no AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



" I love t' hear 'em chankin', 

 Jest a-grindin' slow and low, 

 With their snoots a-rootin' clover 

 Deep as their ol' heads 'II go. 

 It 's kind o' sort o' restin' 



To a feller's bones, I say. 

 It soun's s' mighty cumftabul — 

 The horses chawin' hay. 



" Gra-onk, gra-onk, gra-onk! 

 In a stiddy kind o' tone. 

 Not a tail a-waggin' to 'um, 



N'r another sound 'r groan — 

 Fer the flies is gone a-snoozin'. 

 Then I loaf around an' watch 'em 



In a sleepy kind o' way, 

 F'r they soun' so mighty cumftabul 

 As they rewt and chaw their hay." 



And so the barn has brought out among our friends 

 and humble servants, the animals. There is a pleas- 

 ing sketch upon "An Old Barn," by Dr. C. C. Ab- 

 bott, in which he tells us of all the birds and other 

 forms of wild life still lingering beneath its 

 abandoned, loosened roof. Wilson Flagg also 

 wrote upon barns, and Thoreau said he was 

 glad Flagg had chosen for one of his themes 

 such a subject, for it smacked a little of wild 

 Nature, and recognized Nature "squarely." 



Let us throw down some hay, then, and 

 some straw; and let us milk the cows, and 

 slop the pigs, and curry the horses; and then 

 let us feed and bed them for the night. 



PITCHFORK 



AND FLAIL. 



