Pacific Christian messenger., February 21, 1879, Page 4, Image 4

PACIFIC CH r 6 t 1ANY Î e SSEHGÉÉ, FRltJAV refc 21, W79.
6
Christian Family
Mrs. Browning’s Gry of the
Children.
Mrs. Browning, Shakespeare’s daugh­
ter, summarized fifty years of discus­
sion in Great Britain by these most
moving words ;
The young lambs are bleating in the
meadows,
The young birds are chirping in their
.
neat.
The young fawns are playing with the
shadows,
The young flowers are blowing toward
the West.'
. ' '
But the young, young ohildren, O my
brothers.
They are weeping bitterly ;
They are weeping in the playtime of the
others,
In the country of the free.
Go out, ohildren, from the mine and from
the oity ;
Sing ont, children, as the little thrushes
do ;
Pluck yonr handfuls of the meadow cow­
slips pretty—
Liugh aloud to feel your fingers let
j»--
them through !
But they answer, “ Are your cowslips of
the meadows,
Like our weeds anear the mine ?
Leave us quiet in the dark of the coal
shadows,
From your pleasures fair and fine !”
** For oh,” say the children, “ we are
weary.
And we can not run or leap—
If we cared for any meadows, it were
merely
■>To drop down in them and sleep.
Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping,
* We fall upon onr faces trying to go ;
And underneath our heavy eyelids droop­
ing,
The reddest flower would look as pale as
snow. -
“For all-day we bear our burden tiring
Through the ooal dark underground ;
Or all day we drive the wheels of iron
In the factories round and round.”
Lurlina. <•
Beneath« a wintry moon, love
The tented hills repose,
But still my soul is June, love,
And all my heart a rose.
Another moon is riding,
Full-bosomed, near and warm,
A sweet old dream surprising
Remembrance with its charm.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s New an object as exercise. Possibly it was in the vicinity of Fisher’s saw-mill, I Cossack, who before outsiders con­
Neighbors at Ponkapog.
neither; maybe they were engaged in deliberately crossed over to address siders it unbecoming to speak affec->
Wh en I sa w the little house build­ digging for specimens nf. those arrow­
ing, an eighth of a mile beyond my heads and flints hatchets which are
own, on tho Old Bay road, I (wondered continually coming to the surface
There is scarcely an
who were to be the tenants. The hereabouts.
acre
in
which
the
plowshare has not
modest structure was set well back
turned
up
some
primitive stone
from the road, among the trees, as if
,
weapon
or
domestic
utensil disdain­
the inmates were to care nothing
fully
left
to
us
by
the
red men who
whatever for a view of the stylish
j
once
held
this
domain
—-an ancient
equipages which sweep by during the
j
tribe
called
the
Punkypoags,
a forlorn
summer season. For my part, I like
descendant
of
which,
one
Polly
Crowd,
to see the passing, in town or country;
but each has bis own taste. The figures in the annual Blue Book,
proprietor, who seemed to be; also the down to the close of the Southern
architect of the new house, superin­ war, as a State pensioner. I quote
tended the various details of the work from the local biographer.
Whether they were developing a
with an assiduity that gave me a
kitchen
garden or emulating Professor
high opinion of his intelligence 'and
Schliemann
at Mycense, the new­
executive ability, and I congratulated
comers
were
evidently persons of
myself on the prospect of having
refined
musical
taste. The lady had
some very agreeable neighbors.
a
voice
of
remarkable
sweetness, al­
It was quite early in the spring, if
though
of
no
great
compass,
and I
I remember, when they moved into
used
often
to
linger
of
a
morning
by
the cottage—a newly-married couple,
evidently ; the wife very young, pret­ the high gate and listen to her execut­
ty and with the air of a lady; the ing an operatic air, conjecturally at
husband somewhat older, but still in at some window up stairs, for the
the first flush of manhood. It was house was not visible from the public
understood in the village that they road. The husband, somewhere about
came* from Baltimore; but no one the grounds, would occasionally re­
knew them personally, and they spond with two or three bars. It
brought no letters of introduction. was all quite an ideal, Arcadian busi­
(For obvious reasons I refrain from ness. They seemed very happy to­
mentioning names.) It was clear gether, these two persons, who asked
that, for the present at least, their no odds whatever of the community
own company was entirely sufficient in Which they had settled them­
for them. They made no advance to­ selves.
There was a queerness, >. sort of
ward the acquaintance of any of the
families in the neighborhood, and mystery, about this couple, which I
consequently were left to^themselves. admit piqued my curiosity, though,
That, apparently, was what they -de­ as a rule, I have no morbid interest
sired, and why they came to Ponka­ about the affairs of my neighbors
pog. For after its black bass and They behaved like a pair of lovers
wild duck and teal, solitude 4s the who had'run oft' and got married
chief staple of Ponkapog. Perhaps its clandestinely. I willingly ac uitted
perfect rural loveliness should be in­ themf the one and the other, of hav­
cluded. Lying high up under the ing no legal light to do so; for, to
wing of the Blue Hills, and in the change a word in the lines of the
odorous breath of pines and cedars, it poet,
chances to be the most enchanting bit
of genuine country within fifty miles
of Boston, which, moreover, can be
» reached in half an hour’s ride by rail­
way. But the nearest railway station
(heaven be praised !) is two miles dis­
The town lies twinkling yonder,
Another world than ours,
tant, and the seclusion is without a
We have no thoughts to squander
flaw. Ponkapog has one mail a day;
On wooden walls and towers ;
two
mails a day would render the
Under the loeusts walking
place
uninhabitable.
We breathe an air divine —
The village—it looks like a com­
The stars and flowers are talking
And we all speech resign.
pact village at a distance, but un-
ravdfltand disappears the moment you
The season, wreathed with beauty,
The throbbing summer nigbt.
drive into it—has quite a large float­
Make loving thee a duty—
ing population. I do not allude to
Adoring thee, delight ;
the perch and pickerel. Along the
The birds above ns nestle,
Old Bay road, a highway even in the
Asleep, with folded wing—
colonial days, there are a number of
We bear their soft plumes rustle.
They ataaoet wake and ring I
attractive cottages straggling off to­
V ► '
*
•
•
ward Milton, which are occupied for
Wo did not drain the chalioe
the summer by people from the city.
But quaffed its rich boquet ;
These birds of passage are a distinct
May be ’twas grace, not malioe,
That snatched the cup away.
class from the permanent inhabitants,
I
You went your way serenely,
and the two seldom closely assimilate
Andi Went mins with blame ;
unless there has been some previous
Your brow was fair and queenly,
connection.
It seemed to me that
And mine was rod with flame.
our new neighbors were to come
Lurlina, heaven flies not
under the head of permanent inhabi­
From souls it once lias blessed ;
tants ; they had built their own house
First love may fade, but dies not,
Though wounded and distressed ;
and had the air of intending to live
The stars, long since departed,
in it all the year round.
Still shines to dust-veiled eyes,
" Are you nut going to call on
And so the broken-hearted
them
?” I asked my wife, one morn­
Still cherish golden ties.
ing-
Though after diys deride m
"When they call on us,” sheieplied
With Hymen's broken ring,
lightly.
We know that once biside m
" But it is our place to call first,
An angel stopped his wings,
And angels come so rarely,
they being strangers."
Along life's troubled way
This was said cs seriously as the
We may remember fairly
circumstance demanded; but my wife
The moment, as^thc day.
j turned it off with a laugh, and I said
We leave our dead, with yearning,
no more, always trusting to her in-
Where the daisies drink the dew,
!
tuitions in these matters.
And live onr lives in-learning
,
She was right. She - would not
That dreams alone are true ;
For dreams, in wild expansions
i have been received, and a cool “ not
Of moonlit locust trees,
I at home ” would have been a bitter I
Have built such perfect mansions
' social'pill to. us if we had gone out of
And wrought such rosaries ;
our way to be courteous.
Adieu ! Like ships at ocean
I saw a great deal of our neighbors,
That nevermore may meet,
nevertheless.
• Their Cottage lay be­
We pass, in life's free motion
tween us and the Post-office—where
To victory and defeat;
Yonr berk, in eastward sailing,
be was never to be met by any
Will seek the pearl of day,
cWnce—and I caught frequent glimp­
But mine, with songs of wailing,
ses of the two working ip the garden.
Drifts on in pnrple spray.
Floriculture did not appear so much
—S. L. Simpwn,
It is a joy to think the best ~r‘
We may of human kind.
Admitting the hypothesis of elope­
ment, there was no mystery in theii
neither sending nor receiving letters.
Where did they get their groceries?
I do not mean the money to pay for
them—that is an enigma apart—but
the groceries themselves. No express
wagon, no butcher’s cart, no vehicle
of any description was ever observed
to stop at their domicile. Yet they
did not order family stores at the
sole establishment iri the village—an
inexhaustible little bottle of a shop
which (I advertise it gratis) can turn
out anything in the way of groceries
from a handsaw to a pocket-handker­
chief. I confess that 1 allowed this
unimportant detail of their house­
keeping to occupy more of my specu­
lation than was creditable to me.
In several respects our neighbors
reminded me of those inexplicable
persons we sometimes come across in
great cities, though seldom or never
in suburban places, where the field
may be supposed too restricted for
their operations—persons who have
no perceptible means of subsistence
and manage to live royally on nothing
a year. They hold no Government
bonds, they possess no real estate (our
neighbors did own their house), they
toil not, neither do they spin; yet
they reap all the numerous soft ad­
vantages that usually result .from
honest toil and skillful spinning. How
do they do it? But this is a digres­
sion, and I am quite of the opinion of
the old lady in David Copperfield who
says, " Let us have no meandering !”
Though my' wife had declined to
risk a ceremonious call on our neigh­
bors as a family, I saw no reason why
I should not speak to the husband as
Im individual when I happened to
encounter’ 'bitn by the wayside. I
made several approaches to do so,
when it occurred to my penetration
that my neighbor had the air of try­
ing to avoid me. I resolved to put
the suspicion to the test, and one
forenoon, when he was sauntering
along on the opposite side of the road,
him. The bruseque manner in which tionately or unnecessarily with his
he hurried away was not to be mis­ wife, always feels her superiority
when left face to face with her. His
understood.
It was at this time that I began to whole house, his whole property, his
form uncharitable suppositions touch­ whole fortune, have been got by her
ing our neighbors, and would have means, and are kept up only by her
been as well pleased if some of my labors and efforts., Although he .is
choicest fruit-trees had not overhung firmly assured that labor is shameful
their wall. I determined to keep my for a Cossack, and is suitable only for
eyes open later in the Beason, when a Tartar workman or for a woman, he
the fruit should Be ripe to pluck. In feels in a confused way that all that
some folks, a sense of the delicate he enjoys, and calls his own is the
shade of difference between meum et product of that labor, and that it is in
tuum does not seem to be very the power of the woman—Ins mother,
strongly developed in the Moon of or his wife whom he considers his
Cherris, to use the old Indian phrase. slave—to deprive him of all that he
„ I was sufficiently magnanimous not enjoys. Besides this, the constant
to impart any of these sinister im­ masculine heavy work and labor put
pression to the families with whom upon her have given an especially
we were on visiting terms—for I des­ independent and masculine character
pise a gossip. I would say nothing to the Cossack woman, and have de-
against the persons up the road until veloped in her in an astonishing way,
I had something definite to say. My physical force, sound sense, decision
interest in them was—well, not ex­ and firmness of character. The women,
actly extinguished, but burning low. for the most part, are stronger, more
I met the gentleman at intervals, and sensible, more developed and finer-
passed him without recognition ; at i looking than the men. The beauty
of the Grebna Cossack women is es­
rarer intervals I saw the lady.
After a while I not only missed my pecially striking by the union of the
occasional glimpses of her pretty, purest type of the Circassian face
slim figure, always draped in some with the broad and powerful frame of
soft black stufl'/with a bit of scarlet the northern women. The Cossack
at the throat, bait I inferred that, she women wear the Circassian dress—
did-not go about the house singing in Tartar shirt, gown and drawers; but
her light-hearted manner, as formerly. they tie up their heads in kerchiefs,
What had happened I Had the in the Russian style. Elegance, neat­
honeymoon suffered eclipse already ? ness and beauty in their attire and-in
Was she ill ? I fancied she was ill, the arrangement of their cottages,
and that I detected a certain anxiety form a habit and a necessity of their
in the husband,‘who spent the morn­ life. In their relations to the men,
ings digging solitarily in the garden, women, and especially girls, enjoy
and seemed to have relinquished those complete freedom.”— Ex. .
long jaunts to the brow of Blue Hill,
where there is a superb view, com­
bined with sundry venerable rattle­
This is the time of year for mince1
snakes of twelve rattles.
pies,
se we print for the benefit of our
As the days went by it became cer­
friends
the recipe of an old Dutch
tain that the lady was confined to
house-keeper:
One bowl chopped
the house, perhaps seriously ill, pos-
meat
—
beef
well
boiled; one bowl
sib'y a confirmed invalid. Whether
she was attended by a physician from chopped suet; two bowls chopped ap­
Canton or from Milton I was unable ples, greenings ; one bowl sugar: one
bowl molasses; one bowl currants;
to say; but neither the gig with the
two bowls cider; half bowl citron.
large white allopathic horse, nor the
gig with the homeopathic sorrel mare, Nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon ty taste,
not forgetting a teaspoonful of salt.
was ever seen hitched at the gate
This mince-meat may be prepared
during the day. If a physician had
(leaving out the apples and cider) a
charge of the case, be visited his
patient only at night.
All this long time before wanted, but they
must not be added until ready for use
moved my sympathy, and I re­
Rocketfter Jelly Cake, (try this),—
proached myself with having had
Two
cups sugar, three eggs, two
hard thoughts of our neighbors.
thirds
cup of butter, one cup sweet
Trouble had come to them early. I
milk,
three
cups flour, one teaspoon­
would have liked to offer them such
full
cream
of
tartar mixed with the
small, friendly services as lay in my
flour,
one-half
teaspoonful soda in
power; but the memory of the re­
milk
(two
teaspoonfuls
baking pow­
pulse I had sustained rankled in me.
der
answers
the
same
purpose).
To
So 1 hesitated.
one-half
the
mixture
add
one
table
­
One morning my two boys burst
into the library with their eyes spoonful of molasses, one cup of raisins
stoned and dropped, one quarter pound
sparkling.
“ You know the old elm down the of aitron sliced fine, one teaspoonful of
ground cinnamon, one half teaspoon­
road ?” cried one.
ful each of cloves and allspice, and a
" Yes.”
“The elm with the hand-bird's little nutmeg ; add one tablespoonfui
of flour. Bake in jelly cake pans, two
nest ?” shrieked the other.
of white and two of dark put them
" Yes, yes !*’
“ Well, we lw»th just climbed, up, together while warm with jelly.
Oranye Cake.— Two cups of sugar,
and there’s three young ones in it’”
two
of flour, one of water, five yolks
Then I smiled to think that our
of
eggs,
and three of the whites ; two
new neighbors had got such a pro­
teaspoonfuls
of baking powder; a little
mising little family. — Atlantic
salt,
and
juice
and grated rind of one
Monthly.
orange. Beat the whites to a stiff
_ t
_______
froth, add the sugar, and when
The Cossack Women.
thoroughly mixed add the yolks (which
Count Tolstoy says: "The Cossack should have been previously beaten
looks on women as the tools of his for five minutes). This mix all to­
prosjierity (a girl only has the right gether and bake in five jelly cake pans.
Frootiny for Same.— The whites of
to amuse herself.) He makes his
wife work for him from youth to old three eggs thoroughly beaten, the juice,
age, and looks on women with the and rind of an orange, and sugar
eastern demand of labor and obedience. enough to make it quite stiff, Put
In consequence of this view, the this between the layers.of cake while
women, who are strongly developed warm.
both physically and morally, although
-—■------- -» e »-------- —
externally obedient, have every
Under God’s mighty hand,
where in the East incomparably more
My soul, exultant stand;
influence and weight in home life Not long shall sin andsorrow bow thee low
than in the West. Their separation The bliss of holiness thou soon shslt know -
from social life, and their habits of From ashes of thyself thou shslt arise
To him who makes thee ready for the skies
heavy manly labor, give them more
Under his mighty hand.
*
weight and force in home affairs. The
■ *
[S. S, Timet*