HOW I EDITED AN AGRICUL TURAL PAPER. 235 



township alone by being pulled in a half-ripe condition, when, if they had sent a 



boy up to shake the tree" 



" Shake your grandmother ! Turnips don't grow on trees ! " 



" Oh, they don't, don't they ? Well, who said they did ? The language was 



intended to be figurative, wholly figurative. Anybody that knows anything will 



know that I meant that the boy should shake the vine." 



Then this old person got up and tore his paper all into small shreds, and stamped 



on them, and broke several things with his cane, and said I did not know as much 



as a cow; and then went out and banged the door after him, and, in short, acted 



in such a way that I fancied he was displeased about something. But not knowing 



what the trouble was, I could not be any help to him. 



Pretty soon after this a long cadaverous creature, with lanky locks hanging down 



to his shoulders, and a week's stubble bristling from the hills and valleys of his face, 



darted within the door, and halted, motionless, with finger on lip, and head and 



body bent in listening attitude. No sound was heard. Still he listened. No sound. 



Then he turned the key in the door, and came elaborately tiptoeing toward me till 

 ■ he was within long reaching distance of me, when he stopped, and after scanning 



my face with iijtense interest for a while, drew a folded copy of our paper from his 



bosom, and said — 



" There, you wrote that. Read it to me — quick t Relieve me. I suffer." 



I read as follows ; and as the sentences fell from my lips I could see the relief 



come, I could see the drawn muscles relax, and the anxiety go out of the face, and 



rest and peace steal over the features like the merciful moonlight over a desolate 



landscape : 



" The guano is a fine bird, but great care is necessary in rearing it. It should not be imported 

 earlier than June or later than September. In the winter it should be kept in a warm place, where 

 it can hatch out its young. "^ 



" It is evident that we are to have a backward season for grain. Therefore it will be well for the 

 farmer to begin setting out his cornstalks and planting his buckwheat cakes in July instead of 

 August. 



" Concerning the pumpkin. — This berry is a favorite with the natives of the interior of New 

 England, who prefer it to the gooseberry for the making of fruit-cake, and who likewise give it 

 the preference over the raspberry for feeding cows, as being more filling and fully as satisfying. 

 The pumpkin is the only esculent of the orange family that will thrive in the North, except the 

 gourd and one or two varieties of the squash. But the custom of planting it in the front yard with 

 the shrubbery is fast going out of vogue, for it is now generally conceded that the pumpkin as a 

 shade tree is a failure. 



" Now, as the warm weather approaches, and the ganders begin to spawn " 



