AMERICAN "AGRICULTURIST. 
59 
thousand pounds, and I want a thousand more— 
and I must have it.” 
“ I will give you a thousand with the eldest 
girl.” 
“ No; the charming Nelly and the thousand, 
or I am off.” 
“ That cannot be; five hundred with Nelly if 
you like. The others are not half so handsome 
and must have a fortune, or I shall never get 
them off.” 
No; my resolution is fixed, replied the 
young gentleman; and I shall never alter my 
mind.” 
“Nor I mine,” said the parson, “and the 
affair is at an end; but we will be good friends, 
notwithstanding.” 
The conversation, which each speaker sup¬ 
posed to be strictly private, now fell into another 
channel. The ladies returned with the tea-urn, 
and chatted unreservedly with the farmer. 
Evening came on, and towards sunset, the girls 
having strolled into the garden, the youth rose 
to take his leave. He found his nag in the 
stable, and having bid farewell to his host, took 
his way through the shrubbery that led to the 
road. He was about alighting to open the gate, 
when the rosy-faced Nelly darted forward to 
save him the trouble. As she lifted the 
latch, she archly looked up in his face and 
said— 
“ Can’t you take my father’s tnoney ?” 
“ Yes, by Jove, I will, if you wish it.” 
“Then come over to the church to-morrow 
morning, and tell him so after service;” and 
she vanished like an elfin sprite among the 
shrubbery. 
Musing on the proverb which says, “walls 
have ears,” the young farmer rode home. He 
did not fail—how could he?—of attending at 
the church the next morning, and after the ser¬ 
mon, declared to the parson his altered resolu¬ 
tion. He married the fair Nelly three months 
afterwards ; and she brought him in due course 
of years a row of goodly sons, than whom there 
are few at the present hour wiser in their gen¬ 
eration, or more worthy, or more wealthy, in 
the whole of broad England.— Chambers' Jour¬ 
nal. 
MASON AND DIXON’S LINE. 
One calling himself a “ Boy subscriber to the 
American Agriculturist,” wishes us to tell him 
what is meant by Mason and Dixon’s Line, as 
he can find nothing about it in his geography. 
It usually means the boundary between the 
free and slave States. It formerly only referred 
to a boundary line between Pennsylvania and 
Delaware. There was for a long time a dispute 
about some lands claimed by these States. A 
few years before the Revolutionary War, the 
king of England appointed two surveyors, or 
commissioners, to settle the dividing line. Their 
names were Mason and Dixon, and the line 
agreed upon by them was called “ Mason and 
Dixon’s line.” This term has now come to be 
applied, as above stated, to the entire divisiou 
line between the States holding slaves and those 
not holding them. 
THAT 18 A BOY I CAN TRUST. 
I once visited a large public school. At re¬ 
cess a little fellow came up and spoke to the 
master; and as he turned to go down the plat¬ 
form the master said, “That is a boy I can 
trust—he never failed me.” I followed him with 
my eye, and looked at him when he took his 
seat after recess. He had an open, manly face. 
I thought a good deal about the master’s remark. 
What a character had that little boy earned! 
He had already got what would be worth more 
to him than a fortune. It would be a passport 
into the best store in the city and what is bet¬ 
ter, into the confidence and respect of the whole 
community. 
I wonder if the boys know how soon they are 
rated with older people. Every body in the 
neighborhood is known, and opinions are form¬ 
ed of each individual. All have characters, 
either favorable or unfavorable. That boy, of 
whom the master can say, “ I can trust him— 
he never failed me,” will never want employ¬ 
ment. The fidelity, promptness, and industry, 
which he shows in school, are in demand every 
where, and are prized every where. He who is 
faithful in little will be faithful also in much. 
Be sure, boys, that you earn a good reputation 
at school. Remember you are just where God 
has placed you, and your duties are not so much 
given you by your teachers, or your parents, as 
by God himself .—Maine Temp. Journal. 
-- 
BROWN BREAD TOAST. 
The following passage conludes the poem re¬ 
cently delivered by Curtis, at the commence¬ 
ment of Brown University. 
The Muse begins to feel she is a bore, 
And yet one line she craves, but one word more. 
He is the test whose virtues she has told, 
The man whose memory will not grow old. 
’Twas ever held since first the world began, 
’Tis of great need to be a well-bred man; 
The word includes—if you will not refuse, 
A generous charity—just what you choose. 
But how to be well-bred—what shall you do, 
To have it known a well-bred man means you ' 
Much observation only can decide,— 
Go search the world and seek on every side, 
I, for my part, have but my word to say. 
I, uncollegiate, till this very day, 
Could never call my Alma Mater brown ; 
Yet a brown toast will give you, sitting down, 
And wish to state it gently, without noise, 
I find the best bred men were Brown-bread boys. 
“Grandfather,” said a saucy little represen¬ 
tative of “Young America” the other day, 
“ how old are you ?" The old gentleman, who 
had been a soldier, and was much under the 
ordinary size, took the child between his knees, 
and said: “ My dear boy, I am ninety-five 
years old; but why do you ask?” The little 
fellow, with the importance of a Napoleon, re¬ 
plied, “ Well, it appears to me that you are re¬ 
markably small of your age.” 
Ignorance is an expensive luxury. The 
want of a little gumption costs many a life of 
comfort, convenience and similar tine things. 
Mr. Short don’t know but every body is as hon¬ 
est as other folks, and so gets taken in every 
time he goes out. Miss Simple, too, has a uni¬ 
versal confidence in every thing and body, and 
pays for the priviledge by being a universal 
victim. 
There are, at the present time, in this coun¬ 
try, not less than fifty persons incarcerated on 
the charge and under sentence of death for 
murder, caused by that body-and-soul destroyer, 
Rum. Is not this an awful subject for reflec¬ 
tion? Rum! War has been a pigmy des¬ 
troyer compared with it. 
--- 
“ Bob, who was the first man ?” asked one 
juvenile of another, the other day. “ Why, 
Adam, to be sure,” was the answer. “Well, 
who was the first woman, then?” “Why, 
Adam’s mother, of course.” 
“Mith Thimmotb,” said a lisping little fellow 
of five, “ I’m alwath real glad when you come 
a vithiting to our houth.” “ Are you, my little 
dear—you are fond of me, then?” “No, that 
ain’t it, Mith Thimmoth ; but ’cauth then we 
alwath have two kindch of pieth.” .. 
There is in this life no blessing like affection 
-—it soothes, it hallows, alleviates, subdues. 
A fellow who had been hooked by an un¬ 
ruly cow limped in his gait. A woman remarked 
that he appeared to be intoxicated, “ Yes,” re¬ 
plied her beau, “ he has been taking a couple of 
‘ horns.’ ” 
A gentleman meeting one of his friends who 
was insolvent, expressed great concern for his 
embarrassment. “ You are mistaken, my dear 
sir,” was the reply; “ it is not I, ’tis my credi¬ 
tors who are embarrassed.” Appropriate to the 
times. 
“ Is that the second bell ?” inquired a gentle¬ 
man of a sable porter at a country boarding¬ 
house, the other day. “No sar!” exclaimed 
the darkey, “ dat am the secon’ ringin’ of de 
fust bell—we has but one bell in dis house.” 
Hard on the Women. —The inability of a 
wife to make bread has been declared sufficient 
ground for a devorce, by the Jones County Ag 
ricultural Society of Iowa. 
Veils Injurious. —A celebrated writer on the 
sight, says that wearing veils permanently weak¬ 
ens many naturally good eyes, on account of 
the endeavors of the eye to adjust itself to the 
ceaseless vibration of that too common article of 
dress. 
“ I’m going to the post-office, Bob, shall I in¬ 
quire for you ?” 
“ Well, yes, if you have a mind to, but I 
don’t think you will find me there.” 
“ WnY does hither call mother, honey ?” asked 
a boy of his elder brother. 
“ Can’t think, ’cept it’s cause she wears a 
large comb in her head.” 
A country individual who was caught in the 
water-wheel of a saw-mill, says he intends to 
apply for a pension, as he is a survivor of the 
Revolution. 
“I go through my work,” as the needle said 
to the idle boy. “ But not till your hard push 
ed,” as the idle boy said to the needle. 
“ Sal,” said lisping Bill, “ if you don’t love 
me, thay tho ; and if you do love me and don’t 
like to thay tho, squeeth my handth.” 
“ Come here, my dear, I want to ask you all 
gbout your sister. Now, tell me truly, has she 
got a beau ?” “ No, it’s the mumps she’s got,” 
the doctor says so. 
A little girl meeting a countryman with a 
load of slaughtered swine, dropped a courtesy. 
The rustic laughed, without returning the civil¬ 
ity. “ What,” said he, “ do you courtesy to 
dead hogs?” “ No, sir,” replied the little miss, 
I courtesied to the live one!” The hog-man 
sloped with a pig’s foot in his chops. 
What men want is not talent, it is purpose ; 
in other words, not the power to achieve, but 
the will to labor. 
Politics is the art of being wise for others; 
policy, the art of being wise for one’s self. 
If a pair of glasses are spectacles, is one a 
spectacle ? And if so, is it not a bad show for 
a sight ? 
The Yankee who was “ lying at the point of 
death,” whittled it off with his jack-knife, and 
is now recovering. 
Varieties. —When is iron the most ironical ? 
When it’s a railing. 
Beautiful Extract.— -Helping a young lady 
out of a mud puddle. 
Greece newly Defined.-— Since Greece has 
been backing up Russia, it has been called the 
“ Russian Bear’s Greece.”— Punch . 
A Curiosity. —The man who is not “ as much 
in favor of temperance as any body 
A man had better be poisond in "his blood 
than in his principles. 
