1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



379 



known, was overlooked ; it is the Yellow-Bel- 

 lied Pewee, {Tyrammla flaviventus — Miiscicapa 

 Jlaviventus, of Baird, discovered by S. F. Baird, 

 on Lon{^ Island. It is closely allied to both the 

 Little Pewee {T. Acadica) and the Wood Pewee, 

 {T. virens,) being intermediate in size between 

 the two, and by a casual observer might be mis- 

 taken for either. I met with several pairs in May 

 of the present year, in this vicinity, always in 

 the woodlands; its habits do not essentially differ 

 from those of the Wood Pewee ; and it doubt- 

 less breeds in this latitude. The color of the 

 Yellow-bellied Pewee is a deep green olive above, 

 the green being much stronger than in T. Acadi- 

 ca ; beneath, pale lemon yellow, brightest on the 

 belly, and elsewhere inclining to olive ; ring sur- 

 rounding the eye, yellow. j. a. a. 

 Sprin^eld, July 4, 1861. 



"TRABB'S BOY." 



Every one, we think, will recogniee the faith- 

 fulness to life of the following incident from 

 Dickens' new story "Great Expectations." Mr. 

 Pip was an apprentice of Joe, the blacksmith. 

 He afterwards came into some money, and quit- 

 ting his village, went up to London to complete 

 his education, and study a profession. After a 

 number of years, he has occasion to pass through 

 the old village, and his appearance in the state 

 and dignity of a gentleman excites natural in- 

 dignation among those who knew him as a black- 

 smith's boy. Relating the story, he says : 



It was interesting to be in the quiet old town 

 once more, and it was not disagreeable to be here 

 and there suddenly recognized and stared after. 

 One or two of the tradespeople even darted out 

 of their shops and went a little way down the 

 street before me, that they might turn as if they 

 had forgotten something, and pass me face to face 

 — on which occasion I don't know whether they 

 or I made the pretence ; they of not doing it, or 

 I of not seeing it. Still my position was a dis- 

 tinguished one, and I was not at all dissatisfied 

 with it, until Fate threw me in the way of that 

 unlimited miscreant, Trabb's boy. 



Casting my eyes along the street at a certain 

 point of my progress, I beheld Trabb's boy ap- 

 proaching, lashing himself with an empty blue 

 bag. Deeming that a serene and unconscious 

 contemplation of him would best beseem me, and 

 would be most likely to quell his evil mind, I ad- 

 vanced with that expression of countenance, and 

 was rather congratulating myself on my success, 

 when suddenly the knees of Trabb's boy smote 

 together, his hair uprose, his cap fell off, he trem- 

 bled violently in every limb, staggered out into 

 the road, and crying out to the police, "Hold me! 

 I'm so frightened," feigned to be in a paroxysm of 

 terror and contrition, occasioned by the dignity 

 of my appearance. As I passed him his teeth 

 loudly chattered in his head, and with every mark 

 of extreme humiliation, he prostrated himself in 

 the dust. 



This was a hard thing to bear, but this was 

 nothing. I had not advanced another two hun- 

 dred yards, when, to my inexpressible terror, 

 amazement and indignation, I again beheld 

 Trabb's boy approaching. He was coming round 

 a narrow corner. His blue bag was slung over 

 his shoulder, honest industry beamed in his eyes, 



a determination to proceed to Trabb's with cheer- 

 ful briskness was indicated in his gait. With a 

 shock he became aware of me, and was severely 

 visited as before ; but this time his motion was 

 rotary, and he staggered round and round me with 

 knees afflicted, and with uplifted hands as if be- 

 seeching for mercy. His sufferings were hailed 

 with the greatest joy by a knot of spectators, and 

 I felt utterly confounded. 



I had got as much further down the street aa 

 the post-office, when I again beheld Trabb's boy 

 shooting round by a back way. This time he was 

 entirely changed. He wore the blue bag in the 

 manner of my great coat, and was strutting along 

 the pavement towards me on the opposite side of 

 the street, attended by a company of delighted 

 young friends to whom he from time to time ex- 

 claimed, with a wave of his hand, "Don't know 

 yah !" Words gannot state the amount of ag- 

 gravation and injury wreaked upon me by Trabb's 

 boy, when, passing abreast of me, he pulled up 

 his shirt collar, twined his side hair, stuck his 

 arm akimbo, and smirked extravagantly by, wrig- 

 gling his elbows and body, and drawling to his 

 attendants, "Don't know yah, don't know yah, 

 'pon my soul, don't know yah !" The disgrace at- 

 tendant on his immediately afterward taking to 

 crowing and pursuing me across the bridge with 

 crows as from an exceedingly dejected fowl who 

 had known me when I was a blacksmith, culmi- 

 nated the disgrace with which I left the town, 

 and was, so to speak, ejected by it into the open 

 country. 



But unless I had taken the life of Trabb's boy 

 on that occasion, I really do not even now see 

 what I could have done save endure. To have 

 struggled with him in the street, or to have ex- 

 acted any lower recompense from him than his 

 heart's best blood, would have been futile and de- 

 grading. Moreover, he was a boy whom no man 

 could hurt ; an invulnerable and dodging serpent 

 who, when chased into a corner, flew out again 

 between his captor's legs, scornfully yelping. I 

 wrote, however, to Mr. Trabb by next day's post, 

 to say that Mr. Pip must decline to deal further 

 with one who could so far forget what he owed 

 to the best interests of society, as to employ a boy 

 who excited loathing in every respectable mind. 



Black Currants. — A correspondent of the 

 Chicago Farmer's Advocate gives the following as 

 the mode of growing black currants in some 

 parts of England. The ground is planted at the 

 ratio of 3000 plants to the acre. After the sec- 

 ond year each alternate plant is cut down nearly 

 to the ground ; the following year it makes a 

 vigorous growth, and the year after bears a full 

 crop ; when its fellow is cut down. The bushes 

 are allowed to bear two years ; consequently all 

 bear one year, and one-half bear the next. For 

 instance, those cut last fall bear in 1861 and 1862, 

 and those cut this fall bear in 1862 and 1863. 



Tall Timothy.— The Cincinnati Valley Far- 

 mer has received from a friend heads of Timothy 

 fifteen inches long:. 



