AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
371 
made the twain one, the snickering 
of the young ones, to whom the sight 
of a marriage ceremony was a nov¬ 
elty, the awful pause that followed 
the prayer, and the final dispersion of 
the company. The most impressive 
part of the proceedings was the dis¬ 
tribution of molasses gingerbread, 
which answered for the bridal loaf, 
and the manifest appetite of the 
groom for that admirable confection. 
The widow Fagins had learned the 
special weakness of her betrothed 
and provided for the occasion. In 
this instance, a wedding is about as 
nearly stripped of its poetry, as we 
ever remember to have seen it. 
Connecticut is a great country, con¬ 
taining a good many types of people. 
The Whiteoakers are a nation by 
themselves. I had to tell Esq. Bun¬ 
ker, that my hankering to see a Si¬ 
mon pure country wedding was 
mired up. The minister’s fee was 
seventy-five cents, all in quarters. 
Tour Reporter. 
Remares. —We suspect Squire 
Bunker must have influenced our re¬ 
porter somewhat, for he (our report¬ 
er) generally looks upon the bright 
side of every occurrence. A “simon 
pure country wedding” always has its 
pleasant features—though in this 
case it is but just to say, in excuse of our re¬ 
porter that we should have found it rather diffi¬ 
cult to keep out of our thoughts the character 
of Kier Frink, his bringing up, etc. The history 
of this young man and its finale, is instructive to 
parents, and on this account we have given it a 
prominence which would otherwise be question¬ 
able. —Ed.] 
“Wrong End Up.” 
Dear Aunt Sue : I often read your friendly 
information for young folks in our Agriculturist, 
and am encouraged to write to you, and beg you 
to help me out of a quandary. When I travel 
with my Pa, in what he calls ‘■Down East,’ I find 
on the tables, everywhere, in big ho¬ 
tels and in little cottages, the tea¬ 
spoons put into a glass tumbler in such 
a way that I cannot take one out with¬ 
out touching the mouth-part of the spoon 
with my fingers. The handle is down 
at the bottom, and the mouth-piece up! 
Is’nt this wrong 1 When I say to Pa : “ lopsy - 
lurvey again!” he only says : “ Hush, boy (yet 
I heard him say to Ma, once, that he would 
head a subscription for a monument to the inven¬ 
tor of that fashion, if he could find out his name.) 
Now, my Ma taught me never to touch a spoon, 
or fork, or knife, but on their handle’s end ; pray 
tell me, dear Aunt, how do you get out such a 
spoon in a proper way 1 or, if you—as I suppose 
—cannot do this, please tell the peo¬ 
ple, down there, to put their spoons into 
the glass in such a manner that well- 
bred little gentlemen can take one out, 
without blushing, or sacrificing their 
feeling of delicacy. You can tell 
them, Aunt Sue, you are a lady ; but 
I can’t, you know, and if I could, Pa wouldn’t 
let me. Your affectionate Mimosus, Ju. 
TO WHICH AUNT SUE REPLIES. 
Fain would I help you out of your quandary, 
friend Mimosus, jr., but I can only sympathize 
with you. Let us at least propose to those of 
our “ Down East friends ” who persist in invert¬ 
ing their spoons, that they shall either provide us 
each with tongs wherewith to fish up our parti¬ 
cular spoons, or suffer us to eat with the handles, 
or have a little trap-door made in the lower part 
of the tumbler, through which we may handle 
them legitimately. These remarks may appear 
rather spooney, but for my part I desire not any 
‘I flavor of thumb” in the spoons I use. Yet would 
I not forego the “ apple sass and fixins there¬ 
fore, dear friends and cousins, when you invite 
me, as of course you will, to some of those nice 
little tea parties, be kind enough to place the 
spoons in the tumbler, bowls down, and oblige 
Yours truly, Aunt Sue. 
LAE\ RINTH—By Aunt Sue.—To go from the outside into the house in the center without crossing a line. 
Tlie Editor with liis Young Headers. 
Well young friends, the last day of School has come 
again. With this number we close the exercises of the 
year. The great Class of pupils to whom it has been our 
pleasure to act as Teacher for the year 1859, will now be 
dismissed. But a New Term of our School is to open 
immediately, and we are already putting down the names. 
The past year has been so agreeable to us, and we hope 
to you all, tha! we shall look for almost all our present 
pupils back again, and man y new ones, too. Let them 
come along w ith you—invite them to come. Our School 
room is as large as the Continent, and there’s room for all. 
We shall have a great many new subjects to talk about 
the coming year, and we hope, as we are now well out of 
that “ corner ” which the doctor got us into at the begin¬ 
ning of 1859, we shall keep out. We are not going to tell 
you now of all the fine things we have in store for you — 
that would spoil some of the pleasure—besides many 
new subjects of interest will come up every month. A 
few of our pupils may perhaps be deprived of the privi¬ 
lege of coming to our school next year, by some untoward 
circumstances, but we are sure the number of absentees 
will be very small—perhaps none at all—and so we will 
not stop to say any parting words. Hoping to be invited 
to all your homes again before New-Year’s Day, we will 
now only commend you to the best attention of our friend, 
Santa Claus, and wish you a “ Merry Christmas,” with 
plenty of nice things to make it so. 
ONE BRICK WRONO. 
Workmen were recently building a large brick tower, 
which was to be carried up very high. The architect and 
the foreman both charged the masons to lay each brick 
with the greatest exactness, especially the first courses 
which were to sustain all the rest. However, in laying a 
corner, by accident or carelessness, one brick was set a 
very little out of line. The work went on without its 
being noticed, but as each course of bricks was kept in 
line with those already laid, the tower was not put up 
exactly straight, and the higher they built, the more in¬ 
secure it became. One day, when the tower had been 
carried up about fifty feet, there was heard a tremendous 
crash. The building had fallen, burying the men in the 
ruins. All the previous work was lost, the materials 
wasted, and worse still, valuable lives were sacrificed, 
and all from one brick laid wrong at the start. The work¬ 
man at fault in this matter little thought how much mis¬ 
chief he was making for the future. Do you ever think 
what ruin may come of one bad habit, one brick laid 
wrong, while you are now building a character for life 1 
Remember, in youth the foundation is laid. See to it 
that all is kept straight. 
“there's always room up stairs.” 
A young man who was thinking of studying iaw : said 
to Daniel Webster, “ Mr. Webster I understand the pro¬ 
fession of law is quite full, and that there are more lawyers 
than are needed ; do you think there is any chance for me?” 
“ There is always room up stairs ,” was the reply—and as 
true as it was ingenious. Only a few persons reach the 
high places, and these are always in great demand— 
“there’s room enough up stairs.” First class farmers 
and mechanics, as well as physicians, lawyers, etc., al¬ 
ways find plenty of room, plenty of work and good pay. 
Whatever calling you choose, and it matters little, if it be 
an honest one, resolve to go into an upper story ; but don’t 
try to jump there by a single leap or you may fall disabled. 
Rather begin at the bottom of the ladder, and patiently 
step upon each round. 
HOW A TOAD UNDRESSES. 
Lobsters, crabs, and other shell-fish, as well as snakes, 
shed their skins once a year or oftener, as their bodies in¬ 
crease in size. It is said that toads do the same, but we 
are not quite so sure of this. Snake skins are often found, 
but who ever found a cast off toad skin? But to ac¬ 
count for this it is asserted that the toads eat up their own 
skins. We don’t know about that. Are there not a num¬ 
ber of observers among our young readers who can collect 
information on this and many other topics of natural his¬ 
tory ? A gentleman sent to the New-England Farmer,' 
an amusing description of “ How a toad takes off his coat 
and pants." He says he has seen one do it, and a friend 
has seen another do the same thing in the same way. 
“About the middle of July, I found a toad on a hill of 
melons and not wanting him to leave, I hoed around him ; 
he appeared sluggish, and not inclined to move. Present¬ 
ly, I observed him pressing his elbows hard against his 
sides, and rubbing downwards. He appeared so singular, 
that I watched to see what he was up to. After a few 
smart rubs, his skin began to burst open, straight along his 
back. Now, said I, old fellow you have done it; but he 
appeared to be unconcerned, and kept on rubbing until 
he had worked all his skin into folds on his sides and hips ; 
then grasping one hind leg with both his hands, he hauled, 
off one leg of his pants the same as any body would, then • 
stripped the other hind leg in the same way. He then 
took this cast off cuticle forward, between his fore legs 5 
into his mouth, and swallowed it; then, by raising and: 
lowering his head, swallowing as his head came down, 
he stripped off the skin underneath, until it came to his fore 
legs, and then grasping one of these with the opposite 
hand, by considerable pulling stripped off the skin ; chang¬ 
ing hands, he stripped the other, and by a slight motion of 
the head, and all the while swallowing, he drew it from 
the throat and swallowed the whole. The operation 
seemed an agreeable one, and occupied but a short time. 
how “old jim” kept fat. 
A friend relates the following incident, which occurred 
on his own farm. One of his horses “Old Jim,” was 
noted for his cunning. When going from home he has 
often feigned lameness, limping pitifully, until a few 
smart strokes of the whip cured him. He would open 
the stable door, let down bars with his teeth, and do many 
similar acts. During one Summer, when the pasture was 
quite poor, it was noticed that “ Old Jim,” although kept 
hard at work, continued in first-rate condition, while the 
other horses in the same field were poor, and it quite 
puzzled our friend to account for it. He had often observed 
when the horses were turned out, that Jim quietly strayed 
off from his companions, and one evening he watched him. 
He edged along the lower corner of the lot, where it adjoin¬ 
ed afield of oats, and then nimbly bounded over,but quickly 
bounded back again when he found himself discovered. 
The oats were entirely eaten off from that part of the 
field. Jim had, for a long time, jumped the fence at night, 
eaten his fill, and returned before morning, for he was 
always found in the pasturo, all right, when wanted. 
