12 



another Judge whose home was in the same town. Said 

 the latter, as they met, "Well Judge, what have you been 

 trying in your court to-day?'* "We have been all day 

 trying a case about a farrow cow." "By the way, 

 Judge," said he, " what is a farrow cow ?" " A farrow 

 cow, Judge !" said the other, noted for his humor, with a 

 twinkle in his eye, " don't you know what a farrow cow 

 is ? A farrow cow is a heifer that never had a calf," and 

 on that theory I suppose that case was tried through. 



Robert Burns consoled himself over his defeat in a 

 stooking match, saying, " Weel ! but /made a sang- while 

 1 was stooking." Even our best farmer may not be able 

 to do that, nor to make as sweet a song as did Burns 

 when he turns up a mouse's nest with his plough, but he 

 will walk in the furrow and work in the harvest field, 

 with a more hopeful and thankful heart, and go to bed 

 sober. 



The best farmer will recognize, always, the wisdom and 

 goodness of an All-wise Providence, and will s6e in the 

 returning seasons, in the heavens above him and in the 

 earth beneath his feet, in the gently falling dew, in the 

 snow and the rain, in the heat of summer and the cold 

 of winter, in the fiercest rays of a summer sun and in the 

 drizzly, foggy dog days, in the quiet beauty of the Indian 

 summer and the harvest moon, and no less in the melan. 

 choly days of chill November, — 



" The saddest of the year, — 



Of wailing winds, and naked woods 



And meadows brown and sere," 

 the same Divine Father, who, it is said, "left not himself 

 without witness, in that He did good, and'gave us rain 

 from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with 

 food and gladness ;" and " without whose notice not even 

 a sparrow falleth to the ground." 



