388 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
[COPYRIGHT SECUEED.J 
F I D D L E. —Drawn by J. Bolles. 
■Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
Here’s fun! Not boisterous, rollicking fun, but fun in 
a quiet way—only four of you, and having a real good 
time. “Four?—I see only three,”—says some hoy or 
girl. The fourth one is you who are looking at the pic¬ 
ture. There is so much satisfaction in the faces there 
that we are sure you must feel pleased at seeing them. 
The boy with the fiddle is beaming with pleasure, because 
he knows he is amusing his little brother and sister. 
Happiness is very “ketching,” as some old-fashioned 
people say,—almost as much so as unhappiness, about 
which we wont talk just now. How many of you ever 
saw a corn-stalk fiddle ? Probably most boys who live 
on farms, but as there are a great many of our young 
readers who live in towns and villages, we shall have to 
tell them how it is made. You know that a corn-stalk 
has a great number of joints—places where the leaves 
start, marked by a slightly raised ring. There is a joint, 
several inches of stalk, ano'ther joint, another space, and 
so on from the bottom to the top. The stalk between 
the joints is not entirely round—a perfect cylinder like a 
piece of a broom-lmndle, but there is abroad, flat groove, 
which is first on one side of the stalk, and above the nest 
joint on the other side, and so on alternately. Now to 
make a fiddle, we need three joints and two of the spaces 
between them. One of these sections, between two 
joints is the handle of the fiddle, and the other the body. 
Now for the strings; we take a knife and run it along 
the edge of the groove before spoken of, just beneath the 
surface so as to separate a shred of the stalk from one 
joint to the other. The same thing is to be done to the 
other side of the groove, and we have now two loose 
strings which are attached at each end to the joints. 
Now we must whittle out a couple of wooden pegs to 
answer as bridges, which we slip under the strings, 
thus stretching them quite tight—not too tight, or they 
will break. Then the bow—that is made just like the 
fiddle. Having made both fiddle and bow you may then 
play a tune with them—if you can. “What! can’t you 
make music with it?”—Well, you can imagine it is 
music; at any rate it is a capital squeak. Music! it 
depends altogether upon who makes it, and whose ears 
listen to it. Don’t you suppose it is music to those little 
ones who have watched their brother make the fiddle ? 
After all it is not so much what we do, as the motive with 
which we do it, that gives happiness. Those little ones 
understand it, and the rude fiddle of their loving brother 
gives to them more pleasure than would Ole Bull himself. 
Eyes made to Serve for Ears. 
The unfortunate deaf and dumb have in some cases 
been taught to speak by patient instruction. They see 
the position of the lips and tongue of the instructor in 
making the various sounds, and try to imitate them. It 
is said that encouraging success has attended the at¬ 
tempts to make the dumb speak; and we are prepared to 
believe it from our knowledge of a little girl who was 
made completely deaf by a very severe illness. She was 
a remarkably bright little thing, and for a long time after 
her recovery her parents could not believe that she had 
lost her hearing. By watching the motion of her moth¬ 
er’s lips she could understand what Was said perfectly 
well. This ability to make her eyes answer the purpose 
of ears was cultivated with the greatest care, and the lit¬ 
tle girl, now a young lady, is well educated, thanks to 
the constant, patient teaching of her mother, having 
even been taught French, though unable to hear a 
word. There is no difficulty in holding a conversation 
with her, and she makes out even unusual words by 
watching the speaker’s lips. Being unable to hear her 
own voice, her conversation is mainly in one tone, 
but, aside from that, one might be for a long time in her 
company and not notice her misfortune. It would seem 
that the loss of one faculty is, in a measure, made up by 
greater acuteness in others. The blind have the sense of 
touch highly educated, and make their fingers serve them 
for eyes to an extent that seems marvellous to those 
who can see. The case we have mentioned is another 
illustration of this. If you wish to know how acute 
must be the observing powers of the girl referred to, just 
stop your ears with your fingers and see how much you 
can understand of what is said to you. 
Answers to Problems and Puzzles. 
388 (Sept).—Do not reckon your chickens before they 
are hatched.—DO knot wreck-on-ewer chickens beef- 
o’er-they R-hatclied. 
389 (Sept).—Opinion is private property which the law 
cannot seize.—O-P-in eyc-on-I S-private (soldier) prop¬ 
erty witch THE law can knot C’s. 
The numbering of 3S8 and 389 in Sept, should have 
been 391 and 392. That number 388 is an unfortunate 
one; it was attached to an Age puzzle in July, which had 
an important part left out of it. The puzzle should have 
re ad—One-half and one-fourth of my age added to my 
age, and 20 more, will make a sum three times my age— 
which was 16. Several, however, worked out the puz¬ 
zle as it stood, and gave as the answer S 8 ] 0 years. 
