1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



95 



standard of Oxford and Cambridge, is spoken 

 anywhere. His brother, the rector of the parish, 

 the pretty stone church of which was built in a 

 large measure by the contributions of their fore- 

 fathers, was offered and refused the bishopric of 

 his diocese. The word 'farmer' conveys to you a 

 certain idea or image. Does it convey the idea 

 of such a man as this ? From my observation, I 

 should judge decidedly not. And yet this man is 

 only a farmer, and the son and grandson of Yan- 

 kee farmers on both sides. But you will say that 

 this man is a very rare and marked exception. 

 But in that you will be wrong. Somewhat ex- 

 ceptional he is. But he represents a class very 

 numerous and widely diffused; and he springs 

 from and is in direct affinity with a class which is 

 nnmbered by hundreds of thousands of men, be- 

 sides women and children. I have heard from his 

 cousin, the miller, (a working miller, mind you, 

 although he owns his mill,) as sensible and as well- 

 expressed opinions upon all matters (literature in- 

 cluded) as I have from him." 



LADIES' DEPARTMENT. 



THE ROSEBUD. 



We wandered out in the garden, 



The linnet sang in the tree, 

 My love she spied a rosebud, 



And plucked and gave it to me. 

 I kissed the beautiful rosebud, 



Dear love, that thou gavest to me, 

 And that summer-day in the garden 



I gave my heart to thee. 



Three days in a vase in my chamber 



I cherished my flower with pride, 

 And watched with a sweet and boyish delight 



Its petals opening wide, 

 Until it had blossomed a queenly rose, 



And then my flower I took, 

 And carefully laid it between the leaves 



Of an old and saintly book. 



Three years the maid did hold my heart 



In the casket of her own, 

 'Till the beautiful bud of passion had grown 



A fragrant rose full-blown ; 

 She drained its tender fragrance, 



And then, ah, woe the day ! 

 Unlocked the casket of her heart, 



And flung my flower away. 



In the saintly book I was reading to-day, 



Forgetful awhile of my woes, 

 "When I turned o'er a leaf, and there beheld 



A faded— withered rose; 

 It breathed of the past— of that summer-day 



In the garden where it grew ; 

 And sorely I wept o'er my withered flower, 



And my heart-love withered too. 



GARDENING BY THE LADIES. 



A correspondent of the London Cottage Garden- 

 er, describing the residence of Mr. Justice Hali- 

 burton, the '"Sam Slick" of literary notoriety says : 



I paid a visit to these gardens about a year 

 since, on the occasion of a fancy fair given for 

 some .charitable purpose, and never do I remem- 

 ber to have seen bedding done so well, or so choice 

 a collection of plants brought together in a place 

 of so limited an extent. I was given to under- 

 stand by a florist of some celebrity who was pres- 

 ent, that the arrangement of the beds and the se- 

 lection of the plants were in the hands of the lady 

 occupier herself. The taste for the harmonizing 

 of colors I consider natural in all women of refined 



education, only unfortunately many of them dis- 

 play their taste in decorating themselves more 

 than ornamenting their gardens. But if ladies 

 were to follow gardening more usually than they 

 are apt to do, how much oftener we should see the 

 cheek resemble the rose in place of the lily; and 

 how soon, also, we should perceive the lighter 

 tints made use of in decorating the inside of the 

 bonnets. They would soon be aware that glaring 

 coloring was not suited to their complexions so 

 well as the more subdued shades. Moreover, God 

 has given us health that we may enjoy the bless- 

 ings He sends, and depend upon it that where a 

 lady gardener resides, it is there the physician's 

 carriage seldom stops. 



Roses a Luxury to the Ancients. — To en- 

 joy the scent of roses, at meals, an abundance of 

 rose leaves were shaken on the table, so that the 

 dishes were completely surrounded. By an arti- 

 ficial contrivance, roses, during meals, descended 

 on the guests from above. Heliogabalus, in his 

 folly, caused roses to be showered down upon the 

 guests in such quantities that a number of them, 

 being unable to extricate themselves, were suffo- 

 cated in flowers. During meal times they reclined 

 upon cushions stuffed with rose leaves, or made a 

 couch of the leaves themselves. The floor, too, 

 was strewed with roses, and in this custom great 

 luxury was displayed. Cleopatra, at an enormous 

 expense, procured roses for a feast which she gave 

 to Antony, had them laid two cubits thick on the 

 floor of the banquet room, and then caused nets 

 to be spread over the flowers, in order to render 

 the footing elastic. Heliogabalus caused not 

 only the banquet rooms, but also the colonnades 

 that led to them, to be covered with roses, inter- 

 spersed with lilies, violets, hyacinths and narcissi, 

 and walked about upon this flower platform. 



How to Draw Tea. — A few years since the 

 writer took tea with a relative, and was delighted 

 with the quality of the beverage. Upon inquiry, 

 it proved that the article was from the same pack- 

 age used by another friend, whose tea always tast- 

 ed miserably, and the difference was wholly owing 

 to the methods used in its preparation. The last- 

 named person followed the usual plan of pouring 

 boiling water upon the tea, which causes the most 

 of the aroma to escape with the steam. The other 

 friend adopted the following process, which I have 

 since practiced, and would reconnnend : "Pom* 

 tepid or cold water enough on the tea to cover it, 

 place it on the stove hearth, top of a kettle, or any 

 place where it will be warm, but not enough so as 

 to cause the aroma to escape in steam. Let it re- 

 main about half an hour, then pour on boiling 

 water and bring to the table." 



Our Best Parlors. — Don't keep a solitary 

 parlor, into which you go but once a month, with 

 your parson or sewing society. Hang round your 

 walls pictures which shall tell stories of mercy, 

 hope, courage, faith and charity. Make your liv- 

 ing-room the house. Let the place be such that 

 when your boy has gone to distant lands, or even 

 when, perhaps, he clings to a single plank in the 

 waters of the wide ocean, the thought of the old 

 homestead shall come to him in his desolation, 

 bringing always light, hope and love. Have no 

 dungeon about your house — no room you never 

 open — no blinds that are always shut. 



