HEAR THE RAIN.
Bear the rain, winter rain; hear ft drippinj,
sadly, sadly,
Blinding rain, cruel rain; rushing1, driving!
madly, madly.
Dreary day and weary heart!
Cease, oh rain, and rest, oh pain!
Clouds disperse, and griefs depart
With the rain. .
TVeary heart and dreary day,
And my lore so faraway.
Hear the rain, summer rain ; hear it patter
lightly lightly.
Gentle rain.sparkling rain; gleaming, glisten
ing brightly, brightly.
Tender heart and happy day!
Shine, oh sun, till day is done;
Clouds dissolve and melt away
'Neath the sun.
Happy day and tender heart,
llylove and I shall never part.
H. A.. Freeman.
WE WERE SEVEN.
BY MIIfNIE MAY LANCASTER.
-. People don't mean harm, they only do
it; and the way we came to hare a linger
in Fate's pie was this :
" To begin with, there were seven of us
. seven demoralized young savages
turned loose on a lonely farm, along with
a stepmpthcr who dealt out justice very
much as Mrs. Squeers dealt out treacle,
and a forlorn old father who dared not
call his soul his own.' He was such a
big, grand fellow, such a gentleman, was
my father, so genial, and accustomed to
be the master in his own house (that
other house where mamma lived and
died) that I think it must have come
'stone hard" to him in his old age to
play second fiddle to our severely proper
second ma. lie fell along with Rich
mond, and when ma had brought him
captive in chains matrimonial to her
country home his being I confiscated
and gathered up us children Irom the
. poor relations and poorer schools where
mamma's death had drifted us, she just
emptied us out in her wilderness of pines
and waste of sand, to scratch our way
through childhood as best pleased Provi
dence and our numerous selves.
We were gregarious little wretches,
hunting together, climbing together,
fishing and fighting together regardless
of sex or age. If John dived off the
vharf after mud oysters, the rest of the
gang were expected to dive after mud
oysters too. True, there were snags in
dangerous plenty that only showed their
black, shiny faces at low tide, but the
Providence that goes about caring lor
fools and children, ordained that they
should not interfere with our sport so far
- as to deprive us of our brains. If he
(meaning John again) climbed up the
brown ribs of the barn till he rcachdU.
"'foe eaves and then flung himself madly
on the hay ricks below, six interesting
young followers would swarm about the
tobacco plants curing under the eaves,
ToorW tn cripf70 thmulvP9 off t.hfi beams
" and down into the hollow he had made.
. Dne morning when old black Joe (no
reference to the song and choru3) came
into the barn ana caught us some pant
in?' in our fragrant, vellow nests, one in
mid-air curled up like a ball, and a file
of five balancing on the rafters ready for
a turn how his old body quivered, and
how his eyes suggested' boiled eggs with
the shells off, as he scratched under the
straw and fished up before our demor
alized eyes the farm hoe, the big rake
with its cruel teeth upward, and two
scythes gleaming with wicked keenness
in the summer sun.
Ma was down with one of her aches
and pain3 that day poor dear! and papa
Laving invited us to play away Irom the
house, it suddenly occurred to our am
bitious minds to go out boating in the
scow. To be sure, there were "white
ladies " riding on the big blue waves out
in the channel, but they might have been
witches straddling their broomsticks for
all we thought or cared for we were
amphibious in those days, so far as fra
ternizing with water - snakes, crabs,
and long -tailed sea -nettles went,
or bobbing contentedly ' in the
frothy surf, with the brown tin of a shark
looming betore us between the rise and
fall of the waves. It was a ramshackley
Id boat, grimy with oyster shells, and
slimy with fish-bait and scales. There
were greenish crab claws plastered about
her sides and floating on her leaky bot
tom, and the bailing-canK as a matter pf
course, was nowhere to be seen neither
was her rudder, neither was her anchor,
neither were her oars !
Wedged in as uncomfortably as Cleo
patra's crew in the picture, and unable
cither
to row or steer, we shoved
her off in the heavy surf, and beincr both
tools and children, trusted to Providence
to keep us along the shore.
lhe hrst
Ihing we did was to wobble, and as we
rather like wobbling, a chorus went up
to that effect in seven grateful yells.
Shen we rocked the cradle in the tree
top wasn't a circumstance, to the way we
rocked after we left off wobbling Then
lhe rain beat on us in a sudden gust, and
the "white ladies" foamed over the
sides of the scow and into our lap with
a rude familiarity to which no genuine
white lady should descend. After that
the deluge ! I think even Baby Dixie re-
. alized that water up to our knees meant
sinking, and that sinking meant death
and so there was nothing to do but shriek
. for poor, dear daddy,with a childish faith
that he could save us, and, failing him,
to make up our seven small mindsto sink
the very best we knew how,and all go to
heaven in a bunch.
It was quite plain the crazy old tub
had made up its mind to go to the bot
tom, and the beautiful persistency Avitb
which she settled to her work would
have sent us down with sickening swift
ness, only that Providence, remembering
us at the very, last moment, rushed to
our rescue in the shape of 'Captain Dan!
,
To say we adored our next-door farmer
but shabbily expresses the devotfon with
which we assailed the preserver of our
useless little lives. All along, we had
known him simply as the man with a
beard, and bothered no more about him,
but now 1
We beat up partridges from the russet
hedges, and while his gun was smoking,
L hunted the stubble to bring them to him
warm and wet and dead. We letliim
into the secret of every nest and burrow
in the chaffy pines, and blistered our
selves in the corn-field fighting maraud
ing crows. We even extended our love
to the old mare that had come home from
the war with him all ribs and horsehair
and to the rusty little fishing-smack
that had helped to save our lives.
He never made us feel, God bless him!
that we were not delightful to gaze upon,
or that we might be less aggressive in the
way of teeth and nails and heels. There
was always a bright sort of welcome in his
brown, freckled face when we seven scam
pered across fields or along roads to meet
him, and his was always the first cheery
word, always, at least, until that un
lucky evening when we met him canter
ing from the village with the alarming
announcement that Cousin Till had
come.
. .Cousin Till meant ma's niece. She
was one of those big, gorgeous-looking
young women a body calls stunning be
hind her back a young woman with
lots of bronze hair in 9 demoralized state
of puff, bang and frizzle, with cheeks
like peach-blooms all pink and waxy, and
lips as red and tempting as ma's bush of
scarlet sage.
She was rich, too, in a mild sort of
way, dressed in milk-white frocks and
blue ribbons for breakfast, and had a
beau, ma said, for every day in the week.
For the rest, she owned a big farm ten
miles above us, visited ma when there
was nothing better going on, and always
went off in a huff. She treated us
children fairly enough, considering, and
all we knew or cared about her was, that
she slept in mittens to keep her hands
white, canied her trunk key with exas
perating consistency, never tasted coffee
on account of her complexion, and wished
her name wa3 Maud instead of Matilda
all we cared at least, until that un
lucky evening when Captain Dan would
budge no nearer than the garden after
which I am bound to own we hated her
with a hatred too genuine to put in
print! .
Budge! he wouldn't even look toward
the house even when we clung to his
saddle flaps and swarmed about his legs,
and tugged and coaxed and scolded, we
could get no better satisfaction than a
playful flip of his riding whip as he gave
his horse the bridle and slowly rode away.
That was the beginning of it. We rarely
saw our preserver after that, and never
once at the house how we hated her for
it, and how we wished to goodness she
would have the sense to go 1
At last, when things had become so
desperate that Captain Dan never even
scudded by in his fishing smack, nor
turned his old mare's head into our road
and Cousin Till kept on being sweet as
peaches we held an indignation meeting
on the back piazza and vented our
wrongs in speech.
"Cut her throat and bury her in the
pines," suggested John, our harmless
eldest, who was addicted to uncomfort
ably vivid dreams.
"Wy tant we put 'ard trabs in her bed
and dwown her wif a rope!" lisped
Aggie, our Borgia of six.
, "Better shave that head of hers!" ad
vised Jim; who really gave brilliant prom
ise of being a first-class villain only he
died, poor little lad, before he had time
to work out his vocation.
And to shave our Cousin Tilly we de
cided. We were very jubilant at the tea-table
that night so jubilant that ma moaned
at us through . her bedroom door, and
papa and Cousin Till frowned us down
from their end of the table and when
at last she had retired early by reason of
ma's headache, and papa had catechised
us from "Who made you?"' down to
"What became of Cain?" we, too, filed
up thei crooked old 6tairway to the three
rooms allotted to our sway.
. We had cast John for the barber in our
thrilling version of the "Rape of the
Lock,"" but being overwhelmed with a
conscience at the trying moment, Jim
assumed the part at the usual five min
utes' notice, and doubtless would have
performed his role with perfect satisfac
tion but for a tableau not down in the
bill. ' "
The harvest moon was shininsr like a
calcium as we crept stealthily on our bare
tip-toes to the door of my Cousin Till's
chamber. There she lav fast asleep, like
iine princess in me iairy taie, ana mere
were we face to face with John was the
first to spy it a fluffy coil of reddish
gola sprawled out on the dresser !
When we carried Captain Dan the
scandalous news I think he had a wild
notion to box us for our pains. He
laughed.' too laughed till the fishing
was spoileI, and made us promise never
to raise our hands again to harm a hair
of her head. Then papa, being in
proper mood, we lured him behind the
granary door and confided in him as
well a conhdence that led to the horn
ble discovery that Cousin Till and Cap
tain Dan had been something more than
mends.
"Wasn't she to blame?" asked John
who had heard of such goings on as
courting involves, and liked to air his
knowledge.
"Well, yes, honey, I think jthere's no
doubt about that; but. younjr people
don't need to talk of such things, so run
ana lorget it."
Not talk, indeed ! We talked of noth
ing else; and if Captain Dan wanted
Cousin Till, we made up our minds he
was going to nave her, lalse top-knot.
big farm, and sulks, too, in the bargain I
How we argued,how we planned, and
how at last we made up' our minds wha
to do and how to go about it.
Our plot began with a message. VV ouia
Captain Dan meet papa that evening at
sunset by the bend? Of course he would,
and for the rest of that day we confined
our energies to stealing everything we
could lay our hands on in the way of
ropes and bridles and strings. That even
ing when the sun lay in golden splendor
on the water, and the swamp-frogs were
piping their dismal refrain, Cousin Till
strailed off to the beach, as usual, with a
cloud of white wool over her bronze
locks and a blue-and-gold "Burns" in
her hand.
We took a notion to strail that way
ourselves, only we made no such seduc
tive picture with Billy's bridle between
us, and the great thong of tinkling
sleigh-bells dragging along in the sand.
We found our chance when 6he stooped
to pick up a pinkish pebble, and before
she could say Jack Robinson, old Billy's
bridle was lassooing her soft white
throat, and John was strapping her arms
to her sides with the string of noisy
bells. I think she considered it fun of
a rough sort at first, and humored our
frolic so far as to let us shove her along
to the Bend. She even laughed out gay
ly at Dixie's fierce efforts in the way of
clutching and Aggie's vicious buttings
from behind.
But when she saw Captain" Dan wait
ing impatiently before us, and when ha
saw her and us and when John hand
ed over the bridle with the unnecessary
assertion that "there she was, and no
mistake 1" and when they both flushed
up like honey-suckles, and she hung her
pretty head while he unwound her from
the musty ropes and still she did not
move, and when at last we left there
there with the sun flooding them both
with it3 dying blessing, how trium
phantly we scampered down the beach
to the chorus of
" A cornstalk fiddle and a shoestring bow,
If you catch a pretty girl don't you lec her
go."
A simple story; yes, so simple that exr
cept for Captain Dan himself I nevei
should have remembered. For one thing
it happened so long ago. I never real
ized how lonar, until I met him face to
face, and the poor dear did not know
me
So gray, so sorrowfully old should a
man look like that at forty?
And when, at last, I beat it into his
memory that 1 was one of the seven
causes of his marriage, and asked him
how dared he forget, he turned on me
with a most startling contempt for
politeness, and with ' a sigh that
was solemn even for a countryman lost
in the noises of a town.
"Forget! Well, I've been wishing
every day for the last fifteen years that
I had let the whole gang of you go to
the bottom. Forget you ? No such luck !"
It never occurred to me before, but
now I come to think of it, CoueSa. Till
wasn't exactly the sort of woman to
make a successful home, end as for him
if only he had not interfered, how
much better off we would have been at
the bottom. Tlie Continent.
,i On Sneezing.
On the subject of sneezing regarded as
an omen, there is much to be said.
Speaking generally, it may be regarded
as of favorable augury. "Two or three,
sneezes be wholesome," says an old
author, and "He that hath sneezed
thrice turn him out of the hospital,"
says the proverb. Of sneezing, how
ever, as of other good things, it is pos
sible to have too much. Famianus
Strada, the author of a grave historical
work, has a learned digression on the
subject of sneezing, and mentions one
Peter Suburranus, who died of . a fit of
it, expiring at the twenty-fourth sneeze.
In Aristotle's time men generally sneezed
twice, but since then the art of sneezing,
like other arts, appears to have
advanced, and a triple sneeze is now, we
believe, considered the correct thing.
The virtue of sneezing, however, de
pends much upon circumstances of time
and place.- Sneezing from noon to mid
night is good, according to Aristotle, and
from night to noon the reverse, and we
learn from another source that 4 'it any
one sneeze for three nights in succession
it may he taken as a sign that some one
will dia in the house," or that some
other calamity will occur. According to
Lancaster folk lore a good deal depends
upon the day of the week in the matter
of sneezing:
"Sneeze on a Monday, you sneeze for danger;
Sneeze on a Tuesday, you kiss a stranger; .
Sneeze on a Wednesday, you t sneeze for a
letter;
Sneeze on a Thursday for something better.
Sneeze on a Friday, you'll sneeze for sorrow,
Sneeze on a Saturday, your sweetheart to
morrow; Sneeze on a Sunday, your safety seek,
The devil will have you the rest of the
week!" 1'insley.
Misdirected Mail Matter.
People in general have but a faint con
ception of the enormous amount of mis
directed mail matter which passes through
the mails annually. In the Boston office
last year there were 49, 000 letters wrongly
addressed, and in all these cases the
proper addresses were ascertained and
the letters forwarded to their destination,
and yet people wonder why their letters
are delayed, although it is owing to their
own carelessness. Of course the post
office officials are not . responsibly, but
many people fail to see where the trouble
lies. In further evidence of he want of
care on the part of the public, it is stated
that the number of letters sent to the
dead letter office during thelast year was
nearly 4,500,000, or an average of 14,500
per day. These letters contained no less
than $40,000 in. cash and checks to the
amount of $1,500,000. Boston Herald.
Cat breeding is being taken up aotively
in England, not only for the comfortable
cloak linings its fur affords, but as an ar
ticle of food. . . "
AHOxXG THE JERSEY COWS.
VISIT TO A ZXODEIi PSZTZTST&VAXriA
STOCK FAEM.
Butter Which Sells at Fifty Cents a
Pound Twenty Cowa Worth
more Than $2,000 Each.
"Gath," in the Cincinnati 'Enquirer,
gives the following account ' of his visit
to the stock farm of Joseph C. Sibley,
near Franklin,' Penn.
Franklin is surrounded with the der
ricks of oil wells, looking like skeleton
church spires, to the number of scores
and hundreds, and most of these are still
pumping a small quantity, of oil per
diem. Overlooking the tower on the op
posite side of French creek is the Pros
pect Hill stock farm of Joseph C. Sibley,
perhaps the most complete in all its ap
pointments now in this country. , Con
nected with it in different tracts are
about six hundred acres of land, and it
lias a race-course used by the county ag
ricultural society: Near the gate going in
(is the creamery, which manufactures two
ibarrels of cream into butter in" about
forty-five minutes, and this butter is sent
all over the country at fifty cents a
Eound. On the top of the hill is the
arn, which is of an octagonal or almost
circular pattern, and contains the entire
herd on two floors. From the cupola jf
the barn, which gives the ventilation,
descends a pole, around whjch is a wind
ing stair connecting the two floors. In
the center of each floor is a large open
space, and the circle of cattle faces this
in stalls, their heads all appearing above
the stalls, and the troughs at their knees.
Behind this row of cattle is an open cor
ridor, also circular, around which the
second greater circle of cattle stand at
their stalls. ,
On the upper floor a portion of this
second circle is devoted to the cows with
calves or about to calve. The cows in
calf are generally kept dry where this ia
possible, so that the calf can get the full
nourishment ; but it is exceedingly diffi
cult in some cases to dry the Jersey cow,
as the tenacity Vith which . she makes
milk is the great secret of her value. She
is the most wonderful butter-making ani
mal known to man. Other kinds of cat
tle run to beef, but the Jersey so assimi
lates her food that the globules which
might make beef flow in her milk, and
hence the extraordinary production of
some of these cows, and their high prices
in a country where the chemist has been
at work with butter, and lifts given us
various forms of wag on grease and coaU
tar instead of the Alderney produce.
The importation of Jersey cattle into
the United States began about seven
years before the war. It has gone on
with such enthusiasm that we now have
about 21,000 Jerseys, either imported or
born here, every one of which is register
ed in the Jersey herd-book, that is now
assuming the proportions of a library.
The Jersey cattle by which general
name is meant cattle of Jersey, Sark and
Alderney improve in this country over
their condition in their native islands,
and they make more cream and butter,
and thrive wonderfully. They are dis
tributed over the entire country. They
are eencrally of a fawn color, with rather
dark gray or blackish faces; the cows
are very gentle, and the bulls vicious.
I was interested in two things in this
stable. In the' first place the cream .
separator, which is run by a steam en
gine, revolves with enormous rapidity,
and the cream flows out of one spigot and
the skimmed milk out of another. Then
I observed the apparatus for cleaning
cows, which are carefully washed and
brushed once or twice a day by means of
brushes operated by the engine. The
cow, calf or bull is brought forward and
tied to a post, and from above these
brushes are, brought to her body,
and. carefully raise every hair.
Te cattle- like' it, but their tails
have to be tied up in a bag, for 'not long
ago one of the brushes tore out a tail.
The temperature in the barn is kept at
fifty degrees the year round, regulated by
the thermometer, and the barn is lighted
with the Brush light on every floor, and
at midnight is as bright as day. A storage
battery is kept near, the engine for this
purpose. The light used is the ordinary
gas bracket and small lamp.
At Prospect Hill farm the barn is
eighty- eight feet in diameter. There are
thirty-two cattle on the inner rows and
forty-six on the rear rows. The engineer
has fifteen-horse power. The food given
the animals is boiled and mixed, partly
oats and partly ensilage, or leaves of
corn plucked when the ear is full of milk.
The cattle like this food very much, and
it improves their butter. "The Jersey
cow can be relied on to make one pound,
of butter a day ; many of them make
sixteen pounds a week, and some of their
performances are almost fabulous.
By the machinery used at Prospect
Ilill it takes thirty-five minutes only to
separate the cream from the milk of
forty-five cows. The separator is a
Swedish patent. In one hour from the
commencement of the milking the cream
is in the creamery and the skimmed milk
is being fed to the calves.
Mr. Sibley says that the keep of his
cattle in the winter is some where be
tween twenty and thirty cents a day, but
that for a portion of the year they do not
cost above eight-cents a day. There are
about thirteen men employed on the herd
farm, and the cost of running it is about
$17,000 a year. ' t
At Prospect Hill there are forty-five
milch cows, producing not less than one
pound per diem of butter, while a good
deal of the milk without being skimmed
is given to the calves. There are twenty
cows in the stable that $2,000 apiece
would not buy. - '
The czar of Russia owns personally
220,000 square miles of territory in Si
beria, yielding the small annual rent
of $150,000, not much for- 140,000,000
acres. .' , '
A ROMANCE OF THE WEST.
THE COHTIDEIS'TIAI. CLEBK TH3
JUDGE'S SAUGHXE2.
A Man Who Waited Six Years for a
Wife and then Secured His Stride
and 23,000 of Her Father' Estate. '
The following story is a true one. It
the names of the parties are not given it
is because they object to publicity. The
facts, however, are known not only to
the employers of the husband, but to a
number of friends. . ' ' ' ,
Nearly seven years ago Mr. , a na
tive of Chambersburg, Penn., was a.
confidential clerk for a New York house.
He fell in love with and became engaged
to the daughter of a4 wealthy judge, who
was a resident" of. Chambersburg. The
day was set for the marriage, and all the
arrangements were made by the father-in-law
for a grand celebration such as he
thought befitted the dignity of the occa
sion. Shortly before the wedding the
prospective son-in-law was overtaken by
misfortune. He had indorsed for a friend,,
the friend failed to take up his notes, and
the young man lost what he had a farm
near Chambersburg with considerable
money, and also all the cash he had
saved up during his service in New Yorlk
The moment that he learned of his mis
fortune he went to the judge at Cham
bersburg, told him what had happened
to him, and said that while as anxious as
ever to marry his daughter he could not
consent in view of the change in his cir
cumstances to have a grand and cotlr
wedding as had been previously arranged,
for. He was anxious to marry her on
the day appointed, quietly and unosten
tatiously, and then take her with Mm to
share his fortunes. The judge, however,
a man of obstinacy, insisted on carrying
out the programme in all its details. It
was his daughter who was to be married,,
and he insisted that the ceremony should
take place with all the pomp and parade
to which he thought she was deserving.
Mr. declined, and left for New
York that night. Early the next morn
ing the young lady followed him. They
were married in New York, lived together
for two or three days, and then she re
turned to her home, he remaining at the
metropolis.
Not long after the father-in-law died.
By his will he disinherited his daughter,
but perhaps in a moment of relenting,
perhaps with a malignant desire to try
their patience, he inserted a proviso
that, if they should . live apart for six
years, never. meeting, , never correspond
ing, trying to keep no communication
whatever, at the end of that, time, if
these facts were proven to the satisfac
tion of the trustees' of the estate,, the
daughter might have a share. For nearly
two years the husband lived in New
York. , Then, his health failing, he went
to Denver. After 'staying there about
two years he came to Chicago, entered
the employ of a large manufacturing
house, whose big store is on Wabash
avenue, near Congress, and soon became,
by virtue of his natural abilities and his
attention to business, their confidential
man. All this time he never saw his
wife, never, wrote to her, nor .received
letters from her. It is possible, of course,
that he might have heard indirectly '
through his mother. But there is no
evidence of this, and the wife's broth
ers, who were steadily on the .lookout to
Bee that none of the conditions qf Jho -will
were broken, were unable to' find
anything which could justify the trus
tees in declaring that the judge's require
ments had net been lived up to strictly.
During the greater part of this time
Mr. 's employers had no idea that ho
was married. He kept his secret to him
self religiously, and it only came out last
Thanksgiving day, when a dinner was
given by the head of the house to his
leading men, and then, the six years
having expired, Mr. felt warranted
in stating to the head of the firm that he
was married and had been for six years.
Late last night the trustees of the estate
decided that the terms of the will had
been complied with, and that Mrs.
was entitled to her share of her father's
estate, amounting to about $25,000 not
what is nowadays called a fortune, but
enough to enable them to live in comfort
able independence. Soon after that, all
business matters having been settled up,
the wife came to this city and met her
husband, whom she had not seen for over
six years. He remains in the employ of
the firm, and they are both living hap
pily together in pleasant quarters on the
South Side.
The husband is a little exultant over
this reward of his patience and endur?
ance, just as Jacob felt joyous after he
had served fourteen years and finally
earned the hand of liachel, and is not
disinclined to tell the story of his early
love and the long separation. The wife,
however, is more sensitive ; is unwilling
to have the story known among the ac
quaintances whom she has made since
she came here, and it is, therefore, rather
out of deference to her wishes that the
names of the parties are not given.
Chicago Tribune.
"Sartage."
Finland, "the last born daughter of
the sea," Dr. J. C. Brown says, is the
only country in Europe in which "sar
tage" that is the practice of. setting fire
to the trees in order to clear the ground
is still carried on extensively. The
clearing away of the woods is to pre
pare the earth for agriculture, but as
much, or more, by the preparation of
the soil for the cultivation of the seed
contemplated, and this is the peculiarity
of the usage. The trees growing on the
spot selected are burned, and the seed is
then sown on the 6oil thus manured with
the ashes of the trees. . Should the
ground thus cleared not bo permanently
retained under cultivation, it is likely to
become covered again with & crop of
self -sown trees of higher pecuniary value.