150 Good and Bad Farming Contrasted. 
paid off on the completion of his work, Madame Rumor, an anti- 
quated old lady, who travels by wind, feeds on wind, and is at 
home every where, would say, "What a pity that sich a nice 
young man keeps running in debt! I'm afeerd he's sartinly on- 
done!" 
Now, Thomas was certainly aware that he was in debt far beyond 
his means. He knew very well, that if health failed him, or 
misfortune, in any of her chilly forms, overtook him, his all was 
lost. This led him to watch over the one with care, and guard 
with the closest scrutiny against the other, and leave the event 
with him who holds the destinies of all men at his disposal. He 
knew that he had launched a frail bark on deep waters; but had 
often heard how others had done so before him, and had made 
sure passage to the desired port of independence and respecta- 
bility, and he hoped, by carefully watching the helm himself, to 
accomplish the same destination. 
Our first acquaintance with Mr. Russell, (he will not allow 
himself to be called Esquire, or Colonel, having, as he says, no 
taste for the honors those appellatives bring,) commenced just 
twenty-five years after the aforesaid purchase of the " Baker lot," 
when he gave us the substance of his early history as we have 
before related it. But, said he, Madame Rumor failed in her 
predictions. The young man was not ruined, for the place is 
paid for, the old buildings demolished, and those you see around 
have been built in their places, and additional acres have been 
added to the homestead. We went with him around his premises 
in every part of which we beheld the noblest triumphs of indus- 
try and thrift. The old bog swamp had become a beautiful mea- 
dow. The fields were laid out in the best order for economy in 
fencing and general arrangements of cultivation, such as deep and 
thorough tillage, rotation, &c. The orchards were in a thrifty 
and highly productive condition. The garden was what every 
farmer's garden should be, a repository of choice vegetables, 
flowers and fruits, rich emblems of a cultivated mind. The build- 
ings, as you see, have a world of comfort and enough of taste 
about them. " Those beautiful trees," said he, " I planted with 
ray own hand, and always when I look upon them, they reward 
me with expressions of gratitude for selecting them from the 
trees of the wood, to come and adorn my rural home. In sum- 
mer, when the heat of labor drives me from the field, they lend 
their cool and refreshing shades to revive my fainting spirits. In 
winter, when cold winds come driving from the north, they spread 
their brawny arms to arrest its fury and shield me from its vio- 
lence. In spring, when their new formed foliage first meets the 
breeze, they furnish a sanctuary to nature's songsters, whose lofty 
carrols wake the soul to loftier hymns of praise j and in autumn, 
