dare say Nellie still remembers her own many 
morn ini'walks overthissame road,and perhaps 
much else connected with those school days: 
but I presume she has forgotten one thing that 
I have not, ami of which I have been thinking 
to-day—how one night I went over to her board¬ 
ing place and she was all bundled up head and 
cars, in bed, taking a corn sweat. It was the 
first, time I ever heard of such a thing, and It 
impressed itself upon my memory. 1 don’t sup¬ 
pose she thought it would ever bo put into 
print—such an unsentimental ^proceeding as 
that—but she’ll forgive me, I am sure, if you 
will ask her. dear Rural, if she remembers the 
pale-faced lassie who wrote a missionary poem 
to read in tbo old seminary chapel, arid before 
reading It in public gave a private rehearsal of 
it for her benefit. Ask her if she knows how 
her praise stimulated and encouraged—for 
though that was long ago, before that tall, 
grave College Senior carried her off, and put 
“Mrs.” before her name, yet, if she remembers 
this, she will know who it is signs herself. 
Mrs. Hattie Y. Bell. 
ed traits I Be these yours, my boys, and we 
shall not fear. You will claim the love and 
respect of all. You are watched by your elders. 
Men who are looking for clerks and apprentices 
have their eyes on you. If you are profane, 
vulgar, theatre-going, they will not choose you. 
If you arc upright, steady and Industrious, be¬ 
fore long you will find good places, kind mas¬ 
ters, and the prospect of a useful life before 
you. 
THE APPEAL OF WOMAN, 
WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT 
BY A WOMAN 
If you’ve any task to do. 
Let me whisper, friend, to you, 
. Do It. 
When woman’s vote shall counted be 
Need fathers lose their dignity? 
Need husbands watch the nrestde. 
Or do a woman’s work with pride? 
Need mothers care to mothers be— 
Need babies d.iuk cold catnip tea ? 
When woman’s vote shall rule the State 
Then bayonet and sword shall rust; 
For Lore and Justice will bear dato 
Of ruling then nnd there they must; 
For woman rule* with gentle hand, 
And pleasant Moral Suasion : 
O, won’t this bo a. glorious land 
When women rule tlie Nation ? 
If you’re anything to say. 
True and needed, yea or nay. 
Say it. 
If you’ve anything to love. 
As a blessing from above, 
Love it. 
If you've anything to give 
That another's joy may live, 
Uive it. 
If you know what torch to light, 
Guiding others through the night. 
Light it. 
If you've any debt to pay, 
Itest you neither night os day. 
Pay it. 
If you’re any joy to hold 
Next your heart, lest it grow cold. 
Hold it. 
If you've any grief to meet 
At the loving Father’s feet. 
Meet it. 
If you're given light to see 
What a child of God should be. 
See it. 
Whether life be bright or drear. 
There’s a message sweet or clear 
Whispered down to every oar ; 
Hear it. 
INTELLECTUAL CULTURE 
A CULTIVATED mind may bo paid to have 
infinite stores of innocent gratification. Every¬ 
thing may bo made interesting to It, by becom¬ 
ing a subject of thought or inquiry. Books, re¬ 
garded merely as a gratification, aro worth 
more than all the luxuries on earth. A taste 
for literature secures cheerful occupation for 
the unemployed and languid hours of life; and 
how many persons in these hours, for want of 
innocent resources, are now compelled to 
coarso pleasure ? How many young men can 
be found in ;this town who unaccustomed to 
find a companion In a book, and strangers to in¬ 
tellectual activity, are almost driven, in the 
long dull evenings of winter, to haunts of in¬ 
temperance and bad society. 
Wise heads proclaim ” If w,*it>en vote. 
They must march in arms to battle,” 
And face the foes that men have faced, 
Nor fear the cannon's rattle. 
Bat when the women help make laws 
To guide and guard this Nation, 
How think you there can boacauao 
To light with Moral Suasion ? 
Here wo knee!. 
O "lanU rtf thi* i ri'iition " say, 
n<> let us vote, we humbly pray. 
We want in ri-e in ecstasy : 
As stars are brighter to the right 
When twinkl m: forth their lecble light 
Von need not fear to lose the day 
Because the sunlight is away. 
HOME COURTESIES, 
A writer in Harper's Bazar makes some ex¬ 
cellent remarks concerning courtesy at home. 
Please listen, good people of the home circle: 
The placing of the arm-chair In a warm place 
for mamma, running for a footstool for aunty, 
hunting up papa’s spectacles, ami scores of lit¬ 
tle loving deeds, show unsuppressed and loving 
hearts. But if. mamma never returns a smiling 
“ Thank you, dear,” if papa’s “ Just what I was 
wanting, Susie,” does not indicate that the lit¬ 
tle attention is appreciated, the chitdron soon 
drop the habit. Little people are imitative 
creatures, and quickly catch the spirit sur¬ 
rounding them. So, if when the mother’s 
spool of notion rolls from her lap, the father 
stoops to pick it up, bright eyes will see the 
act, and quick minds make a note of it. By 
example, a thousand times more quickly than 
by precept, children can be taught to speak 
kindly to each other, to acknowledge favors, 
to bo gentle and unselfish, to be thoughtful 
and considerate of the comfort of the family. 
The boys, with inward pride of their father’s 
courteous demeanor, will bo chivalrous and 
helpful to their young sisters; the girls, imi¬ 
tating the mother, will bo gentle and patient, 
oven when big brothers are noisy and heedless, 
in the home where true courtesy prevails, it 
seems to rneot you on the very threshold. You 
feel the kindly welcome on entering. No rude 
eyes scan your dress. No angry voices are 
beard up stairs. No sullen children are sent 
from the room. A delightful atmosphere per¬ 
vades the house - unmistakable, yet inde¬ 
scribable. 
Yield a Little.— It is better to yield a little 
than to quarrel a great deal. The habit of 
standing up, as people call it, for their (little) 
rights is one of the most disagreeable and un¬ 
dignified in the world. Life Is too short for the 
perpetual bickerings which attend such a dis¬ 
position; and unles a very momentous affair in¬ 
deed, where other people’s claims and interests 
are involved, It Is a question if It Is not wiser, 
happier and rnoro prudent to yield somewhat of 
precious rights than squabble to maintain 
them. Truo wisdom Is first pure, then peace¬ 
able and gentle. 
Hero we preach: 
When politics are purified, 
And men with Conscience clear 
View Gits or that or other side 
As holding most, that's dear j— 
When politicians do not sit 
Forth the fence astride. 
All ready In their hearts to flit 
And flout down with the tide;— 
When Justice fills the measure full. 
When hearts with.loyal throb beat warm 
Then woman’s vote will help her rulo. 
Then woman’s discipline will school. 
And sky no more will frown In storm. 
Here wo beg: 
Do let us women vote wc pray. 
Do let ua have our Own. own way ; 
Our tongues should bo allowed to speak. 
Wo should have rights which now we seek; 
Too long we've suffered in this way, 
Now let us have our Suffrage day. 
A SERMON ON PUSH 
When cousin WHI was at home for vacation 
the boys always expected plenty of fun. The 
last frolic before he went back to bis studies 
was a long tramp after hazel-nut*. As they 
were hurrying along in high gice, they came 
upon a discouraged-looking man and a discour¬ 
aged looking cart. The cart was standing be¬ 
fore an orchard. The man was trying to pull it 
up hill to his own house. The boys did not 
waitto be invited, but ran to help with a good 
will. “ Push! rush !” was the cry. 
The man brightened up: the cart trundled 
along as fast as rheumatism would do It, and 
in five minutes they all stood panting at the top 
of the bill. 
“Obliged to ye,” said the man; “you just 
wait a minute; ’’ and ho hurried into the house, 
where two or three piuk-aproned children 
peeped out of the door. 
“Now boys,” said Cousin Will, “ this is a 
small thlBg, but I wish we could ail take a 
motto out of it, and keep it for life. “Push!” 
it Is just the word for a grand, dear morning. 
“If anybody is in trouble and you see it, 
don’t, stand back; push ! 
“Whenever there’s a kind thing, n Christian 
tiling, a happy thing, a pleasant thing, whether 
it is your own or not, whether it is at home or in 
town, at church or at school, just help with all 
your might; push! ’’ 
At that moment the fanner came out with 
a dish of his wife’s best doughnuts, arid a dish 
of his own best apples; and that was the end of 
the little sermon.—Selected. 
ILLUSTRATED REBU8.—No. 2 
SCHOOL GIRL MEMORIES 
A pleasant surprise greeted me as I open¬ 
ed a late number of the Rural. Sot that that 
Is anything wonderful lu itself, for we all know 
the dear old Rural is “up to”al! kinds of 
agreeable surprises. But the surprise I mean is 
this:—While looking over its f res 11 , crisp pages, 
and feeling glad that Its cheery face was slill 
a visitor in my happy heme, my eyes met a 
name signed to one of the articles therein that 
awoko many olden memories. It earned me 
back more than a half-score years, to a beauti¬ 
ful rural village, where the owner of that name 
(her name was “Nellie" then—she is “Mrs,” 
now), was my very nearest neighbor ; and 
though she waa older than I, and poised tin 
dignity of u college student on her graceful 
head, while I waa only a seminary sub-graduate 
under a Shaker bonnet trimmed with brown 
and white gingham, yet I used sometimes to 
receive a smile and a pleasant word from her, 
and I can to-day touch the very spot under my 
chin where a warm kiss was once left by her 
rosy lips. 
Of course Nellio h?ts not forgotten the long 
rows of tall old locust tree., that shaded our 
path to and from our recitations, nor the atrip 
of narrow road that in winter required such a 
sure footing, aud such large understanding, to 
keep from falling into the chasm below, that 
stretched between us and the pursuit of knowl¬ 
edge like a modern slough of despond. How I 
dreaded that, walk when the wind blew! I 
well remember what a direful catastrophe befel 
me there one breezy day. I had sallied forth 
in all the glory of some new crinoline—those 
beautiful, bending, bewitching, back-sliding, 
brass ones, that once worn, are never to be for¬ 
gotten, at least by me. As I neared the little 
narrow walk, tho dancing z 6 pkyrs began to 
dance more lively around my skirts. They 
waved aud essayed, and flounced to my fullest 
annoyance, until, when I got almost half way 
across, up jumped the biggest gust of all—as if 
it had been waiting for me, and was so glad to 
meet me! And oh, the embrace it gave me 
was m03t hearty, I assure you, and it made a 
decided impression, too—for when I stopped 
to catch my breath and dared to glance around. 
I looked ai if I had been through a funning 
mill, and felt so too, for thoso circles of brafts 
of which I bad been the important center, were 
no longer circles but right-angles and parallelo¬ 
grams aud diagonals; but most of all 1 think 
they resembled the figure of a spherical poly¬ 
gon In the hack part of my old geometry. Oh 1 
no wonder I dreaded, that walk In a windy day ! 
The gulf was so deep. 
And the road was so narrow. 
I’d rather ride home 
In a big wheelbarrow! 
Excuse me:—the first part of my verso re- 
A BEAUTIFUL THOUGHT 
When the summer of youth is slowly wasting 
away on tho nightfall of ugo.und the shadow of 
the path becomes deeper and deeper, and life 
wears to its close, it Is pleasant to look through 
the vista of time upon the sorrows aud felici¬ 
ties of our oarlier years. If wo have a home to 
shelter, ami hearts to rejoice with ns, and 
friends have been gathered around our fire¬ 
sides ; and the rough places of wayfaring will 
have been worn and smoothed away in the 
twilight of life, while the many dark spots we 
have passed through will grow brighter and 
more beautiful. Happy, indeed, are those whose 
intercourse with tho world has not changed the 
tone of their holier feeling or broken those 
musical chords of the heart, whose vibrations 
are so melodious, «o tender, and so touching in 
the evening of their life. 
Answer in two weeks. 
Azile, 
GEOGRAPHICAL ENIGMA.—No. 1. 
I am composed of 60 letters: 
My 17,18, 2 , 38. 7,12, 28,11. 41 is a town in the 
island of Java; 
My 1,51,8, 8 , 9,32, 15, 50, a capo in the South 
Pacific, 
My 7,3, 10, 47, 20, 14, 22, 8 , a hay on the coast of 
Madagascar; 
My 13, 8 , 12, 28, 34, 7, o4, 31, 24,13, a city of Egypt. 
My 12 , 45, 5, 46, 25, 0 , 7, a gulf of Russia; 
My 16, 4, 34, 40, 6 , 9, a river of Turkestan ; 
My 18, 47, 29, 21 , 37, 23, 28, a city of Hejer; 
My 19, , 10 , 27, 11, 40, 47, 38, 35, a city of Farther 
India: 
My 55, 48, 9, 55, 36, 33, 39, 33, a river of Russia; 
Mv 06 , 12 , 2 , 44, 60, 14, 7,38,23, a German capital; 
My 8 , 68 , 2ft, 46, a river of Bavaria ; 
My 17, 59. 7, 38, 57, 7, 62, 16, 19, an island ef the 
Grecian Archipelago. 
My whole warns us always to be in time in 
everything we undertake, whether in business 
or pleasure. 
t3&~ Answer in two weeks. Little One. 
DO IT WELL 
Whatever you do, do it well. A job slight¬ 
ed, because it is apparently uuimportaut, leads 
to habitual neglect, so that men degenerate, 
insensibly, into bad workmen. 
“That is a good rough Job," 3 »id a foreman 
in our healing recently ; aud he meant that it 
waB a piece of work not elegant in itself, but 
strongly made and well put together. 
Training the hand und eye to do work well 
leads Individuals to form correct habits in 
other respects; and a good workman is, in 
most cases a good citizen. 
No one ueed hope to rise above hia present 
situation who suffers small things to pass by 
unimproved, or who neglects, metaphorically 
speaking, to pick up a farthing because it is 
not a shilling. 
Take heart, all who toil; all youths in 
humble situations, all in adverse circumstances 
and thoso who labor unappreciated. If it be 
but to drive the plow, strive to do It well; if it 
be but to wax thread, wax it well; if only to 
cut bolts, make good ones; or to blow tho 
bellows, keep the Iron hot. It is attention to 
business that lifts the feet higher up on the 
ladder. 
A Panic among Russian Damsels.— It is 
said that a panic was produced lately In the 
government of Pleskau, Russia, among the 
female population, by the rumor that the gov¬ 
ernment intended to send 5,000 of the prettiest 
girls of the. country to Africa to be married to 
negroes. Such way the terror of the girls that 
they made haste to marry anj one who would 
have them. It was of course an idlo rumor, 
but the effect it bad points a moral, and illus¬ 
trates that the gulf between the races is impas¬ 
sable. 
WOMEN PERSONALS, 
Jean Ingelow has written a new serial story 
entitled “ Fated to be Free.” 
Miss Kate Field is said to have succeeded 
in the character of Laura Hawklm, in the play 
of “The Glided Age.” 
Miss Thompson of “Roll Call” reuownhas, 
been elected a member of the Institute of 
Painters in Water Colors. 
Mrs. Beecher and Mrs. Tilton are regular 
attendants at the great Tilton-Beecher trial, 
now in progress in Brooklyn. 
Miss Carrie Clark, daughter of Henry S. 
Clark, lately deceased, has been appointed ex¬ 
press agent in Northampton, Mass. 
Miss Nancy Monkll of St. Johns graduated 
at a medical institute in New York, and is now 
superintendent of a large hospital at Lucknow, 
India, at a salary of $5,000 per year and all ex¬ 
penses paid. 
Mrs. Mary Whitman Eddy, wife of Dea. 
Morton Eddy of Fall River, and widely known 
as the successor of Mary Lyon in the principal- 
ship of Mt. Holyoke Seminary, died on the 6 th 
ult„ aged sixty-six years. 
CROSS-WORD ENIGMA.—No. 2 
My first is is spade but not in shove]; 
My second is iu com but not in rye; 
My third la in raise but not in fall; 
My fourth is in three but not in four: 
My fifth ia in youth but not In age; 
My sixth is In gain but not in loss ; 
My seventh is in orange but notin lemon 
My eighth is in small but nor. iu great; 
My whole forms part of a peninsula. 
E®*” Answer In two weeks. n. d, w 
BOYS, HEAR AND HEED THIS! 
13 one OC me rarest gems. Many a 
youth has been lost in society by allowing a 
falsehood to tarnish his character and foolishly 
throwing it away. If this gem still shines in 
your bosom, suffer nothing to displace or dim¬ 
inish its luster. 
Profanity is a mark of low breeding. Show 
us a man that commands respect; an oath 
trembles not on Ills tongue. Read the cata¬ 
logue of crime. Inquire the character of those 
who depart from virtue. Without a single ex¬ 
ception you will find them to be profane. 
Think of this, and don’t let a vile word dls. 
PUZZLER ANSWERS.—Jan. 9 
Problem No. 1.— 
45.0316 rods. 
66.6484 “ 
72-3663 “ 
M ISCELLANZOU8 Enigma No. L— Robert Treat 
Paine. 
Cross-Word Enioma No. 1.—Geneseo. 
r Hidden Groceries No. 1.—1, Cracker; 3, 
Lard; 3, Oolong t.ctrv; 4, Macaroni; 5, Mustard ; 
6 , Olives; 7, Pickles. 
minded me so forcibly of the old nursery rhyme 
where “ narrow ” chimes in so musically with 
“wheelbarrow,” that I couldn’t help makin 
Parody just there, tho’ T did not intend to. 
