Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1858-04-02


sides and top Of this great water she'd
= " 'Twould stir the blood Of age, and make
infant sincws strong as steel, TO stand
3 these blows and freezes. To see those little
urchins yondcr threading their lonely way
thro' snow-drfs to the school house-and
that standing where the blasts beat most pit
couslv-rominds me that education is to
some expensive. O! if they could realize
what it costs them to go and return, how
they would try to improve But how often
do children think they 90 to school to please
q their parents and stay there to please them
selves But little as our forms of education
. are adapted to develop and mature the mind,
or adapt it TO a given course Of life, yet there
is something in that school-house training
that a man seldom outlivcs. My school
mates of forty years ago were almost the cX-
act type Of the men they now arc. There is
the bold, self-confdont, dashing scholar that
saw conclusions with a glance, and is still
! such man. There is the timid, slow-plod-
q ding boy, sticking at every straw and never
/ advancing much in his studies. is still little
e .pcnny-catchcr and has never caught so many
s as to become rich. And there is the same
! thoughtful, discerning, undetermined boy, a
e match for anybody. the ablost disputant in
e the county the man of more thought and
- more resources, and more philosophical acu-
. men than all Of us who were associated with
him. True the school-houso of that day did
not so much TO gjrc a training as il did to
f proloHg the time in which nature might work ;
but thro' it there was displayed the miniature
man. and those qualities that form either the
, gentleman or lady, the lovely and amiablo, or
the cntcrprising and fearless and thus. if
schools Of that day accomplished nothing
/ more, they at least afforded time for the boys
and girls to grow and exhibit and partially
d mature their mental and moral predictions.
. But here we enter another woods Now
o sheltered from the blast. it is delightful TO
b view these bulky and lofty tenants of the
soil. Nondcr is lofty elm that looks as if it
might be three hundred years od--a patri-
arch of The iorest-and there are birches two
hundred and fifty years old. more or less, aud
the naples. tho large. arc less in size tho
perhaps Older but why less; In soil like
this can there be want of potassium and
calcium, of water or nutriments Or is il
because Nature, in trees in men, delights
to have some large and some small, as per-
haps in this silent community there are pro-
icssional offices to be filled by Incompetent
siblc Ignite influence. Here again are traces
Of the all-dcyouring as, and how many of
those splendid sugar trees have been cut.
passed a wood-pile, in that little village, en-
hrely composed Of naples. The man who
sold it received twenty-five OF fifty cents
more per cord than he would for mixed wood.
f So down go the sugar trees. and generations
cannot replace them. Still, yondcr hill is
covered with thousands that have mover been
! tapped Human feet would weary in going
I TO them, and as they are generally surrounded
by snow from four to six feet deep when
/ spring appears, mon have showed their pru-
denco by letting them alone. They might be
reached, however, and sugar made from them
as well as from others. if the preliminarios
, wore arranged the fall before Build there a
rough sugar house. take some buckets and
3 pans, house also some wood, and in the
! spring iastcn ON some snow-shocs and dris-
{ tribute your buckets and work your sugar
/ place in camp without the help of team. No
mean work that
Here we come upon another house of small
, dimensions--but there are sleighs Enter
n ing, there is party gathered, and presto IA
4 wedding There are glad hearts None OK
C poet trouble. Bride and groom, father and
{ mother, sisters and brothers seemed pleased,
It and all forget their poverty in a far more ra-
0 tional way than if they were drunk 1t does
G one good to sec happy faces at times, for,
Whatever may be the weather, Whatever the
S pressure IN money here is enough for to-day,
r. ana they drive dun cares away. Now fairly
e launched upon the waves of life, the bride
t groom happier than Alexander when master
f OF the world, because he has her whom he
T can ENJOY ana whom he can support, and that
/ Is all ne wants; and he challenges our admi-
ration by the confidence he shows in his own
p aoiIty to assume and discharge the duties OF
G the head OF a family; and he Is not going to
! wait until he has gained a surplus, in single
blcssedness, and then, in double onnui and
oenumed sensibiity, sit down to enjoy yapid
b competence.
On another route having loft the lofty hill
{ tops we are IN this spruce and basam valley
OF sand' where two dams, last summer, went
out and hurried devastation to roads, bridges
, and property for five miles, until the food
= was nearly absorbed in the Winoosk. How
strange that nature should draw balsam and
tnrpentne from sand But perhaps, no
, moro so than that 1t should draw sugar from
4 llme rock We see how and why it was
i SAID OF old as special favor to Israel, 'With
a money out OF the rock should have satisfied
4 thee when our (maple) sugar is derived
, rom the rock, talcoso or calcarious, our bal