76 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FEB 2 
“Why it was never broken up in the world,” 
said her father. 
“If you will let me have it for my onion 
bed, I will try my luck, and Hattie will 
help me.” 
“I saw in one of last fall’s papers a long 
article on ensilage, and I would like ever so 
much to build a silo in the big barn; there is 
plenty of room for one in the big bay. I have 
studied out the plan.” 
“Well, boys, you must remember all these 
things cost lots of money, and you know how 
straightened we are.” 
“Yes, father, but we can build the silo our¬ 
selves, and it will take but little lumber. 
Thei’e is enough sawed, and a few pounds of 
nails. I hope you won’t object.” 
“The last was such a mean corn season, that 
I kind of calculated I would not put in more 
than an acre this year,” said Mr. Gleason, 
rather sadly. 
“It is no sign that it will be a poor season 
next year, because the crop was frost-bitten 
last fall,” said Elmer. 
“Well, boys, you have all got your plans 
laid,” said Will, and I have one that I want 
to talk about.” 
“Well, planning is the order of the evening; 
let us hear what you are considering, my 
boy,” said Mr. Gleason. 
“I would like to take the poultry on shares, 
and take care of them myself. We have 20 
hens and 10 turkeys, and if I return the same 
number next year—” 
“I shall take care of the geese myself,” said 
the mother. 
“All right. I do not want them anyway; I 
know the girls will have to save the feathers 
for their beds, aud I wash my hands of the 
nuisances," he replied laughing. 
“We shall want eggs to use, and chickens to 
kill-” 
“Of course, but how many shall I have in 
the fall?” 
“Who will furnish grain for them?” in¬ 
quired the mother. 
“I will buy half, and I shall want sour milk 
f>r the little turkeys; won’t that be fair, 
father?” Will asked. 
“I suppose so; but it costs a good deal to 
raise poultry.” 
“I intend to sell eggs enough to buy their 
food.” 
“Who has been stuffing you, my boy? You 
w.ll get sick of your bargain by the time 
summer is half out.” 
“I would let him try, father,” said Elmer, 
“I am glad he wants to try,” and he passed 
his arm around his brother, and gave him a 
bright smile of encouragement. 
“Nov, you have all your plans laid, and I 
have a plan that I want carried out,” said 
Henry, a stripling of 17, “I want to raise 
all the calves this year! I think it is a 
shame to kill them off as farmers do. The 
old way of raising stock was a good one, and 
kept the farms up, and then there were young 
cattle to sell, aud they brought the ready 
cash in a heap.” 
“We will think about it, but we shall not 
have much butter to sell, or veal calves to 
turn off, and then the hogs-” 
“ Oh, I will teach the calves to drink, and 
after a little I can make bay tea, aud give 
them skim-milk till they are old enough to eat 
oats. As to the hogs, let them go to grass in 
the orchard. They will do first-rate there, 
for there is water enough to drink, and in 
September we can boil up pumpkins and give 
them corn-stalks, and it will do the orchard 
good to be rooted over by them.” 
“ I declare, boys, you have dope a good 
deal of thinking, I must say. I hope your 
plans will be carried out,” said Mr. Gleason, 
as he put a fresh supply of wood in the stove. 
‘Farming has not paid me for some years back; 
we do not get such crops as farmers used to 
get off the same ground. Folks complain 
that the soil is run out. I do not know but 
that is the case; but I cannot make it pay. I 
nave run behindhand for the last ten years, 
and how I shall pay the interest on the mort¬ 
gage next spring is more than I can tell. It 
plagues me more than you can think.” 
“ Oh, I shall have money enough to pay 
that when my school is out, father, ” said El¬ 
mer, cheerfully.” 
“You are a good boy, but what will you 
do my lad ? ” 
“Go to work and earn some more. The 
dear old farm shall be kept at any rate. The 
boys and I have talked it over, and we are 
going to make farming pay.” 
“Go ahead; carry out your plans; but 
don’t try too much book farming.” 
S. H. ROWELL. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
I N the bulletin of the Iowa Board of Health 
they say that they verily believe not one 
iu twenty-five who commit suicide knows any¬ 
thing about the comforts aud sustaining 
power of religion. It may not satisfy all the 
demands of philosophy and science. It does 
give contentment, cheerfulness, and length 
and happiness of days to its fortunate possessor. 
Thackeray, in Pendennis, says the doctor 
stands over the patient in the fever, the wife 
expectant, the children unconscious, as if he 
were fate, the dispenser of life and death; he 
must let the patient off this time, the woman 
prays so for his respite! One can fancy how 
awful the responsibility must be to a con¬ 
scientious man; how cruel the feeliug that he 
has given the wrong remedy or that it might 
have been possible to do better; how harassing 
the sympathy with survivors, if the case is 
unfortunate-how immense the delights of 
victory. 
Dean Stanley was a firm believer in the 
gospel of “occupation ” He said that leisure 
misused, an idle hour waiting to be employed, 
idle hands with no occupation, idle aud 
empty minds with nothing to thing—-these 
are the main temptations to evil. Fill up 
that empty void, employ these vacant hours, 
occupy these listless hands, and the evil will 
depart, because it has no place to enter in, 
because it is conquered by good. 
The best antidote against evil of all kinds, 
against the evil thoughts that haunt the soul, 
against the needless perplexities which dis¬ 
tract the conscience, is to keep hold of the 
good we have. Impure thoughts will not 
stand against pure words and prayers and 
deeds. Little doubts will not avail against 
great certainties. Fix your attention on 
things above, and then you will be less and 
less troubled by the cares, the temptatims, 
the troubles of things on earth. 
The Lord's Supper is the one great pattern 
meal. It teaches us that the family table 
ought to be bright and cheerful, a sort of 
domestic altar, where every one casts down 
his offering, great or small, of pleasantness 
and peace; where, for at least a brief space in 
the day, all annoyances are laid aside, all 
stormy tempers hushed, all quarrels healed, 
every one being glad and contented to sit 
down at the same board and eat the same 
bread and salt, making it, whether it be a 
rich repast, or a dinner of herbs, equally a 
joyful meal. 
The March of Progress in butter mak¬ 
ing has been wonderfully accelerated by the 
discovery, and placing within the reach of 
the Dairymen in all markets Thatcher’s 
Orange Butter Color.— Adv. 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
FOOD ACCOMPANIMENTS;—AFTER¬ 
NOON “ TEAS ” THOREAU’S 
BOOKS. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
T HE success of the table largely lies in 
two things, the congruity of the com¬ 
pany and the congruity of the food. The 
selecrion of the company is a personal matter; 
but in the serving of food a few suggestions 
may not be amiss. 
For breakfast,omelet,eggs fried or scrambled 
go with broiled or fried ham; sausage with 
buckwheat cakes; eggs with mushrooms, or 
buttered toast; fried smelts with cress or 
slices of lemou; broiled chops with potatoes; 
currant, or rhubarb jelly, with venison steak; 
codfish balls with tomato catsup and brown 
bread; omelet with picked cod and potato 
balls; broiled salt fi h with stewed potatoes; 
codfish balls with poached eggs; omelet with 
broiled sheep’s kidney; lamb chops with 
tomato sauce: breaded chops with tomatoes; 
sliced cu’umber with egg-plant ; egg-plant 
with broiled tomatoes; omelet or bacon with 
liver broiled or fried; meat croquettes with 
stewed potatoes, aud hash on toast with soft- 
boiled eggs. Fruit is as acceptable for break¬ 
fast as soup for dinner, aud is preferred by 
most people at the outset of the meal. Then 
follow, as a separate course, what comes 
under the head of mush—oatmeal, hominy, 
grits, rice, graham, etc. The best aud cheap 
est way to get wheat for a breakfast dish, is 
to have your miller crack it for you. On the 
Pacific ccast cracked wheat can be had in 
sacks, the same as corn meal; but on the At¬ 
lantic sea-board good wheaten “grits” are 
differently prepared and are more expensive 
than oat meal. But an obliging miller will 
crack the wheat for you, and you will hud 
the grits very nice; boil iu salted water. 
A very nice dish of cooked fruit is coddled 
apples, which are relished by persons who do 
not care for the ordinary stewed apple-sauce 
Pare and core the upples without cutting 
them, at least, not more than once. Pack 
them closely together in the bottom of a stew- 
pan, in one layer only. Sprinkle over them 
a cupful of sugar, add a little hot water^ 
cover them tightly ami steam until they are 
tender, lift them out carefully, pour over 
them the juice, and when cold they are ready 
to serve; delicious; also nice for dessert. For 
dinner, jellies go with game, mutton and 
fowl. In Baltimore with roast duck, fried 
mush, or hominy balls are served ; with 
boiled chickeu, egg sauce; with roast turkey, 
oyster stuffing, or escalloped oysters, cran¬ 
berry jelly, boiled rice, celery, mashed pota¬ 
toes, lettuce salad, stewed turnips; with 
mutton, boiled rice (as a vegetable), sweet po¬ 
tatoes, corn, lettuce salad. Stewed tomatoes 
go with baked mutton, baked pototoes, peas, 
cabbage salad; with roast goose go apple¬ 
sauce and potato croquettes; with roast beef, 
macaroni baked with grated cheese, or York¬ 
shire pudding; with beef steaks, stewed to¬ 
matoes and hot-slaw. Stewed cabbage with 
apple sauce, aUo goes with baked ham. 
Mashed potatoes and stewed or baked toma¬ 
toes go with broiled chops; stewed tomatoes 
sweet potatoes and celery w ith roasted rabbit. 
Egg sauce accompanies most boiled fish; pars¬ 
ley sauce, broiled ; rice croquettes are 
nice w T ith roasted fowl. Toast goes with 
broiled oysters; cold-slaw with escalloped or 
stewed oysters (for lunch); parsley sauce with 
boiled sheep’s head. Cheese is a part of tne 
dessert and is served first. Asparagus is served 
as a course by itself. Boiled macaroni 
served with grated cheese sometimes takes the 
place of soup at dinner. The Chinese serve 
their dessert first. The French serve all 
green salads just prior to the dessert—a 
fashion generally adopted elsewhere. 
THE AFTERNOON “TEA.” 
For bringing people together at a trifling ex¬ 
pense aDd trouble, the afternoon “ tea ” w hicb 
in the East has grown into such vogue as to 
threaten to become a nuisance, has much in 
its favor. It is informal and unpretentious, 
and can be “ managed ” by people in very 
moderate circumstances. The essentials are 
one or two or more connecting rooms, pleas¬ 
antly warm, but well ventilated, seats, a few 
cakes, thin slices of bread and butter, a small 
table with a pot of hot tea (coffee and cocoa 
may be included) the necessary cups, etc., for 
serving it, and a young girl to serve it. 
Familar guests in the way of young gentle¬ 
men, may be levied upon to help pass the re¬ 
freshments which must be of a very light and 
simple character. From four to six p. m. are 
the usual hours for a “tea,” and people who 
are asked to come, drop in informally in bon 
net aud cloak, although the latter as well as 
men’s top-coats are left in the ball or dressing 
room. One can remain from ten minutes to 
two hours. It is a very good way to intro¬ 
duce a visiting friend to one’s neighbors by 
asking the latter, by note, or in person, to 
come at a given time to meet your friend So- 
and-So, giving some bit of information about 
the friend to add to the interest. A few such 
“ teas” iu a country neighborhood during the 
winter season, will brighten it up wonder¬ 
fully by developing the social qualities of 
neighbors and bringing them together. Peo¬ 
ple will respond to and respect a definite invi¬ 
tation, who will allow the demands of every¬ 
day life to prevent them from paying visits 
of a general character. People who are real¬ 
ly worth knowing care far more for talk with 
other people, than for something to eat, of 
which they are supposed to have plenty at 
home. Sometimes two ladies in a neighbor¬ 
hood pool their resources and give a “tea” 
jointly, first at tne house of one; then, later 
on in the season, at the other’s. 
The books selected by Lawson Valentine 
for the “ Women’s National Potato Contest” 
happily include a number of volumes by 
Thoreau, than whom no writer ever told more 
of wbat there is to be seen in the country. 
He seems to have been all eyes, seeing every 
thing, and thinking nothing commonplace, as 
indeed nothing iu Nature ever is It seems 
impossible that any young man or boy who 
reads Th ireau, can fail to find every bit of 
country or corner of the farm, a mine of in¬ 
terest, and Ins books ought to set young farm¬ 
ers all over the country to making daily 
notes of wbat they see—and women, too. 
John Burrough’s books are capitally good 
also. The “laddie” finds endless entertaiu- 
ment iu his “Signs and Seasons.” 
FRIGHTENING CHILDREN. 
T HE world in many respects is wiser to day 
than it was a quarter of a century ago, 
and happily improvements have been made iu 
the treatment of children as well as in other 
things of less importance. The severity 
which our grand-parents practised towards 
their offspring, aud their ignorance of the 
structure of the human body and of the intri¬ 
cate processes of the mird. make us wonder 
that serious consequences did not more often 
follow their well-meant but misguided efforts. 
I remember a thing which happened during 
my childish school days, which I think of 
now with a nervous horror that such althing 
should have been allowed to happen a second 
time in an enlightened community. In a 
school of about 30 pupils there was a little fel¬ 
low not over five or six years of age, a harm¬ 
less, inoffensive child, whom the teacher, a 
man, seemed to have a mania for tormenting. 
Every few days he would call the little boy 
from his seat aud tell him he was such a bad 
boy that he was going to put him in the stove. 
He would then open the stove door and 
rake the red-hot coals to the front, aud seiz¬ 
ing his helpless victim, would swing his head 
uncomfortably near the fire, as if he truly 
meant to carry his threat into execution. 
The boy wou'd sob and cry pitifully, and beg 
the teacher not to do it, prom sing to be a bet¬ 
ter boy, although what fault he had commit¬ 
ted, it would have been hard for the tyrant 
himself to have explained. 
After a season of this, he would pretend to 
relent and let the boy go to his seat, as if he 
were doing something magnanimous. This 
cruelty was practiced every few days through 
the winter school term. Such an experience 
would have thrown a very nervous child into 
convulsions. I was a year or two older than 
the boy at that time, and although I felt that 
the teacher would not dare to do as he threat¬ 
ened, and roast the boy, yet my flesh would 
creep with fear and excitement. Whether 
this shameless course of conduct would have 
permanently injured the child, I do not know, 
as the little fellow died a few months after¬ 
wards of scarlet-fever. I smile now when I 
think how soon in these days, if such an oc¬ 
currence called for it, a scalping committee 
of mothers would be organized to avenge the 
injury. W hether this story was repeated at 
the time in the homes of the pupils, 1 do not 
remember; but if it was, it certainly seems 
like criminal ign irance or carelessness, to 
have let it pass without calling the teacher to 
account. Who knows but among the increas¬ 
ing numbers of the insane, the causes leading 
to the deplorable conditions of some of them 
may not be traced back to some such shame¬ 
ful disregard of the laws of nature. 
AUNT RACHEL. 
WASHING. 
T HERE is no subject pertaining to house¬ 
work upon which may be fouud so 
much independence and diversity of opinion as 
upon the process of making dirty clothes cl. an. 
This difference in opinions is the result of the 
introduction of many machines, soaps, pow¬ 
ders and fluids, all claiming such wonderful 
advantages, even to the power of making dirt 
disappear without rubbing. While one woman 
finds a machine that proves labor-saving to 
her; to another it is the reverse, its manipu¬ 
lation being as laborious as the use of a 
pounder or a wash-boar 1. Thus success or 
failure of a washing machine must remain in 
doutit. Une woman u-es wasning-tluids with 
the best of results: another will have nothing 
to do with them; but uses soap while perfect¬ 
ly ignorant as to its composition. One uses 
lukewarm water throughout; another go«s to 
the other extreme, aud puts dry clothes iuto 
boiling water. One will pound or put dry 
clothes to soak in almost boiling water, but 
will object to actually boiling them before 
removing the dirt; while another is willing 
to let water, soap and heat have the first 
chance. One believes that soaking clothes 
over-night draws out stains and loosens dirt; 
another affirms that the dirt comes out all the 
harder for the soakiDg. 
In addition to these are those who have 
faith in soaking clothes over night, or for a 
time in the morning, in cold or warm water 
or cold or warm suds. Among those willing 
to boil clothes first, some believe in soaking 
them before putting them in the boiler, before 
or after the water, soap, etc have come to a 
boil; others, through a natural sensitiveness 
iu handling soiled garments till they have 
been purified oy boiling, put them directly in 
the boiler; and so opinions vary and processes 
multiply with* uteud. 
The old way to which many cling, is to pound 
everything through lukewarm suds, rub thor- 
gUij&rrnmtfoujsi 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castorla, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castoria, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castoria, 
When she had Children, she gave them Castoria 
