LESSON XXXVII. PUMPKIN ENTERPRISE. 1. Last summer, I remember, a little vine-a pumpkin vine came out of the ground in a corn-field, "up the road," and there it was, in the midst of the corn, unseeing and unseen. So there was nothing for it but to make the best of its way out to the fence that bounded the road, some eighteen or twenty feet distant, where there would be some prospect of its being appreciated, if it could. 2. COULD? But it did; for away it went, vine and leaves, baggage and all, through the corn, this way and that, out to the fence, and up the fence, three rails, and through the fence. And what do you think it did then? Just unraveled a delicate yellow blossom, and held it there, for every one passing to see, saying all the time, as well as it could, — and it could as well as anybody,-"See what I've done, -"See what I've done, this! Isn't it pretty?" 3. Well, there it held it, and everybody saw it, and nobody thought anything about it. Passing that way in the fall, lo! a PUMPKIN, rotund, golden, magnificent; held out at arm's length by the little vine; held in the air; held week after week, and never laid down, nights or Sundays, or any time. 4. Now, "man your brakes;" rig your levers, ye Archimedes-es,* and pump up from the earth, and along that vine, and from the surrounding air, the raw material for just such another article as that, and you shall have two summers to do * ARCHIMEDES (ar-ki-mē'-dēz), the most celebrated of ancient mathematicians. He was born at Syracuse about 287 B. C. He was so confident of his knowledge of mechanics that he boasted that, if he had a fulcrum, or standpoint, for a lever, he could move the world. 112 NEW GRADED SERIES. it in. Bring on the alembic wherein shall be distilled from the falling rain the Essence of Pumpkin, and we'll let it go without painting. Benjamin F. Taylor. DEFINITIONS. A lem'bic, a chemical vessel used in distillation. Dis till', to drop; to cause to fall in drops. Es'sence, that which constitutes a substance as distinguished from other substances. Ro'tund, round; circular; spherical. с L 4. Mary& A Aal LESSON XXXVIII. A MYSTERY. 1. "Things are working," these June days. Things'? WONDERS Withal! Why, quiet as it is here to-day, with nothing but green and blue in sight, — the fields, the woods, the sky, and not a sound of carpentry, there is more going on than one would dream of, — things that neither a Silliman, nor a Davy, nor a Liebig could do. 2. Do you see that cherry-tree? Every one of four bushels upon it! There's a ripe one. Pluck it. A cherry, -- red, ripe, and rich! Fragrance and flavor done up in a little uttered rapp red wrapper! tadly trapper it the red wra 3. Set your cunning men who conjure with crucibles to make one, and you "set" them of a surety. Depend upon them, and you might, and you would, "make two bites of a cherry." Yet on that modest tree, "out of doors," that article was manufactured. No furnace sighing from morning till night; no workmen in white aprons; no sugar crushed, refined, snowy; no flour superfine; no vermilion in pot or powder; no parade, no bustle: but there they are, " cherry ripe!" 4. Winter's cold fingers lifted from the pulses of the tree, and they throbbed full and strong. Pumps in the earth below were rigged and manned. Signals were silently set in bud and blossom aloft. Winds came and swung the branches, and peeped into this and that, and went away. 5. Birds came and looked about, and saw nothing, and went too. Unseen hands were gathering, and molding, and refining all the while. The sun came up from the Tropic of Capricorn, and looked on,-nothing more. The clouds went dripping by, and never stopped, and that was all. 6. Edward, or Silas, or somebody, planted a cherry-stone four or five years ago, and forgot it; but the "whip” of a tree went right on, and without any help that we can see, set up business, and manufactured Nature's confectionery, all by itself. 7. Last week the cherries were green; now they are tinted with red; not a brush lying about, not a stained finger visible. No advertisements in the newspapers of "Painting done here"; no "Apprentices wanted"; for Nature's hands are all journeymen; not a leaf with a capital or an exclamation point on it. Ah! that Artist belongs to the Royal Family of NATURE. Come, let us plant the apple-tree! Cleave the tough greensward with the spade; Wide let its hollow bed be made; H There gently lay the roots, and there 2. What plant we in this apple-tree? Buds, which the breath of summer days Shall lengthen into leafy sprays; Boughs, where the thrush, with crimson breast, Shall haunt, and sing, and hide her nest. We plant upon the sunny lea A shadow for the noontide hour, 3. What plant we in this apple-tree? Sweets for a hundred flowery springs To load the May-wind's restless wings, When, from the orchard row, he pours Its fragrance through our open doors. A world of blossoms for the bee, Flowers for the sick girl's silent room, For the glad infant, sprigs of bloom We plant with the apple-tree. 4. What plant we in this apple-tree? Fruits that shall swell in sunny June, And redden in the August noon, And drop when gentle airs come by, While children, wild with noisy glee, 5. And when, above this apple-tree, The winter stars are quivering bright, And winds go howling through the night, Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth, Shall peel its fruit by cottage hearth, And guests in prouder homes shall see, Heaped with the orange and the grape, As fair as they in tint and shape, The fruit of the apple-tree. 6. The fruitage of this apple-tree Where men shall wonder at the view, 7. But time shall waste this apple-tree. |