92 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
BUYING MARBLES; OR, “HARD TIMES” IN LH- 
LIPUT. 
Pa —(Reading a newspaper, mutters)—No 
rise in the rivers—never going to rise again, 
I believe, wife. 
Little Daughter —I wish the rivers would 
rise. 
Pa —Why, what have you got to do with 
the river’s rising. 
Daughter —A great deal, papa ; for then 
the boats will run. 
Pa —And what have you to do with the 
boat’s running, my child, hey 1 
Daughter —They would bring the cotton 
down. 
Pa —(Looking over his spectacles)—And 
what have you to do, pet, with cotten bales 1 
Daughter —Why, if the cotton was down, 
pa, you would be able to sell it, you know, 
dear papa! smilingly. 
Pa —And what then 1 
Daughter —You would have plenty of 
money. 
Pa —Well ! 
Daughter —(Laying her little hand on his 
shoulder and looking up into his face)—Then 
you could pay ma that gold twenty dollar 
piece you borrowed of her, you know, papa. 
Pa —And what then, minx ! 
Daughter —Then mamma could pay aunt 
Sarah the ten dollars she owes her.; 
Pa —Ah, indeed ! And what then ! 
Daughter —And aunt Sarah wo'uld pay sis¬ 
ter Jane the dollar she promised to give her 
on New Year’s, but didn’t, because she didn’t 
have no cotton, I mean no money, pa. 
Pa —Well, and what else! Pa lays down 
the paper, and looks at her curiously with a 
half smile. 
Daughter —Cousin Jane would pay brother 
John his fifty cents back, and he said when 
he got it he would give me the half dime he 
owes me, and two dimes to buy marbles, and 
this is what I want the rivers to rise for, and 
the big boats to run ! And I owe nurse the 
other dime, and must pay my debts. 
Pa looked at ma. “ There it is,” he said, 
“ we are all big and little,like a row of bricks. 
Touch the head one and presto ! away we all 
go, down to my little Carrie here. She has, 
as a child, as great an interest in the rise as 
I have. We are all, old and young, waiting 
for money to buy marbles.” 
THE LESSON. 
On a beautiful evening in spring, a father 
said to his wife, “ Let us go into the fields 
and rest on the hill, to enjoy the sight of the 
setting sun. It will be a lovely evening.” 
When his two children—a boy and a girl— 
heard this, they said, “ We will go before 
you and wait for you on the hill.” And with 
these words, they skipped on before. Soon 
after the grave father and the kind mother 
followed them talking of the beauties of crea¬ 
tion and of their children—the father speak¬ 
ing from the treasure of his wisdom, the 
mother from the simplicity of her heart. 
When they came to the hill and ascended it, 
the children were there already, and ran joy¬ 
ously towards them with a white pet lamb, 
which they had taken with them. When the 
sun went down in glory, the parents looked 
on with emotion, and the father lifted up his 
voice and spoke to the children of the crea¬ 
tion of the universe ; of the host of the stars, 
and of the sublime Creator of nature, who 
has made heaven and earth, and the sea, and 
all that therein is ; and he made them look 
at the sun in his glory, saying, “ It is now 
time to teach them heavenly wisdom.” 
When the father had finished speaking, the 
children exclaimed suddenly, “ Oh, see, deal- 
father, and dear mother, how pretty—how 
lovely !” They had adorned their lamb with 
flowers like a bride, and it ate the herbs of the 
hill out of their hands. The father looked 
at the mother, and shook his head with a 
grave gesture. But the mother smiled and 
said, “ Ah, my beloved ! let them continue 
in their child-like simplicity. They need 
not getthe knowledge of rising and setting 
worlds, and the deep word ot wisdom ; they 
need only love, and of them is the kingdom 
of heaven.” Then the father and the mother 
caressed the two children, and rejoiced with 
them at the gaily-decked lambs.— Krum- 
macher. 
Poor Ericsson. —A New-York corre¬ 
spondent of the Boston Journal, speaking o{ 
this unfortunate inventor, says : 
The Ericsson experiment is at an end. 
The invention is conceded to be a failure, 
and poor Ericsson is a ruined man. He has 
spent all his fortune in building his caloric 
ship, and in the experiments he has made on 
the vessel—he has done more ; he has spent 
all his wife’s fortune, which was great, and 
she, too, is beggared. But the worst of all 
is that it has led to such recrimination and 
alienation that they have separated, never 
to be united again, perhaps. Had he been 
successful, his name would have been en¬ 
rolled with that of Columbus, Newton, Ful¬ 
ton, and other men of illustrious renown. 
But he has failed; he has lost his all; he 
has introduced ruin into a once loving and 
happy home, and the world coldly looks on 
and says, “ I told you so.” 
A short time ago, two of the most dis¬ 
tinguished millionaries in a flourishing south¬ 
ern city, met in a social chat, and discussing 
their mutual merits. In the course of the 
confab, the Judge bantered the Colonel, and 
offered to bet five dollars the latter could 
not say the Lord’s Prayer. The Colonel ac¬ 
cepted the bet; and putting himself into a 
solemn attitude, began to repeat, keeping 
time by the swaying of his body, and pro¬ 
nouncing with emphatic force alternate on 
each syllable these lines : 
“ Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray the Lord my soul to keep, 
If I should die-” 
“ Stop, stop !” cried the Judge, interrupt¬ 
ing him, “ that will do, I give it up, here’s 
the V., but I did not think you could say it!” 
Name in Full. —A friend says the follow¬ 
ing story is a fact. Two boys of tender 
years, who went by the name of Tom and 
Jack, became members of a district school 
in a certain New-England town. On mak¬ 
ing their appearance, the teacher called 
them up before the assembled school, and 
proceeded to make certain interrogatories 
concerning their names, and ages, &c. 
“ Well, my lad,” said the teacher to the 
first one, “ what is your name!” 
“ Tom !” promptly answered the juvenile. 
“ Tom,” said the teacher, “ that does not 
sound well. Remember and always speak 
the full name. You should have said Thom- 
AS.” 
“ Now my son,” (turning to the other boy, 
whose expectant face suddenly lighted up 
with the satisfaction of a newly discovered 
idea,) “ now then will you tell me what your 
name is !” 
“ Jack-Ass replied the lad, in a tone of 
confident decision. 
The teacher was taken with a sudden fit 
of coughing and motioned the boys to their 
seats. 
Good Reason. —A Spaniard perched his 
house on the summit of the Sierra Morena. 
On being asked why he preferred that place 
of clouds, storms and solitude, he said, 
“ That he was tired of mankind, and the 
clouds hid mankind from him ; that he was 
tired of his wife’s tongue, and that the storm | 
drowned her talk ; and as to the solitude, he 
could not be solitary who had the angels for 
his next door neighbors.” 
Adjusting the Mouth—Attention Ladies. 
—The London Gazette contains some im¬ 
portant information for the ladies in regard 
to the manner of placing their lips when they 
desire to look amiable,dignified, &c. It says 
that when a lady would compose her mouth 
to a bland and serene character, she should 
just before entering the room, say, Besom, 
and keep the expression into which the 
mouth subsides, until the desired effect upon 
the company is evident. If, on the other 
hand, she wishes lo assume a distinguished 
and somewhat noble bearing not suggestive 
of sweetness, she should say Brush, the re¬ 
sult of which is infallible. If she would 
make her mouth small and pretty, she must 
say Hip, but if the mouth be already small, 
and needs enlarging, she must say Cabbage. 
Ladies when having their daguerreotypes 
taken, may observe these rules with some 
advantage. 
A Touching Story. —A lady, now residing 
in Newport, formerly made her home in 
New-Orleans. A female slave, who worked 
for her, was for some cause shortly to be 
sold, and she came to her begging that she 
would become her mistress, a request that 
was declined on principle; but incessant 
pleading and the most earnest entreaties on 
the part of the distressed woman at length 
prevailed, and the lady agreed to pay the sum 
demanded, eight hundred dollars, on the con¬ 
dition that the slave should wash for her 
family a limited time when her free papers 
would be given her. It was so settled that 
in a short time the creature was overjoyed 
to find herself a free woman with means 
enough to take her to California, where by 
following her old calling, of washing, she 
soon accumulated a handsome sum. That 
she did not forget her generous benefact¬ 
ress is self-evident, for she has since re¬ 
turned to the States, and her mission to pre 
sent to one who had so befriended her, a su¬ 
perb Chinese counterpane, that must have 
cost at least two hundred dollars. The 
ground is of scarlet and satin, and is cov¬ 
ered with embroidery of the richest and 
most beautiful design that the Chinese are 
capable of .—Newport Mercury. 
Mary Magdalena. —The woman that went 
under the name of Mary Magdalena—wheth¬ 
er that name be rightfully or wrongfully be¬ 
stowed—who stands before us, sanctified in 
the imagination and in faith of the people in 
her combined character of Sinner and Saint, 
as the first fruits of Christian penitence, as 
a reality, and not a fiction. Even if we 
would, we can not do away with the associa¬ 
tions inseparably connected with her name 
and image. Of all those to whom much has 
been forgiven, she was the first; of all the 
tears since ruefully shed, at the foot of the 
cross of sufferings, hers were the first; of all 
the hopes which the Resurrection has since 
diffused through nations and generations of 
men, hers were the first. To her sorrowful 
image how many have looked up through 
tears, and blessed the pardoning grace of 
which she was the symbol—or rather the 
impersonation ! Of the female saints some 
were then chosen patrons of certain virtues 
—others of the certain vocations ; but the 
accepted and glorified penitent threw her 
mantle over all, and more especially over 
those of her own sex, who having gone 
astray, recalled from error and from shame, 
and, laid^heir wrongs theirsorrows, and their 
sins, in trembling humility at the feet of the 
Redeemer.— Sacred Legendary Art, by Mrs. 
Jameson. 
