400 AGRICULTURE. 



white house^ two stories, and a wing with kitchen in|fhe rear, flanked by 

 barns, and cribs, and granaries,- and dairy houses. " 



"But take a nearer view. Ha! what means this mighty crop o£ 

 unmpwn thistles bordering the road 1 For what, market is that stiU 

 mightier crop of pigweed, dock and nettles destined, that fills up the 

 space they call the ' garden ? ' And look at those wide, unsightly 

 thickets of elm, and sumac, and briers, and chokp-cherry, that mark the 

 lines of every fence ! < ■ ' 



" Approach the house, buEt in the road to be convenient, and save 

 land I Two stories and a wing, and every blind shut close as a miser's' 

 fist, without a tree, or shrUb, or flower to break the air of barrenness 

 and desolation around it. There it stands, white, glaring and ghastjy 

 as a pyramid of bones in the desert. Mount the unfrequented door stone, 

 grown over with vile weeds, and knock till, your knuckles are sore. It 

 ■is a beautiful moonlight October evening ; and as you stand upon that 

 stoi)e, a ringing laugh comes from the rear, aiid satisfies you that some- 

 body lives there. Pass now around to the rear : but hold your nos6 

 when you come within range of the piggery, and have a care that you 

 don't get swamped in the neighborhood of the sink-spout. Enter the 

 kitchen. Ha ! here they are all alive, and here they live all together. 

 The kitchen is the kitehen, the dining-niem, the sitting-iroom, the room 

 of, all workj , Here father sits with his hat on and in his shirt-sleeves. 

 Around him are his boys and his hired men, some with hats and some 

 with coats, and some witlj neither. The boys are busy shelling corn for 

 samp; the hired. men are scraping ^hip-sto,&ks and whittling bow-pins, 

 throwing every now and then a sheep's eye and a jest at the girls, who, 

 with their mother, are doing-upthe houSe-work. The younger fry are, 

 building cob-houses,- parching corn, and burning their ^fingers. Not a 

 book is to be seen, though the winter school has commencedj , and the 

 master is going to board there. Privacy is a word of unknown meaning 

 in thait family; and if a son or daughter should borrow a book, it 

 would be almost impossible to, read it in that room , and on no occasion 

 _ is the front house opened, except when ' company come to spend the 

 afternoon,' or when things are brushed and dusted, and ' set to rights.' 



" Yet these are as honest, as worthy, and kind-hearted people as you 

 will find anywhere, and are studying out some way of getting their 

 younger children into a better position than they themselves occupy. 

 They are in easy circumstances, owe nothing, and have money loaned 

 on bond and mortgage. After much consultation, a son is placed at 

 school that he may be fitted to go into a store, or possibly an office, to 

 study a. profession J and a daughter is Sent away to learn books, and 



