372 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
GATHERING CHRISTMAS GREENS. 
ABOUT CHRISTMAS—PRESENTS—EVERGREENS. 
Christmas day will soon be here. Our own little 
folks at home are already thinking and talking 
about it, and thousands of you who read these lines 
are anticipating the merry times expected. Stock¬ 
ings hung up in the chimney comer, presents of 
skates and toys, dolls, and new dresses, candies and 
cakes, and other things too numerous to mention, 
are filling the thoughts and exciting the hopes of 
those who live where this festival is observed. Ex¬ 
cept in the large cities and villages, Christmas is 
not so generally celebrated in this country as in 
Europe. There, in most places, it is counted the 
great festival of the year, and is observed with much 
ceremony and general rejoicing. Among other 
pleasing features, is the custom of adorning the 
churches and private dwellings with evergreens, 
which is said to have originated in England. It has 
also been adopted in other countries, and is becom¬ 
ing quite general here. 
The picture above represents two little chubby 
English children, rosy with health, eyes sparkling, 
and hearts light with happiness, trudging through 
the snow, with their aprons full of holly, laurel, 
ivy, and mistletoe, which they have been gathering 
to dress their cottage. Wc can imagine how proud 
they feel with their treasures, and with what satis¬ 
faction they will see them when arranged in the 
parlor, making it look like a fairy bower. They 
will have a merry Christmas without doubt, for 
their parents will be quite sure to reward them for 
such pains-taking. 
You all know why Christmas is kept up. Can 
you tell the reason for givingpresents at that time? 
It is found in the 2d Chapter of Matthew: read the 
whole account of the birth of Christ and you will 
discover one reason why presents are made, in 
commemorating the event. 
But why adorn the buildings with evergreens? 
In old times, in England, there lived a pimple called 
Druids. They wer.e the priests of that country, and 
taught the people to worship imaginary spirits who 
lived in groves and woods. Evergreens were taken 
into the houses at this season, 
that the spirits might come in 
and find shelter from the cold 
among their branches. When 
the people learned the Chris¬ 
tian religion, this custom was 
still kept up, until it became 
a part of the ceremony ob¬ 
served in celebrating Christ¬ 
mas. The evergreens give a 
very cheerful appearance to a 
room, and although the spirits 
which the Druids believed in, 
do not come in, yet pleasant 
thoughts and happy feelings 
are excited, and thus good spir¬ 
its take possession of the 
heart. The “Greens” also 
remind us of the coming 
Spring, and are quite appro¬ 
priate to an occasion when we 
remember the coming of Him, 
whose work it was and is, to 
make all hearts happy, to 
bring Spring into every soul. 
We trust you may all share in 
the benefits He freely gives to 
all who desire them'; then you 
will have a Merry Christmas 
and a Happy New-Year, and' 
peace and happiness will be 
your constant guests. 
“down in the mouth.” 
Some years since a large 
whale was caught near the 
Thames River, in England, and 
taken to the shore, where it 
was visited by thousands. Its 
huge mouth was propped open 
by poles, and formed a cavern 
large enough for a good sized 
man to enter very easily. A 
scientific gentleman, quite eager to examine the 
interior of this cavern, stepped inside, and upon 
the animal’s tongue. This is a spongy mass, 
and in this case having been some time ex¬ 
posed to the air, it was as soft as a bog, and as he 
stepped upon it he sunk, and slipping at the same 
time, he pitched forward headlong toward the 
whale’s gullet. He was now in a really dangerous 
predicament; he sank lower and lower into the oily 
mass, until he nearly disappeared, and must soon 
have lost his life, had not the bystanders come to 
his assistance ; as it was they had great difficulty in 
drawing him out of the fish with a boat hook. 
Uncle Jolin’s Study. 
BELIEVING ONE’S EYES—CURIOUS EXPERIMENT. 
By Raleigh Truman. 
Mr. Editor. —I have been so much interested by 
your talks with the boys and girls, and the pleasant 
stories related by the correspondents of the Agri¬ 
culturist , that I want to do something to pay for it. 
I have thought of no more acceptable way than to 
send you occasional reports of the doings in Uncle 
John’s Study. He is a bachelor, and one of the 
kindest and most lovable men in the world. Having 
no children of his own, he seems to think it his 
special business, to do all he can for other people’s 
little ones. He has traveled all over the world, and 
seems to know almost every thing. He has a large 
room up stairs at my father’s, which he calls his 
Study, where he spends most of his time; for he 
says he is like a honey bee—he has been gathering 
materials many years, and now lie is busy making 
honey. — I suppose he means that lie is thinking 
over what he has seen and heard, putting it in shape 
for his own satisfaction, and to please his little 
friends; wc like his talks, as well as we like honey. 
Not long since we were sitting around him, tel¬ 
ling stories, when my brother Fred said, he once 
saw a man fill a bed with feathers, which lie took 
out of a common sized hat. “ How many times did 
lie fill the hat?” wo all inquired. “Not once,” re¬ 
plied he, “‘he held his hat in his hand all the time, 
and kept taking feathers out of it, until the bed was 
filled.” “ That’s a likely story,” said I. “ I’m sure 
it’s so,” answered Fred warmly, “ for I saw it with 
my own eyes.” Then Uncle John laughed pleasant¬ 
ly, and said: “ Fred, call Ponto”—that is the name 
of our favorite dog. Ponto heard Fred’s whistle, 
and came bounding in. Meantime, Uncle John had 
taken down a large looking-glass, and set it on the 
floor. “Here, Ponto,” said he, pointing to the 
glass. The dog trotted up to it, saw his image, 
sprang back, then towards it again, giving a loud 
bark, and then put his nose to the glass to scrape 
acquaintance with his new companion. Presently, 
finding the glass kept him back, he darted around 
behind it, and we all shouted with laughter to see 
his astonishment at not finding a playfellow. Back 
he came again, to make sure he was there, and then 
round and round he ran, whining and barking in the 
most ridiculous manner. 
“There, Fred,” said Uncle John, “if Ponto could 
talk, would he not say, 1 I’m sure there’s another 
dog here, for I see him with my own eyes ? ’ ” Fred 
said nothing, but looked almost as much puzzled, 
as Ponto had a moment before; he had never 
thought one’s own eyes could not be trusted. 
“ But he’s only a dog,” suggested little Susie. 
“Yes,” said Uncle John, “but Raleigh and Fred 
both remember that a few years ago they held you 
up to the glass, and you tried to find the baby be¬ 
hind it. And so,” continued he, “it is with us all. 
The eyes do not in all cases show us the exact truth; 
to be certain that they report correctly, we must 
use other senses. You do not believe your eyes 
when they tell you that objects on a picture stand 
one behind the other; you have handled pictures, 
and know they are on flat surfaces; the sense of 
touch has corrected the impression made by the 
sense of sight. When you whirl a bit of fire around 
rapidly, you see a ring of fire, but experience tells 
you, no ring is there, it only looks so. "When two 
or more senses agree in their reports, we may feel 
quite sure of their correctness. Sometimes each 
eye will tell a story of its own, as when in squint¬ 
ing, two objects appear when there is really but one. 
Here is a curious experiment showing how the 
eyes may have their impressions so mixed up, that 
you can’t tell which to depend upon, without ap¬ 
pealing to the 
sense of touch. 
Take a sheet of 
paper, roll it up 
into a tube, with 
one end just 
large enough to 
fit around the 
eye, and the 
other end rather 
smaller. Hold 
it between the 
thumb and fin¬ 
ger of the right 
hand close a- 
gaiust the right 
eye, and with the other hand hold a book or other ob - 
ject against the side of the tube.” (The picture shows 
how to do it.) “ Oh! there’s a hole right through 
the book, and I can see things through it on the 
other side,” exclaimed Fred. “ That is, it looks so,” 
continued he, remembering what Uncle John had 
just told us. Wc all tried it, and varied the experi¬ 
ment by holding the hand instead of a book against 
the side of the tube, and there appeared to be a hole 
through the flesh. “The right eye sees the 
hole through the tube, and the left eye sees the 
book, and the two appearances are so confounded 
together, that the mind can not separate them,” 
said Uncle John. 
“Now I know how to look through a mill 
stone,” said Fred laughing. “ Yes, keep both your 
eyes open,” replied Uncle John. 
“ But how did the man get all the feathers out of 
the hat?” asked Susie. Just then a man called to 
6ce Uncle John, and we must wait until our next 
gathering in the study, before wc get his answer. 
[To be continued.] 
