16 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



store, you and your children will enjoy their shelter — the work 

 of your own hands. Future generations as they drive along 

 these magnificent avenues will call you blessed. They will 

 bless the land and the husbandman of this day. 



These graceful elms and gorgeous maples will ever mark the 

 limits of your own grounds. The traveller is grateful for tlieir 

 shade — checks- the pace of his weary horse — admires their 

 luxuriance — gets his first impressions of the thrifty and taste- 

 ful owner from them, and as he approaches the farm-house asks 

 the little boy with a cheerful countenance at the gate, "Dose 

 your father live here ? " " Yes, sir." " When were these trees 

 planted?" "The year I was born." "How old are you?" 

 " 'J'en years, sir." This interesting dialogvie continued, reveals 

 to the stranger a home and happiness which he already more than 

 suspected, but to which he was indeed a stranger. Think you 

 this man would not give more for such a place, extra, than the 

 original paltry cost of the trees ! Would he not give more for 

 that acre of pleasure ground, the delighted boy had doubtless 

 described to him, than for any other acre on the farm ? Then 

 away with your objections to such embellishments on the score 

 of dollars and cents, or that they are superfluous and inappro- 

 priate to your calling, or without an equivalent ; and look for 

 a moment to their still higher value, too much lost sight of by 

 most parents. 



Did any thing occur in conversation with this stranger to 

 mortify the boy's pride or diminish his love for home ? Did he 

 notice even the color of the horse, the style of the carriage, or 

 the cut of the coat ? Not he. Engrossed entirely was he in 

 words iliat reflected credit on the management of his father — the 

 beanty of his home; that encouraged his respect for the one, and 

 cherished his attachment to the other; and in the language of 

 the subject, " as the twig is bent," etc., he is safe for the future 

 — he will be a man, a husband, a citizen, a Christian, a patriot, 

 yea, he will be qualified and may be called from the plough, like 

 Cincinnatus, to rule the nation. And he will be the man for it 

 — for any duty or emergency at home or abroad. 



Planted at his birth, grown with his growth, equally liave 

 these trees with himself remained by, defended and adorned the 

 same home, till they have become giants in their respective 

 spheres. At the age of fifty the son returns, it may be, from 



