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Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
COMPOSITION. 
However inattentive we may profess to be in 
regard to Ancient History, it is what has made 
U s of the nineteenth century. The revolutions 
of human thought have had History as the great 
fixed pivot and center. Whether the mind is 
something real or not, the innumerable theories 
of the destiny of man have had a solid basis of 
operations and of action. Whether metaphysi- , 
cians can convince us that philosophy is unmind¬ 
ful of its “material conditions.” and would 
“ bridge over a chasm r in nature with ideality 
only, the. age is practical still, because life is 
“something real " and is made up of practicabil¬ 
ities. Eloquence can excite the emotions of 
man, but it must lie sensible. Language and ac¬ 
tion combined, have, in all times, been the instru¬ 
mentality of our existence, and, ever progressing, 
we have used it for the truths expressed by it. 
A combination of eloquent words merely, is not 
eloquence—every word must express part of an 
idea. Peiuci.es was eloquent, but he advocated 
a system of government which exists, in part, 
to this day. and always will exist, as long as lib- , 
erty is accounted the privilege of man, or an 
ingredient of government Barbarism has bad 
its day. The civilizing influence of language 
and composition has destroyed its hold upon the j 
mind. Government is not established for the 
entertainment of either the body or the mind. 
The very element of mind is freedom, for it was ' 
created infinite and immortal. Because ancient 
civilization was a failure, demonstrated by the 
fall of Greece, it wire not because there were not 
sound and eloquent men to prepare the minds of 
the people for the principles and progress of hu¬ 
man government, but because the untutored 
mind of the barbarian was without the reach of 
the exposition of governmental policy. Oriental 
splendor and the luxury of ancient wealth, lent 
dull ears to eloquence or oratory. It is not 
enough to say that it is natural for man to pro¬ 
gress. Composition has explained to him in one 
form or another the rules of civil conduct, and 
has been the means of research of the great 
minds, which have leaarned man that he is the 
child of liberty—and if it is this, it is the embod¬ 
iment of Philosophy, Reason and Experience ; 
that philosophy, which defines our sphere of ac¬ 
tion; that reason, which tells us our conclusions 
are correct; that experience, which plans the 
basis of our government Do not then narrow 
Composition down to the expressou of words,— 
it is the expression by words , of ideas, and our 
scholars should be learned that, although elo¬ 
quence plays its part, brevity sharpens the idea, 
because it presents it quicker to the perception. 
The speeches of Webster are plain and easily 
comprehended. He only occasionally clothed 
some strong idea in eloquent language, which 
eloquence gave beauty to the whole. He left the 
eloquent words of a patriotic miud ringing in 
the ears of hi-, audience till their sound echoed 
through their whole mental system, and made 
them participators of his thought.. The Thought, 
itself, of bis discourses was clearly and plainly 
expressed. Ite occasionally dressed the leading 
idea in the garb of that beautiful language which 
dethrones prejudice and masters the mind till 
opposition to the sentiment goes “down at its 
bidding.” 
The great composition ol the world has been 
the work of great men,— great, sometimes , because 
they had the advantages of nature to help them. 
It is a singular but quite natural fact that, gener¬ 
ally, our great productions have not come from 
the populous city, where the breozo wal ls through 
the crowded streets the odor of uiaDy habitations 
and the breaths of a thousand people, but from 
the rural cottage, where the author had the pure 
air of heaven to quicken not only the circulation 
of his blood but that of his ideas. Air composed 
of oxygen and nitrogen is too natural an element 
for man for his condition to be bettered by the 
introduction into that air of odors and acids 
which have purposely been expelled. The ideas 
of a dyspeptic are generally as devoid of vigor 
as his body is of flesh, and their strength corres¬ 
ponds pretty well with his appetite. There is 
then such a thing as a natural composition,— 
When our physique shall be dealt with according 
to the rules of nature, the body will have 
strength and tone—the mind be disenthralled. 
Then sound philosophy will be revived and we 
will honor the system of instruction of the 
ancient, which system made the man sound that 
the thought might be the same. u. l. m. 
Syracuse, N, Y., 1803. 
TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 
‘•Going through” Greenleaf, Eaton, or any 
other text-book on arithmetic, is not necessarily 
knowing much about the subject. Indeed, it is 
astonishing with what facility scholars will “ go 
through ” a book, without knowing much of any¬ 
thing about its contents. We once received a 
scholar who said she had been through the Rule 
of Three, but who could not write “one million” 
on Lier slate, subtract thirty from one thousand, 
or perform a simple example in Reduction. We 
once took a class that had been through Cube 
Root, but only a small minority could pass even 
a decent examination upon the rules back to 
Reduction. They had only been “going 
through; 1 ' they had learned very little of the 
ark and nothing at all of the science, of arith¬ 
metic. If they had ever known anything of the 
subject, they bad forgotten it for the want of 
principles and giutable practice. 
How do you teach arithmetic? we can almost 
the conclusion that “going through" is not 
necessarily a knowledge of arithmetic, the most 
important point in the race has been reached. 
To know that the work is not done, will be a 
sufficient inspiration to the intelligent and faith¬ 
ful teacher to stimulate the production of all 
needful methods of accomplishing it. 
Scholars, without any intention of deceiving 
the “ powers that be.” put tbeir heads together 
over the difficult examples. Older brothers and 
sisters give very injudicious assistance. The 
direction to “ multiply by two,” “ divide by six,” 
“ add them," or “ subtract one from the other, - ’ 
is destructive to all independent thought. A 
single glance at the work of another scholar, 
may supply the key to the riddle. 
Test questions, made upon the spot, or taken 
ftom books to which the scholars do not have 
access, and performed under the eye of the 
teacher, furnish the only satisfactory evidence of 
the pupil’s knowledge. These examples should 
be illustrations of all the rules which the class 
has been over. If the scholars are permitted to 
look upon the slates of others, of course the plan 
must be a failure. As a still better teat, we sug¬ 
gest the following method:—Let the teacher, tor 
a class of thirty, write thirty examples, each 
upon a separate piece of paper. These ques¬ 
tions may be taken from books not in use among 
the scholars, or be made for the purpose. They 
may embrace all the different rules with which 
the scholar is supposed to be familiar, including 
all the reasonable difficulties that may be found 
in ordinary practice. Then give each scholar a 
paper, and. as no two will be engaged upou the 
same operation, there is no possible chance for 
collusion. We have tried this plan, and when 
I the class gets eighty per cent, of correct answers, 
we are pretty well satisfied with the result, and 
we feel a reasonable assurance that our scholars 
know what they are about. Of course, this set 
of examples may be passed around until each 
pupil has solved the whole thirty. • 
The Yankees are a calculating people, and the 
subject of arithmetic is one of groat importance. 
The teacher who relies solely upon his text¬ 
books for results, will be disappointed. He mirnt 
use other books, and not a little strategy.— Mas¬ 
sachusetts Teacher. 
HOW THE ARMY IS 
N. Y. STATE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
Tue Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the New 
York State Teachers’ Association will be held in 
the city of Troy, commencing Tuesday, July 28, 
1863. The following is the Order of Exercises: 
Tuesday, Morning Session— 10 o’clock—Or¬ 
ganization; Address by the President; Appoint¬ 
ment of Committees; Lecture by Prof. M. Mo- 
Vickarof Broekport; Miscellaneous Business, 
Afternoon Session. — 2 o'clock—Report of 
Standing Committee on the Condition of Educa¬ 
tion; James Cruikshank, N. A. Calkins, James 
Atwater. Committee; Discussion or Report; Ad¬ 
dress by Prof. Joseph K. King, of Fort Edward; 
Miscellaneous Business. 
Evening Session. — 7£ o’clock — Uufinished 
Business; Reports of Special Committees; Ad¬ 
dress by B. G. Northrop, State Agent of Board 
of Education of Massachusetts. 
Wednesday, Morning Session. —9 o'clock.— 
Report of Special Committee on Dr. Wilbur’s 
Lecture, delivered at last Annual Meeting; E. 
A. Sheldon, Charlton T. Lewis, N. G. Benedict, 
Committee; Discussion; Report of Committee on 
Disparity of the Sexes in High Schools; Edward 
Webster. E. D. Weller, S. B. Woolwortb, Com¬ 
mittee; Discussion; Miscellaneous Business. 
Afternoon Session. —2 o’clock — Report of 
Committee on Training Schools for Object 
Teaching; W. F. Phelps, E. A. Sheldon, D. H. 
Cochran, Committee; Discussion; Report of Com¬ 
mittee on Plan for Organizing and Conducting 
Teachers’ Institutes; James Atwater, E. W. 
Keyes. A. M. Clapp, Committee; Discussion. 
Evening Session.— 7.J o’clock—Report ©f Com¬ 
mittee on the Duties of Parents in the Education 
of their Children; Geo. L. Farahain, T. S. Lam¬ 
bert, A. Van Valin, Committee : Address by 
Prof. A. Guyot of the College of New Jersey. 
Thursday, Morning Session.— 1 .) o’clock.— 
Report of Standing Committee on Improved 
Methods in Education; J. W. Bulkley, E. A. 
Sheldon, E. W. Keyes, Committee; Address by 
Rev. A. S. Twombly of Albany. 
Afternoon Session. —2 o’clock. — Unfinished 
Business; Reports of Special Committees; Re¬ 
ports of Officers; Election of Officers; Miscel¬ 
laneous Business. 
Evening Session. — 7£ o’clock —Volunteer 
Addresses; Sociable. 
E. C. Pomeroy, President. 
James Cruikshank, Cor. Secretary. 
President Lincoln. remarked to General 
Halleck that no department gave him so little , 
trouble as the Commissary. “Unless,’’said he, . 
“I sometimes wondered bow our vast armies , 
were led, I should forget its existence.” Any < 
one. who will spend a week at the army depots , 
will join in the President’s admiration of this j 
modest department. ] 
The field depots of the grand army are under | 
the immediate charge of Capt. Wilson, a West , 
Point, graduate in die class with Gen. Burnside. , 
This officer's quarters are near Falmouth. Four . 
miles nearer Aquia Creek auother depot has , 
been placed, at a place Called Stonemans Switch. , 
which shares with that at Falmouth the tabor of j 
feeding two hundred thousand men. With Stone- ■ 
man’s Station we have at present to do. The 
Captain at this point. D. D. Wiley, was formerly 
a member of the 21st Massachusetts Regiment, 
and was promoted for efficiency as a clerk during 
the Peninsular campaign. His force comprises 
two or three under officers, half a dozen clerks, 
and a squad of negroes. How these are employed | 
the record of a single day will show. 
At eight o'clock in the morning a sergeant from j 
commissary presented an “estimate” of supplies. 
The Captain corrected this to correspond with 
the amount of stores on hand, and gave it to one 
of his clerks. The latter took the sergeant to a j 
plain before the tent, where nearly an acre of j 
ground was thickly covered with boxes and bar- , 
rels, so arranged in tiers that any desired article , 
could easily be found in its appropriate place. 
Here he directed the sergeant’s men in loading . 
the stores, carefully counting each barrel and < 
box as they went by him to the wagons, till the 
amounts issued agreed with those of the correct¬ 
ed estimate. This “ issue ” was then copied into 
the office-book, a similar copy furnished the ser¬ 
geant, and another estimate committed to the 
clerk. The amount we have thus seen delivered 
wa3 sixty thousand rations, loadiug more than 
fifty wagons. 
Meanwhile, the plain was filling with soldiers, 
negroes, mules and wagons, in seemingly endless 
confusion; but the half-dozen clerks, check book 
in hand, brought order out of the confusiou, and 
sent off train after train, till the whole country, 
for miles in every direction, was white with the 
lines of shining canvas. 
The clerks had hardly time for dinner before a 
locomotive was whistling at the station, and eight 
or ten cars required unloading. Hero, again, 
every thing must be counted while the porters 
are hurrying it from the train, and a record given 
to the clerk, with the mune of the person unload¬ 
ing the car. The order is:—“The clerk who 
makes a mistake may consider himself dis¬ 
charged.” One train was barely off belbr ? 
another appeared, and by nine o'clock at night 
tired officials and men gladly lay down in their 
blankets, while the plaintive tattoo of bugles and 
drums rose and died away in a hundred camps. 
The supplies thus distributed are brought and 
forwarded from Alexandria, and the accounts 
are so carefully kept that an error in a single 
box could be traced from depot to depot, and 
from clerk to clerk, till the author of the mistake 
should be found. 
This harii-working department is not without 
its comedy aud its tragedy. The negroes at the 
station are a continued source of amusement. 
Whenever a train requires unloading, the porters’ 
roll is called, lest any of the dusky gentlemen to 
whom Uncle Sam gives rations and twenty-five 
dollars a month should shirk his responsibility. 
This roll would lead one to suppose that govern¬ 
ment employed some very distinguished as well 
as doubtful characters. The responses to the roll 
are not wanting in variety. “Alexander Ste¬ 
phens!” calls the sergeant “Here l is,” re¬ 
sponds that personage. “Horace Greely!” “Be¬ 
fore your eyeB, sab.” “ Jefferson Davis!” “ On 
this yere box of bard tack.” “ Jim Crow!” This 
unpretending name belongs to decidedly the 
brightest darkey in the crowd. 
But enough of the negroes. These long, rows 
of boxes furnish thoughts of a different kind. A 
few of them are marked “ Warrenton.” When 
they were brought dowu to Alexandria from that 
place some ol the sick were sent dowu on the 
same trains. Two of these died at the depot, and 
were buried by the porters. And while they 
were unloading the cars another fine-looking sol¬ 
dier was found dead among the stores. He had 
placed his musket against a barrel, lain down 
beside it, turned his coat cape over his face, and 
thus got his discharge.”— N. Y. Observer. 
said, the whole vegetable world, and through it 
the animal; the lilies of the field are his work¬ 
manship, the verdure of the meadows, and the 
cattle upon a thousand hills. He forms the mus¬ 
cle, he urges the blood, he builds the brain. His 
fleetness is in the lion's foot; ho springs in the 
panther, he soars in the eagle, he glides in the 
suake. He builds the forest and hews it down 
— the power which raised the tree and wields 
the axe being ono and the same. The clover 
sprouts and blossoms, and the scythe of the 
mower swings by the operation of the same 
force. The sun digs the ore from our mines, 
he rolls the iron, he rivets the plants, he boils 
the water, he draws the train. He not only 
grows the cotton, but he spins the fiber and 
weaves the web. There is not a hammer raised, 
a wheel turned, or a shuttle thrown, that is not 
raised, and turned, and thrown by the sun. His 
energy is poured into space, but our world is a 
halting-place where his energy is conditioned, 
riere the Proteus works his spells. 
Verbal Statistics.— Prof. Max Muller, in 
his admirable lectures on the Science of 
Language, tells us that out of 50,000 words or 
so in the English tongue, it has been found that a 
rustic laborer uses only 300; a man of ordinary 
education, 3,000 to 4,00.0; and the great orator 
about 10,000. The Old Testament contains 5,542 
different words; Milton about 8,000, and Shakes¬ 
peare 15,000. 
- ■ ♦ 
Grammar vs. Literature. —The author of A 
System of English Grammar is reported as hav¬ 
ing computed the grammatical errors in Ilallam’s 
Literature of Europe to be about 500, and in Ali¬ 
son’s History of Europe about three times as 
many. Alas! fur our literature and for the 
temerity of these luckless authors who had no 
wholesome fear of Lindley Murray before their 
eyes. _ 
Prizes for Reading.—A gentleman of Bos¬ 
ton has donated $2,000 to Harvard College, to be 
hear some devotee of the “ going through” sys- expended in prizes and otherwise to promote im- 
tem demand. We hardly know. We do it as provement in the art of reading among the 
'' 6 ea teh mosquitoes—any way we can. If we students. There is much need of some incentive 
cannot do it by a direct advance, we make a in this direction. The few only of otherwise cul- 
hunk movement. IV hen the teacher has come to tivated men read passably well. 
THE SUN THE SOURCE OF ALL POWER. 
Prof. Tyndall, in his recent book on “Heat 
as a Mode of Motion,” has the following eloquent 
passage on an idea which Herbert Spencer has 
perhaps elaborated more completely than any 
other writer: 
Every mechanical action on the earth’s sur¬ 
face. every manifestation of power, organic or 
inorganic, vital and physical, is produced by the 
sun. Hia warmth keeps the sea liquid and the 
atmosphere a gas, aud all the storms which agi¬ 
tate both, are blown by the mechanical force of 
the sum He lifts the rivers and the glaciers up 
the mountains, and thus the cataract and the 
avalanche shoot with an euergy derived imme¬ 
diately from him. Thunder and lightning are 
also transmitted strength. Every fire ihat burns, 
and every flame that glows, dispenses light and 
heat which originally belonged to the sun. 
In these days, unhappily, the news of battle 
is familiar to us, but every shock and every 
charge is an application or misapplication of the 
mechanical force of the sum He blows the 
trumpet, he urges the projectile, he bursts the 
bomb. And, remember, this Is not poetry, but 
rigid, mechanical truth. He rears, as I have 
SOUR FOOD FOR SOLDIERS. 
To the Editors of the xVfW Fork Observer 
The knowledge the public has of the practical, 
common-sense patriotism of your columns, per¬ 
suades me you will be pleased to give publicity 
to the following tines, few, yet as important as 
the final victory before peace. 
PATRIOTIC farmers. 
U amistakable signs of scurvy are multiplying 
in the army, debilitating if not prostrating our 
heroes just at a time when their body and mind 
should be most vigorous, and while this is a 
standing call on the whole North to pour forth in 
profusion all sorts ol vegetables on the shrine of 
the soldier’s health, especially potatoes, all kinds 
of scallion, (oniou, leek and garlic,) horse-radish 
and any quantity of krout yet remaining, it is an 
imperative appeal to the whole loyal body of far¬ 
mers to immediately put in each an extra quar¬ 
ter, or at loast an eighth of an acre in cabbage. 
No vegetable keeps better, and none can be more 
easily converted into a nutritious, palatable, 
highly antiscorbutic dish. Let also the third 
part of all sorghum juice and cider of the com¬ 
ing crop be turned into vinegar. Believe ono 
who travels up aud down, to and fro, in the 
army, aud knows and sees and professionally 
understands how matters work, that this kind of 
sour ammunition is more sure of a certain peace 
than the most pungent speeches flashing from 
voluble tongue, or even James’s rifle, Shanklo’s 
projectile and Tatham’s canister. 
Inspector U. S. Sanitary Committee. 
(All loyal papers please copy.) 
The Origin ok Hand-Shaking. The Ro¬ 
mans had a goddess whose name was Fides, or 
Fidelity—a goddess of “faith and honesty,” to 
whom Numa was the flrst to pay divine honors. 
Her only dress was a white veil, expressive of 
frankness, candor und modesty; and her symbol 
was two right hands joined, or sometimes two 
female figures holding each other by the right 
bauds, whence iu all agreements among the 
Greeks and Romans it was usual for the parties 
to take each other by the right hand, as a token 
of their intention to adhere to the compact; and 
this custom is in more general use oven among 
ourselves, at the. present day, than would at first 
thought lie realized. 
,jailing fm ftj fjmg 
READ AND YOU WILL KNOW. 
Thekk arc many things to learn 
In this quiet world below, 
Where’er your eyes may turn— 
But read, and you will know. 
There are many things in books, 
That will make your spirits glow 
Like flowers in snuny nooks— 
But read, and you wilL know. 
There are lands beyond the sea, 
Where heroes, blow on blow, 
Struck that nations might be free— 
But read, and you wiU know. 
And castles proud aud tall, 
And palaces aglow, 
With the tapers iu the liall— 
But read, and you will know. 
Cathedrals vast and dim, 
Where, in accents sweet and low, 
Floats up the sacred hymn— 
But read, and you will know 
There are lands of vines and flowers, 
Overtopped with peaks of snow, 
Which fling down their icy showers— 
But read, and you will know. 
There arc islands In the West, 
Where the palm and lotus grow, 
And where everything seems blest— 
But read, and you will know. 
If you would in earnest learn 
Of all things here below, 
Where’er your eyes may turn— 
Then read, and you will know. 
- — »»♦ 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
A LETTER FROM ASPINWALL. 
Well, boys—I presume most of you have 
heard about the “ Isthmus ot Panama,”—al¬ 
though some of the geographies call it the 
“ Isthmus of Darlon”— and have heard, also, 
that it is the “ most sickly place on the face of 
the globe —that every one who crosses it, is sud¬ 
denly taken with the ’Panama fever’—and that 
it is altogether an awful place.' Well, I used to 
hear just such stories; but a few months resi¬ 
dence here has convinced me that It not is so, 
sickly a place as New York City. Look on your 
maps and you will see that the Isthmus of Pana¬ 
ma, connecting North and South America, is just 
the shape of a bow, and that Aspinwall, where 
this letter is written, is on the north side of it, t 
very neap the middle. Now look on the south 
side of the bow and you will see Panama. ( 
There is a railroad, called the Panama Railroad, 
connecting these two places, and though it is but < 
forty-seven miles long, the fare across it is $25. 
That seems a great deal of money for two hours 
ride, does it not? But when you consider how 
it cost to build a track through such a dense 
jungle, and how often the Company is obliged to 
re-build the road on account of the wood decay¬ 
ing so fast in this climate, you will agree with 
me that the fare is reasonable after all. 
Trains run across the road two or three times 
each day, and as I have been across several 
tunes, perhaps you would like to hear a descrip¬ 
tion of a “Native” village on the route'. The 
trains stop at four places — Gatun, Bujjo, Bar- 
bacoas, aud Matachin. Matachin is the largest 
village. It is located at the junction of the 
Chagres and Obispo rivers, and contains about 
eighty huts. These huts are about ten feet 
square and just high enough at the side doors to 
walk in without stooping. The roof is made of 
Palm leaves, and resembles the straw covering 
of a cattle shed at foe North. Some of the huts 
have sides to them, made of plaster aud limbs, 
while many of them hare simply a roof, to keep 
off the sun and rain. You will recollect that the 
weather is warm here during the whole year, as 
it is in July and August where you live, there¬ 
fore, no preparation is ever made for cold 
weather. 
The children in these villages go nakod till 
they are several years old. When onoof theni 
finally gets a piece of frock, or a little short shirt, 
he feels as happy as some of you, when you get 
a new pair of boots in the fall. The rivers I 
mentioned — Chagres and Obispo — are filled 
with alligators. If you were to pass along the 
Chagres, on a sunny day, you would see several 
small toys lying on either bank, but as you ap¬ 
proach, chug, they would go down into the 
water, and what you supposed to be merely logs, 
would turu out U> l>e live alligators. It takes 
close inspection for a stranger to determine them 
from logs. Sometimes they will bo lying on the 
bank ot the river, with their jaws wide opeu, to 
catch flies. Their tongue aud the inner sides of 
their jaws are covered with a slimy, sticky sub¬ 
stance, and the poor fly, when he has once 
alighted, is unable to extricate himself When 
engaged at fly-catching, an alligator will lie 
motionless, with hia jaws opened wide, for seve¬ 
ral hours at a time, or until the inner surface of 
his mouth is covered with flies, thou shutting it 
suddenly, dives down into the water. 
So tough is an allegator that only a shot in the 
eye, or under the foreleg, can kill him. When 
going on an alligator hunt, a dog (is taken aloug 
in the canoe, and after getting out in the stream 
he Is set to barking. The noise attracts 
the alligators to the surface, aud occasionally 
they take a peep over the side of the canoe, 
to catch the dog iu their jaws. But Instead of 
getting a dog for dinner they generally get a 
bullet, which often destroys their appetite, and 
usually one is killed while the rest lose no time 
in diving for the bottom. I am afraid many of the 
boys who read this could not muster up courage 
enough to go on an alligator excursion. Perhaps 
you would prefer a monkey hunt; if so, let me 
advise you to look out for your heads, for it is 
quito probable tbat you will get pelted with 
cocoauuts, or anything else they can find on the 
trees to throw at you. Do not shoot, or hnrt one, 
for if you do, it will look up at you so implor¬ 
ingly, aud cry so hard, as to make you feel sorry 
for what you have done. You can catch some 
: parrots, if you like ! There is a parrot just over 
the way from the office where I am writing. As 
I was passing iu the street, to-day, ho began to 
whistle for the dog. The dog jumped up, but 
seeing no one he knew, laid down again. Then 
the parrot began to luugh, and he laughed very 
natural, indeed. He is either laughing, whist¬ 
ling, or crying, all day long; and sometimes, 
when 1 am tired, I go and sit down by my win¬ 
dow, just to hear him, it is so amusing. 
Perhaps some of you would like to take a trip 
with urn out into the “Jungle,” some day. But 
as you are so far away, I think t will have to 
make the excursion alone, aud then give you a 
description. Yours truly, e. d. c. 
Aspinwall, May 16, 1863. 
KITTY AND HER FRIEND. 
, Now l will tell you a story about kitty aud a 
friend of bevs. This kitty lived about six miles 
from Boston, and bad a very happy home. She 
wa 3 on excellent terms with the family. Even 
the dog used to play with her, and eat out of the 
same plate, and curl himself up to sleep in the 
same corner. One day the dog was sitting in the 
carriage-house while a man was busy there, 
when a mouse scudded nimbly over the floor and 
disappeared in a hole near by. Up sprang dog¬ 
gie, and hurried to the spot, but the hole was too 
small for his great body. He pushed his head in 
as far as possible, anil ran back and forth round 
it at his wit’s end. Suddenly he stood still, as if 
a thought struck him, and then rushed off at the 
top of his speed. In a minute he came racing 
back again, carrying kitty as cats do their kittens, 
by the back of the neck, and set her down be¬ 
fore the hole! It was plain that he thought, 
“Kitty is smaller than I; she can get into the 
hole;”—and so she did; but whether she caught 
the mouse l never knew, though I have seen the 
place many a time. 
Rob a man of his life and you will be hung; 
rob him of his living and you will be applauded. 
Ne arly every evil has its compensation. If a 
man has but one foot be never treads on bis own 
toes. 
To b6 able to think is coutentment anywhere. 
Whether it is to be compared with that sponta¬ 
neous and simple relish of life which the free 
child of nature has, I know not. 
mffli 
