur of " roosters," 

 "mustaches," " bangs," "boxes," "long-eared rab- 

 bits," and "beaux." I think I almost swooned; 

 and when I revived, the reader was saying, " George 

 Brown has made a hot-bed, and put his mustache 

 into it to sprout." 



I sat on the back seat; just behind me was a long 

 bench, and it was full of boys and gii'ls, wedged in 

 so tight, standing cheek by jowl, that, if one of 

 them moved it moved the whole row, and everybody 

 said, "Don't push," and, "Look out thei-e;" and 

 every one looked innocent, and said, "It wasn't I." 

 One girl sat on fourteen different sides of me. 

 She is a rather heavy girl, and she pulled this way 

 and that, just as she happened to turn; and a heavy 

 boy leaned on my left shoulder, and a slim girl 

 leaned on my right shoulder, while a fat woman sat 

 close up to me on the left, and a big girl, standing 

 on the bench behind me, clasped me round the waist. 

 The girl who sat all over me got in my lap and 

 squashed me. I felt that I was going to die, and all 

 the folks began to call for air, and a girl punched 

 the broken spring with a slate-pencil and opened 

 the window. I stood upon the seat and fanned my- 

 self with Minnie's hat. The daggers in it pricked 

 the fat woman in the back, but she told me to fan 

 on, she did not mind the daggers, it "felt good." It 



