162 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
Easter smd Easter Eg:g:$t 
It will soon be Easter, or Easter Sunday, and 
many a boy and girl has looked in the almanac to 
see when it comes this year. Easter is the Church 
festival of the Resurrection ot Christ, and the name 
comes from the German Ostara, a goddess of light or 
spring, in whose honor, in ancient times, a feast was 
celebrated in April of each year at about the same 
time as the Christian festival. In olden times the cel¬ 
ebration of Easter lasted for more than a week, and 
was a time of great rejoicing. Many popular sports 
were engaged in, and a great deal of fun was made 
by those who would scarcely laugh all the rest of 
the year. Easter corresponds to the pascha, or 
origin of a practice among American children, which 
the accompanying engraving very likely brought to 
mind before a word was read. Lucky is the child 
who finds the largest number of eggs on Easter 
morning! This desire to be the “ lucky ” one has 
developed the practice of making that luck depend 
upon the capacity to hide the greatest number of 
eggs day by day for weeks before the joyful morn¬ 
ing comes. What out-of-the-way places are sought 
for! What depths of the hay-mow are reached, 
and what high beams in the barn are scaled, that 
fresh laid eggs may be put where they will keep ! 
I remember that one spring the hens, which I took 
special pains to feed well for their work, did re¬ 
markably as to laying, and were particularly free 
hole. The hay was dug away, and I began to take 
out the eggs, but stopped after thirteen had been 
removed—because there were no more. This 
seemed strange. Tes, it was strange, and would 
bear looking into. Below, and a trifle to one side, 
I found an opening large enough for a rat to pass 
to a hole in the floor below. Just at this moment 
I saw a young relative of mine standing on the barn 
floor with a great basketful ot oval-shaped white 
and brown bodies, that are sometimes sold by the 
dozen. I looked again, and he seemed to laugh, I 
thought he was laughing at me, and do to this day. 
More than that, I think he got all his eggs out of 
one “ nest,” and did not mind how the hens could 
have laid them there either. I felt so sure about 
AFTFR THE PASQUE EGGS 
EASTER MORNING. _ Drawn and Engraved for the American Agi'icutturist. 
Passover of the Jews, and is frequently called 
Pasque or Pask. The most interesting ancient 
Easter or Pasque rite, and the oue most widely 
known at the present day, was that in which eggs 
were used. In the good old days, everybody, 
everywhere, all over the Christian world, prepared, 
exchanged, and ate “Pasque Eggs” on Easter 
morning. These eggs were often very gaily and 
expensively adorned. We see a little of this done 
at the present day, but the high art of “ egging at 
Easter” is not now known. The eggs were stained 
of all colors by the use of dyes. By coating a por¬ 
tion of the shell with tallow, this is kept free from 
the coloring, and variegated eggs with strange de¬ 
signs were produced. It used to be the custom, in 
Scotland, for the young people to go out early on 
Easter Sunday, and search for wild fowl’s eggs for 
breakfast, and lucky would be the one who should 
find the largest number. This is doubtless the 
from any desire for sitting. I watched them with 
the greatest care, and gathered the eggs daily. 
Enough were taken to the house to satisfy the table 
—none to sell—and the rest were put away in a 
peculiar shaped hole in the side of the hay mow. 
The covering was always carefully placed, so that 
I might easily detect it if any one had been to my 
“nest.” An old aunt once remarked in my hear¬ 
ing that the hens did not seem to do quite so well 
this spring, except in the way of “ cackling,” and 
there was a plenty of that, I wondered that another 
boy in the same family with myself did not take 
some interest in eggs, but he seemed as thought¬ 
less of the coming Easter as the hens themselves. 
When Easter morning came I went out bright and 
early with a large tin pail, to milk the cow, and of 
course went straight to the “hen’s nest.” The 
cover had not been molested, and the eggs were 
there as I could feel, as I put my arm down the 
the whole matter, that I did not even ask him 
whose eggs he had, but left him to have all his 
sport by himself. It was something of a disap¬ 
pointment to me, to not get what I went after, 
but perhaps it paid after all. Some people 
profit by sad lessons of experience, and the next 
year the egg matter was much more in my favor. 
The picture on this page tells its own story. It 
is Easter morning, and the boys, and a girl too, are 
after the Pasque eggs. The hay mow is being 
searched in a thorough manner, and with great 
success, if we may judge from the show of eggs. 
It is a time of considerable sport, but the one who 
does not enjoy it the least is not observed by the 
children, though he may be in their minds. It is 
hoped that they may all have a good Easter break¬ 
fast—“A Feast of Eggs.” That the little girl may 
not fall or bang her basket against the ladder in 
descending is the sincere wish of your Uncle Hal. 
