Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-11-24
From the New York Independent.
HOW I CAME TO BUY A FARM.
BY BAYARD TAYLOR,

In the first place, it runs in the blood. If there
IL any Law | believe in, it is the hereditary trans
uission Of traits, qualities, capacities and pas
s;ous. My father is a farmer, my grandfather was,
and his father before him, and his, and his again,
to the seventh ancestor, who came over in one Of
William Psna's vessels, and Immediately set about
reducing the superhuous sylvanism Of the Apos-
ties Sylvanin.
Almost my first recollection is that of a swamp
into which | went bare legged at morning, and
out Of which l came, driven by hunger, with long
stockings Of black mud, and a mask Of the same.
If the child was missed from the house, the first
thing that suggested itself was to climb upon o
mound which overlooked the swamp. Somewhere,
among the tufts Of the rushes and the bladed
leaves of the oalamus, q little brown ball was sure
10 be seen moving, now dipping out of sight, now
rising again, like a bit OF drift on the ripping
green. 1t was my head. The treasures / there
collected, were black terrapins with orange spots,
baby frogs, the size Of a chestnut, thrush's eggs
and stems Of purple %phioyx.
cannot say that my boyish experience of farm
work was altogether attractive. l had a c%onstitu
tional horror Of dirty hands, and my first employ
ments- picking stones and wedding corn wer
rather a torture to this super-fne taste. But al
most every field had Its walnut tree, and many 0
the last years nuts retained their flavor in th
spring; melons were planted among the corn, an
she meadow, which lay between, never exhauste
ito store Of wonders. Besides, there were eggs t
hide at Easter; Cherries and strawberries in May
fruits all summer, fishing parties by ~torchlighl
lobelia ard sunac to be gathered, driet, and sol
for pocket-mOney; and in the fall, chestnuts, pei
simmons, wild grapes, cider, and the gran
"butchering" after frost came-so that all tn
pleasures knew were those incidental to q fal
mer's life. The books | read came from the vi
Iage library, and the task Of helping to fodder
on the dark winter evenings was lighted by tn
anticipation Of sitting down to Gibbons Rome, q
Thaddeus of Warsaw, afterwards. To be sure
sometimes envied the stOrekeepsr's boy, whom
had once seen shOveling sugar out Of q ~hogshead
and who now and then s~tealthily dipped his han
into the raisin box; but it is not in tue nature 0
any child to be perfectly satisfied with his lot,
A life Of three sears in q small country tow
efectually cured me of all such folly. When
returned to the homestead as a youth, | frat fel
the delight and the relreshment of labor ia tn
open air. | was then able 80 take the plow-handlC
and l still remember the pride l felt when m
burrows we're pronounced even and yell turned
Although it was already decided that | should nc
make farming the business Of my LIE, | thrust lot
my plans the slender wedge of hope that ! migt
one day own a BIT of ground for the luxury
having. if not the profit of cuisiVating it. III
aroma of the sweet soil had tinetnred my blOo'
the black mud Of the swamp still stuck 20 m
feet.
1t happened that adjoining my fathers prope
~. there was an old farm which was fast %relapsin
into q state of natorS. Along the road whic
bounded this farm on the east, stood a grove
magnificent oaks, then a hundred feet 10 height.
Al the foot Of the onks, on the border Of th
field, there was an old, guarded mother pine SUI
rounded by Der brood Of young ones, who, Away
springiug up in the same direction, from the fac
that the seeds were scattered By the north-wes
winds seemed. to be running of down the slope
as IL full aedged and eager to make their way int
the world. The old pine had an awful interest Il