APRIL ON THE FARM. 
I am glad that In the country 
My early days were passed; 
For in our lives, the common things 
Are the ones that really last. 
Nature tells the truest stories, 
With a quiet, winning charm, 
And here I found life’s treasures 
Along with April on the farm. 
We speak of Nature’s common things; 
Yes, common in a sense; 
Yet, they in lavish richness, 
Give the fullest recompense. 
Other life Is artificial, 
Giving faulty light and shade; 
But there’s nothing like the beauty 
God in Nature’s realm has made ! 
When on the farm in April, 
Strolling out among the trees, 
You’ll find the simple gospel 
Preached by flowers, birds and bees; 
E’en the buds and tiny grasses, 
Springing up along the way, 
Tell each returning April 
Of the Resurrection day ! 
Oh, April days ! Oh, April skies ! 
I never can forget 
My early boyhood’s love for them 
That lingers with me yet. 
In dreams I live the life again, 
With all its magic charm. 
Sometimes I think that heaven’s 
Just like April on the farm ! 
K. W. DUTCHKR. 
Miss Proctor, daughter of the as¬ 
tronomer, is the first woman lecturer on 
astronomy. She has met with success 
in New York, and will give a series of 
lectures in London during the year. In 
order to make the study of astronomy 
popular, she avoids technicalities, and 
treats her subject in a simple style. 
She has several lectures prepared espe - 
cially for children. 
* 
Many a time a meringue is a failure, 
and the cook does not know just why. 
In another column, is an explanation 
which we commend to unsuccessful 
cooks. After reading this, it is easy to 
understand why the whites of eggs may 
be beaten stiffer when a fork is used 
than when one uses the egg beater. We 
used to think that this idea was a mere 
whim of old-fashioned persons who pre¬ 
ferred an aching shoulder rather than 
use a patented help in the kitchen. 
NOTES FROM A WOMAN’S GARDEN. 
TO FIGHT OR NOT TO FIGHT. 
HIS is the question that now greatly 
agitates the woman with a garden. 
“ ’Taint no kind of use,” says old Levi, 
“ter fight them ere boys, though they 
be dum pesky critters, an’ enough ter 
try the patience of old Job himself ; but 
yer don’t want ter be in hot water the 
hull ’durin’ time. There was old man 
Vose ; he fit boys off an’ on fer mor’n GO 
year, an’ it didn’t do one mite of good ; 
seemed ter put the very Old Harry inter 
the boys, an’ they about harried the life 
outer the old man, though he did live 
ter be 90 odd year ; but he fit ter about 
his last breath.” 
Our garden, unfortunately, forms a 
sort of connecting link, a short cut, be¬ 
tween two side streets, and there are 
many who scale fences even when pro¬ 
tected (?) with barbed wire, and cross 
thereby. When they keep outside the 
apple trees that are close to the dividing 
line between our land and that of the 
next owner’s, we do not mind very 
much; but when they leave this now 
well-beaten path, and begin to stroll 
“ permiscious-like,” through our cher¬ 
ished garden, then we do get, as old 
Levi tersely remarks, “ jest hoppin’ 
mad.” What can we do ? If we go out 
to reproach, or remonstrate most digni- 
fiedly with the trespassers, they run, 
or if they keep their ground, they greet 
us with what is known in this region, as 
“sassin’.” Avery unpleasant kind of 
language it is, to be sure. 
One year, when a strawberry bed was 
made too near the apple trees for any 
small boy passing by to refrain from 
visiting it, we had to stay out in the 
garden all day, to get any strawberries 
at all. We “spelled” each other, and the 
garden was not left unguarded from 
early in the morning, until after dark at 
night. We took easy chairs, work and 
books under a shady tree, and made a 
regular business of this watching ; we 
took turns in eating our meals, and now 
and then a meal was served under the 
tree. If the fruit were stolen carefully, 
we could bear it better ; but the favor¬ 
ite way seems to be, to gather it in large 
branches of green and ripe fruit mixed, 
also to trample down fruit and vines in 
the most ruthless manner. 
Very early one morning, I observed a 
man, not a boy, calmly standing in the 
strawberrry bed, which that year was not 
so far from the house as the apple trees, 
and we thought safe. I wonder at his 
audacity, even now, eating the strawber¬ 
ries which I had carefully saved for 
breakfast. I had often wondered why 
the fruit never looked so thick in the 
morning (it was before the boys acted so 
bad) as it did the night before ; here was 
a mystery solved. 1 did not go forward 
and accost this trespasser, for very 
shame’s sake, I felt so ashamed for him. 
Very evidently he had quite forgotten 
how often we had sent fruit to the inva¬ 
lids in his family ; I suppose that he 
was “ hankering ” after fresh fruit, too, 
even with strawberries “ three boxes for 
a quarter ” all over the village. 
Some of our boy friends (?) are in¬ 
genious. There was a robin’s nest that we 
visited daily ; several times we had sent 
the boys away from it. The boys are usu¬ 
ally rather afraid to stay long, after we 
tell them to go ; we are four. On looking 
into the nest one morning as usual, what 
was our horror and dismay, to find all 
the pretty eggs gone, and, crowning in¬ 
sult to the birds and to us, four tiny 
green apples in their place ! Our dis¬ 
covery was greeted with derisive shouts 
of laughter from a safe distance. 
We do not like to fight, and it is not 
pleasant to be called names ; so we have 
to submit, more or less, to depredations. 
We say nothing to people who come, 
even without leave, to pick up fruit 
under the trees ; but we draw the line at 
forbearance when they shake the trees 
and steal all the fruit. 
Two friends living a little further out 
of the village, have like experiences. 
They, too, have been warned not to get 
the ill-will of the boys, so every winter 
they submit with outer calmness, to hav¬ 
ing their fence rails taken for bonfires 
on the river, etc. But when the neigh¬ 
bors did not keep their fences in repair 
(my friends mended theirs every spring), 
they, too, rebelled. Having all kinds 
and conditions of cows wandering in 
their fields, was really too much for 
these exceptionally amiable people to 
stand, especially when these cows reach¬ 
ed over and into the flower garden, and 
ate many valuable plants. 
“ You must ‘ pound’ those cows,” said 
an adviser. So the little women pro¬ 
ceeded to “ pound” one of the straying 
cows (in a little yard), but when the 
owner came for it at night, they let it 
go ; perhaps their courage weakened, 
or, perhaps, the law would not let them 
hold the cow ; I do not know. “ We 
shall go to Lawyer S about this busi¬ 
ness,” said they. “Do,” said the man 
urbanely, “ that is jest what I advise ye 
ter do, but p’r’aps Squire R would do 
better fer ye,” and he went off grinning 
and triumphant. Later, however, means 
were employed so that he had to keep 
his cow in its place. 
One neighbor took a mild revenge by 
calling to a young man crossing the field 
to call on these ladies, “Hi, there ! young 
man, don’t ye know that no foot but the 
foot of the Waxon’s cow is allowed ter 
step on that ere field ?” 
We have found that appealing to the 
village constable has had some effect, 
also appealing to the boys’ parents, and 
sometimes to the boys themselves. But 
with every season, the old question 
comes up, “To fight or not to fight,” and 
as usual, I suppose, some compromise 
will have to be effected. We shall have 
to shut our eyes to what we do not wish 
to see, so long as we cannot change it, 
and to learn that “ what can’t be cured, 
must be endured.” But it does not seem 
just right to us, that “Young America” 
should be quite so rampant, or, as old 
Levi says, “ So all-fired rambunctious.” 
ELIZABETH ROBINSON. 
A FOLDING KITCHEN TABLE. 
NE frequently feels the need of 
extra table room in a kitchen, but 
does not wish to fill the room with addi¬ 
tional furniture. Fig. 88 shows how to 
have an extra kitchen table when needed, 
and to have its room when the table is not 
needed. A table top of the required size is 
hinged to the wall, so that it can be folded 
up against the wall and fastened when not 
in use. Light legs are hinged to the 
outer end of the top, to drop into place 
when the table is in use, and to fall 
A FOLDING KITCHEN TABLE. Fig. 88. 
down flat against the under side of the 
top when the latter is folded up against 
the wall. The making of this device 
calls for but little work, while its con¬ 
venience is great. w. D. 
SPRING MILLINERY. 
PRING hats show more variety in 
color than ever before. Green is 
shown in several shades, and promises 
to be the favorite, although there are 
many to choose from, blue, brown, pur¬ 
ple, various shades of orange, etc. Some 
of the hats are in solid colors, others 
combine straws of different colors, and 
some of the fancy straws are beautifully 
colored in the shaded or “shot” effects 
that have been so popular in silks. 
Most of the straws are in open, lace¬ 
like braids. Horse-hair braids are used, 
making very light-weight hats having 
good wearing qualities. Plain chip is 
almost entirely superseded by the fancy 
straws. Shapes vary so much that every 
woman may suit her own face. The 
fancy straws are sold by the yard from 
five cents up, according to quality and 
coloring. The combination of colors so 
much in favor, will enable the home mil¬ 
liner to bring last year’s hat up to date 
by introducing a colored straw into its 
construction. Many have the brim of 
one color and the crown of another, or a 
combination of two colors. There are 
also crowns of silk and velvet, usually 
in Tam o’Shanter style. 
With so much color in the framework 
of the hat, one would, perhaps, prefer 
rather quiet trimming. But Dame Fash¬ 
ion is still more lavish with color in 
trimmings. Velvet, tulle, chiffon, rib¬ 
bon and flowers, we may choose from, 
and some of the milliners have been too 
bewildered to make a choice, and have 
taken all and literally heaped the trim¬ 
mings on the frail straw structures. The 
effect is not pleasing, and later in the 
season we shall have moderation in the 
shop displays, for the eyes soon tire of 
too much color. The practical woman 
will consider all of this and more. She 
will be guided, not commanded, by Fash - 
ion’s mandates. 
Dresden ribbons are still in favor. They 
vary, yet the general effect is the same, 
many colors mixed and blended. During 
the winter, the ribbon was almost cov¬ 
ered with blotches and blots of color. 
For spring, the ground color is again 
visible, and the contrasting colors ar.e 
shown as in the original Dresdens, in 
indistinct representations of flowers. 
A pretty combination of flowers noted 
on one hat, consisted of lilies of the val¬ 
ley with violets nestling around them. 
GAITHER HOWE. 
A HOMEMADE RUG. 
AM the proud possessor of an emi¬ 
nently satisfactory rug made from 
the much-flouted, though useful, carpet- 
rag. It carries weight with its argu¬ 
ment, as it tips the beam at something 
near 20 pounds. It finds great favor 
with both John and the children, as it is 
so thick that it does not “ kick up” 
readily. It is woven in two breadths of 
the heavy-weight rug weaving. The 
warp is put in, two threads together, 
the rags beaten up to cover the warp so 
that it bears but slight resemblance to 
rag carpeting. Its dimensions are gen¬ 
erous, being about 10 feet long, by six 
feet wide. The cost of weaving, warp, 
etc., was $2.50. As far as possible, col¬ 
oring was avoided, in order that the 
colors might be more lasting. The light 
blue is blue-and-white shirting ; dark 
blue, blue calico dresses ; eight shades 
of brown, old calico dresses and woolen 
shirts. The red is old red flannel; two 
shades of pink, more calico dresses ; the 
black, worn cashmere, etc. I believe 
that Mr. Howells speaks of a room fur¬ 
nished with an archipelago of rugs. 
Surely the one in the center of my room 
is a very large island, at least. Its chief 
merits are the added warmth to a cold, 
farmhouse floor, and the fact that it 
throws, as it were, a mantle of charity 
over the shortcomings of a carpet much 
the worse for wear. sweet fern. 
TO MAKE A MERINGUE. 
S OME one asks in the American 
Kitchen Magazine, “ Why does the 
sugar separate from the egg and form 
Your clear skin ? Mother’s. 
Your voice? Mother’s. Your 
slight figure? Mother’s. In¬ 
herited weak lungs? Then 
protect yourself. Live out 
doors; get the fresh air; and 
keep well nourished. 
Scott* £muUtcn-, 
of Cod-liver Oil, with Hypo- 
phosphites, is the best known 
preventive to serious lung 
trouble. It supplies just the 
kind of needed fat; prevents 
useless waste of tissue; makes 
rich blood; and fortifies the 
body against attack. You 
should take it at once if you 
feel weak, have no appetite, 
or are losing flesh. 
SCOTT’S EMULSION has been endorsed by 
the medical profession for twenty years. ( Ask your 
doctor.') This is because it is always palatable —al¬ 
ways uniform —always contains tbc purest Norwefian 
Cod-liver Oil and Hopopbospbites. 
Put up in 50 cent and $1.00 sizes. The small size 
may be enough to cure your cough or help your baby. 
