108 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
2.—HOW THE BALL GREW LARGER. 
shouted and screamed at the quick rise in pork, and 
thought’twas the whole of their mischievous work, so they 
all went into the school rather late, and left the poor pig 
and the ball to their fate. What became of the pig, we 
really don’t know ; the ball, that kept on and continued 
to grow; it went on and on, away down the long hill, 
WHAT THE SNOWBALL WAS DOING WHEN LAST HEARD FROM 
till it came to the place, close by the old mill, where 
Mehitable Smith met Mister Sam Gray; he asked her to 
ride with him in his new sleigh. She consented to go.— 
“ I’m so proud,” said Sam, “ you need not smile so, for I 
really am. Why smilest thou, Hettie, come now, tell me 
5.—MR. GRAY PERSUADES MISS SMITH. 
all.”—She told him the proverb of “pride” and its 
“ fall,”—just then came along that remarkable ball. The 
truth of the proverb is plain to you all. The ball still 
went on in a business-like way, and highly disgusted was 
Mister Sam Gray. Professor Macalpin, the learned and 
wise, who knew by their names every star in the skies, 
- - - had walked to the town 
- ■ three miles from the col- 
U'0 = ' : E== lege, his hat oh his head, 
his head full of knowledge. 
He had ordered a book, 
just fresh from the press, 
which came in that morn¬ 
ing by Adams’ Express. 
What was in his new book 
he much longed to know, 
so he read as he plodded 
home through the snow. 
Professor, what book do 
you eagerly scan ? It was 
Darwin’s latest, “The Des¬ 
cent of Man I ’’—Just see 
the astonishment shown 
in his look, while be¬ 
ing taught something not 
down in the book. The 
ball went on and on, down 
hill all the way, it had 
not yet done all its work for the day. Bad deeds, like 
chickens, always come home to roost. The young 
scamps who started the ball with a boost, ah 1 little they 
thought as they sat at their sums, from how small an 
acorn a big oak-tree comes, or how a snow-ball, that 
8.—AN ILLUSTRATION NOT GIVEN IN THE BOOK. 
could upset a pig, might in rolling a mile become very 
big ; which, though it at first could not injure a mouse, 
in time would be able to move off a house. Whose honse 
did it move ? Alas! ’twas no other, than that where 
these boys did live with their mother. The story is sad, 
full of weeping and woe, just how sad it is the pictures 
will show. School out, the boys started for home in great 
glee ; they thought of the pig as a right jolly spree. 
When of their home they found only the cellar, they 
stood in a row ; each mischievous fellow, set up a snow- 
bawl—oh 1 how they did bellow. Moral .—it has none. 
nut, to make out a lunch. “Hold on, boys,” said Joe, 
“let us now have some fun, there’s a plenty of time, 
school hasn’t begun, lets make a big snow-ball.”—“Just 
so,” agreed Bill, “ but hold on, till we get to the top of 
the hill.” Joe made a ball as big as an orange or, may 
be as large as a pewter porringer. He rolled it along on 
moist, sticky snow ; it grew and grew bigger, my I how 
it did grow 1 As big as the head of Jack, the fat bump¬ 
kin, it quickly outstripped a premium pumpkin. All 
three of the boys pushed the ball with a will, and rolled 
it at last to the brow of the hill.—“ Now, boys, let her go. 
Let her go now,” said Jack, who stood at one side, safely 
out of the track. They did “let her go.” and it down 
the hill flew, and the farther it went the bigger it grew. 
As it went on its way, some strange things befell; just 
what things did happen, the pictures will tell. Farmer 
Jones had a pig, about a year old, which, like Hamlet’s 
pa’s ghost, a tail could unfold. The snow was so deep, 
piggy stepped from his pen, and was taking a bit of a 
walk just when Jack said, “let her go,” to Joe and to 
Bill, and the ball had begun its journey down hill. They 
6.—THE BALL ASTONISHES MR. GRAY. 
7.—THE PROFESSOR STUDIES “THE DESCENT OF MAN.” 
