always doing. I know enough of It or history 
to know that her Indust ry is a philosophical 
panacea which she prescribes t or herself. Pan¬ 
acea for what? Why, of course for an ache 
which follows her wherever she goes and which 
was born during the days of civil strife which 
wrenched so many hearts. But no one would 
suppose that CLOVER Blossom had ever suf¬ 
fered unless he had realized the fact by the 
method of her ministrations to til080 who do 
suffer. 
Carnation 
Is right in my way and t will look in upon her. 
What an atmosphere! Whew! What a crowd 
of revelers are here! How she dazzlqs, attracts 
and repels these moths of society! What a 
fool I was to call! This old bachelor Is too 
cynical. Ho is offered a glass of wine in re- 
^ponse to the ”compliments of the season,” 
and Carnation turns to t hat “ deah Mr. Fcrz- 
snoodles " to listen toand enjoy his inanities. 
Is Squire PRNcrr, jealous? Not a bit of it! But 
he feels bad because bo sees clearly what the 
end will be. After that atmosphere it is re¬ 
freshing to get into the delightful presence of 
Mignonette. 
Here is fragrance 3—the fragrance of moral 
worth! Horo is an atmosphere that wilt refine 
any man who inhales it that; will perfume him 
and his life, if he will, as long as tho Now Year 
iivi'8 I There is a different class of callers here 
than I found at Carnation's. I reel as if I 
were eating solid food and drinking elixir. 
This is the abiding place of Sincerity, Truth, 
Hope, Faith and Charity. I am glad I made 
this call. It was an artistic thing to do to set 
these last two calls against each other. If T 
had time 1 would tell you something of Mig¬ 
nonette's history. 1 will some time. But now 
I’m off for that cosy country homo between 
four bills where reigns 
Geranium. 
Her colors are rose and the glow of gladness at 
the dawn of the New Year is not yet gone. Tho 
welcome Is hearty, hopeful and hospitable. 
There la a freedom and country freshness 
about it. that warms the heart of even an old 
bachelor like me; there Is originality of ex¬ 
pression that makes otic sicken of stereotypes. 
I got glimpses of sunbeams even t hrough the 
gray clouds, f wonder whether this light was 
born in shadow—whether it will not shine 
brighter and with more warmth as l tie New 
Year grows older and the summer oornos— 
whether the harvest of blossoms and fragrance 
which the year will bring will not equal the 
hopes and wishes of all who give her greet ing 
to-day. 
Have I finished my list? No! But there are 
other days to come in this Now Year and 1 am 
not going to concentrate too much In the first: 
besides, there aro duties to be performed. 
The hist line is somewhat longer, but I have 
forgotten it. The next verse tells how “He 
had no visual organs wherewith to behold the 
beauties of Nature,” and “ No dental appara¬ 
tus with which to masticate tho cuke of Indian 
corn,” and. as a consequence, “ Re was ob¬ 
liged to allow the cake of Indian corn to pass 
by with impunity!” These great mouthfuls of 
words, sung to the old tune, sound very funny, 
I can assure you. 
IN THE SWING, 
TINDER THE SNOW, 
BY DE FOR BEST P. (i( MMERSON 
BABY amt I 
Are going to swing; 
Boy* eeme and push us! 
That’s just the thing! 
Now we go up! 
Now we come clown ! 
Up in the apple tree- 
Dowti t.o tho ground. 
Bear little head 
Ides on my breast. 
Trusting and safe 
As |t bird In its nrst. 
No matter how swiftly: 
How low or how high. 
We're pleasantly swinging,— 
Baby anil I! 
Up In thr apple tree, 
In the snug nest, 
Light winds arc swinging 
The robins to rest. 
Four huhy-roWus 
Are swung to and fro— 
Backward and forward— 
Now high, aud mar low, 
The mother broods o’or them 
And close to her breast 
They are pleasantly swinging. 
Secure tn their nest! 
Ah, well! my baby 
Will soon leave my breast. 
And all the young robins 
Will fly from the nosl! 
But never morn happy 
Or safe can they be 
Than swinging to-day 
“ In the old apple treo !” 
God cures for the robins 
Wherever they fly, 
And we, ton, will irust Him— 
Baby and I! 
Under the pure white snow. 
The earth In It.* beauty lies; 
Waiting the coming of Spring 
With its bright and sunny skies. 
In her cold and silent rest. 
Like the form of one who is dead ; 
With pale white lilies upon her breast. 
And n halo about her head. 
But when the Spring shall come, 
She will bound once more Into life; 
Arrayed in sapphire and green, 
With purple and gold he rife. 
And my heart that to-day is sad, 
Will awake with a sudden thrill; 
And the song of birds ahull make me glad 
And the music of each rill. 
PREMIUMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 
Our new Premium List embraces a number 
of useful articles, adapted to the wants and 
wishes of young people mich as Rural Books, 
Photograph Albums, Dictionaries, Gold and 
Silver Watches, Gold Pens, Pencils, and Rings, 
Pocket Knives. ,Ve., &c. And wo are clad to 
know that many boys and girls, young men 
and maidens, aro forming clubs with tho view 
of securing some of our valuable Premiums. 
Others write for documents to aid in procuring 
subscribers. For example, a lad writes us 
from Oswego Fulls, N. Y„ as follows: “ I am a 
poor boy, attending school, ami tun trying to 
get an education. 1 want Webster’s Unabridged 
Dictionary. How many subscribers to the 
Rural New-Yorker shall I get for you to 
obtain one of tho largest size? Do the best 
you can for me, and t may, in time, be able to 
pay you four-fold. Send me a premium list 
and specimen number, with blank fur club." 
—The abovo has been answered by loiter, but 
we will here add, for tho information of young 
friends, that, we send the Dictionary named— 
Webster's Pictorial Unabridged, largest size, 
price *12 —for a club of thirty subscribers at, 
our lowest club rate ($2 per copy). Next to the 
Bible ft is the best, book, and we hope a host of 
our readers will try to secure it by obtaining 
the requisite number of subscribers. Those, 
however, who fall of getting the number can 
take some other valuable premium. But the 
beat way is to try for the best, and win If possible. 
EVEKY-D AY LIFE 
BY LEAD PENCIL, ESQ, 
MAKING NEW YEAR’S CALLS. 
It is the first day of January, 1874. Shall f 
makegood resolutions? They do not amount 
to much. I am inclined, after an experience 
of something leas than half a century, not to 
make nnv more. Tho resolution shall imme¬ 
diately precede the act. When the necessity 
to act comes, then, in the light of past expe¬ 
rience and accumulated wisdom, I will resolve 
and act as I resolve. 
Shall I Make New Year’s Calls To-Day? 
That is tho first practical question 1874 brings 
me to decide. I will decide it. T sit here in 
my bachelor apartments and look from the 
glow of the grate and the cosy comfort with 
which I am (grateful for being) surrounded,out 
upon the gray of the sky and Into the homes 
of those upon whom I should call if I called 
at all. This calling involves a good deal of 
effort and not a large amount of gratification. 
It Is like taking mixed drinks. If I get well 
filled by the companionship of one low-voiced, 
sympathetic soul, and take my eyes from one 
sweet, expressive and lovely face, I can carry 
the vision uqly nround the corner, bocauso 
there I must meet another soul Just as es¬ 
sential to me when I am in the mood for It 
as the first. I cannot return to my room and 
muse over what I have seen and heard. The 
second call almost obliterates the impressions 
of the first; and thr* third makes the first and 
second confused, and before I have made the 
thirty or forty I ought to make, if 1 make any, 
I am in » state of mental and moral intoxica¬ 
tion whtch staggers me without affording any 
real abiding gratification. Accordingly I will 
avoid Mils dissipation and distribute thd&e calls 
throughout the year. 
This is my first resolution! But suppose I 
mentally call upon my friends! That is a 
worthy idea! Who shall be first? Of course 
the one nearest me an route f 
Columbine 3 
She of hopes and fears—toll, dark, lithe, with 
eyes that are liquid with light for those whom 
she calls friends - ; who is undemonstrative, but 
deep like a river; who watches over her soul 
and her life with tremulous zeal! I wish her a 
Happy New Year, and she sits down on the 
sofa, almost mute but beaming with real joy 
that I have called to give her greeting; and in 
a low voice as I ask her what she hopes the 
New Year to bring forth, recites: 
“ 0, year! I stand in still expectancy! 
I stand in awe before thy opening gate, 
Cboo.'ing to step within and grasp thy gifts 
Of varied life. To guther for myself; 
To sip some sweetness, to enrich my soul,— 
And then, perchance 1 may disseminate. 
LETTERS TO YOUNG RURALISTS.- No. 20 
FROM COUSIN JOHNNIE 
Our. Boys’ and Girls’ Letters will be re¬ 
sumed next week. Look out for a batch of 
spicy and Interesting epistles. All young’uns 
who can write, should not “ forget to remem¬ 
ber ” that we are always glad to hear from 
them when they have anything to x»y which is 
worth saying and—printing. Note that, John, 
Mary, Harry, and oven Charlie, Jennie and 
all the other young folk vftt.h fashionable ter¬ 
minations (ie) to their pognomens. 
Many thanks, my dear little cousins, Flor¬ 
ence Ford and Lively, for your expressions 
of satisfaction at Cousin Johnnie’s letters. 
You belong to a #1 ass of people that I like, for 
you purr when you arc pleased! You know, 1 
dare say, how discouraging it la to pet. some 
pussy cat—to give him the most alluring rubs 
on the head—the most enticing scratches under 
the chin, and yet have him preserve ns Btolid 
and Indifferent an air, as though he worn a toy 
cat. And, on the other hand, you know how 
delightful a kitty is, who is pleased with every 
little attention and rubs her cheek against 
yours, and purrs and purrs, till her little throat 
is ready to break. Well, if this is true of cats, 
it Is truer still of people. The kind that never 
*• purr,” say they feel Just as much, nay, more, 
than those who make so much noise that when 
they are specially pleased a lump comes in 
their throat that prevents them from purring. 
Well, perhaps it. Is .so; but I say to them, 
“Choke down the lump, and make an effort to 
purr jmt a little bit, so that those who have 
tried to please you will not fed so utterly dis¬ 
appointed as they do at the apparent failure of 
their efforts. 
Florence, I see, is not afraid to apeak out 
her mind -another good characteristic. She 
says she “Thinks I offended Young Mustache 
some." If that is so, it must have been in my 
letter of apology to him. Dear Young Mus¬ 
tache— beloved cousin—“If I have done any¬ 
thing 1 am sorry for, I am willing to bo for¬ 
given." 
Lively’s anecdotes of her little relatives re¬ 
mind me of a tradition extant in our family. 
When I was extremely young, my rcprjrtolrc 
of songs was rather limited, the principal one 
running as follows: 
“ Here was an ole nigger, and his name was Uncle 
Nei>; 
Ho died long ago, long ago ; 
He had no hair on do top oh ids head, 
De place where do wool ought’er grow. 
Chorus , Don lay down do tdiubhle and do hoe-oo-oe, 
Hangup rididdle and de bow; 
Dere’s no more worlt for poor qlc Ned, 
He’s gone where do good darkles go.” 
There’s another verso, tolling how “ He had 
no eyes for to see," and hew “ He had no toeth 
for to eat do hoe-cake, so he had to let de hoc- 
oalce he." Well, the first time I was ever taken 
to church, the moment the hymn commenced, 
l struck up, in the most enthusiastic manner, 
“Dercwnsan oto nigger and his name was Uncle 
Ned!” 
I didn't get much further, however, for act ive 
and efficient measures were promptly taken, by 
my family, to enforce silencet By tho way, 
there is another version of that old song, which 
I will give you, as nearly as I can recollect it, 
just to show how rnauy and what big words 
can bo used to express the simple facts stated 
above; 
“’There was an aged, colored individual, whose cog¬ 
nomen was Edward : 
He doparted tills life a number of years since; 
He had oo capillary growth on the surface ol his 
cranium, 
Tho place designed by Nature for the growth of the 
capillary appendage. 
Chorus, Then lay down the agricultural implements, 
Allow the violin and the bow to be suspend¬ 
ed upon the wall; 
There’s no more manual labor and exercise 
for indigent, aged Edward ; 
He has departed, to tho abodo designed for 
all humane, benevolent and colored in¬ 
dividuals.” 
ILLUSTRATED REBUS.-No. 2 
ABOUT WOMEN 
A new Swedish Nightingale is said to have 
been discovered In the person of a servant girl 
named Martha Erlcson. 
Mrs. Thompson, daughter of the poet Burns, 
died at CroasmylQOf, near Glasgow, recently, 
eighty-four years of age. 
Miss Nellie Grant has been presented by 
Colonel Steinberg with a collection of rare 
birds from the Navigator Islands. 
Miss Lucy M. Follansbee of Salem, in her 
will, gives the town of Newburyporfc *10,000 to 
be appropriated to various charitable purposes. 
Baroness Burdett-Coutts contemplates 
the erection of several squares of compartment 
houses in Dublin and Belfast for the poor, 
which are to be paid for in installments. 
Jennie Collins thanks tho Boston press for 
its valuable support of her efforts in behalf of 
the working girls ot the city. She further 3ays 
that there has not been a single complaint 
against tho servants furnished to families from 
“ Boffin’s Bower,” 
There is one word of which four others can 
be made, which alternate curiously between 
the genders: " Heroine” is perhaps aa peculiar 
a word as any in our language. The first two 
letters of it aro male, the first t hree female, the 
first four a brave man, and the whole a brave 
woman. 
M IS8 Ella M. Noyes of Abjngton, a graduate 
of Mount Holyoke Seminary in 1872, left home 
recently for Tahlequah, the capital of the 
Nation, where she is to take charge of the 
Park Hill Female Seminary, which was closed 
during the war, but is now ro-opeueil witli 
good promise of success. 
George Sand Is the wealt hiest authoress in 
the world. Forty years ago almost on the 
brink of starvation, she has now an annual in¬ 
come of over 100,000 francs from her copy¬ 
rights and life contracts with French publish¬ 
ing houses, and her magnificent country seat 
at Nohant could not be bought for 500,000 
francs, 
A correspondent writes to the Spectator: 
“ Did you ever see Cowper'a epitaph on Lord 
Holland? 
“ Whoever this casket unlocks. 
Of Us tenant may truthfully say: 
He doubled with Reynard the Fox, 
And gabbled with Gaffer the Gray,” 
Or his lines to Lady Holland in allusion to 
Moore's versea ? 
" Lady! accept the gift a hero wore, 
Treat, as deserves, this philanthropic stuff, 
Nor let some verses written by a bore, 
Prevent your ladyship from taking snuff.” 
82?” Answer in two weeks 
MISCELLANEOUS ENIGMA.—No. 2 
I am composed of 48 letters : 
My 2,12,35, ft, 25, 47 Is a city in Europe. 
My 44, 33, 27, 4,39, 17 is a kind of tree. 
My 18, Iff, 23, 5, 2 wns an ancient city. 
My 14,40,33,34,21, II, 17 is a word used by lovers 
My 32, 19, 40,10 Is a metai. 
My 34, 39, 6,43,38,1,13 is a disorderly person. 
My 19, 80, 45, 41 is a sensation. 
My 24, 37, 3,29,22 is a reptile. 
My 43, 7,30,15 la a man’s name. 
My 20, 44, 8, 34,20 Is usod In times of war. 
My whole is a very true saying. j. m. s. 
Answer in two weeks. 
O, Year. I enter I What thy gifts may be 
I question not. I only crayc the seal 
Of Royalty be on them. 
May 1 not shrink from use of meager talent, 
But in quietness and strength perform 
The Royal Will.” 
That is tho key to Columbine’s life. It is 
worthy, and I am glad I called. Next upon 
Snow-Drop. 
No summer friend is she 1 There in her little 
room, almost an attic, she revels in the memo¬ 
ries of the past, and does the present duty even 
though the heart, aches, the feet are sore, and 
Sorrow broods over her life and the lives of 
those she calls hers. You would not suppose 
she ever hatl a care and scarcely a serious 
thought as she trills me a welcome and recip¬ 
rocates with unaffected sincerity and hearti¬ 
ness my good wishes for her future. It is only 
now and then that I see a mist in her eyes; and 
I know how steadfast her life has been to her 
purpose and duty. I have heard her exclaim : 
“ 1 fought for tho Palm—but now must fall 
For my strength ebbs low tn this last wail: 
And the dregs of the cup which I drink alone 
For all of life’s errors will fully atone.” 
Clover Blossom 
Next greets me with that fresh unlined, glow¬ 
ing face brightened by a pair of bright, glad, 
clear, practical eyes. Glover is a woman 
given to work. She has no time for repining. 
She is known among the high and low who suf¬ 
fer, and Hope always heralds her coming. She 
has scarcely time to talk with me. and yet she 
does not give me any such Impression. She 
always finds time for everything because she Is 
PROBLEM.—No. 2 
A lad took a basket to the orchard to bring 
peaches for his parents and sister. First, meet¬ 
ing Ilia father, ho gave him half tho poaches his 
basket contained and half a poach more than 
half. Then ho divided with his mother, giving 
her half the peaches he bad left and hair a 
peach more than half. Then,-rcing the fruit 
was getting low, be began to grow a lit,tin sel¬ 
fish on dividing with hla sister, and gave her 
half a peach less than half he had left, retaining 
four whole peaches {neither more nor loss) for 
himself. How many peaches did he give each, 
and how many did he bring from the orchard ? 
Answer in two weeks. o. e. d. 
WORD PUZZLE.—N<* 1 
I am the name of a flower, and contain nine 
letters. I also contain a metal, a color, a num¬ 
ber, a measure, a vessel, tfn inclosure, a boat, a 
fruit, a drink, a deep hole, an article of food, a 
tree, to fasten, a word with two meanings, to 
place, confined, tn fondle, a song of Joy, a plant, 
a kind of fuel, the head, a square of glass, to 
gasp, a light blow, a fillet, an animal, qualified, 
an Insect, to consume, to pinch, egg of an in¬ 
sect, a short sleep, a nickname, back of the 
neck, clear profit, low, a tooth, harmony, ac«Bk. 
No letter is used twice in the same word. 
t£T' Answer in two weeks. x. y. z. 
