The following _true story_ was related to me by one who was personally
acquainted with the facts. There was a certain bend in one of our
western rivers which was avoided by every one, as it was supposed to
be haunted by the devil. At a certain hour in the evening, for many
years, terrible curses were distinctly heard. Suddenly they ceased. A
gentleman skilled in the science of acoustics, hearing an account of
the strange phenomena, determined to ascertain the cause, and carefully
examined the river on each side for about a mile above and below the
bend. He ascertained that at about the time the sounds ceased, an old
fisherman, who had lived on the opposite side of the river, full a mile
from the spot where the curses were heard, had died. He was told that
the fisherman was in the habit of crossing the river to a village,
where he found a market for his fish, and where he spent his money for
liquor; and that after drinking freely on his way home, while rowing
across the river at night, he would swear terribly. This gentleman
then persuaded a friend to go down the river to the place where the
curses were formerly heard, while he remained in a boat on the river
at the point at which the old man usually crossed. He then played on a
bugle and sang several songs. His friend soon returned, and with eager
delight exclaimed, “O, ----, such glorious music fills the air, just
where the curses used to be heard!” The neighbors came rushing down to
hear it, and some fell on their knees, praying. They said, “the angels
have driven the devil away.” Mr. ---- then asked what were the songs
they heard. His friend described them correctly, and said he understood
even the words, one of them being the famous Marseillaise, another a
German song; the foreign words made the ignorant more sure that the
sounds were supernatural. Mr. ---- then played on the bugle, and sang
again the same songs, while his friend stood by; but his friend said
the music was not equal to that he had heard below, where the sounds
had really seemed heavenly.
The peculiar configuration of the river banks had concentrated the
sounds, and the distance and the water had softened them.
The person who related this anecdote to me said that he and his friend
had often tried the experiment. Nothing would convince the more
ignorant neighbors that the sounds were occasioned by merely natural
causes. A love of the supernatural is strong within us, and sometimes
leads us into grave mistakes.
=GARDENING, FLOWERS.=
We, as a nation, are not a happy, home-loving people. The “spirit of
unrest” pervades all classes.
This enterprising, uneasy spirit, has been, and is of benefit to us, as
a comparatively new country, in settling and breaking our wild western
lands.
But the time has come when it is well to curb that spirit, and
cultivate all quiet, home-loving influences.
Therefore we beseech you, parents, to begin in earliest infancy to
cultivate a love of the beautiful in nature; give your little ones
flowers; and as soon as they are able to play in the garden, give them
a little spot of their own to dig in; and when they can understand the
process, give them seeds to plant, and some few flowers to cultivate.
We can tell you of a happy cottage home, where the children, from
earliest infancy, have lived among flowers. Each had their tiny garden,
with spade, hoe, trowel, and watering-pot. The father and mother would
also assist with their own hands in training vines, roses, and shrubs,
in artistic beauty. The good father never went to his counting-room
without some flowers in his hand, or in the button-hole of his coat,
the valued gift from the tiny garden of one of his darlings. Years
passed and fortune favored them, but they never would exchange their
cottage home, with its vines, trees, and shrubs, for all the stately
mansions in the town. And as the daughters married, and the sons left
to seek their fortunes, they would look back with intense longing
to their loved home; and joyous were their meetings around the home
Christmas tree.
On Sundays they always, even in midwinter, ornamented their social
table with flowers, for they are God’s smiles. Therefore, my friends,
we speak from observation, and from seeing the effect of an opposite
course. If you wish to lessen your doctor’s bill, and give the beauty
of robust health and happiness to your children, girls or boys, give
them a garden, and let them plant, weed, and water it. If your children
bring you even a simple field daisy, express your pleasure to them, and
let them not see you cast it aside.
A well cared for garden displays--and displays to good advantage
too--the love of home, domestic taste, a wish to please, industry,
neatness, taste, and all the sweet household virtues that create a
_happy_ home.
Horticulture confines itself to no rank, and it may form the amusement
or the pursuit alike of great and small, rich and poor; only the
kind of garden we choose, and what we do with it, must depend on our
circumstances.
Teach your boys the use of a pruning-knife, and how to graft; then give
them some trees to experiment upon. You may save them from dissipation,
by giving them a taste for horticulture. It is a happy, health-giving
employment.
Decorate even your barn with graceful vines. The poorest house can be
made an agreeable place by transplanting a few of the many simple wild
vines. It is not natural to love intensely a stiff, ungainly object.
We have often thought, as we have roamed about the farming districts
of New England, and have seen the many great, stiff, square houses,
with not a graceful tree or flower to relieve their nakedness (though
now and then a syringa, or lilac bush, or cinnamon rose, and perhaps a
stately old butternut, may be seen), the sons and daughters of those
households will surely emigrate. Utility is our hobby. Some farmers
think it waste time to plant a flower, as it yields no fruit.
Remember the old saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
You that dwell in a city, strive to have a small spot in the country to
which you may send your children in summer, to roam at will. We heard a
little child, in urging her mother to go into the country in vain, cry
out, “It is too, _too bad_, mamma. We know God did not make the city
for little children, because he loves us.”
Do not waste your money at fashionable watering-places. Even in early
years, take your children to the woods and let them see nature in its
wild state. There is nothing like a day in the woods for refreshing us
all, in body and mind. The wild music of running brooks is so lulling,
the birds carol their “native wood-notes wild” so sweetly, the strange
blended odor of the damp mould, the leaves, the wild flowers, and the
prospect of the distant meadow, are so delightful; the play of the
sunlight through the dense foliage, and on the sylvan walks, is so
beautiful, and the quiet is so marked, after the hum and roar of a
city, that the mind is tranquillized, and both you and your children
will be nearer to God, and nearer to one another, for every hour thus
spent. Our whole country is full of wild beauty. Spend your spare money
in decorating your homes with trees, flowers, and shrubs. The influence
upon your children will be far more beneficial.
If your children wish for money to purchase seeds and flowers for their
gardens, if possible, give it cheerfully. It is far better so spent,
than in dress and toys. Let them plan their own gardens, and experiment
as much as they please. A very pretty fence can be made round such
gardens by a number of stakes of equal lengths, pointed at one end to
drive into the ground, square at the top, and painted green. Then place
them at equal distances around your garden, and bore holes about six or
seven inches apart for the twine, which should be brown linen. Pass the
twine through the holes, in lines all around the garden. Plant vines
which run rapidly, such as Cypress Vine, Madeira Vine, Nasturtium,
Maurandya, Barclayanna, Dwarf Convolvulus, Mountain Fringe, &c. By
midsummer your simple fence will be very beautiful.
Having spent many years in cultivating flowers, perhaps a few practical
directions from our own experience may be of service to our readers.
And we will give some excellent suggestions taken from a famous
florist.