|;rbifs’ ^ort-3troIio. 
THE OLD BOSTON-ROCKER. 
BV JOSEl’III.NE POLLARI). 
How slight are the things that awaken 
Our thoughts ot the days that are o'er! 
How slender the thread we have taken, 
To guide us hy memory's shore ! 
Where the billows are tenderly bringing. 
The shells of old Joys to nut feet, 
And the sea i* forevermore singing, 
The echoes of songs that were sweet! 
In the old Boston-rocker I nestle, 
As cozy as cozy can be, 
And sail In a fairy-like vessel, 
Afar on a Lethean sea. 
The scenes of tlto past become clearer, 
As scenes of the present depart. 
And my loved ones draw nearer and nearer. 
And Joy baa control of my heart. 
The many glad songs, and the folly, 
Tho frolic, nud full I recall; 
For every one had to tic Jolly, 
Who visited Liberty Hall, 
No matter what threatened the morrow, 
No matter how cloudy the day. 
We gave t he cold-shoulder to sorrow. 
And laughed all forebodings away. 
Oid chair! if (hose relics, that ever 
The heart’s dearest treasures outlast, 
lfad speech, it would he thy endeavor 
To tell us a (ale of the past! 
But round thee are momTIes so precious 
lint.wined, their sweet bliss til impart, 
Not only they rest, and rufresli us, 
But whisper alike to the heart. 
Thine arm* are outstretched to embrace me, 
When, weary, 1 seek thy repose. 
On tho breast of a father they place me, 
And soon are forgotten my woes. 
Oh. Time, may thy touch hut make stronger 
This relio of Liberty Hall: 
For tho home that enshrines it no longer 
Will scarcely seem home-like at all! 
-- 
MISS MITEORD’S LOVE OP DOGS AND 
NATURE. 
ous-looking youth, on whom she smiled as 
we passed, tts if he had been virtue itself in 
foot-pad disguise. She knew all the litera¬ 
ture of rural life, and Iter memory was stored 
with delightful eulogies of forests and mead¬ 
ows. When she repeated or read aloud the 
poetry she loved, her accents were 
“ I.ikc dower's voices, if they could but speak.” 
She understood how to enjoy rural occupa¬ 
tions and rural existence, and she had no 
patience with her friend, CuARLES Lamb, 
who preferred llte town. 
mother,” said Harry, “ aud for Aunt Mar 
garet too. Wliat could I make?” 
“ I don’t know, unless you could make 
something to put hooks on; do you think 
you could ? I heard mother say she wished 
so much she had something, so the books 
a dollar and a-haif and IIAimv had a dollar 
and this was more than enough for the cord 
and tho book too. They went together to 
make their purchases, and decided that they 
liked a red cord best; but in buying the book 
they were very much puzzled. First they 
Fon nearly forty years Mary ILjssell 
M lTFORD, llte English authoress, lived in a 
little cottage in Berkshire, surrounded hy 
the scenes so graphically described in “ Our 
Village;” the delight of the Social circle in 
which she moved, and beloved by her rustic 
neighbors. About three years prior to her 
decease tut accident, caused hy the overturn 
ingot her pony chaise, greatly enfeebled her, 
and the remainder of her life was passed in 
jjmeh physical suffering, but wilh character¬ 
istic cheerfulness. A few years before tier 
death, James T. Fields, the lloulon pub¬ 
lisher, visited her in this secluded home. His 
charming descriptions of the scenes sur¬ 
rounding this remarkable women will prove 
interesting to those who have already been 
captivated by her writings. The cheerful 
tone of tcudernew and domesticity pervading 
her volumes, their mingled humor and pa¬ 
thos, ami the simple and yet finished style in 
which they are written, are daily enlarging 
tin: circle of her admirers in this country. 
Thu windows of her cottage, Mr, Fields 
tells us, were filled with flowers, aud cow¬ 
slips and violets were plentifully scattered 
about the little garden. Miss Mrmmu was 
then sixty-one years of age. She liked to 
have one dog at least at her heels, and this 
dog, her pet, seemed to he constantly under 
foot. I remember the room in which I was 
shown, was sanded, and a quaint old clock 
behind the door was marking off the hours 
in small but very loud pieces. The cheer¬ 
ful old lady called to me from the head of 
the stairs to come up into her sitting-room, 
I sat down hy the open window to converse 
with her, and it was pleasant to see how the 
village children, as they went by, stopped 
to how and courtesy. Iler dogs and her 
geraniums were her great glories. She 
used to write me long letters about Function, 
a dog whose personal acquaintance 1 had 
made some time before while on a visit to 
her cottage. Every virtue under heaven she 
attributed to her canine individual, and I 
was obliged to allow, in my return letters, 
thal, since our planet began to spin, nothing 
comparable to Function had ever run on 
lour legs. I had also known Flush, the an¬ 
cestor of Fauchon, intimately, and had been 
accustomed to hear wonderful things of that 
dug, hut Fauchon had grace and genius 
unique. Miss Mitfoiui would have joined 
with Hameston in his gratitude for outline 
companions, when he says, “ I humbly 
thank Divine Providence for having invent¬ 
ed dogs, and I regard that man with won¬ 
dering pity who can lead a dogless life." 
Her fondness for rural life, you may well 
imagine, was almost unparalleled. I have 
often been with her among the wooded lanes 
of her pretty country, listening tor the night¬ 
ingales, and on such occasions she would 
discourse so eloquently of the sights and 
sounds about us, that her talk seemed to me 
“ far above singing." She hud fallen in love 
with nature when a little child, and had 
studied the landscape till she knew famil¬ 
iarly every flower and leaf which grows on 
English soil. Site delighted in rural vaga¬ 
bonds of every sort, especially in Gypsies, 
and as they flourished in her part of the 
country, she knew all their ways, and had 
charming stories to tell of their pranks and 
thievings. Bite called them “ The Com¬ 
moners of Nature;” and once I remember 
she pointed out to me on the road a villain- 
ORGANIZING TOR RETRENCHMENT, 
We observe that a guild of ladies is now 
being formed in England, under the leader¬ 
ship of a Miss Harrison of Swanage, Dor¬ 
setshire, to promote modesty of dress, to do 
away with extravagance, and substitute the 
neatness and sobriety suitable to Christian 
women. Why cannot our American ladies 
organize a similar undertaking? If such re¬ 
form movements are pushed forward in aris¬ 
tocratic England, they certainly ought to 
succeed in democratic America! We hear 
that there is a revival, in ft neighboring city, 
of the calico parties which were quite popu¬ 
lar a few years ago. It is within the power 
of a few ladies in every place to put n stop 
to the fashionable follies and dissipations 
which are banishing the color from many 
women's cheeks and the money from their 
husbands* and fathers’ pocket-books. There 
is everything in the power of organization. 
Let two, three, or more, prominent Indies in 
a village combine to pursue such or such a 
course, as regards dress, keeping good hours 
at evening parties, supplying plain refresh¬ 
ments, &c.,and tho remainder will generally 
follow suit. It is because litis is llte case, 
that every woman of any influence is, to a 
certain extent, responsible for whatever may 
he the prevailing customs among her sex. 
Paris may continue to set Ihc styles, but 
it is for our women themselves to say 
whether or not Lltey will adopt them. Eng¬ 
lish ladies have sttceringly pointed across 
the Atlantic and asserted lhat life in the 
United States was a mere struggle for social 
existence; that the great question among 
the American women was, how they could 
get into the next set above them. While 
there may be some fmiudutiou for this, let 
tho latter show their English cousins that 
they can, and do, distinguish between right¬ 
fully and properly advancing in the social 
scale, and imitating gentility, and making a 
show with money. 
recitation rooms tiro large and convenient. 
Students of the four upper forms study in 
their own rooms, each of which is arranged 
lbr two students, and provided with carpet, 
bed, stove, and necessary furniture. This 
College is furnished with a library, reading 
rooms, apparatus, etc., and hits a numerous 
faculty. There is a military department 
connected with llte College. The whole 
forms a complete educational establishment 
—just the place for any young reader of the 
Rural New Yorker. Those who would 
avail themselves of the advantages offered 
by this {hslitiition, should consult our splen¬ 
did Premium otter published in the Mural 
of Dee. 2. 
f 0 ^ 
®bc Minder. 
Mill-: DAV HKFOUK CHRISTMAS, 
HELEN AND HARRY. 
BY LAURA SOUTHGATE. 
“ Where’s mother, 1 wonder?” said Har¬ 
ry to himself, when he Came in from school 
and found nobody in the sitting-room or 
kitchen. Then tip stairs he run to his sister 
Helen’s room, and when lie tried to open 
the door, it was locked. 
“ Helen, I say, wlmt are you doing?" 
“ What do you want?” asked Helen, by 
way of reply. 
“ I want to come in. Where’s mother, 
and Aunt Margauet? There ain’t nobody 
at home.” 
Now Harry went to school, and studied 
grammar, hut this time he forgot when lie 
said “ there ain’t nobody.” 
“ I. wish you would open the door.” 
“ Well, just wait a minute, aud I will,” 
said Helen. 
“What are yon doing?" Harry asked, 
looking about the room. 
“ Oh, it’s a secret,” said Helen. 
“ I Should think you might tell me; you 
never tell me anything.” 
“ Well, IIarry, L don’t want any one to 
know about it, and if 1 should tell you, you 
would tell, and then I should feel real had. 
But now if I should,” she said, hesitatingly, 
“you’ll keep it a secret, won’t you? See 
here, I’m working a pin-cushion for a Christ¬ 
mas present for motherand Helen opened 
the drawer and took out the canvas, with 
all the bright colored worsted, which she had 
just thrown in. 
“ There, sec, this is the way its going to 
be. All in diamonds. Miss Blake showed 
me how to do it, and worked these black 
lines, to mark out the diamonds. Then I’m 
going to till up some of the places with 
shades of green, and some with purple, and 
some with yellow. The darkest shade goes 
against the black line, and the lightest in 
the middle of the diamond. Aud see, Harry, 
isn’t this a funny stitch ? First its a cross 
stitch, just such as you worked last winter; 
only it goes over four threads of canvas; 
then after you’ve made this big cross-stitch, 
you cross each corner, and thal finishes the 
stitch. 1 think it is so pretty.” 
Then Helen showed Harry how she 
meant to plait a red ribbon around the cush¬ 
ion, after it was made up, and stuffed. 
“ I wish I could make something for 
could be kept snug and nice. Oh, and then 
I will tell you, we might take some of our 
money, you and I, and we might buy a real 
beautiful book for Aunt Margaret!” 
“ Oil, yes, Xguess she’d like that first rate,” 
said Harry ; “ but what could 1 make to 
put hooks oil ?” 
“ I think some shelves like those of Mrs. 
Grey son’s would bo lovely for mother. 
There are three shelves, the lowest one the 
longest and widest, then the next is smaller, 
and I lie top one smaller yet. Then they are 
varnished dark and real handsome, and there 
is a red cord goes through them all; and 
the cord comes together at the top, and that’s 
the way they hang up, you know. Mother 
Would like it so much if you could make it 
with yotir tools." 
Harry had a tool-chest, and was very 
fond of making boxes, and various little 
things. So now he went over to speak to 
Jimmie Giieyson, by way of excuse to see 
the hook-shelves. 
There they were, hanging up in the sil- 
ting-parlor, and Harry looked at them very 
carefully. They were just wliat lie would 
like to make; aud lie told Helen when lie 
came home, that ho thought lie could cut 
them the right size, and make the hoard 
smooth and nice with his plane; but lie 
thought putting on the varnish mul gelling 
it. the right color would he difficult. 
Helen said she guessed it would he bet¬ 
ter to ask father about that, but to make him 
promise truly to keep it a secret. 
IIarry thought so too, but said lie would 
go to work aud get the pieces of board cul 
out, and thou they would begin to look like 
something. 
To hunt round the lumber-room and find 
some nice thin boards, ami get them meas¬ 
ured and cut just the rigid, size, took some 
lime, and, indeed, before lie had commenced 
smoothing them it grew dark ami the bell 
rang for supper. After supper Harry was 
impatient to talk with his father about the 
matter of varnish, but nothing could be done 
that night; so lie waited quietly till his 
father had finished reading the newspaper, 
then lie went up ami whispered about a 
secret which he mustn’t toll, anti then his 
father whispered hack, and Hakky whis¬ 
pered again, so long that his mother laughed 
and asked wliat it was all about. And 
Helen danced round and said she knew all 
about it, but she shouldn’t tell a word. 
Aunt Margaret said if she guessed, and 
guessed right, then she was sure Helen 
would tell her; hut Helen said “No, 1 
shall not tell a single word.” 
Harry worked away next day, smoothing 
and mulling the hoards thill and nice; and 
it happened a few days after, his father Imd 
a little leisure, aud showed him how to varn¬ 
ish them. Then they were put away care¬ 
fully to dry. 
thought they would gel “ Little Women,” 
but when Harry saw that was such a very 
small hook, he wanted something else. Ho 
after looking at a great many, they at last 
decided to get " Stepping Heavenward,” and 
they' found afterward lhat it was just what 
their Aunt Margaret wanted. 
The day before Christmas Mrs. Grkyson 
happened to come in, and the children’s 
mother had gone to visit some friends, she 
helped Helen draw Hie cord through the 
shelves. 
Then Helen hid them away in tier closet 
till evening, when IIarry presented them to 
his mother. She was indeed not only very 
much surpiised, but very much deliglucd 
with them. She was no less pleased with 
the pin-cushion Helen gave her. Aunt 
Margaret was sitting In her chair looking 
at the shelves, when Helen came round 
behind and slipped the book in her lap. It 
was wrapped up just as it came from the 
store, and on the outside was written, “Aunt 
( Maho\i;et, from Helen aud IIarry.” 
How sin prised she was! 
Santa Claus had brought some beautiful 
things tor the children, and their mother 
couldn’t wait (ill Christmas morning to give 
them. So she brought them all out, and 
there they are on the table. A. beautiful 
painted box, and a book, and a sash for 
Helen, anil a work-basket beside, which 
Mrs. Gueyson sent her. Aud Harry had a 
pair of skates, and a knife, and a pocket-book 
with a dollar in it; then ho bail a corn- 
popper, too. Aunt Margaret gave him 
tliis, and he was very much pleased, because 
he had raised some corn himself the summer 
before, Helen and IIarry were us happy 
as Lhey could he, and 1 am sure, to look in 
the picture, you would see what a luippy, 
Merry Christmas they were all having. 
MISCELLANEOUS ENIGMA.—No. 17. 
I am a part ot thoCcmtlueut of America, and I 
contain seven tellers; 
My 3, :j. t, 0 is a tide. 
My 1, 3, t is a preposition. 
My 5,15, 7 Is a girl's name. 
My -1, li, 7. I is wliat, lions do. 
My 0 , :t, 3, 2 is what little girls love. 
My 2, 7, f>, 1 is a litiling place. 
My t, 7, 5, 3 is a pari of a fence. 
My 1,5. t Is a t roc. 
My 2, 7, (1 is a boy. 
My 7, 5, 4 Is upon wliat wc live. 
My I, 3, 1 , li is the crossing of a river. 
My 5 g Of 0 is a top. 
My 4, 3, (5 is what wise men commended the nscof. 
My I, 1,5, 2, 2 is nn old lady’s cup. 
My f!, 8 , 3, 2, 7, 4 is wliat wc love. 
WTi.dey F. Smith. 
Answer in two weeks. 
ILLUSTRATED REBUS. No. 19. 
tW Answer in I wo weeks, when the names of 
those who answer correctly in the inteiim will 
be published. 
PROBLEM.—No. 9. 
OLAVEKACE COLLEGE. 
Herewith we give a representation of 
the College for Boys aud Girls at Claverack, 
on the Hudson — tliu institution mentioned 
in oni offer to Young People getting up 
clubs for the Rural New-Yorker. As a 
place for educating the. young of cither sex, 
this one is probably unsurpassed. It is situ¬ 
ated only three miles from the city of 
Hudson, and commands a line view of the 
hills of Berkshire and Hie Calskill Moun¬ 
tains. The College of Claverack is in Hie 
midst of an old, moral and refined com¬ 
munity; it ia removed from the large cities 
with their evils and temptations, and yet is 
easy of access by the great lines of travel 
The climate of Claverack is noted for its 
heal tli ful ness. 
The site of tho buildings represented is 
open, airy, and elevated. They stand in Hie 
midst of twenty acres of ground, which 
contains a level campus covered deeply 
I SEND a solution of Problem No. 9, because 
you gave two <>r three different answers to it, 
as if there could be a doubt about which wus 
right. One of your cor¬ 
respondents, “ H. Miles, 
Pine Valley, N. Y.,” 
seems somowut jocose 
over it in legnrd to the 
“old mure," ^..prob¬ 
ably because liu bad so 
little difficulty in solv¬ 
ing t'.ie question, lie 
says: —“As ime is to 
twice the number ot 
movable pulleys, so is 
the power to t bo 
weight." I should Uke 
to know what authority 
bo has for that rule ex¬ 
cept bis own dictum. I 
happen to Imve on my 
tablo “Sprague's Phi¬ 
losophy,” from wluch L 
quote:—"The power 
will be to tho weight it 
will balance, us one to 
the number of cords 
supporting Ihu lower 
block." Now, in the 
east) under considera¬ 
tion, the pulleys can tie 
arranged as shown in 
thn annexed diagram, 
from which it is plain that H»e weight is sup¬ 
ported by five cords; therefore each curd must 
sustain onc-flftli of it, which is Just four hun¬ 
dred pounds. Tho draught will, of course, ho 
tho sauie on every part of the rope; consequent¬ 
ly ihero is no need of straining lhat "Id mure to 
more titan 500. when one ounce above400pounds 
will sufiicc. Mathematics. 
We published tho first five answers received 
because we 'promised to—not because we were in 
doubt us to which were correct. 
METAGKAM.-No. 1. 
. .. 
"itt 'it* iiiii* a, ii|iiri'if>iiiwniii r '~~' 
CLAVERACK COLLEGE. 
with gravel. There is a skating pond for 
the use of students. The rooms in this Col¬ 
lege are well ventilated, neatly papered 
throughout, and kept in good repair. The 
The next tiling was to get Hie cord, and 
about this Helen asked Mrs. Grkyson, and 
she told her it would require five yards, and 
would cost eight cents a yard. Helen had 
By four wings supported I circle above. 
Full often I’m gazed ut by maiden in love ; 
Unknown is my form, for to sage as to lover, 
My eye's diamond brightness is ulL I discover. 
My first wing remove, and alus! how I fall; 
I tasted tho nectar, I now drink the gall. 
Comes gold from the furnace more bright for 
the trial: 
Not so come I from it—but black uml most vile. 
Restoro mo onco more— interchange by a word 
My first and my lust, and my second and third ; 
How they scamper ubout, they that now you 
behold! 
What historic* theirs, could they only bo told! 
Rockford, III. FOURTEEN. 
1ST Answer in two weeks. 
--- 
PUZZLER ANSWERS.-Dec. 2. 
Ili.vstii atkd Rebus No. 17.— Welcome lines to 
ladies—Masculines. 
RIDDLE No. 3.- Goose quill. 
Hidden Animals No. 2.-1. Rat: 2, Deer; 3, ITaro; 
4 . Mink: 5. Mol a: ti, Seal: 7. Zebra; S, Horse; 9, Le¬ 
mur; 10, Llama. 
PHYSIOLOGICAL ENIGMA No. L— A false bftlnaco 
l» abomination to the laird; but a Just weight is his 
delight. 
