[April. 
170 AMEEICAK A&EIOTJLTURIST. 
The Young Musician. 
■'Tu whit 1 tu whit! tu wheo I Chiek-a-deo-dee ! 
Bobolink ! bobolink! spink spank, spink !” and 
then such a burst of melody, one would have 
thought a whole aviary of song birds had been let 
loose in farmer Milkweed’s orchard. Where did it 
come from ? Not from that saucy robin, surely ; 
or the brown sparrow flying home with a worm in 
her beak I No, indeed ; ’tis a rarer songster than 
cither of these—a veritable human mocking-bird 
—no other than little Patsy French perched on the 
limb of an old apple-tree ; his straw hat pushed 
back from his sun-burned face, piping forth sweet 
notes in imitation of the wild birds, that the little 
feathered creatures come fluttering round, taking 
him for one of their own. But a gruff bass breaks 
in upon the liquid treble among the apple-blossoms 
as Farmer Milkweed shouts, “ Pat-sy, Pat-sy, 
where are you, you young rascal!” and as the 
bound boy slides down from his hiding-place, “Be 
off to the store, and bring me a penny worth of 
nails, in three shakes of a lamb’s tail, or I’ll make 
yer sing a different tune from that.”—“ Tis, sur !” 
and briskly the bare feet patter down the dusty road. 
At the store door he encountered a lad of his 
own age, who, leaning against a post, is twanging 
away on a jew’s-harp. Patsy comes to a standstill, 
The squeaky little iron instrument has wonderful 
charms for him, and “Like it ?” asks the player, 
twanging out “Yankee Doodle.”—“Stunning,” 
is the terse reply. “ ’Tain’t good for much, but 
yer can have it, if yer choose.”—If a gold mine had 
suddenly opened at Patsy’s feet he could not have 
felt more astonished, oi' more richly endowed than 
at this gift, and could scarcely stammer his thanks. 
Wh.at cared he for the scolding he received for loi¬ 
tering, or being sent supperless to bed, when he 
could creep up in the hay-mow, and there, in the 
gathering twilight, practice upon his new treasure. 
That was but the first of many a concert in the old 
loft. There Patsy might be found, actually draw¬ 
ing melody from the second-hand jew’s-harp, 
breathing forth “Robin Adair,” “I Want to be 
an Angel,” and “Home, Sweet Home,” his only 
audience the swallow's that flitted amongthe rafters, 
the brown hen, the comfortable pigeons, and the 
tiny mice, often rising upon their hind-legs as 
though about to take the first steps in a minuet. 
Then Patsy was happy, in spite of his orphan lot, 
and hard task-master, while his musical soul over¬ 
flowed with joy and rapture. A show'er one day 
drove a stranger to take refuge in Farmer Milk¬ 
weed’s barn. He heard the weird strains, stole 
softly up the steps, and caught a glimpse of the 
brow'n-eyed “ cherub who sat up aloft.” He was 
a professor in a Conservatory of Music, and wa 
touched by the young player. An interview was 
held with the farmer, and he finally carried Patsy 
off to his “ castle of delight.” Tears rolled away, 
but often as a famed musician, he sees again his first 
audience, the swallows, doves, and mice, listening 
to the jew’s-harp in Farmer Miikweed’s old hay-loft. 
Our Tame Crow. 
A man found a nest of four young ones and was 
about to destroy them, for though crows on the 
whole do more good than harm to the farmer, the 
visible concentrated injury done in a single corn 
field leaves a strong prejudice against them. But 
at the request of neighbors in a village near, 
these nestlings were spared ; and after several un¬ 
successful attempts to destroy the wary parent 
birds, one of the youngsters was secured by a gen¬ 
tleman in the village and another by the writer, 
tw'o being killed by accident. The survivoi's fre¬ 
quently visited each other. The first morning 
after receiving our pet he seemed quite at home, 
and rapidly devoured a handful of angle worms as 
fast as dropped into his open mouth, vociferously 
calling for more, untii he was finally satisfied and 
contented. He was given a coop, and after a | 
week or so it was left open, but he never left the 
.premises except to soon return. He chose a roost 
on a tall oak near the house, and at early dawn | 
lighted on the roof and pecked the shingles, and ' 
made all the noise possible, as much as to say, 
“ wake up and give me my breakfast.” He once 
came very near destruction when an old turkey ! 
gobbler got him underfoot, but he was rescued in , 
time ; and again when a toddling cousin learning to i 
walk fell upon “ Dick,” as wocalledhim, and near¬ 
ly squeezed him to death. When able to fly well he 
kept out of the way of these and other accidents. 
Dick’s methods of hiding things was very amus¬ 
ing. After covering a piece of food, for example, |i 
he would walk around it, cocking his eye, and if > 
observing an exposed point he would lay a chip 
over the place, and again walk all around and ex¬ 
amine the whole. He followed mother into the cu¬ 
cumber patch and imitated her in picking the fruit. 
Receiving a sharp rap for so doing he rolled on his 
back and threw up his claws in his fighting posture. 
She supposing him dead went on with her work. [ 
After sulking awhile he flew off to the fence and I 
sat there angrily muttering curses. Soon after he 
revenged himself by removing the clothes-pins as 
fast as she placed them on the line, and letting the } 
clothes fall to the ground, all the while uttering a 
harsh scolding sound. The old lady b 3 ' a sudden 
motion caught and tied him to a stake. But when 
she was gone he got the string loose, and keeping 
clear of the clothes-line met us on the way home 
very cross and surly, but would not go near the ; 
house for a long time. A lady of the village 
having spread some clothes on the grass to bleach, 
Dick deliberately smeared his feet in a mud puddle | 
and kept tracking all over the clothes until driven ' 
away. A neighbor shingling a barn left his knife i 
stieking up in the roof. Dick seized it in his bill [ 
and flew off, and only dropped it after long chasing t 
and hurling missiles at him. At another time he 
took great interest in the buiidiug of a boat, and 
frequently watehed the operation. When the 
painting began Dick was particularly attentive. 
The man having gone into the shop Dick deliber¬ 
ately walked back aud forth from stem to stern, ^ 
filing the fresh paint with tracks, and then uttered j 
a loud “ caw” to call the owner’s attention to his 
mischief. Dodging a stick hurled at him, he flew j 
off in high glee.—Diek oljteu went to the school- 
house, and lingered around the outside during 
study hours, but every now and then tapped the j 
window panes, to the amusement of the children | 
but to the disturbance of good order. His wings 
took him off safely when any attempt was made to 
punish his intrusion. Numerous thefts in the vil¬ 
lage were believed to lie at his door, yet he was so 
adroit and cunning that no one seemed disposed to 
harm him, and so he lived on in his mischief, 
until he disappeared one day in late autumn, 
probably a victim to a sportsman’s gun. 
M TJ S I C IN THE HAY LOET. 
Drawn (fey W. M. Cary) and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
