10 
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5F WE KNEW. 
If we knew the woe and heartache 
Waiting for us down the road, 
If our lips could taste the wormwood, 
If our backs could feel the load, 
Would we waste the day in wishing 
For a time that ne’er can be? 
Would we wait with such impatience 
For our ships to c me from sea? 
If we knew the baby fingers, 
Press xl against the window-pane. 
Would be cold and stiff to-morrow— 
Never trouble us again— 
Would the bright , eyes of our darling 
Catch the frown upon our .brow? 
Would the prints of rosy fingers 
Vex us then as they do now? 
Ah! these little ice-cold fingers! 
How they point our memories bxck 
To the hasty words and actions 
Strewn along our backward track! 
How these little hands remind us, 
As in snowy grace they lie, 
Not to scatter thorns, but roses, 
For our reaping by-and-by. 
Strange we never prize the music 
Till the sweet-voiced bird has flown; 
Strange that we should slight the violets 
Till the lovely flowers are gone; 
Strange that Summer skies and sunshine 
Never seem one-half s fair 
As when Winter’s snowy pinions 
Shake their white down in the air. 
Lips from which the seal of silence 
None but God can roll away 
Never blossomed in such beauty 
As adorns the mouth to-day ; 
And sweet words hat freight our memory, 
With their beautiful perfume, 
Come to us iu sweeter acce its 
Through the portals of the tomb. 
Let us gather up the sunbeams 
Lying all around our path, 
Let us keep the wheat and roses, 
Casting o it the thorns and chaff; 
Let us find our sweetest comfort 
In the blessings of to-day, 
With the patient hand removing 
All the briers from our way. 
Wisdom from tlie Catalogues. 
Making Lawns. —James Vick. If you 
want a lawn, and the ground is clear, it is 
best to prepare it at once and sow Kentucky 
Blue Grass with a little White Clover, or 
Lawn Grass,—which is simply Blue Grass 
and White Clover,—with a few other nice 
.grasses, using at the rate of four bushels of 
seed to the acre. Sow in September and the 
autumn rains will give it a good start. Be¬ 
fore winter sets in give the young grass a 
light dressing of manure, and by the first of 
June you will have a good lawn if the soil 
was in fair condition. In preparing soil for 
a lawn see that the surface is light, for it is 
hard to make the young grass come up in a 
hard soil that will bake on the surface. Af¬ 
ter the grass once gets started there will be 
no trouble. If the soil is stiff and likely to 
bake, after sowing the seed and raking it in, 
cover tlie surface with about an inch of ma¬ 
nure and let it remain until the grass is well 
up, then rake off a little of tlie coarsest. 
Seeds Best Sown in the Autumn.— 
James Vick. Most people have observed, 
no doubt, that self-sown seeds, that is, seeds 
that have dropped from the growing plants 
of the previons season, sometimes produce 
the strongest and most healthy plants that 
bloom the most freely. This is true of sev¬ 
ered kinds, and particularly of those that 
suffer under exposure to our midsummer 
suns. Tlie reason is that self-sown seeds get 
a very healthy growth in the spring, vege¬ 
tating as soon as frost is gon are good 
sized plants at the time we m . Iy put seeds 
in the ground, even if the}' do not start in 
the fall. They thus mature and flower dur¬ 
ing the cool weather of spring. The Clark- 
ias and Nemophilas and Am u il Larkspurs 
are noted examples. There are also several 
varieties of Hardy Annuals which do well 
with spring sowing that will bear autumn 
sowing in tlie open ground, and reward us 
with early spring flowers. Sweet Alyssum 
and White Candytuft will give us abund¬ 
ance of white for early cutting, if sown in 
the autumn. In a sandy soil the Portulaca 
may be sown in autumn with good success. 
Seeds of biennials and perennials, if sown 
early enough to produce strong little plants, 
will flower the next, summer; Pansies and 
Chinese Pinkg, though they bloom the first 
summer if sown in the spring, will make 
much stronger plants and flower more free¬ 
ly and earlier if young plants are grown in 
the autumn. 
-+<S8»v- 
Before you neglect any duty on the 
theory that it is unimportant, see what the 
ultimate bearing of the seemingly trifling 
thing may be. 
