for iljt B0mT0, 
THE NEW YEAR. 
Another year lias gum;— and Father Time 
Has placed within his dusty d e.*k with care 
Another manuscript: anil prose and rhyme, 
Both good and bad are sadly mingled there. 
And now %ve take auother sheet ns pure 
As Is nil angel’s Wing, and grasp our pen 
To write the New Year’s tangled record, sure 
That all our writing will confront us when 
The wing of years shall blow the dust away, 
And from Time's pigeon hole the Master's hand 
Shall take our manuscripts »U stained aud gray. 
And read them so that all may understand. 
Then let us write with paiieuce through the years, 
Lest all our work be blotted out with tears. 
[UNCLE MARK. 
THE NEW LEAP. 
The first of the year is always quite an 
eventful time with most of us. We are gen¬ 
erally advised to “turn over a new leaf”—to 
take a new start, and try to make the new 
year better in every way than the old. This 
is good advice and I feel sure that all the 
Cousins, yes, and their fathers and mothers 
too, are thinking about the way they would 
like to have their “new leaf” read. Now it 
seems to me that we should turn this leaf over 
very carefully. We don’t want to tear it out 
by any means, and we don’t the edges soiled, 
or the corners turned down. There are plenty 
of things that we would like to have taken 
away—no doubt about that, but 1 am going 
to believe that they are comparatively few 
by the side of the good things that we would 
gladly have remain. Now, before we turn 
this leaf over let us take a good look at it, and 
even have it fixed so that we can turn it back, 
if we like, for study. I believe my boys and 
girls have tried pretty hard to do what is 
right. If they have been naughty at times, 
I know pretty well how sorry they have been 
afterwards, aud I hope that will be punish¬ 
ment enough for them. W e are all going to 
try and make 1880 just, a little the best year 
we have ever known. Suppose we each pro¬ 
mise to hunt out 12 ways in which we oan 
please mother, 13 in which we can please father 
and 13 more for each brother and sister. Did 
you ever think that in this way we can make 
over 100,000 happy hours? We can all do it 
I know. 
“Time is up” on the bean reports and next 
week I shall give the names of the winners. 
They seem to be pretty well scattered about 
the country. Uncle Mark is sorry he can’t 
give prizes to all those who tried so hard. 
Are you going to keep a diary this year? I 
think it would be a good plan. It is pretty 
easy to write up the first few days, but after 
that, unless we are careful, the work grows a 
little tiresome. I should say, begin with a 
very few lines at first, and spend a few min¬ 
utes every night in thinking over what you 
have done through the day. In this way you 
can think up many things that will be useful 
some time. 
NEW COUSINS. 
Our family is growing. May Gardner lives 
in Massachusetts. She writes about a cat 
named Sambo and a great dog named Bravo. 
They have a pet pony named Kitty that will 
follow them about for an apple. I saw a 
horse the other day which would do all sorts 
of tricks for a piece of a potato. 
Gracie C. Ufford lives in Ohio. She has 
a pet sheep with twin lambs. Her little calf 
is called Mollie Garfield. She has a little kit¬ 
ten, too. 
Mary M. Bork raised some seedling pota¬ 
toes which were very nice. Besides these, she 
raised onions, beans, cabbage and lettuce. 
She has 17 chickens and sold six last year. 
Guy 0. Hammond comes all the way from 
Colorado. He raised 80 chickens last year, 
but the skunks caught most of them. His 
papa raised 33 pigs. 
Nannie Dotson lives in Indiana. She lives 
on a farm of 80 acres. Her mother has been 
sick for five weeks and Nannie has been doing 
all the work. How glad she must be to think 
she can do much. 
LETTERS FROM THE COUSINS. 
Dear Uncle Mark: The frost killed my 
Lima beans before they got ripe; they were 
loaded with green beans. Wo had some very 
pretty flowers from the Rural Garden Treas¬ 
ures, many of which we did not know the 
names of. In my last letter to you, I said 
some time I would tell you about the hens we 
keep; I will do so now. A year ago last Sum¬ 
mer, we had 20 well-bred Plymouth Rocks, 
from one to three years old, which laid 1,945 
eggs from March 1st. to Nov. 1st, and they had 
but ordinary care. This season we kept 18 of 
last year’s chickens, which laid in the same 
period of time, 1,645 eggs. Last June, Papa 
sent and got a setting of Wyandotte eggs and 
one of brown T jeghoms. We got a pair of Leg¬ 
horn chicks from the eggs, and eight Wyan- 
dottes, five of which were pullets, so you see 
we will have a variety for next year. 
Your niece, minnie craig. 
Lajteer Co., Mich. 
(The hens ought to have a premium I thiuk. 
We shall want to know how the new ones do. 
_ u. M.] 
Dear Uncle Mark: I took very good care 
of the Lima beans. I had 19, but we had au 
early frost here. As they did not ripen, I did 
not get any. I I’aised a nice little patch of 
pop-cam, aud had some flowers. I hope Uncle 
Mark will not forget to tell us about his Mus¬ 
tang, for I love to hear stories. I go to school 
every day. There are not very mauy scholars 
there now, but there will be more when the 
winter term opens. We have a nice teacher; 
she teaches us to sing every morning. I have 
quite a distance to go. As it is so muddy, Pa 
lias promised to let me ride one of our horses 
to school every day. She is quite small, so she 
will be nice. As there is a stable right by the 
school-house, she will have a nice place to stay 
during the day. I hope that Uncle Mark and 
the Cousins all had a nice Thanksgiving. Al¬ 
though it was so muddy we could not go to 
church, I ha<l a very good time at home. We 
had all the pumpkin pie we could eat. 
Windham, Ohio. annie a. davis. 
[I shall surely tell the story. I am glad you 
are learning to sing.—u. M.] 
Dear Uncle Mark: I am a girJ 13 years 
old and wish to join the Y. H. C. Well, I will 
tell you how mauy turkeys we raised this year. 
We raised 60, and they look so nice. We have 
everything to make a home happy. Flowers 
and birds. We have 11 birds, and we have a 
bay window full of nice flowers. In the sum¬ 
mer-time we have a large, round flower-bed 
full of Petunias. The brighter the sun the 
nicer they look. Uncle Mark, I would like to 
have you see our flowers; they are so nice; we 
have a Calla lily in bloom now. I can do all 
kinds of house work. We have a little rat dog; 
she is a little pet; when I go to hunt the eggs 
she takes hold of the bottom of my dress and 
follows me around. Ma and 1 put out a big 
row of strawberries; they are all alive. We 
had lots of pears this year, and not very many 
apples. My Pa has taken the RcraL two years. 
It has been snowing all day. Your niece, 
Alexander, Ohio. ADA mount. 
[There must be plenty of music in your 
house. I am glad you have such a happy 
home.— uncle mark.] 
Dear Uncle Mark: We take the Rural, 
and to say we like it, does not express our ad¬ 
miration for it. I am a farmer boy. Now 
you can better guess why it is that I want all 
the possible information poured iu from all the 
ends of the earth. In view of what our fathers, 
grand and great-graudfnthers have suffered 
from ignorance in farming, we are determined 
not to be cheated out of our precious rights, 
if perseverance fails not. After the pages 
have been written about our farming facilities, 
all is not. told. We have vast, water power for 
various machinery as well. For iustauce, my 
father owns one of the finest mill sites in the 
State, yet it has not been utilized in years. He 
offers it for sale, but 1 am more inclined to 
hold on and fiud a way some day, when I 
skip out of my teens, to make this wasting 
water turn ft wheel that shall count units, tens, 
hundreds, thousands. I intended to have a 
chat with the Cousins, but I am such a new 
comer, and sobackward in introducing myself, 
that you will please permit me to make my 
bow and retire, hoping to come again. 
Jamison, Ala. kellett Campbell. 
[I am glad you came to see us. What a fine 
chance you will have some day to build up 
your State. There are hundreds of ways in 
which you can utilize that water power, at 
dairying, grinding grain, running a cotton 
gin, and still avoid the great noise and dust of 
a factory. Don’t think there is nothing to be 
done iu life but to make money, however. 
Build up a good character for the first thing. 
I am sure you will do that.—u. m.] 
Dear Uncle Mark: I received the beans 
and let Mamma have them to plant. She plant¬ 
ed them in May. They grew nicely, but the 
season was not long enough for them to ripen. 
I was very sorry. We have a white calf; we 
call her daisy. She was almost frozen to 
death when Papa found her. We brought her 
in the house. She staid in the house a week 
before the weather got warm enough for her 
to go to the barn. Her ears were frozen so 
that half of them came off; but it is a nice big 
calf now. My sister has a large white eat; his 
name is Pearl. He got to catching chickens this 
Summer. She wouldn’t have him killed, so 
she kept him chained up like a watch dog until 
the chickens got big so he would not catch 
them. When she turned him loose he weighed 
12 pounds. After we let him loose we saw him 
with seven rats iu a very short time, and one 
day we saw him with four mice. Don’t you think 
he is a noble cat? We have a little maltose 
kitten; his name is Frank. We have a large 
black dog; his name is Rover. Sometimes he 
goes with me to school; one day he stayed all 
day. We have two horses, their names are 
Frank and Fannie. I like Frank the best for 
I can ride on his back. If any one gets on 
Fannie’s back she will kick up and try to throw 
them off. HENRIETTA CARRIER. 
Sullivan Co. 
[What a shame it was that Daisy suffered so. 
I hope you take the best care of her. That is 
surely a noble cat. He earns his own living— 
that is more than some men can say. No 
wonder you like Frank best. We all like good 
nature.— uncle mark.] 
Dear Uncle Mark: I would like to be¬ 
long to tbe Y. H. C. We have been interest¬ 
ed in the new Croton aqueduct all Summer, 
as we live about a mile from a shaft. They 
have been using a 500 horse power engine and 
new they are putting in another of the same 
size. The shafts are from one to two miles 
apart, and worked out like a mine in both di¬ 
rections until they meet, This shaft is num¬ 
ber 17, about 93 feet deep; they have thrown 
out a small mountain of broken rock. 
Brother Fred and l went down in the shaft on 
the elevator one day. We saw the men at 
work by the electric light. They use steam 
drills from two to eight feet long. Tbe rocks 
are blasted by dynamite exploded by elec¬ 
tricity, and they work night and day. Some¬ 
times it is wet down iu the shaft. The work¬ 
men take turns, ten hours in tbe wet, and 11 
hours in the dry. They use about ten tons of 
coal a day. I will try to write again, but 
school takes most of my time. Yours truly, 
WILLIE K. BENJAMIN. 
Westchester Co., N. Y. 
[Hope you will write again, Willie. I wish 
we could all go to see the work. 
UNCLE MARK.] 
Dear Uncle Mark: I am 12 years old. 
Two years ago this Fall pa said after the 
wheat was sown he would get me a paper. He 
sent and got the Rural New-Yorker, I 
like to read tbe letters from the Cousins. I 
would like to join the Y. H. C. I planted all 
the seeds. Thinking this letter is getting too 
long 1 will close. Your nephew, 
JOHN W. WORTHINGTON. 
[Don’t be afraid of writing too much, John. 
Uncle Sam will take mneb more than that for 
tbe same money. I am glad you can join us. 
—UNCLE MARK.] 
Dear Uncle Mark: I should like to be one 
of the Cousins. 1 had a garden last Summer. 
l?kad two sun flowers, some beans, some pota¬ 
toes and some radishes. I earned 75 cents last 
Spring making strawberry boxes for papa. I 
am nine years old to-day. I should like some 
of your Garden Treasures wheu they are 
ready. Your nephew, shirley weeks 
Lyons, Wis. 
[You will soon be quite a business man 
Shirley. I am glad you want to join — u. m. 
Dear Uncle Mark: We are two little 
sisters. We enjoy reading the letters from 
the Cousins, and we would like to join the Y, 
H. C. Papa planted the Garden Treasures 
you sent him last, Spring, but the woodchucks 
ate all the peas and beans when they first 
csrne up. The Rural Corn grew nicely, but 
none of the ears got ripe. We have for pets 
two kittens and four canary birds. We have 
picked up a good many bushels of apples this 
Fall, also walnuts and chestnuts, which we 
expect to enjoy next Winter. We would like 
to have you come and help us eat them. Well 
we must close for fear this will be too long 
CARRIE A NELLIE tX)«VERSE. 
Otsego Co., N. Y. 
[Those woodchucks deserve to be killed. I 
wish I could come.— unlcb mark.] 
Rheumatism 
Yt'e doubt if there Is, or can be, a specific 
remedy for rheumatism; but thousands who 
bave suffered its pains have been greatly ben 
eflted by flood's Sarsaparilla. If you have failed 
to find relief, try ibis groat rornedy. It corrects 
tbe acidity of the blood which is the cause of the 
disease, and builds up the whole system. 
" 1 was afllloted with rheumatism twenty yeara 
Previous to 1888 I found no relief, but grew worse, 
until I was almost helpless. Hood’s Sarsaparilla 
did tue more good than all the other medicine 
lever had.” II. T. Balcom, Shirley Village, Mass. 
Hood’s Sarsaparilla 
Sold by all druggists. 81; six for 85. Made 
only by C. 1. IlOOD & CO., Lowell, Mass. 
IOO Doses One Dollar 
W,R&C~0*S 
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MORE OF IT USED 
than of ol 1 olhor makes com* 
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WELLS. RICHARDSON & CQ.. Burlington. Vt. 
ami 
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Tb'sTsTCW urtiolo ii ni»prb«i;it*4 and ap¬ 
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Ground Brrl Scraps, ('rushed Oy»irrShrll8, 
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These goods are ground fre«b at our own mills and 
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C. A. BARTLETT, 
Rendering Work * and Mill*, W orcester, Mass. 
PERCHERON HORSES 
FOR SALE CHEAP IF TAKEN SOON. 
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@MITI1*8 
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STEEL WIRE FENCE 
.t. . x . *. t. _ Al. *T’ a* - 
( Is the best general purpose wire fence In use. It 
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I For prices ami particulars oak Hardware Dealers, 
or address, mentioning paper, 
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EDWARD SUTTON, Eastern Anent, 
300 Market St., Philadelphia, Pa, 
