AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
331 
iiu one here when I came, but tho ink was spilt 
then.” 
“ It is very strange,” said the teacher, “ but I 
believe you; I know you are an honest boy, 
for you confessed the whispering when no one 
accused you. We will wait, and I am sure the 
guilty one will be found out.” 
The children looked round, wondering who 
the guilty onewas, and thinking how badly he 
must feel. “ 1 know it wasn’t Edward,” they 
said to each other ; “ for he tells when he does 
wrong though nobody knows it. He wouldn’t 
keep still the other day to save his mark, and a 
beautiful wheelbarrow too, his father was going 
to give him. Ain’t he a good boy ?” 
“ Who could have spilt the ink ?” So they 
talked till school began, but found out nothing. 
School was not over, however, before there 
was a giggling among the little ones nearest the 
the table, and some of them pressed their hands 
tightly over their mouths to keep it in. 
“ Children,” said the teacher in a tone of re¬ 
proof, “ what is the matter?” 
Instead of a drawer there was but a shelf in 
the table, and on the front edge of this sat a 
cunning little squirrel peeping forth to see if he 
might safely venture from his hiding-place. At 
sight of the teacher he drew back into his cor¬ 
ner and was caught by him. 
“ Here children,” he said, as he drew him 
out, “ here is the ink spiller, a little rogue of a 
squirrel; his feet are dabbed with ink now; I 
thought we should find out the rogue who did 
the mischief. I felt certain it was not Edward. 
Here Edward,” he added, turning to him, “he 
has cleared you, and you may have him.” 
As Edward took him he saw that he was the 
very one that he and John had seen looking in 
at the window. He put him in his dinner bas¬ 
ket till the noon recess, and then fed him and 
let him go, to run and frolic with his fellows as 
he pleased. The squirrel did not forget "his good 
fare, and all the summer frisked and played 
about the school-house. The children were 
careful not to alarm him, and he became almost 
tame. They called him “ Squirrel Ned,” and 
sometimes “Squire Ned,” and many a time he 
made them think of the boy who would not act 
a lie, and whose word could be believed when 
every thing seemed to be against it.— American 
Messenger. 
LET THE GUN ALONE. 
Mr. Meriam, of Brooklyn, made a list of the 
number of persons killed and wounded within 
two years, while engaged in gunning or hunt¬ 
ing harmless wild animals and little birds. One 
hundred and Jive persons were killed , besides 
thirty-two who were wounded —far outnumber¬ 
ing the deaths by lightning, recorded by him 
during the same time. 
“I would thus,” he says, “sound a note of 
warning to those who indulge in this cruel 
sport, that death is on their track. The cry of 
the wounded robin reaches the ear of the Most 
High, and he heeds their cry. The patriach 
Noah commissioned a bird to explore a drowned 
world; and when the dove was sent forth, it 
returned bearing a green olive-branch. What 
an emblem was this. The ravens were sent by 
God to feed the prophet Elijah, and not a spar¬ 
row falls to the ground without his notice.” 
There is a solemn rebuke in facts like these. 
Let the young men and boys stop and think be¬ 
fore they go out into the beautiful fields and for 
mere sport consent to become the murderers of 
the harmless, defenceless, innocent, and happy 
creatures which God has made to inhabit them. 
They have a right to live as well as you. There 
is room enough, and food enough, and home 
enough for you and them. They are the crea¬ 
tures of God, and the cruelty that wantonly des¬ 
troys them is offensive to him.— Child's Paper. 
-- «- 
The Louisville Democrat says it is reported 
that one of the Hardin county jury, which 
acquitted Matt. Ward, was recently bitten by a 
snake, and that the snake died. 
Smtjr-icok, 
ON THE NAMING OF CHILDREN. 
There is certainly “a refinement in names,” 
and parents would do well to consider this mat¬ 
ter with a little more attention than they appear 
to do generally. Never give a child a name 
that he will probably dislike when he comes to 
years of maturity. There are some names that 
always seem to carry with them the joy and 
freshness of youth, though they may grace 
alike the silvery locks of declining years. For 
instance, Ellen and Leonora. What is prettier 
than Ellen? Why, the very mention of the 
name calls up ideas of beauty and refinement. 
Leonora sparkles upon the sea of fancy like a gem 
upon the bosom of the ocean. There are oth¬ 
ers again, as Mary and Sarah, which, though 
very common, possess an inherent beauty that 
will ever cause them to occupy a prominent po¬ 
sition in the catalogue of fanciful names. Sarah 
conveys the idea of sprightly intelligence and 
gracefulness combined. Mary is at once simple 
and elegant. We can associate none but the 
most delicate and refined sentiments with such 
names as these. Some people seem to have a 
dislike for what they call “romantic names.” 
Now, I can see no objection to an Eva or a Flor¬ 
ence, or any other of the same class, whether 
it be found in the pages of romance, or in the 
more practical circles of every day life. Think 
of a Joshua or a Jeremiah, a Sampson or a 
Obadiah—very good names, no doubt, for the 
“olden times” in which they were used; but 
quite too ancient for this “ age of improvement.” 
Perhaps some hesitating mother may be aided 
in her choice by such a list as the following, of 
female names:—Agnace, Arabel, Arethusa, 
Anslie, Amelie, Aletheia, Angerona, Amarin- 
thia, Almira, Araminta, Belladonna, Brunetta, 
Claudia, Dorethula, Eglantine, Egeria, Eve, 
Ettie, Ermine, Ellen, Evelina, Elvira, Fredonia, 
Florida, Frederika, Gertrude, Genieve, Garcia, 
Hildigrade, Hermance, Katharine, Lola, Lelia, 
Lucillia, Lesbia, Langartha, Lucinda, Mahala, 
Miranda, Marjarone, Meta, Malvina, Melissa, 
Nai'cissa, Priscillia, Petrea, Paulina, Penelope, 
Rose, Roslin, Regina, Rossie, and Tallulah. 
Names of Males. —Albert, Alpheus, Alfred, 
Armoldus, Antonio, Arthus, Adolphus, Alphon- 
so, Alexis, Alric, Alonzo, Atheling, Bertram, 
Bertrand, Carro, Clarence, Claudius, Clovine, 
Edgar, Eldred, Edred, Edwin, Edmund, Frede¬ 
ric, Henrick, Henrico, Herbert, Horace, Herman, 
Helon, Jesse, Lucius, Leonard, Lancelot, Mau¬ 
rice, Oscar, Orlando, Oswald, Osborn, Percy, 
Ronald, Randolphus, Roderic, Theodore, Theo- 
dric, Theodosius, Victor, Wilfred, and War¬ 
wick. 
To this list the Editor adds Phamenoth, Ion- 
thee, Hypoletta, Ayna, Plectrude, Iova, Benigna, 
Poppea, Ismadil, Tranquilla, Morna, Maud, 
and Taschline.— Home Journal. 
CONVERSATION. 
A celebrated writer and observer has re¬ 
marked, that “a woman to maintain her influ¬ 
ence, must either look well or talk well.” The 
good looks do not always depend on herself, 
but to talk well certainly does. There should 
be a much larger proportion of time spent by 
school girls in writing and talking,—in learning 
to express their own thoughts and those they 
acquire. 
If a woman’s object is to gain admiration 
merely, there is no way she can be so sure of 
doing so, as by an intelligent and animated con¬ 
versation. There is no way that brilliant tal¬ 
ents and solid acquirements may be exhibited to 
more advantage, and most surely there is no 
way in which good seed may be sown in the 
heart to spring up and bear fruit a hundred 
and a thousand fold as by “ a word in season,” 
which is “ like apples of gold in pictures of sil¬ 
ver.” 
Let every lady before going to a tea-party oi' 
sewing society or social gathering, decide upon 
one or more interesting subjects which she will 
endeavor to introduce to those whom it may be¬ 
come her duty to entertain, and obtain all the 
information she can concerning them. If she 
select one about which there may be differences 
of opinion, let her revolve in her mind all the 
thousand and ten thousand p>ros and cons which 
may possibly spring up in the minds of others, 
and thus become familiar with the process of 
arguing, and learn to argue fairly. But the 
theme must not only be well conned; she must 
study quite assiduously to talk about it in the 
right way, lest she should seem dictatorial and 
pedantic—as if she were reciting a book. If 
every lady should go thus prepared, what an 
amount of small talk and gossip it would banish 
from social circles, and how many in a little 
time would become intelligent, and take pleasure 
in mental cultivation, who now make very little 
use of their acquirements. 
I have seen the experiment tried in schools, 
and very successfully, of devoting two or three 
hours each week to conversational cultivation, 
(if I may coin an expression ;) and if no other 
benefit accrued, it impressed upon the minds of 
young ladies the importance of training their 
tongues to usefulness, and inspiring them with 
ambition to redeem their sex from the accusa¬ 
tions now so universal, of insipidity and frivol 
ity. 
Something of the same kind might be institu¬ 
ted in families. Mothers, and fathers too, might 
thus prepare their daughters to be “ burning 
and shining lights,” in a sphere which is em¬ 
inently theirs.— Independent. 
-• • •— 
Snow Arch.—O ne of the greatest curiosities 
ever witnessed at the White Mountains is now 
to be seen at “ Tuckerman’s Ravine,” about 
three miles from the Glen House. It consists of 
an arch of pure snow, spanning the brook that 
tumbles over the rocks from the summits of the 
mountains. The ravine is the receptacle of all 
the snow that blows from the top of Mount 
Washington, and there can be no doubt that 
during the winter it accumulates to the depth of 
several hundred feet. As the brook begins to 
run in the spring, it wears its way through un¬ 
der the snow, which gradually melts away at 
the approach of summer, making the cavity 
larger and larger. 
On the 16th of July, this ravine was visited 
by D. 0. Macomber, Esq., in company with Mr. 
J. II. Spaulding, of the Summit House, and Mr. 
Cavis, the engineer of the White Mountain Car¬ 
riage Road, by whom the arch was measured. 
It was found to be 180 feet long, 84 wide, and 
40 feet high, on the inside; and 266 feet long 
and 40 feet wide on the outside. The snow 
forming the arch is 20 feet thick. 
The gentlemen above named walked through 
the arch, in the bed of the brook, and ate their 
dinner at the foot of the cataract, which falls a 
thousand feet down the sides of the mountains. 
The arch is on the south east side of the moun¬ 
tain, and is exposed to the sun’s rays during 
most of the day. Last year it remained until 
August 16th, when a warm rain of several days’ 
continuance melted it away. It is possible that 
this year it may last through the season.— Port¬ 
land State of Maine. 
-- 
A Remarkable Village. —A paragraph ap¬ 
peared lately in the Ladies' Journal, stating, as 
a remarkable fact, that all the sh ips in Fort 
Augustus were kept by young, unmarried fe¬ 
males, all fresh, fair, and "twenty. We beg to 
offer, as a still more remarkable fact—and pro¬ 
bably the cause, not the effect, of the prior 
fact—that not only is this so, but that the pro¬ 
vost, the minister, the schoolmaster, the doctor, 
the inspector, the lock-keeper, the exciseman, 
the baker, the flesher, the shoemaker, the tailor, 
the carpenter, the piper, and the fiddler of this 
very remarkable village, are, all of them, singu¬ 
lar to say, living in single blessedness !— Inver¬ 
ness Advertiser. 
