130 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
The Editor with his Young Readers. 
About the Picture. 
The object which these children arc watching with 
so much interest, would he new to most of you, al¬ 
though once it was very common. Our ancestors, 
many generations ago, used the instrument for 
measuring time—a clock or a watch had not then 
been thought of. The hour-glass.was made of the 
shape you see in the picture, and sand enough was 
put in it to require just an hour to run from the 
top division to the bottom ; then the apparatus 
was turned, and the sand ran back again. Marks for 
half and quarter of an hour were sometimes made 
on the sides of the glass. The contrivance was in¬ 
genious, but somewhat troublesome, as it must be 
regularly turned, or noaccount could be kept ofthe 
time of day. 
This was quite an improvement on some of the 
contrivances in use still earlier. It is related that 
King Alfred of England, measured time with wax 
candles ; each of which was made of several differ¬ 
ent colors ; these were arranged so that it took an 
hour, or some other exact period, to burn down to 
the next colored division. TheSun dial was known 
thousands of years ago, and itserved agood purpose 
except in cloudy weather, when it was useless. 
The pretty children in the picture appear much 
amused with the steady flow of the stream of sand. 
They look quite thoughtful; perhaps they have 
been told that the instrument marks the passing 
away of a portion of life. Do you ever think how 
each tick of the clock tells that life is shortening; 
and how the strokes of the bell seem to say 1 gone 1 
THE HOUR-GLASS. 
gone! gone!’—and soon it will all be gone. Try to 
live so that each moment, as it flies into eternity, 
shall bear a record of your good thoughts, words, 
and actions. 
What will you Plant ? 
Have you a garden of your own? Not a large 
plot, perhaps, but a small piece of ground where 
you can raise flowers or vegetables. Ask father to 
allow you a corner somewhere, and then try and 
make it produce the best plants of all the garden. 
What will you put into it ? Melons, tomatoes, beans, 
and peas ? — or asters, phloxes, pansies, and roses ? 
Suppose you scatter the seeds of thistles, dock, pur¬ 
slane, and rag-weed upon the bed. They will be 
quite sure to grow. Or if you simply let thegrouud 
alone and sow no seed, weeds will spring up, for 
the seeds arc already there, and you need have very 
little trouble in cultivating them. It will not be nec¬ 
essary to enrich the ground, or to use cither spade 
or hoe, but only let them alone, and a luxuriant 
crop will follow; while to get melons, or other 
good vegetables or line flowers, will require much 
pains-taking. But then, you are ready to exclaim, 
these will be worth something when we get them; 
while weeds are only a nuisance, which no one likes. 
Exactly so, and now remember that your mind is 
like a garden, and early years are the Spring time 
of life. Plant good lessons there, of knowledge, 
temperance, honesty, patience, love, and all virtues, 
and cultivate them by practice, and though at times 
it may be hard work, it viillpay — the fruit will be 
peace, and happiness. But idleness and neglect will 
allow the seeds of profanity, impurity, dishonesty, 
anger, and every other hateful vice to ripen into 
degradation and misery. 
Think of it as you are 
planting your garden this 
Spring. 
Looking into tlic 
Horse’s mouth. 
Our young readers have 
all doubtless heard the 
adage “ Never look a gift 
horse in the mouth.” In 
estimating the value of a 
horse, people judge some¬ 
what of its age and good 
constitution by the sound¬ 
ness of its teeth. The 
adage, of course, means 
that when a horse is given 
to us, we should not im¬ 
mediately open his mouth 
to sec if we can not find 
fault with him. We have 
seen young people, who, 
when presented with a 
toy, or some more valua¬ 
ble gift, would immedi¬ 
ately begin to pick flaws 
in it, and perhaps say, “ it 
is not as good as John’s or 
Sarah’s.” We gave a beg¬ 
gar a pretty good second¬ 
hand coat recently. lie 
immediately took it v.p 
and examined it carefully, 
as if to see if there were 
any holes in it, and even 
looked disdainfully at one 
arm, which was somewhat 
threadbare. Y ou may 
guess whether he got any¬ 
thing, when he called the 
next time.-Not long 
since a clergyman of our 
acquaintance married a 
wealthy couple, and ex¬ 
pected a large fee. As he 
was about leaving for 
home, a five dollar gold 
piece was put into his 
hands, with a pair of 
gloves for himself, and 
another pair as a present for his wife.' He was so 
vexed at the smallness of the gift, that he left both 
the money and gloves on the hall table, as he 
passed out. Judge of his chagrin when he after¬ 
ward learned that there was a ten dollar bill in 
each of the fingers of two pairs of gloves, designed 
for himself and wife. He had “looked the gift 
horse in the mouth.” 
The Doctor’s Fee. 
Another illustration of the above adage occurred 
in Paris a few months ago. A physician attended a 
wealthy banker’s very sick child, which recovered, 
to the great joy of the parents. The physician, ou 
making his last call, was asked for his bill, and ex¬ 
pecting a large fee, he proposed to leave it to the 
good will of the parents. The mother left the room, 
and soon returned with a fine knit purse, and, 
handing it to the physician, said: “ We are grateful 
to you indeed, doctor; money can not fully repay 
your kindness and skill—allow me to present this 
purse, which I have knit with my own hands, as a 
token of my gratitude.” The physician spurned 
the gift, and said : “ Madam, such gifts are nothing 
to me; time is money, and I must be recompensed 
for my time,” The lady felt hurt at this rude re¬ 
ply, and answered: “Sir, as you despise this gift, 
which I had spent many pleasant hours in making 
for you, as a token of my gratitude, say, how much 
money will satisfy you.”—“My bill,” said he, “is 
two thousand francs.”—The lady immediately open¬ 
ed the purse, took out five notes of a thousand 
francs each, unrolled them, handed Iwo of them to 
the doctor, rolled up the other three, replaced them 
in the purse, put it in her own pocket, bade the 
