JUNE 18 
years old, and was killed by a falling tree. 
Next we had a cross between a St. Bernard 
and a Newfoundland puppy. He was a mag¬ 
nificent fellow, coal black, with a white star 
on his breast, and the most tractable scholar I 
ever had. You could teach him anything. He 
actually had reason, and he knew how to use it 
too. He could amuse the children by the 
hour together, and he never resented anything 
they did. He was a faithful watch dog, aud 
we felt perfectly safe while he was in charge 
of the barnhold. Well, he was stolen and 
taken to New York City, and pined away from 
sheer homesickness and change, and by the 
time we had learned where he was (for this 
was before railroads and telegraphs were 
known in Vermont) he had passed out of this 
world of trouble. 
I thought I would not try to bring up an¬ 
other dog for I had such bad luck; but a poor 
man had a splendid dog, that was broken to 
harness and as he had no use for him, he 
wanted to secure a good home for him, and if 
I would buy the wagon and harness he would 
give me the dog. The children were so anx¬ 
ious to have him that I finally closed the bar¬ 
gain and those ten dollars were as profitable 
an investment as I ever made. There was no 
end of the good times the little people had 
wit h him. He would draw three of them at a 
time in the wagon, and was affectionate and 
kind at all times. He wasan immense fellow. 
If there was trouble in the barn or yard he 
would come to the nursery window and rap 
on it till he roused us, then start off and lead 
right to the place where the trouble was. 
One of the little ones was at play in the yard, 
right in the driveway. The dog was lying 
on the doorstep. At one bound he sprang to 
the baby and setting his teeth in the belt of 
her dress lifted her up, with head and heels 
dangling, and brought her to the door; she 
would weigh a fair 20 pounds. Then he 
dragged the other little one to her side, and 
stretched himself in front of them. While 
wondering what he did it for, we were startled 
by the rattle of a wagon and horses’ tramp. 
Boor Watch, he had heard them aud got the 
little folks out of the way. While the hired 
man was putting up the bars to the lot, the 
horses took fright at something and started 
for home Had it not been for the vigilance 
of that faithful dog my little ones must have 
been crushed by the runaways. As soon as 
they had rushed past the house he gave a 
spring aud caught the horses by the bridle, 
and stopped and held them till some one came 
from the barn to the rescue. Talk about ani¬ 
malsnotusing reason. If that dog did not use 
reason, who could? I really in all the won¬ 
derful exploits that have been recorded, never 
read anything that equaled a great many of 
Old Watch’s adventures. He was always per¬ 
forming some wonderful feat of wisdom. He 
would never eat food from the hands of a 
stranger, neither would he molest strangers 
unless they came about the premises after the 
family had retired, theu he would hold them 
carefully by the leg till some one came to the 
door. He lived with us till the children had 
all outgrown the wagon, and was faithful and 
true to the end of his days. One day in the 
summer he had a fight with a bear and got 
frightfully torn and scratched. He would lie 
on his back, and have his wounds dressed as 
patiently as any human being could. We 
gave him light diet, and supposed he had got 
quite well when he had a cancer break out. 
We called a physician, but he could not stay 
its progress, and poor Watcu passed away, 
loved and lamented by every member of the 
family. I never felt that I wanted another 
to become attached to and care for. 
ABOUT WOMEN—WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
Applaud therefore all honest marriages 
and frown upon everything that would put 
them to ridicule. Have nothing to do with 
those slushy phamphlets aud books which tell 
how impossible men met impossible women, 
got into impossible difficulties, and with im¬ 
possible results and villainy went un whipped, 
and virtue fell dead. The fact is, that many 
of the young married people of this day get 
their heads so filled with the false and senti¬ 
mental notions in regard to the plain, serious 
old-fashioned institutions of marriage they 
are unfit for the common duties of life. 
The Edinborough Review says, that which 
the Creator at first planted in the creature of 
His own hand can never be eradicated. The 
place assigned to woman in the eternal decree 
is hers, aud hers alone. Her function, her 
very name, is “Eve,” the mother of all living. 
Hence, deep down in the heart of every true 
daughter of Eve lies the hope, the passionate 
desire, of being a mother. It is a part of her 
very nature. Conscious or unconscious of this 
motive, for a large portion of her existence 
her whole being is secretly touched aud 
swayed by it, as the life-blood that mingles 
with the whole stream of her aspirations, im¬ 
pulses, graces and emotions There is no 
THE 
purer, deeper joy than that of a mother over 
her firstborn child; no intensity of grief more 
bitter than her sorrow at its loss. As a girl 
of 7 she hugged her baby doll, however 
battered, old and ugly; as a woman of 20 she 
clings to her new-born son; clings to him 
when, after wandering far from home, he at 
last comes back, stained, defiled, degraded, 
and asks for pardon. Blind to all his faults 
and failings—nay, to his deformities—alive 
only to the thought that he is her child, and 
that she is his mother—she welcomes him with 
love and blessings. To deny this supreme 
truth were impossible; to ignore it, folly; to 
attempt to crush or destroy it, madness. As 
to the women of the future, they must grow 
out of the women of the present. If they 
would indeed attain to the high dignity which 
is their birthright, to the full light and grace 
which is their noblest possession, they must 
obey the supreme law of their being—their as 
piration to become mothers of great men. 
And this is to be achieved, not by aping the 
work or the ways of men, or by seeking to 
surpass or rival them in the toil of life, but by 
purity and self-restraint, bv gracious inno¬ 
cence, tenderness, reality and truth. Such 
weapons as these are the tried armor of all 
time, and the noblest victories ever yet won 
by woman have been thus won, and thus 
alone. Thus equipped she is invincible. Ar¬ 
rayed in any other garments, academic or 
mundane, shipwreck is inevitable—and that, 
too, shipwreck of her brightest, fairest, and 
truest hopes—of all that the world counts 
most worthy, of all that she herself deems 
most precious, dearest and best. 
A writer in the Edinborough Review 
says, however we may affect to deny it, 
there is a vast amount of married unhappiness 
in all classes. The fault is sometimes ascribed 
to the present degeneracy of women, and 
sometimes to the deterioration of the men. 
The fault really lies in our social system, 
which gives a woman neither work nor money 
and obliges her to sell herself before she has 
lost her only salable commodities—youth aud 
beauty. As there exist four “superfluous 
women” to one man, the female has no choice, 
while the lordly male has the greater number 
from whom to pick and choose. Therefore, 
in this century, many women have not only 
no chance of marrying at all, but no freedom 
of selection whatever. 
What is so called the progress of civiliza¬ 
tion in the last 70 years, has been disastrous 
to the female sex To some few women of the 
moneyed class these changes have given lux¬ 
ury and leisure, which they misuse. On the 
whole, womeD have suffered bitterly; instead 
of robbing men of work, females have been 
despoiled of their time-immemorial trades, 
and of their monoply in the labor market. 
Also, their influence in home life has decreased. 
The rearing of children has become difficult 
or impossible in almost all classes. The chances 
of happiness in marriage are lessened. And, 
lastly, after having become less useful and 
less loved, women aro, in consequence, less re¬ 
spected than they have ever been in times 
past.. 
The Church Press says women should be 
educated as women, not as men. The attempt 
to educate them otherwise is to masculinize 
them, and that is to lower and corrupt them. 
The world must have the moral prop and sup¬ 
port which woman alone can give it. God 
made her different from man; and, save where 
she is debauched by sin, and the knowledge 
which comes from sin, she is nobler and purer 
than man is, or may hope to be. All that 
keeps her a woman is good. Whatever makes 
her a man is evil. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
Webster said, and he doubtless spoke from 
experience, that religion is the tie that con¬ 
nects man with his Creator, and holds him to 
his throne. If that tie is sundered or broken, 
he floats away a worthless atom in the uni¬ 
verse— its popular attractions all gone, its des¬ 
tiny thwarted, and its whole future nothing 
but darkness, desolation and death. . 
The saying is attributed to Anselm that 
God often works more by the life of the illit¬ 
erate, seeking the things which are his, than 
by the ability of the learned, seeking the 
things that are their own. 
If word of mine another’s gloom has brightened. 
Through my dumb lips the heaven-sent message came; 
If hand of mine another’s task has lighened, 
It felt the guidance that It dares not claim. 
—The Iron Gate. 
In the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table 
we find these beautiful grains: “Conceit is 
like the natural unguent of the sea-fowl’s 
plumage, which enables him to shed the rain 
that falls on him and the wave in which he 
dips When one has had all his conceit taken 
out of him, when he has lost all his illusions, 
his feathers will soon soak through, and he 
will fly no more.”. 
“If you would be happy is Berkshire, you 
must carry mountains in your brain; and if 
you would enjoy Nahant, you must have an 
ocean in your soul. Nature plays at dominos 
with you; you must match her piece, or she 
will never give it up to you.”. 
Are you not surprised to find how indepen¬ 
dent of money peace of conscience is, and how 
much happiness can be condensed in the hum¬ 
blest home? says Dr. Hamilton. A cottage 
will not hold the bulky furniture and sumptu¬ 
ous accommodations of a mansion; but if God 
be there, a cottage will hold as much happiness 
as m>‘ght stock a palace. 
The Golden rule says the man who beads 
a subscription to pay off a church debt or is 
conspicuous in some benevolent work by the 
use of widows’ and orphans’ money intrusted 
to him, thinking be is laying up treasures in 
heaven, when he comes to draw on his sup¬ 
posed investment may find that it is credited 
to its rightful owners. 
The Independent says a man who should ne¬ 
glect the means of growth in business or mental 
or social culture as a maj irity of Christian 
men neglect the means of growth in grace, 
would soon be written down by his acquaint¬ 
ances as a man who sets little store by either 
business, mental culture or social life. It is a 
mistake to suppose that unconverted men do 
not weigh this kind of evidence and come to 
the popular but absurdly erroneous conclusion 
that, whatever of truth or value, from a prac¬ 
tical point of view, there may be in Chris¬ 
tianity, it is only of such a nature as is appli¬ 
cable to “women and children.” The unfaith¬ 
fulness of professing Christian men is charge¬ 
able with this popular delusion... 
Fenelon beautifully says that we must 
lend an attentive ear, for God’s voice is soft 
and still, and is only heard of those who hear 
nothing else Ah, how rare it is to find a soul 
still enough to hear God speak!. 
Paul said to his friend Timothy: For I 
know whom I have believed, aud am per¬ 
suaded that he is able to keep that which I 
have committed unto him against that day. 
He who can say this from the heart has no 
occasion to be afraid of death, or of anything 
that awaits him in the life after death. 
Of all fierce tortures of the rack bound mind. 
Whose dark commission’s signed and countersigned 
By powers of bell, to wrench both soul and sense — 
He stands supreme the demon named Suspense. 
Phillips Brooks says we should never 
fear to bring the sublimest motive to the 
smallest duty, and the most infinite comfort 
to the smallest trouble. 
Humphrey says character in a preacher is 
the very force in the bow that launches the 
arrow. It is latent beat behind the words 
that gives them direction and the projectile 
force. .. .... 
Manton says the soul that cannot entirely 
trust God, whether man be pleased or dis¬ 
pleased, can never long be true to him: for 
while you are eyeing man you are losing God 
and stabbing religion at the very heart. 
Colton says the martyrs to vice far exceed 
the martyrs to virtue, both in endurance and 
in number; so blinded are we by our passions 
that we suffer more to be damned than to be 
saved.\. 
In Beecher’s practical hints we find this sen¬ 
timent: “People should be hungry with the 
eye and the ear as well as with the mouth. If 
all a man’s necessaries of life go into the port¬ 
hole of the stomach, it is a bad sign.”. 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
“TAKING A DOG BY THE EARS.” 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
Last Sunday morning at the breakfast 
table, the laddie gave as his text (we have the 
fashion of reciting texts around): “He that 
passeth by aud meddleth with strife not be¬ 
longing to him, is like one that taketh a dog 
by the ears.” He had made the selection for 
himself (Prov. 26-17) and evidently fully ap¬ 
preciated its wit. So in alluding to a matter 
that from time to time is discussed in the 
Rural concerning hired service. I am aware 
that I shall probably take some “dog by the 
ears.” But while it is a strife that does not 
belong to me, I have too lively an interest in 
the development of fine character in the young 
readers of this journal, to allow what I regard 
as a pernicious doctrine to go unrebuked. It 
is the doctrine that self-respect, or true respect¬ 
ability, is a thing to be measured by the 
treatment one receives from other people. 
Among frequent guests in my house—and 
no one is more thoroughly respected and hon¬ 
ored—j s a young woman who in birth, educa¬ 
tion, social connections, interesting manners 
and intelligence, is the equal of any woman 
whom I know. A few years ago her family 
came to financial grief, and she was thrown 
upon ker own resources for a livelihood In 
the course of time she was offered a position 
of large responsibility, but involving very 
hard and very difficult work—judgment, tact, 
sense and infinite patience. It was in an in¬ 
stitution managed by a set of rich and fash¬ 
ionable women, holding a social rank like un¬ 
to what my young woman had all her life 
moved in. They undoubtedly recognized in 
her a gentlewoman, and perhaps from sympa¬ 
thy with her isolated position, or from a 
patronizing motive, now aDd then would in¬ 
vite her to visit them at their homes. Although 
she suffered from lack of congenial social sur¬ 
roundings, she never allowed herself to ac¬ 
cept any of these invitations. In refering to 
the matter one day she said: “I made up my 
mind when I accepted the position, that busi¬ 
ness was business; that my services were 
hired, and not my society’, that social aud 
business matteis were two distinct things. I 
was too proud to be patronized, and I plainly 
saw the unwisdom of accepting social favors 
from people who were my employers. The 
result has been that these people treat me with 
the greatest courtesy. My salary has been 
year by year increased, and my services pro¬ 
portionately appreciated. My social position 
among my friends has b«en in no way affected 
by my self-dependence.” And she might well 
have added that she was admired all around 
for her spirited independence of character and 
self-reliance. I have made this allusion to my 
friend in order to illustrate the way in which 
a thoroughbred gentlewoman has conducted 
herself in the service of other people. And it 
Is the method that any gentlewoman of thor¬ 
ough good breeding and good sense would 
adopt in similar circumstances, whatever her 
employment might be—governess, cook, or 
chambermaid. 
A good many American girls forego the op¬ 
portunity of earning a living with good pay 
aud good board, on the ground that they 
can’t “eat” with their would-be employ¬ 
ers or sit in their parlors. So they fly off to 
the cities, maybe, aud find employment in 
shops and stores, or factories. But in these po¬ 
sitions they do not “eat” with their employers 
nor even so much as see the inside of their 
homes and perhaps are known to them only 
by numbers. Some one. not long ago, in the 
Rural, made the assertion that any one who 
was good enough to work for her, was good 
enough to associate with her. There is not the 
smallest objection to this particular individ¬ 
ual making labor her standard of association, 
but I should be soriy to have any young mind 
imbibe such a false notion. There is nothing 
truer than the old saw that water finds its own 
level, and though “one may lead a horse to 
water, not a thousand can make him drink.” 
There are infinite reasons for the stratifications 
in society and for its cliques, and people, as a 
rule, find there level as does water. If a girl 
finds housework degrading to her and she 
feels convinced that it is a sin and wicked for 
her to do it, she should seek something else 
and work her way up to her level as rapidly 
as she can, or down to it. A girl of good 
sense and of intelligence w r ould never go 
around “blazing with indignation” because 
the master of the house iuformed her that af¬ 
ter her mistress’s recovery and return to the 
table, she would herself no longer be needed 
at the family meals. To regard such a pro¬ 
cedure as an “insult” on general terms is alto¬ 
gether absurd. Au intelligent girl upon en¬ 
tering service in a family will bear in mind 
the parable of the man and the synagogue and 
not presume upon taking the highest seat be¬ 
fore she is invited, as she will very likely be 
asked, to come down “lower,” aud the girl who 
has the sense to keep her business and her so¬ 
cial relations distinct, will never fail to com¬ 
mand the respect and regard of her employer 
far more than she who endeavors to make a free 
contribution of her society which is not de¬ 
sired. She has a just right to her own choice 
of companionship, and her employer has al' o 
the same with equal justice. If all the arti¬ 
sans and workers in the world were to say to 
their employers, “We won’t work for you un¬ 
less you take us to your tables and your hearth 
stones! We are as good as you are!” and an 
edict of that nature could actually be carried 
into effect, would the result be a happy one, 
or one that the workingmen themselves 
would long care to maintain? Certainly 
not. Because people are “as good as 
we are” is no reason whatever for mak¬ 
ing them our social companions. Prefer¬ 
ence and liking and the values of companion- 
When Baoy was sick, we gave her Castorla, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castorla, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castorla, 
When she baa Children, she gave them Castorla. 
