58 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb, 



old Rover lay dreamily opening now one eye and 

 then the other on the family group." 



That era has indeed, passed away ,^ and save in 

 a few of our isolated country towns, so have the 

 peculiarities she describes in the farm-house kitch- 

 en ; but the sun still shines and sets, and the twi- 

 light falls as softly, and family gi-oups gather just 

 as lovingly together, as they did in the days of 

 Dr. Hopkins and the widow Scudder ! 



New England life is still calm, and peaceful, 

 and homelike, and probably much more comfort- 

 able than then. There are some things which 

 Mrs. Stowe, with all her remarkable fidelity to 

 nature, must have seen through the medium of 

 her own poetic temperament. For instance, when 

 she describes the woman who does work enough 

 for three stout Irish girls — more than three Irish 

 men could do — as having hands "small and Avhite ;" 

 — and when she describes a kitchen as never bo»- 

 ing thrown out of its composure by the events of 

 washing, baking, &c., &c., we appeal to any man 

 (who is not an old bachelor.) if his experience 

 has not led him to a different view of the subject. 

 We assert, then, that New Englanders'have taken 

 a step into higher regions of comfort, inasmuch 

 as they have advanced, rather more into the front 

 of their dwellings, and assigned to certain phases 

 of household life the precise place to which they 

 belong, as works of necessity which minister to 

 our comfort and repose, but which are not by any 

 means to be regarded as the object of life. 



To change the words of an old aphorism, we 

 should not live to ivork, but work to live, and all 

 the beautiful fancies which we can throw about 

 life, without interfering with its practical useful- 

 ness, are an advance. Yes, the time has gone by 

 when the good matron was obliged to begin Avith 

 the very wool on the sheep's back, and provide 

 the family with winter clothing; Steam fac- 

 tories and sewing machines, washing machines 

 and apple-parers ! We hail you as so many be- 

 neficent hands held out to lift a burden from our 

 wives and daughters, so that forever and always 

 they need not be the mere household drudges 

 who wait upon our pleasure. Society being now 

 arranged upon a somewhat different principle, 

 ^ere is a better chance for our young women to 

 get that out-of-door exercise of which they stand 

 in as much need as our young men. Now we see 

 them out skating on the pond, meadow or river, 

 presenting a picture of grace and health pleasant 

 to look upon. Now we see them crossing through 

 snow-drifts or mud, as the case may be, and we are 

 sorry for the delicate foot which must walk in 

 such rough ways, but flowing skirts are slightly 

 lifted, and behold, a pair of India-rubber boots or 

 snow-shoes removes all our apprehensions for the 

 safety bf the wearer. Our great-grandmothers nev- 

 er saw an Tndin rublier sho^", and when thev went 



to church, all the fire they had was in the little tin 

 foot-stoves they cari'ied in their hands — that "sa- 

 cred fire," which they guarded like so many priest- 

 esses in the temple of Vesta. As to clothing, we 

 would not seek to penetrate too far into the mys- 

 teries of the feminine toilet, but any one who will, 

 in confidence, consult some good old lady on the 

 subject, and compai-e the revelation with what may 

 have come imder his own observation, cannot fail 

 to be sti'uck with the improvement that has been 

 made in this matter ; nay, he will wonder that the 

 women of sixty years ago did not become pillars 

 of ice in the streets, as we deserve to become 

 "pillars of salt," if we look back with envy upon 

 the past generation, and whine about the "good 

 old days" of our ancestors, instead of being thank- 

 ful for our improved condition. (Eccl. 7 : 10.) 



It was well towards the last of Februaiy, one 

 hundred and twenty-eight years ago, but in a lat- 

 itude some six or seven degrees lower than ours, 

 so that perhaps the apricots were in flower, and 

 the crocuses were thrusting their yellov/ heads out 

 of the damp earth, that a child was bom. Doubt- 

 less some one came to the father and announced, 

 "It is a boy" — and there was joy in the household, 

 and the mother looked tenderly on her little babe, 

 and prayed that God would be his guide ; but she 

 did not know, and no one else knew, that she had, 

 on that 22d of Febi-uary, 1732, achieved the Amer- 

 ican Independence ! She knew that she was a 

 happy young mother, but she never thought that 

 she was "Mart/, the mother of Washington !" She 

 knew that it was a great, important era in her life, 

 but she never thought what an era it was in the 

 Nation's life — the nation which was then no na- 

 tion, but a colony. She little dreamed, that, 

 through her, the Twenty-Second of February had 

 become immortal forever. 



But God accepted the charge she committed to 

 Him, and so we, up to this February, 1860, have 

 been able to pursue our various callings in peace 

 and quietness, cultivating the arts and sciences, 

 and drinking our tea without paying an outrageous 

 tax! 



Abundance of Weeds. — An English botanist 

 discovered, by careful examination, 7600 weed 

 se-eds in a pint of clover seed, 12,000 in a pint of 

 congress seed, 39,440 in a pint of broad clover, 

 and 25,000 of Dutch clover seed. In a single plant 

 of black mustard he counted over 8000 seeds, and 

 in a specimen of charlock 4000 ; the seed of a sin- 

 gle plant of common dock produced 4700 little 

 docks. The white daisy has over 400 seeds in each 

 flower, and sometimes 50 flowers from one root. 



Forms of Expression. — People say that they 

 shell peas, when they ?<n-shell them ; that they 

 husk corn, when they lai-husk it ; that they dust 

 the furniture, when they M?i-dust it, or take the 



dust from it : thnt thev ■'<k!n a calf, wh':'n tlv^v >';?- 



