Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1874 — Page 6

RECIPES, ETC

milk; whenboilitHr hot stiT in dry flour ’ until it Is stiff, when cool add one egg ; life enottgfoTkwir to allow you to form it j into balls; add a pinch of salt. About I ten minutes before serving your soup i drop the balls in; they will be very light and will not fall after being lifted. ; —Perhaps the very best dish of pre-1 pared apples for the table is to bake slowly.' with just heat enough not to break the skin. When done, lay open land remote the core; sprinkle with sugar (granulated is best) and work sugar and pulp together: work to a fine consistency, which a few strokes of the spoon will do; then Close the skin upon it and lay away to cool; it ought to be eaten cold. An Esopus Spitzenberg is the best fruit for it, and the best time for it is about the holidays.— Western ~ Kural. —Shin of Beef Soup.—Have the shin well cricked up; put it to boil in five or six quarts of Water; boil it five or six hours; skim it very often. Cut up,very fine halfn white' cabbage; chop two turnips and three onions; put them all into the soup with pepper and salt, and boil it two hours; take the bone and gristle out before serving. If you have balls the size of a nutmeg, drop them into the soup, and let them boil half an hourT****** 4 ..—According to the New York Qotnmerc4ai OwiW* statistics of cotton spinning in the United States for the year ending July 1, the present year, there \\ere in Rhode Island 115 cotton mills, with 34,706 loams and 1,330,842 Consuming 125,317 bales of cotton, or 58,146,885 pounds. The quantity of cotton worked up in Rhode Island is only about a niilbon of bales less than that consumed in the manufactories in all the Southern States. ~ —Spiced Veal.—Chop three pounds of vealsteak and one thick slice ot salt park as fine as sausage meat; add to it - three Boston crackers rolled fine.onehalf teacup of tomato cat-up, three well-beaten eggs, one and one-half teaspoonfuls salt, one teaspooful pepper, and one grated lemon. Mold it in the form of a loaf of bread, in a small drip-ping-pnn; cover with one rolled cracker and"biste with a teacupful of hot water and two tablespoonfulsof butter. Bake three hours, basting very often. This is an elegant dish for ten. — Rural New Yorker. ■ r —Ail excellent liquid glue is lnatie i>y dissolving glue in nitric ether. The ether w ill only dissolve a certain amount ot glue, consequently the glue cannot be made too thick. The glue thus made is about die consistency of molasses ami is doubly us tenacious as that made with hot water. It a few bits of india-rubber cut into scraps the Size of a buckshot be added and the solution be allowed to stand a few days, being stirred frequently, it w ill be all the better and will resist -tire dampness twice as well as glue made wit h w ate rJ/< maehusetts Ploughman. — A correspondent of the Germantown Telegraph furnishes a nice recipe far muffins to be made of stale bread: Take four .dices of baker’s bread and cut otf all the crust. Lay them in a pan and pour tailing w ater over them, but barely enough to soak them well. Cover-the bread and after it has stood an hour draw off the water and stir the soaked bread till it is a smooth mass; then mix in a tablespoonful of sifted flour and a half pint of milk. Having beaten two eggs very light stir them gradually into the mixture. Grease some muffin rings; set them on a hot griddle and pour into each a portion ot the mixture. Bake them brown; send them to the table hot; pull them open w ith your fingers and spread on butter. They will be found excellent, very light and* nice.

Killing Weevils in Peas and Beaus.

Every farmer who has cultivated peas and attempted to keep some through winter for seed knows what are called “pea bugs,” which, by the way, is not a hug, but a small gray beetle, known to entomologist -• as Bntckui jputf-, Linn, or in some late usts as Mylubris pint. 'When gathering tise peas in lhll the presence of an inse. t iu the pea is not noticed, although it , is there nevertheless, but in liminxya or grub state,, which uiHlergues, its transformation during the winter anil comes forth a beetle at the approach ui warm weather in spring. There are very lew localities where peas are not attacked by this pest; and although it does little harm to the crop if gathered green for market, when kept for seed their depredations become quite apparent. Another species {Bruchu* obtoleti it — Say) attacks beans in the same manner, but instead of one beetle in each seed, as is generally the case with the pea. there are several; sometimes twenty or more will be found in one bean. This insect attacks all the varieties, but it Ts not quite as abundant in the Northern as in the Middle* and Southern States. But they are becoming more numerous every year, and unless soon checked it will be difficult to obtain sound beans for seed. Now it must be evident that if these insects are ever to become less in numbers efficient and persistent eiiorts must be resorted to by ali who cultivate peas and beans. Perhaps the most certain method of destroying is to thoroughly dry the seed soon after gathering and then put away in air-tight vessels, putting in a quantity of gum camphor, say a half pound to a barrel —some old cloths soaked in spirits of turpentine placed in the bottom of the barrel will usually answer the same purpose. It is now the season to attend to this matter, and everyone who has peas or beans to put away for seed next year should endeavor to destroys.'whatever insects they n ay contain.— Yorker.

Good and Poor Farmers.

Farmers are apt to look outside for the cause of their failures. If the crops are poor the}-curse the weather, if the prices are poor they curse the market and middlemen. Sometimes they :re right and sometimes they are wro. g. Farming, like every other pursuit, requires industry and intellect. Cr ps won’t raise themselves, or sell th mselves. If yonr land is too wet, yotrmust di in it; if too dry, you must somehow ; rnish moisture. You can't control'“i ye elements and bring rain by wishing or it; or praying for it; but you must k< ep the ground stirred. The cultivator is he substitute for a shower. A fiele of corn pr potatoes cultivated every day will remain Siqist within an inch of ;he surface when your meadows and pas tores are as dry as a powder-house. We see fanners every day, working aide by side, both of apparently equal industry, the one always having good

though the parties most interested may not be able to see it. One may be too stingy of hi« seed, or too stingy to use good seed. One does his work in the right time, and always las his soil in the right condition, while thcothsr is always behind his work, and never half does it. The crops of the latter don’t seem to. look as they ought to, and he gazes over the fence at his neighbor’s tine fields and wonders a> the difference. He attributes the trouble either to his land or his j cursed bad luck, and' seldom sees his i own careless, slipshod w ays ot doing his i w ork. When he cqmes to marketing the dif- | ference is still more apparent. The I careful farmer starts out with a big adi vantage. His crops are first class, wellI grown and well-marketed, and the same ! painstaking care that raised them is : used in harvesting, packing and shipping, j while the careless grower is almost sure ; to be a careless harvester and shipper. W’e are apt to think that any fool is | smart enough to be a farmer. If our !. boy isn’t intelligent enough to practice jlaw or medicine, or preach, or is too stupid or honest for a merchant, we give him a hoe and set him to scratching for a living, and if he doesn’t succeed we j blame the busines and not his brains. [ The fact is, there is-no good opening any- ; where for fools, and the poorest openings for idiots are “ oak openings.” — New ■ Jmegti ran gerr- —‘—

Root Crops.

To snow how very important the root crop is considered in those parts of Europe where the dairy is an object of attention let us allude to the winter man agement of cows in Flanders, quite equal to Holland in the minute economy of its system of agriculture. In traveling through Flanders you never see cows at pasture as you do in many other countries. You see no fences, either along the highways or along the divisions of land. The whole of the land is arable and nearly the whole of it is actually under cultivation. A traveler who has' been through that country many times and in every direction from one end of it to the other does not recollect having seen a rod of fencing in any part of it, but they keep a great many cattle and cows of high dairy quality, so high that the Flemish cow is considered the best dairy cow of France. The number of cows, indeed, in Flan- ! tiers is a matter of surprise to all not acquainted with the mode in which the | feed is prepared. A cow for every three j acres of land is a common proportion, j and in very small holdings the proportion is even greater than that. Now in Flanders every farm devotes a fifth at the least of its whole area to turnips as a second crop after harvest. These turnips are of a quick-growing sort, sown from July, after colza and winter barley are gathered, to August, after rye. In September and October they got to be of good size, when they are stored ill cellars for winter use. Many potatoes are raised also, and all, not required by the family are consumed by .the cattle. Carrots also are sown in spring, sometimes alone. btrtxrften wltir barley, flax and colza, and these complete the store of provisions for the cows. These roots are chopped up together in a tub, when some bean meal, rye meal or buckwheat meal is added. Boiling water is then poured over the mixture and allowed to stand and cool. Whenever they can get wood, which is surprising]y scarce in that country, the whole is boiled together. This mixture is called brasin. and two pailfuls are given, warm, morning and evening to eaeh eow r andtbtels her food all winter, with the addition, simply, of a little wheat or barley straw. Hay is very rarely given at all, except in a very few districts, and never in the unlimited quantity in which we feed it out. With the exception of one or two districts no hay is made to speak of. and very little indeed in any part of the country, and this is reserved for hard-worked horses. In this manner of feeding, a farm of ten or twelve acres of light, arable, land, all under cultivation, will keep and maintain in good condition four or five cows, which constitute, in fact, the chief object of attention. The butter is sold every week and pays the outstanding bill.- of the farm, while the buttermilk foediUbe family and the pils. . L_ Less than a century ago the root crop ryas L as little-cultivated in Great Britain as it is here at the present time. The farming land was as rundown and ex liausted as our own average lands at the present time. The introduction of turnip and other root culture then led to a complete revolution, the land improved Inconsequence rtf the great, increase of live stock to augment the manure heap, and, in fact, the culture of roots was the salvation of English agriculture. The, time i will come when our own soils will be i renovated in the same way.— Jfassaclni- \ j setts Plough man.

Judicious Management of Stable Manure.

; When stable manure is exposed to the 1 | influences of sunshine, rain, snow and : I drying winds, a large portion of the vol- : i atile elements will be removed so that ; | they will be the same as lost to the pro- 1 i prietor. lienee, all surface water should j |be turned away from , the barnyard. I ! Every outbuilding should be provided 1 ! with*.eave troughs to-catchthe-water ! ! that would find its way into the -manure j heap. To prevent loss by leaching it is | well to throw over an exposed heap of ! excrement a covering of straw' or old hay. | If the form is conical nearly all the water ! will run,off the sides and but little per- ■ colate through. It is miserably'slack an i wasteful to haul out manures into j j fields iu the" autumn or winter and allow ; j them to remain without any protection, ! j A good farmer writes: '• lmring the ; past two years more excrement has been | produced at the farm than we could conj veniently use upon our fields and in rel moving it from the cellar we have protected it in the manner described. One [heap has thus been covered for two ; years and its valuable qualities have not ; only been preserved* but by the processes j of Spontaneous decomposition the prod- | gets are now ready for immediate as- | similation by plants and the soil applied |is nearly as valuable as the material j which it has covered and protected. ! Three years ago some heaps of manure | were carted upon a meadow in winter and owing to flowage frdm the lake it was deemed best not to disturb them until the meadow was thoroughly drained. Several of them spread last season gave most extraordinary returns in grassland the two remaining heaps have been opened this season and foqnd in perfect condition.” —Y. T. Herald —A man who had just sunk a pipe, into the soil at Dedfiam. .Mass . the other day pumped up five living fishes fr6m_:a depth of thirty feet

Our Young Folks.

MABEL’S TROUBLES.

BY BENJAMIN E. WOOLF.

Mabel Wanted very much to know all about it, and that is why she was so vexed that she could not get it into her head If she had not cared for it, then it would have been quite another affair; but she did care, and that is where her troubles began. She knew she must learn to spell, and therefore tried her best to please her governess. But Miss Prim was so very thin; she had such a funny row.of tight little curls on each side other head; wore such big silver spectacles on the tip of her nOse; and had such a very stiff way of sitting upright in her chair, with her lips sticking out, as if she was only waiting for a good chance to say “ Pooh, pooh!” that Mabel felt herself obliged to s'tudy her’governess all the time instead of her book. Mabel tried to study her spelling sons very hard; but she grew to be no. tired of saying the same thing over and over again; and'there was no sense in it either. B-a, ba; B-e, be; B-i, bi; B-o bo; B-u, bu—and so on all through the alphabet—was so slow and so awfully Stupid! Now, thought Mabel, if it was B-a, ba, B-e, be, Baby, there would be something gained; but who ever says -Bjfficffibobur—if this were spelling, shir would rather go out and play awhile. There wan some sense in that. Why, learning to spell was not half as jolly as learning the alphabet. There were pictures to that, and poetry too. There was “A was an Archer, who Aimed high and low,” and “ B was a Booby who couldn’t stay‘Bo!’” There was “ C was a Chicken who Clucked after Corn;” and “D was a Dog that the Draughtsman had Drawn.” And lots more beside. Mabel knew she would fall asleep in a few minutes if the lesson did .not come to an end—she was so drowsy. The letters danced up and down the page in such a droll way that she could not see one of them plainly. P-a, pa, was somehow or another mixed tip with N-o, no; and M-e, me, was trying to play at leapfrog with Y-u, yu. “ Miss Prim,” said Mabel, covering the page with her hand, and shaking her head so earnestly that her yellow curls tumbled all over her face, “ I can’t say any more, please. I’m very stupid, I kno\v, and 1 suppose I’m a bad little girl; but I can’t help it.” Mabel was sit ting on a stool at Miss Prim’s feet, and her book was resting on Miss Prim’s knees. She saw that her governess' lips stuck out more than ever, and felt sure that “ Pooh, pooh!” must come at last; but it didn’t. Miss Prim only said; “Why, Mabel!” and stared through her spectacles till her blue eyes looked as large as willowpattern saucers. . ! “ Do you like all of this?” asked Mabel, pointing to her book. “Of course 1 do, Mabel,” answered Miss Prim, severely. “Why do you ask?” “Because / don’t,” said Mabel, positively;*■• and what is more, 1 never shall” “ But, Mabel, said, Miss Prim, frowning, “ you will have to learn it if you ever hope to be able to read.” “But suppose I don’t hope to be able to read?” asked Mabel. “Suppose I don’t care anything about it?” “ But you must care something about it," insisted Miss Prini.. “What will you do if you cannot read when you grow up to be a woman?” Mabel, and wondering how Miss Prim would get over that. Miss Prim did not try to get over it, but looked at Mabel in astonishment. “ You can read for me, you know’,” continued Mabel, “ and I can pay you for it. I can save up my pocket-money that papa gives me every week, and that will be enough. Don’t you see?” “ But that will never do,” said 31 iss Prim, shaking her head very angrily. “ Does Dora have to learn this, too?” asked Mabel, after a pause. “ Certainly, miss! Everybody has to learn .it,” answered Miss Prim; “so go' on with your lesson at once.” “Did ma and pa?” persisted Mabel, with tears in her eyes, and looking anxiously up to the face of her governess, “ 1 have said that everybody lias to learn it, Mabel,” said Miss I’rim, solemnly. “ Well,” returned Mabel, disappointed, “I think they might have found something better to do at their age.” “ Come, come!” said Miss Prim, impatiently. “Let us have no more of this. Go on with your lesson.” “ “ 1 can’t, Miss Prim. I’m tired, please; anxW’m so puzzled that I can’t think any more. And if you will let me, I will go into the garden to get my face cool, and come back as soon as I feel rested. If mamma says anything, tell her I’m to blame, please. And I’m sorry, Miss Prim, I’m sure; but my head will not hold it all.” Mabel rose from her seat and went through the balcony window into the garden. It was a cool afternoon in summer, and hundreds of flowers were in bloom. The cypress vine, with its bright red flowers, twined and clambered up the pole to the little pigeon-house on its top; and the big bunches of green grapes that hung against the wall and peeped out from underneath the broad leaves Were just beginning to blush purple. The four-o'clocks, pansies, carnations and verbenas seemed so.fresh and happy to Mabel, as they fluttered to and fro in I the soft breeze—swaying first one way and then the other—that, she almost wished she- were a flower too.’ Roses—red, white and pink—swarmed aioug the wall; and there were some that stood out on branches all alone, which bowed and nodded to her as she walked along the gravel-path toward the shady arbor at the foot of the garden where she had left her do,ll and her hoop. “Good-day!” she said to them in return for. their politeness. "I'm quite w ell, thank you. How are you?” -* “They do not have to learn how to spell,’ she thought, as she passed on. “ They would not look any prettier or j smell any sweeter if they knew how to ! | read all the books in the world. 1 don't : , believe they would be half so agreeable. I I think Miss Prim Would be handsomer ; it she did not know so much: and ail the ! governesses I know-are exactly like .Miss | Prim.” . ’ .. Mabel w-ent- on her wav thinkim: of hid; trbubles and wishing that she eoum learn something, because Miss Prim took so much pains to teach her; and she supposed that it must be all right for her to study, or else her mother would not have asked Miss Prim to give her lessons. » She reached the arbor at last and went • in. It was a large, shady place* covered all over with vines, and'tlie leaves were so thick that the sunbeams made their way through in little spots that

speckled the ground, and as the breeze fluttered the leaves kept on changing their places like the bits .of glass in a kaleidoscope. A* bench ran all around the arbor, and lying on this in a corner Mabel saw her doll. It had bright golden hair, large blue eyes and plump little cheeks, just like Mabel’s; ancj its mouth was not a bit prettier than was hers and it was not ipqch smaller either, d - “ Did yoii tfiini? I was never coming, you poor, neglected Dolly?” she said, taking it up and smoothing its hair from its eyes. “ It’s all Miss Prim’s fault, and if you have any complaints to make you must make them to her. Y r ou needn’t' pout at hie in that naughty manner, miss',. It isn’t good for little girls to pout; and you’ll grow so if you do not stop it at once, bit there, please, till I get up on the bench too, and then I’ll make it all up with you.” _ Mabel placed her doll on the bench with its back against the trellis work and then climbed up herself and sat by its side. • . “Oh; dear!” she said, sighing, as she took her doll again and held it in her lap. “I do wish people would not make benches so high; it is so hard to get up, and it makes me so out of breath! You’re all right, Dolly, because I lift you up, a,nd you don't scratch yous legs as I do tnine. . Are you sleepy? I am; but I don’t want to go to sleep, because I must soon go back to Miss Prim.” The place was so quiet and the air was so soft and warm that Mabel grew more and more drowsy every moment. She could scarcely keep her eyes open, and her head felt so heavy that she had great trouble to hold it up. She would have fallen asleep in spite of herself if something had not attracted her attention all of a sudden. As she saw it her eyes opened a little, then a little more, and then wider still, until at last they were almost as large as Miss Prim’s when she was astonished. “ Why, what is this?” said Mabel to herself. “Upon my word, these are pretty doings! All the letters of the alphabet have, somehow or another, got out of my book and sire running about here loose. There’s ‘A was an Archer’ playing tag with ‘ H was a House;’ and there's LQ, a Queen’ trying to get away from ‘ U was an Urn,’ who is holding On to her skirt. Yes! and there is ‘K was a King’ trundling ‘ O was an Owl’ along like a hoop. They are all there, every one of them.” Mabel could not make it out at all. There were the letters leaping; laughing, running, turning somersaults and mixing themselves up in all sorts of ways. How they got out of the book without being discovered Mabel could not conceive. Yet there they were, having sports of every kind all by themselves, and seeming to enjoy them. Suddenly, and right in the middle of a game of blind-man’s buff, Miss Prim darted in among them with a ruler, and set them scampering in every direction, striking at them right and left all around the arbor. Mabel got down from the bench and ran to her governess. “Don’t frighten them, please, Miss Prim,” she said. “ They are only amusing themselves ; and I don’t wonder at it, so long.” But Miss Prim took no notice of Mabel, and kept chasing the letters about,Till they hopped and skipped like so many fleas to get out of her way. Some of them got under the bench to hide from her; but she went down on her hands and knees to stir them out. As she did so the remainder of the letters jumped on her back and upset her; and made her incapable of further mischief. \ “ Ah!” said letter W, the biggest one of the lot, taking her ruler and standing guard over her with it; “so you are not satisfied with putting us in a~ book, but you try to cram us Info people’s heads too, do you? Suppose I was to cut your head oil with this ruler, how could you put us in your head any more?” Miss Prim kicked and struggled to get free, but she was not strong enough. W did not cut her head oil', at which Ylabel was very, glad; but he called all the other letters to stand around Miss Prim while he made her say her letters over seventy-four times. He then gave her a spelling-lesson, and rapped her on the knuckles every time she said it - correctly. Mabel was sorry for Miss Prim; but she thought it served her right for interfering with the letters when they were doing no harm. She therefore did not make any objections; but when they got the poor lady into words of three syllables Mabel couhl stand it no longer, for slie thought that was nothing less than cruelty; So she went up to “W was a Wheel” and t ook hold-of his arm. “ Please don’t punish her any more,” she said, “ because it will make her head ache. Three syllables are too many for anybody. Let her go this time, because it is not gentlemanly to strike a lady.” “Well,” said W, “it isn’t gentlemanly for her to go and chase us around with a ruler and try to hammer us into people’s heads as if we were nails, i’ll let her off this time because you ask it; but if she ever comes here again we’ll give her words in a hundred syllables, and so she had better look out for herself.” They then untied Miss Prim and let her -go away. “So you like Miss Print,” said A to 'Mabel.* " if I was iii your pla.ee I would bqther her and stick pins into her.” Mabel was going to give him a pretty sharp answer when she saw a humpbacked letter that she did not recognize coining toward her. “How do you do?” he asked her. “ Don't you remember me? Don't you recollect that you were introduced to me last Wednesday?’’ “ Oil, yes!” said Mabel. “ You are Unterrogation- Mark. You a 1 ways -askquestions. Papa says it's wrong to ask too many questions!” “ What does lie .know about it?” Inquired Interrogation Mark, with a sneer. “Is he any authority here*!’ Mabel did not condescend to reply to him but went to O, who seemed an easy, good-natured letter, and spoke to him. “Tell me,” she said, “how you all came to be here.’’ - ' “I mustn't do that,” replied O, “because then you would know all about it.” “ Oh!” said Mabel, disappointed. “I’m sure I didn’t mean any harm.”. “I know,” answered O, “ and I would tell you, but you see we are all afraid of Miss Prim. If she finds outhowwe.do R she will lock us up and then we can't come here any more When m amuse ourselves here we are often quite rough and some of us get tuirt. There’s ,N, who is limping along there, for example., He was'am H once, but he fell down and broke his legs and now he is knockkneed, as you see him. Y used to walk like A; but he was too fond of turning somersaults and one day he only Went

half-way over and stuck on his head. He has never been able to get back again.” Mabel was not surprised to hear all of this for she had suspected something of the sort before, and was very glad to learn it was true. “How old are you?” O suddenly inquired. “Six,” answered Mabel. “You could be sixty if vou wanted,” O replied. * “llow?” asked Mabel. “By adding fifty-four to yourself,” answered O, looking very seriq.usly at her. “ I would do it if I was in your place. It will save you the trouble of growing.” Mabel saw that it was true, but she did not know how to do it; and she was not exactly sure that she wanted to add fifty-four to herself without thinking about it. While she was turning it over in her mind, Ac. came up to Mabel and shook bands with her. He seemed quite gloomy, and had a tired look that made her feel very sorry for him. “Please, sir,” said Mabel to him, kindly, “ are you ill?” “ Yes!” answered Ac., shedding tears and wiping his eyes on his cuff. •‘ Then you ought to take something for it,” said Mabel. “Take what?” asked &c., sighing. “ Take some medicine,” returned Mabel. “ What should I take medicine for?” inquired Ac., a little fiercely, as Mabel imagined. “Dear me!’’ said Mabel to herself. “He asks almost as many questions as Interrogation Mark. Because you are ill,” she said aloud, somewhat timidly. “But I am not ill,” said Ac., very positively. “Y r ou said you were, if you please,” pleaded Mabel, almost-crying .with vexation at being so constantly contradicted. “If I said it, U meant it,” answered Ac., growing sad again. “And now 1 say I’m not. and I mean that too.” “O dear!” said Mabel, greatly puzzled. “ What do you mean, for I can’t make you out?” - Gr-. -r L* • “ That’s where it is,” returned Ac., bursting into 'tears. “ 1 mean everything! A means something positive; I don't. B means something positive; I don’t. I am not allowed to mean the same thing for two minutes. One moment I mean one thing and the next moment I mean something quite different. And I never say what I mean, but leave everybody to guess it. It is too bad!” Mabel felt a great deal of pity for him as he stood there . weeping and screwing his knuckles into his eyes. The tears fell so fast from him that his feet were in a puddle of water. Mabel thought he would catch cold, and was about to tell him so, but O winked his eye at her, and, tapping his forehead, shook his head. “He is crazy,” -vvhispered 0 to Malxfi. “ Don’t mind what he says. He doesn’t know what he means. Nobody could ever find ont from him because he leaves half of it unsaid and you have to guess it like a riddle. He is very tiresome and disagreeable. Just ask him to explain himself and you’ll soon find out what sort of fellow he is.” Mabel did not like this liard-hearted way O had of talking about Ac., who was growing more tearful and more gloomy every moment. She really pitied the poor fellow, and told Q as much; but he merely replied, with contempt: “Pshaw! lie is only a foreigner, and has no business among us. If he does not like it, why does he stay here? What does a Latin person want to come mixing with us for? Besides, he is a dwarf, and is all out of shape at that. Look at his little head and his big body.” “ A dwarf !” said Mabel, astonished, because she saw that Ac. was quite as big as the rest of them, and a great deal fatter. “ Well,” said O, reading Mabel’s thoughts, “he is an Abbreviation, and that’s the same thing.” “Isn’t that Parenthesis I see* over there?” said Mabel, pointing to a figure Witli bowed legs that was hobbling along. - ’ • ' ; “ Yes, I feel very sorry for him,” said O. “ His parents did not take good care of him when lie was young. They tried to make him walk too early, and his legs became crooked, as you see. Look at Bracket yonder. He is all'right. His legs are as straight as an arrow. His nurse knew what she \Yas about. I don’t think. Parenthesis is very long-lived. He is quite weak, and little work now. Bracket does most of it for him.” ■» That disagreeable, ill-tempered and humpbacked Interrogation Mark came toward Mabel again. “Well; and how do you like us all?” he asked, in his impudent, prying manner. “Don’t you think we are a jolly set of fellows?” Mabel was going to tell him that she did not like him at all, and thajt she was very sorry she had made his acquaintance, when lie said to her, with a spiteful grin on his face: “You think you know us all, don’t you? Are you aware that you have got to be introduced to our brothers Old English and Italics, to say nothing of Script?” > “ I wish you would not tell me unpleasant things by asking me questions about them,” said Mabel, 'growing angry \vith him. Just at that moment Miss-Prim darted in amongst them again with another taler, and set them scampering in every direction onc-e more. Even W was knocked over this time, and Ac. received such a thump in his back that he forgot to cry. and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him. When Miss Prim had beaten thein as long as. she could she chased them before her with her apron as if they were a brood of chickens, and they all ran out of the arbor, followed by,.her, tumbling over each other and picking themselves up as well as they could. Mabel laughed so heartily that she almost cried. Then she suddenly found out she*was sitting on the bench, and could not tell how she got there; because a moment before she was standing in the middle of the. arbor talking with O and Interrogation Mark. She was greatly puzzled, but was so full of what she had seen that she did not think any more of how she came to be sitting down again. She hurried away to learn what had become of Miss Prim and the letters, but saw no trace of any of them. She then went into the house and spoke to Miss Prim about it, but her governess laughed at her and said she knew nothing about it. Mabel was sorry'for that, because she did not think Miss Prim would be guilty of doing so mean a thing as« telling a falsehood. If she would tell her a story about such a matter how could she depend on her in spelling lessons? - Everybody told her that she had been dreaming: but she knew better than that, for she had spoken to them, especially O and Aq, She found them all in her book again; but though she questioned them" frequently they took no no-

tice of her. In spite of that, nothing could convince her that it had not all happened just as she told of it. But she never saw them again though she often went into the arbor and waited for them to come.tgr And this added to Mabel’s troubles.—SL Nicholas.

HAPS AND MISHAPS.

—A lady walking on a Boston street the other day suddenly met a man who was eoming around a corner in such a manner that a cigar in his mouth struck her in the eye, leaving a mark which she ; will carry all her life, and she would like to know if there is no law by which sjie can obtain redress. • —A Bridgeport (Conn.) man who was chopping wood recently accidentally cut dne of his fingers badly, and was so enraged that he deliberately laid his hand on the chopping block and chopped* the finger entirely off. The hand, which, but a few moments before had been cold and numb, soon began to warm up, and the man began to howl. —Just before Thanksgiving a drove of 1,000 live turkeys passed through Barry, Vt., en route for Boston. They were driven along the streets just like a flock of sheep. “When nightfall came they would by general consent all leave the road and take to the fences, and their drivers had to put up for the night, for they could get them no further: . —Royal Gale, of Barry, Yt., has a musical dog. A company of singers were at his house the other day, and when they sang certain pieces of a lively turn the dog would join in the chorus by a low howl, not in bad time or tune. There is also a dog at Rutland who accompanies his master to- many concerts and occasionally assists the musicians. —A few days ago a cat belonging to Mr. Eugeiffe Cleveland, of Wethersfield, Conn., brought home a young woodchuck, nearly full-grown. The cat was covered with blood, and otherwise showed signs of a severe struggle. This is supposed to be the first case on record where a cat tackled and whipped a woodchuck. .Pussy seemed to be proud of her triumph. —A special providence is said to watch -over idiots. This was shown recently in Allegheny City, Pa., where a man playing with a pistol discharged it while the muzzle was pointing toward his body. The bullet struck a five-cent piece in his vest pocket, which rehanged its course, and after passing down underneath his clothing it lodged in his boot. It gave him two or three scratches in its course, but did no serious damage. —A Hoboken street railway has a down grade nearly a- mile long, and the other day, while a woman was sitting in a car at the head of the line, a street Arab jumped on the front platform and loosened the brakes. There being no horses attached, the car started down the hill, and reached the foot at su«h a tremendous rate of speed-as to jump the track, crash through a platform, leap a ditch and land on the other side. The woman was dashed from one end of the rear to the other with great force, and soterribly injured that her recovery is doubtful.

History of the Apple.

The apple, which is valued above all other fruits of Northern climates, is the descendant of the wild crab-tree, which is found very generally in the temperate zone of both hemispheres. It is men-' _tioned.,in__tM BiMe,by. Herodot,tis t -and by Pliny, the latter of whom enumerates twenty varieties that were cultivated in his time. It was in extensive ÜB3 by the Romans, and was probably introduced by them into England. After the establishment of Christianity we find that the monks planted large orchards, and rendered the fruit common throughout the island. It was brought to New England by the early settlers, and orchards were set out by the colonists and the Indians in all the original States. The apple is now one of the most widely-diffused of fruit-trees, but it succeeds best in cooler parts of the temperate zone. It occurs in Arabia. Persia, tire West Indies, and on the Mediterranean; but in these countries the fruit is small and inferior. It reaches its-greatest perfection in the United States, where more than a million of acres-.areoccupied with orchards; The value of the, crop in 1870 was over $47,.000,000. Large quantities of apples are exported from this country to England, China and the East Indies. Anna S. Getsingek, of Honesdale, Pa.,, writes the following,:. “After suffering for nearly two years from neuralgia in tliqbreast, passing up into the throat, face and head, I was entirely cured and restored to health by using Dr. L. Q. C. Wisliart’s. Pine Tree Tar Cordial.” Columbus discovered America, but it has been found that the only economical Shoes for children are the celebrated SILVER TIPPED. Never wear put at the toe, and are w worth two pairs without Tips. All Dealers sell them.

WISHART’S PiiieTreelarCorflial It Is now fifteen years since the attention of the public was first called by Dr. L. Q. C. Wishart to this wonderful remedy, and so well has it stood the test of time that to-day it not only ha* the confidence of the entire community, but is more frequently prescribed by physicians in their practice than any other proprietary preparation in the cohntrv. It ia the vital principle of the Pine Tree obtained by a peculiar process in the distillation of the Tar. by which its hah eel medicinal properties are retained. For the following Complaints— Inflammation of the Lungs, Coughs, Sore Throat and iireast, llronehitta. Consumption, Liver Complaint, Weak Stomach, Disease of the Kidneys. Urinary Complaints. Nervous Debility, Dyspepsia, and diseases arising from an impure condition of the Wood—there is no remedy in the world that has been used so successfully or can. show ifiich a number of marvelous cures. The following will serve to show the estimation in which this sovereign remedy is held by those who have used it. Consumption for Ten Years Cured. Dr. L. Q. C. Wishart- Dear Sir—l am grateful to you from the fact that you have made a medicine that will cure the disease of the Lungs. My wife lias had the Consumption for ten years. Physiciaus had tola me that they could only patch her up for the time being. She was confined to her bed. and had been tor some time. I heard of your Pine Tree Tar Cordial and securtal one bottle: it relieved her cough. She has now finished her fourth battle, and is able to do the work for her family, and may Cod speed yon on with voiir great discovery and cure you have made for Consumption. r _ FV K H HOPKINS. Jackson Center, Shelby Co.<Ohio. From St. Lonls, Mo. Dr Wishart, PHti.APßt.pniA: Dear Bir—During a visit to Philadelphia some three years ago. I was su (■ ferine from a severe .cold, and was induced to take a botdf of vmir Pine Tree Tar Cordial, which hail »e effect of curing me in a few days. I have used it in mv familv ever since, and am of the opinion that It •aved the life of mv dauehter. who was suffering from a severe and painful cougia If the publication of thia will be of any service, you are at liberty to use it. -« Tours respectfully. 1 JOHN "HODNfiTT, St. Loots, Mo. For sale by aU Druggists and Storekeepe re, and at DR. L. a c. WiSHARTS Office, No, 232 N. Second St, Philadelphia, Pa. ~