24 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
T H E C H R ISTMAS PI E. — Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
A l£icl& Treat— A Generous Boy. 
What a splendid feast ! A whole Christmas pie, filled 
with plums such as Johnny Horner picked out when he 
said " What a brave boy am I." "Its all for me," the 
boy is saying, not in w*ords perhaps, but his satisfied smile, 
his arms thrown around the dish, and his body leaning 
fondly toward it, all speak more plainly than words. The 
sprig of holly lying near, upon the table, shows that it is 
holiday times, and some kind friend has made the boy a 
Christmas present. "I'd like to be in his place," more 
than one little fellow is saying, as he thinks of the good 
pies his mother makes. Wait a little, while we tell you 
of another boy that lived in Boston ; perhaps you would 
rather be like him than to have even a whole Christmas 
pie. He was employed by a rich merchant who had 
his dinner brought to the store every day, and frequently 
having more than he needed, he gave the boy a cake or 
a piece of pie, or some other dainty. One day the gentle- 
man noticed that the boy slyly put away the cake he had 
received, into his basket, instead of eating it. When 
asked why he did so, the boy blushed and did not like to 
tell, but finally replied, " We are very poor sir, and my 
mother and sister seldom have any thing nice to eat, and 
I would rather give it to them than have it myself, if you 
have no objections." " And do you often do this ?" asked 
the gentleman. "I always do," was the reply. His em- 
ployer was so greatly pleased with this noble conduct, 
that he at once increased the boy's wages, and as he con- 
tinued faithful, advanced him stepby step, until he became 
a member of the firm, and a wealthy citizen. Was not 
that better than having the cake all to himself? Even if 
the gentleman had not discovered it, the boy's noble un- 
selfishness would have given him higher pleasure than all 
the pies and cakes in a baker's shop. 
The boy in the picture looks like a pleasant fellow, 
who would willingly lend his sleigh or his skates, share 
his marbles, or ordinary pleasures with a play-fellow ; but 
the pie is something extraordinary— he couldn't think of 
giving away any of that. A writer says : " It is easy to 
give what you don't feel, but true unselfishness is to give 
what will make you feel :" that is, to deny yourself for the 
sake of another. The Boston boy did this ; how many 
Agriculturist boys and girls will practise the same virtue 
this New Year, and thus make it a doubly happy one ? 
The Beggar Boy and tlie Flowers. 
The following story, the origin of which we cannot trace, 
beautifully illustrates the power of kindness. " Go 
away from there, you old beggar boy ! You've no right 
to be looking at our flowers," shouted a little fellow from 
the garden where he was standing. The poor boy, who 
was pale, dirty, and ragged, was leaning against the 
fence, admiring the splendid show of roses and tulips 
within. His face reddened with anger at the rude 
language, and he was about to answer defiantly, when a 
little girl sprang out from an arbor near, and looking at 
both, said to her brother: "How could you speak so, 
Herbert ! I'm sure his looking at the flowers don't hurt 
us." And then, to soothe the wounded feelings of the 
stranger, she added: "Little boy, I'll pick you some 
flowers if you'll wait a moment," and she immediately 
gathered a pretty bouquet and handed it through the 
fence. His face brightened with surprise and pleasure, 
and he earnestly thanked her. Twelve years after this 
occurrence, the girl had grown to a woman. One bright 
afternoon she was walking with her husband in the 
garden, when she observed a young man in workman's 
dress, leaning over the fence, and looking attentively at 
her and at the flowers. Turning to her husband she 
said, " It does me good to see people admiring the gar- 
den ; I'll give that young man some of the floweus ;" and 
approaching him she said : "Are you fond of flowers, sir? 
it will give me great pleasure to gather you some." The 
young workman looked a moment into her fair face, 
and then said in a voice tremulous with feeling : " Twelve 
years ago I stood here, a ragged little beggar boy, and 
you showed me the same kindness. The bright floweis 
and your pleasant words made a new hoy of me j ay, 
and they made a man of me too. Your face, Madam, has 
been a light to me in many dark hours of life, and 
now, thank God, though that boy is still a humble, hard- 
working man, he is an honest and a grateful one." Tears 
stood in the eyes of the lady as, turning to her husband, 
she said, " God put it into my young heart to do that little 
kindness, and see how great a reward it has brought." 
Pleasant Work for tne Young- Ob* 
taiuing New Fruits. 
Not many years since a lady in the 'City of Hudson, 
N. Y., procured some soil from the street in front of her 
dwelling, lo enrich a flower plot. A little plant sprung 
up from it, which proved to be a grape vine, grown from 
a seed accidentally dropped there, perhaps by. some child, 
eating grapes near the spot. The vine was permitted 
to grow and bear fruit, which proved to be different 
from any variety known, and of very excellent flavor. 
A nurseryman in the vicinity tasted the grapes, and liked 
them so well that he offered to take the vine and raise 
others from it to sell, and to divide the profits wilh the 
lady. This was done, and in a few years she realized 
enough from her share to purchase a handsome farm. 
The name of the grape is the Rebecca ; many of you 
may be well acquainted with it. Now what is to prevent 
every boy and girl who reads the Agriculturist from 
planting grape seeds, raising the vines, and perhaps get- 
ting new kinds of grapes ? As you may know, the pro- 
duce of the seeds of most fruits is seldom like that of 
the parent. The seed from a red, tart apple, like the 
Spitzenberg, may yield a white, sweet variety. The pit 
from a good peach may give a larger, earlier kind ; and 
so wilh the seeds of many other fruits. If our young 
readers will take pains to plant the seeds from the* ap- 
ples, pears, grapes, etc., which they may eat this year, 
some new varieties may be produced, superior to any 
now known. It would be strange indeed if some excel- 
lent sorts were not obtained among the hundred of thous- 
I ands of members of our circle; and what a life-long 
i pleasure it would give to a boy or girl to have thus been 
' instrumental in adding to the enjoyments of the world. 
I It would be unwise to feel at all certain of making even a 
| small fortune from experiments of this kind, as perhaps 
I not one in a thousand seeds would produce superior fruit, 
although there might be success upon the very first trial. 
He who does all he can to benefit the world, even though 
he fail, is worthy of just as much praise as he who docs 
no more, but chances to succeed. Perhaps next month 
we may be able to give some hints that will make it less 
difficult to obtain the desired result. 
Useful May— The Ganie of Proverbs. 
The following is one of that innocent kind of amuse- 
ments, which, if lightly used, not only afford recreation, 
but tend to develop the intellectual faculties as well. 
To make this game interesting, there should be half a 
dozen or more persons to take part — the more, the better. 
One of the company is sent from the room, and while he 
is out, some familiar proverb is selected, as, for example ; 
"It never rains but it pours." Then a word of the pro- 
verb is given to each one of the party, in the order in 
which they sit ; thus, the first must remember the word, 
it ; the second the word, never; the third, rains, and so 
on until the whole of the words are distributed. When 
this is arranged, the absent person is called in, and begin- 
ning with the first player, he puts one question (any ques- 
tion he may choose) to each of the company in turn, and 
each player in his answer must introduce his word of the 
proverb. Thus, for example, he asks the first, "Is the 
proverb a common one." The answer might be "It is 
often heard." To the second player, " Will you help 
guess it ?" " Never if I can help it," would be an appro- 
priate reply. To the third, " What are you thinking 
about?" Answer,—" I was hoping it might not rain to- 
morrow"— and so on, through the whole party. The 
questioner is required to find out the proverb, from the 
answers which are thus given. If he can not discover it 
after going around twice, he must leave the room again, 
and another proverb is selected for him to guess at. 
When he is successful, he sends out the person whose un- 
ingenious answer enabled him to detect the proverb. — — 
If there are more players than words in the proverb, then 
the sentence is distributed twice ; thus supposing there 
were ten persons and seven words, the eighth person 
would have the first word of the proverb, the ninth would 
have the second, the tenth the third, and then the first 
player would at bis second examination have to give the 
fourth word, and so on until the whole was finished. Or 
if there are ten words and only seven players, then the" 
first player at his second examination must give the 
eighth word, and so on. In either case the questioner is 
to have the privilege of asking for information until all the 
words have been given to him twice, before giving it up 
