THE: WISCONIIhI FARMER.



painful to see, and. annoying, to walk around.
It is the cause of a slight tinge of shame on
the face of a neighbor, &ad a smile of surprise
and ridicule In the stranger. It is considered
a tin on the character of the neighborhood,
and a blot on the fane of their public spirit
and enterprise. Its broken and patched sides,
its Cracked top, its shattered door, as well s
the tAotering, dingy old stove pipe, are all
looked upon with wrinkles and frowns.

  But when the keen blasts of winter visit us,
and our frames are penetrated by its chilling
advances, the stove becomes a popular and in-
fluential favorite. No sooner do persons enter
the room than they immediately patronize the
stove, and supply their perishing bodies with
a satisfactory amount of its vitality. Anus
are unloosed from the forms of playmates, and
are afoetionately extended around the rusty
old stove pipe. The hands of friendship are
unolasped, and are patiently held to the stove
to invoke its favor. What crowding and striv-
ing there is to gain the coveted place where
the rays of warmth from its crimson sides an-
nihilate the aches, the agonies, and the bitter-
ness of winter!

  What exploits have been narrated, what
experience has been given, what revelations
have been disclosed, what prophecies have been
sent forth, what judgments have been exercis-
ed, what wishes have been expressed, and what
news have been circulated around that stove
by hundreds of beings now in almost every
condition and circumstance in life, and somis
resting in the grave! What an inconceivable
amount of joy, sorrow, love, fear, hate, re-
venge, and agony, enclosed in childhood hearts,
has moved awound that stove Volumes would
not contain their history, language could not
describe them, pencil could not portray them,
for they were the interior workings of the heart
-hidden from human sight.

  And, also, when we consider the forests that
have been consumed within that stove, the la-
bor sad enterprise that have been bestowed
upon it, sad the memories and associations
that eclster around it, it is not diffilult to re-



gard it as a memenou of old years and old
friendships.                    J. T. DALE.



THE HOME.



               A Levers Tow.
     By every hope that eartward dings,
     By filth that moants on angsel wings,
     By drawn that make night shadows bright
     And truths that turn our day to newt
     By childhood's smile, and mnh s to
     By pleasure's day, and sorrow's year;
     By all Me strains that &ney s ding
     And pan   that time - surely brings;
     For Jog or rie4 for hope or frear;
     For hlereafer s br here;
     In peace or strife, in storm or shine.
     My soul is wedded unto thine.
                               T. K. Iteava,.

                 La lBeat.
           A little brown seed,
           Very ugly indeed,
        Lay saleep In the cold wet ground;
           And the bleak winds blew,
           And the dead leaves flew
        To earth with a rustling sound.
           And sal winter long
           The tempest Its song
        Sounded duitaly o'er Its bed,
           But the sluab'ring seed
           Gave it no more heed
        Than if it were utterly dead.
           But the Aml came,
           And the  L    'rew tame,
        The heavens made love to the earth:
           One stray sunbeam
           Broke through the dream
        Of the seed, in Its lonely detb.
           It started at first,
           Then Builly burst
        Ita fettersin gratefuflett glee;
           And upward grew,
           Till It saw the blue
        Of heaven's lmmeusity.

  STORY RKADING.-At a certain age, shild-
ren of both sexes delight in stories. It is as
natural as it is for them to skip, run and jump,
instead of walking at the staid pace of their
grandparents. Now, some parents-very well
meaning ones too-think they do a wise thing
when they deny this most innocent craving
iay legitimate outlet.  They wish to cultivate,
they say, " a taste for solid reading." They
night as well begin to feed a new born babe
ra meat, lest nursing should vitiate its desire
ror it. The taste for meat will come when the
*hild has teeth to chew it; so will the iate for
"solid reading" as the mind matures, i. e., if
it is not made to hate it by having it forced
rioleantly upon its attention dury the story-lov-
yg period.    That "there is a time for all
ng" is truer of nothing more than this.
Better far that parents should admit it and
wisely indulge it, than by a too severe reprers-
on give occasion for stealthy, promiscuous
*eading.-Fanny Fern.



M



a



=



-