iLealtittg for % ffomtg, 
MILKING TIME. 
EVA. EDGERTON. 
The pearly dew la sparkling 
On the clover blooms so sweet, 
Palling In tiny showers 
At the passing of light feet. 
The robin trills a prelude 
To the fresh-faced maiden’s song, 
As. with tripping step, she hastens 
The grassy lane along. 
No belle of Saratoga 
Can look so sweet and fair 
As this blooming, country lassie, 
With her bonnie, rippling hair 
No laggard in^tbe morning, 
No idler poor is she, 
As she does her taBliB so bravely, 
With a step both light and free. 
Life to her is worth the living. 
The future, grand and sweet. 
To he is her endeavor, 
FulO Ilment she will meet. 
A bonnet or a feather 
Will not satisfy her heart; 
Something higher than mere fashion 
Can to her true Joy impart. 
’Tis this simple, truc-souled maiden 
That knows the worth of life, 
That makes the model woman. 
That proves the truest wife. 
Boys, would you find a treasure 
That’s worth a silver rniue ? 
Then choose one, when yon see her, 
At the hour of milking time. 
A NOVEL COMPETITION. 
It gives me great pleasure to endorse the Idea 
of a valued contributor. I am sure “darning” 
Is not profanity, therefore I shall he excused if 1 
say hooray I for that “ darned " pair of stockings 
which carries off the prize. My dear nieces the 
eyes of the community are upon you. aud darned 
be she who first cries holes enough I (Some of 
this Is Shakspeares, the rest my own.) without 
more ado l introduce you to Miss Rose Geranium, 
who wishes to speak about 
A ** Little Housekeeper.” 
Quite a long time ago a certain idea, which at 
the time wc thought original, began to grow In 
our fancy. 
One evening while we were sitting alono by the 
winking, blinking coal-lire, it occurred to us to 
offer the little folks some prizes for the best ex¬ 
hibitions of their skill and painstaking In home 
Industries. The Idea was very pleasant but pro¬ 
crastination, that sly villain, got possession of us 
and, e’er we were aware, some more practical 
persons walked off with our pot idea. Alas I if 
we did not lead, we may at least follow. 
We all—or at least some of us—know how very 
disgusting It is to see a foot in a stocking that 
has an unsightly rent in It! Why, when we used 
to go to a certain little white school-house, 
during the bright spring montns, how we were 
shockedJ 
Sometimes a girl would be so unfortunate as to 
got a thorn or gravel located Inside her shoe and 
there would have to be a committee for Investi¬ 
gation. Ugh ; how many times we have blushed 
for those untidy girls who perhaps never thought 
of blushing for themselves; 
However, the Ill-kept ones were only the ex¬ 
ceptions. The rule was dozens of pairs of the 
daintiest, darlngest, cutest white feet. Some of 
them used to go quite without shoes and stock¬ 
ings aud then we had grand opportunities to 
study pedal character! There Is great variety 
and expression in feet. We have known persons 
who could speak more emphatically and energize 
more effectually with this member than with any 
other. 
Especially was It the case with the old local 
preacher—school-master. He rarely scolded auy 
other way. If it had not been for the eloquence 
of his descending heel the youth of our com¬ 
munity might have waxed lawless and desperate. 
Dear old man! He had a most brigandish pair 
of black eyes and was cro.vncd with a hiisuto 
glory that fairly bristled in moments of wrath, 
To this day we fall to understand why they were 
so powerless in the bloodless fray! 
There was another foot to which we would 
rain fling back an affectionate tribute. It was 
the happy associate or a boy's brown ankle and 
was the moat witty representative of its race we 
ever knew. It fairly excelled in conversational 
gifts. If it had gone out with Baknum his edu¬ 
cated pig would have been but a secondary attrac¬ 
tion! Why, it could perform ail sorts of ball¬ 
room evolutions, express admiration, discord or 
defiance, sing popular airs; weep, run away in 
horror-stricken fright, or fling paper balls and i 
coal-cinders at the master’s cranium, ir he dared i 
cast a suspicion upon the associated hands, 
which were always clasped meditatively over , 
the outspread page, that foot would unfailingly 
vindicate their innocence In a proclamation as 1 
long as the neighboring sand-washes would con¬ 
tain I ( 
One poor little pair of feet used to appeal to us i 
wltn words that seemed to say:—“Give blue¬ 
eyed Janie part of your dinner 1” You may be 
sure, my dears, the request was never denied. i 
But we must not forget what we commenced to 
write about. Wo are going to offer the little 1 
girls whose parents take the Rural New-Yorker i 
a prize—not for composition writing or puzzle t 
solving but—for hose-darning / we feel very * 
certain that a good habit acquired in girlhood is 
not likely to be 103t or neglected as one grows 
older. If our small maidens learn how to do this 
one little task neatly and daintily they will not 
only be able to help mamma when sho requires 
It, but they will have at their fingers' ends an 
accomplishment some grown persons do not pos¬ 
sess. 
The only terms we exact are that you must not 
he over eleven years old and must do the work 
entirely without assistance. To the one who 
sends the neatest work we will mall a little 
collection of very beautiful, hardy plants. 
You can have until the 20th of March to 
send in your specimens. Please address them to 
Tour rrlend, Rose geranium. 
Sycamore Dale, W. Va. 
A FISHY TEANSACTION. 
BY A FISH. 
One striking difference between dreaming and 
being awake is that In the former state nothing 
surprises you. No matter how extraordinary 
your adventures, or how Impossible the circum¬ 
stances In which you find yourself, you accept 
them as coolly as if you were discussing your 
neighbors’ misfortunes. It was for this reason, 1 
suppose, that 1 did not experience the slightest 
astonishment on finding myself transformed into 
a salmon, stay, “transformed” is hardly the 
word, because 1 was myself as well as the salmon. 
I remember I wanted to sit down, and was much 
troubled because I couldn't; also, I wanted to 
take out my watch, and see what time it was. 
“Transmigration,” again, will hardly express 
what happened to me, for I was not merely a 
human soul in a salmon's body. I wound up my 
dream by dlulng off myself — without either 
lobster-sauce or cucumber, which in my two-fold 
nature I regarded both as a slight and a misfor¬ 
tune. Suppose, then, we say I found myself 
amalgamated with a salmon; or, rather, that a 
salmon became my alter ego, or other self. This 
is much nearer the mark, but it Is not quite right 
yet. 
For I was distinctly salmon In shape, and dis¬ 
tinctly man in thought, though some of my 
organs performed very unsaimonllko feats, and 
some of my appetites were woefully inhuman. 
For Instance, the first thing I did was to glance 
admiringly down my rainbow back and silver 
sides, which a real salmon could not do; and, a 
little later on, l found myself making a hearty 
meal off a few hundreds of my own young, which 
a man would never think of. Nevertheless, 
when I came to pick my teeth, I found my hand 
a fin; and when 1 became enamoured of a choice 
young beauty or my tribe, I was afflicted with a 
strong desire to eat her. At the same lime, let it 
be understood that In rny dual nature 1 was con¬ 
scious of being a highly superior and responsible 
fish. 
I know that I belonged to the proudest aristae-, 
racy of the oceanic polity; we were privileged 
only to be taken In certain specified ways at cer¬ 
tain specified times of the year; that,when we 
were taken, we were destined to he eaten by 
thoseonly who coala afford to serve us up nicely; 
and finally, that, we of the particular river I had 
fixed upon as the Beene of my Inland excursions, 
furnished forth every year something like eight 
hundred thousand pounds of food for the popula¬ 
tion without costing a penny In breeding and 
rearing beyond the sums spent la protecting us 
according to law. Add to this that I was a 
very large and very handsome fish of my kind, 
and that 1 had a fine family, numbering some¬ 
where about ten millions—whom, as a salmon, I 
regret to say, I cared nothing about, but whom, 
as a man, I was sorely desirous of bringing up in 
the paths of virtue—and you will at once see that 1 
was a being of high distinction and importance. 
Propelled through the silent, glittering water 
by my tail (to which 1 found all the stronger 
muscles of my body tended.) and balancing and 
guiding myself In graceful curves by my pectoral 
and ventral fins (which I found to correspond 
anatomically with the arms and legs of the hu¬ 
man body,) I sailed past salmon-trout, bull-trout- 
and the “ lower orders ” of salmon generally, 
with majesty—bestowing upon them, indeed, a 
gracious inclination of the head ir they made due 
obeisance, hut otherwise giving them the go-bye 
with a seeming dignified unconsciousness of their 
existence. It is true I had an uneasy remem¬ 
brance that when I was a parr—for, unlike what 
obtains In human Bffalrs, the parr Is a child In¬ 
stead of a father, and being an old salmon, I had 
passed through all the prelimtnaiy stages of parr, 
kelt, salmon-peal, and grisle-1 had, I say, an 
uneasy remembrance that whenl first came into 
the world 1 had often been caught with and mis¬ 
taken for the offspring of these “ lower orders ” 
aud thrown Into the water again. But 1 was a 
real salmon now, and was determined not only to 
keep my position, but to make it felt, ko, as I 
say, I sailed past all sorts and conditions of inte¬ 
rior fry with obtrusive majesty, or at the most, If 
1 felt in a particularly playful humor, would con¬ 
descend to dart suddenly amongst a shoal of 
i hem with my terrible curved lower Jaw—a dead¬ 
ly weapon < f ollenee carried by old male salmon 
—ready for action, and scatter theta to all points 
or the compass at once. I did not do this often, 
for hfie peculiar construction of ray mouth forbade 
laughter, and Inward convulsions of merriment 
were likely to Inconveniently disarrange my giu- 
frlnges. 
With my experience as a salmon, and my 
knowledge as a man, I found these glU-frlnges a 
fruitful subject of Investigation and study. They 
were my breathing apparatus—I say advisedly 
“ breathing," for fishes do not live upon water. 
i but upon air. As regularly as a human being re- 
> spires, 1 opened my mou*h and closed it, agatn, 
i taking in at each gulp about a pint of water, 
. which, with the aid of four pairs of bony plates, 
i I shot out through my gill-fringes with this dif¬ 
ference in its constituents—that whereas It pass¬ 
ed in at my mouth full of air globules, It passed 
out at, my gtll-orlflces, leaving every air-globule 
behind It to supply my blood with oxygen and so 
sustain my Ufo, I then knew that the huge for¬ 
ests In old ocean were as npcessary to fish-llte as 
vegetation upon the earth is necessary to other 
animal life, and that the great winds which 
wreck slaps are vital to the myriads of creatures 
that live beneath the waves; and I determined 
that when I ceased to he a fish-for by a kind of 
dream within a dream I knew that this must 
happen shortly—I would take the first opportu¬ 
nity ef advising such ot my friends as keep 
aquarta to he very particular thaUhelr tanks are 
well supplied with plants, and periodically aerat¬ 
ed. 
The general construction of my mouth aston¬ 
ished me nearly as much as the construction of 
my gills. Not only had I teeth all round my upper 
and lower Jaws—not fitted In like human teeth, 
but forming part, and parcel of the bone itself— 
but I also had two rows on my tongue, and a few 
in the root of my mouth. And l found this ar¬ 
rangement very convenient; font must be re¬ 
membered that my~mouth was the only thing 
about me with which 1 could lay hold upon my 
prey, and I was terribly voracious, eating fifty or 
a hundred small fry at a meal. Not that I con¬ 
fined myself to small fry; I could oat almost any¬ 
thing, from trout-fly or the eggs of shell-fish, to a 
good-sized herring. And it was when engaged In 
munching these latter gentlemen, that I found 
my supplementary teeth most useful—I could 
hold the rascals between my tongue and the roof 
of my mouth while I opened myjjaws for a re¬ 
newed bite. Another thing that pleased and sur¬ 
prised me was the ra w at which I could sail 
through the water. I could do my thirty miles 
an hour for an hour or two easily, though I did 
not usually travel more than ten or twelve—some¬ 
times not that. 
And now I approach the end of my adventure 
as a fish, i had gone up and down ray river reg¬ 
ularly season by season, until l knew every cata¬ 
ract In it, and had become so expert la leaping, 
that the salmon-ladders kindly placed up some of 
the weirs to help us over our difficulties, were to 
me useless. I hod even become so accustomed to 
the ways of salmon anglers that I had playfully 
swallowed a halt or two on my way down stream 
in the kelt state, to see what being caught, was 
like, well knowing that as soon as 1 was taken I 
should he thrown In again with disgust. But one 
d»y, I don’t know how it was, I lottnd myself 
lying upon the bank, Tho next thing I remember 
was that I sat at table dining off myself with rel¬ 
ish, and the next t hat. I woke up In my easy chair 
with a yawn and a kind of dim consciousness that 
on the whole, I had had a very strange dream. 
|ltailing. 
SLEEP. 
O gentle sleep ! the gracious gift and blest, 
Of God’s own sending ; 
0 sacred sleep 1 dear foretaste of that reBt 
Which knows no ending; 
Sweet promise of that far-off Paradise 
Of cahn release, 
Where weary cues may lean on Jesus’ breast, 
Aud close their eyes. 
And bo at peace. 
Earth “ presses downthe hearts that would ascend 
Droop, faint and weary; 
So distant seems the lifelong journey’s end, 
The way so dreary; 
Each day’s fierce struggle tires us out as though 
We could no more. 
Then comes thine handmaid, Sleep, our griefs to tend. 
With balm for woe. 
And strength in store. 
We lay us down in peace,—thy touch divine 
Our eyelids closing; 
Darkness,-thy secret place,-becomos the shrine 
Of our reposing; 
Gently we breathe our souls Into tliy oars, 
So glad to be 
One day more near to that home-rest of thine, 
Which we may share 
With saints aud thee. 
So night by night we linger at thy feet. 
Until the morning; 
Glimpses of heaven, bright visions pure and sweet, 
Our dreams adorning; 
And if thy voice, kind Lord, we seem to hear. 
That word most blest 
For willing souls, with sympathy replete. 
Falls on our oar, 
“ Sleep,—take your rest!” 
[Genevieve Irons. 
■ --- 
IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 
BY OLD JONATHAN. 
% j u^lfr. • 
MISCELLANEOUS ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 41 letters: 
My 13, 2 S, 32 has been very scarce this winter. 
My 2 S, 40, 1 , 33, 41 What my 2 $, 25, 13 , 15 , 39 , 21 , 32 , 
30 like. 
My 4, ig, 30. o, 25, 29, 35 an animal. 
My 23, o, o, is an insect. 
My 6, 20 , 2 , 27, 12 , 41 not ugly. 
My li, 17,34,14 one who has not much brain. 
My 2(5, 35, s a busy little luscct. 
My 23, 22 , 38,14 an Important constituent In the 
manufacture of our clothing. 
My 24,13, i, 36 a kind of drink. 
My 10,19, <5 a fancy young man. 
My 31,7, 31 what small boys are sometimes called. 
My 3, 37 the abbreviation of one of the United 
States. 
My whole Is an old and good saying. 
Answer in two weeks. Luct. 
■-- 
CROSS-WORD ENIGMA. 
My first is In Loire but not in Tagus, 
My second is In Potomac but not in Indus; 
My third Is in Patapsco but not In Seine, 
My fourth Is In Raritan but not In Tyne; 
My fifth is In Jordan but not in Moser, 
My sixth Is In Thames but not In Tiber; 
My seventh Is In Boyne but not in Oder, 
My whole is a rivet orten fought over. 
Answer In two weeks. Balto. 
--- 
QUADRUPLE CROSS-WORD ENIGMA. 
Mr first is In checkcrberry but not In anise seed, 
My second Is in cantharldes but not In flower 
seed; 
My third Is m nectarine but not In camphor gum, 
My fourth Is in strawberry but not in egg plum; 
My fifth Is In citron-melon but not In thyme, 
My sixth is In nannlebet ry but not in lime. 
My whole form four kinds of fruit. 
* sr Answer In two weeks. Floridan. 
- - -. 
PUZZLER ANSWKRS.-Jan. 26. 
. .U.IDDEN Birds.— 1. Ostrich; 2, Swallow 3 Black- 
awsfi&sssi swear • 
Enigma.—D rum. 
Charade.—A rtless. 
Buried English Cirrus.—l, Ellon. Lyons Buto 
Yorlf,'oTdhami^PCTth^'oyl'of Ely?’ 8 ’ Wth ’ 
An eminent divine was once trying to teach a 
number of children that the soul would live after 
they were dead. They listened, hut evidently did 
not understand it: he was too abstract. Snatch¬ 
ing his watch from hts pocket, he said: 
“ James, what Is this I hold in my hand?” 
“ A watch, sir. “ A little clock,” says another. 
“Do you all see It?” 
“Yes, sir.” 
“ How do you know It Is a watch ?” 
“It ticks, sir.” 
“ v ery well. Can any of you hear it tick ? All 
listen now.” 
After a pause, “ Yea, sir, we hear It.” 
He then took off the case, and held the case In 
one hand and the watch in the other. 
“ Now, children, which is the watch ? You see 
there are t.wo which look like watches.” 
“The llttle3t one, In your right hand, sir.” 
“ Very well. But how do you know that this Is 
the watch ?” 
“ Because It tlclrs.’’ 
“ Very well again. Now I will lay the case aside 
—put it away, there—down, down in my hat. 
Now let us see If you can hear the watch tick.” 
“ Yes, sir, we hear It,” exclaimed several of the 
children. 
“Well, the watch can tick, and go, and keep 
time, you see, when the case Is taken off and put 
away in my hat. So Is It with you children; your 
body Is nothing but the case, the soul Is Inside. 
The case, the body, may he taken off and burled 
in the ground, and the soul will live and think, 
just a8well as this watch will go, as you see, 
when tho case is off.” 
This made it plain, and even the youngest went 
home and told his mother that, his “ little thought 
would tick after he was dead.” 
THE VALUE OF A MINUTE. 
A small vessel was nearing the Steep Holmes 
in the Bristol Channel. The captain stood on the 
deck, his watch in his hand, his eye fixed on it. 
A terrible tempest had driven them onward, 
and the vessel was a scene of devastation. No 
one dared to ask, “ Is there hope?” Silent con¬ 
sternation filled every heart, made every face 
pale. The wind and the tide drove the shattered 
bark fiercely forward. Every moment they were 
hurried nearer the sullen rock which knew no 
mercy—on which many ill-fated vessels had foun¬ 
dered, all the crew perishing. 
Still the captain stood motionless, speechless, 
his watch In his hand. “ Wc are lost!” was the 
conviction of many around him. 
.Suddenly ills eye glanced across the sea; he 
stood erect; another moment, and he cried out, 
“ Thank God 1 we are saved, the tide has turned ; 
In one minute more we should have been on the 
rocks I” He returned his chronometer, by which 
he had thus measured tho race between time and 
tide, to his pocket; and if they never relt It be¬ 
fore, assuredly both he and his crew were on that 
day powerfully taught the value ot a minute — 
Children's Hour. 
Manv a Christian has been made worse by the 
good things of this world; hut where Is the 
Christian that has been bettered by them? 
God thrusts many a sharp spear through many 
a sinner's heart, and yet he feels notldug, he 
complains of nothing; these men’s souls will 
bleed to death. 
Cold prayers shall never have any warm 
answers. God will suit his returns to our re¬ 
quest; Lifeless services shall have lifeless an¬ 
swers. When men are dull, God will he dumb. 
