Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1861-03-15
GrncraI iHtsrellanu.

~ Tx IN A 1ODK NElGHBORHOOD.
Had to come tu IT, said Squire Bogart,
as he leaned over the fence, and put fresh
qud In his right check
Had to come to whatH asked John Nu-
gent, as he stood in the road with his gun on
his shoulder and string Of gray squirrels
trailing upon the ground
Why haint ye heern on't' My old barn
blew down in theline storm, and had to put
up another
Wal. it is an III wind that blows nobody
any good. ] guess it's about the best thing
that has happened tu ye this many a day.
have alters been ashamed of that are barn for
yc. whenever ! have come by, it looked so
bad
Ashamed better look to hum. John Nu-
gent, and see yer own barn with the boards
dangling in the air, and the doors down Il is
nothing but a staudin' miracle, that has kept
IL up this year.
Guess yo haint ben up our way lately,
Squire: got new barn myself with a cellar
and shcis tu IL, and lots Of Rxin's'
You don't say it Wal meow what ye
gwno tu du with cellar under a barn, pray
tell. cf ye know =
Coin tu make manure, spose, at least the
old woman sez so, and ef | don't du it, she
and the young ones will Says she amt go-
ing to live at this poor dying rate emmy long
err
so yew had to cave in on the cellar. had
ye; Wal ye see didn't. Wife advised me
Tn, and Col. Smith scd ! was fool ef didn't.
Bnt carried my pint strate threw, and built
a barn Ia the good old way. don't sec what
has GO into folks lately, all crazy about build
ing cellars, and making manure. Hardly a
barn put up in town this five years back but
it's histed up on a cellar wall. just like stills.
Meow ye see, IL stands TO reason. that it's
great deal harder TO get things intu it, and
il makes the barn colder to have the wind
playin' under IT,, and never could see the use
Of making such fuss about manure. II
make. The land produce more to be sure, but
aller. looked to me like folks drinking brandy
i mako. EN- smart for leetle while. and then
they feel tho worse for it. / guess it's good
deal SD with this highly manured land
Wal 10 may be SO. But my woman has
g0tto nkin' the papers, and has been up 20
the fair, where She see 80 many things it liked
90 turn her he'd, she sez they had the smash
inest plnkins up there she ever did see,
and acots that hea; all. and such handsome
potatoe| as they used TO have in old times,
before the rot struck EN-, and that they were
all grown by making compost out Of muck
and stable manure in a barn cellar. She haint
talked of nothing else sense she got back
She begun as soon as she got hum. aud she
has KEEP itup day and night. hant hardly
had a chance TO sleep-blamed ef have
Meow sez she, John you ken have barn
aud cellar just as well other folks, ef
you're only mind to think so. The Citing
yer courage up is alters half the battle in any
thing. There's place out back Of the old
barn made purpose for cellar eena most
With jest litie digging barn with a cellar
would ht in there, just like ducks foot in
the mud You have got timber enough I'M
the woods. and the saw-mill is handy. and
then there is no eend TO the stuns in the
moving lots. that ought to be cleared OUT
Then you've got muck enough down there in
the swamp, and you might wheel it in with a
wheel-barrow eff you can't get il any other
way. At any rate | and the young ones can
get it 10 ef you cant.
Now what upon airth could feller do
when his woman talked to him in that sort o.
style l had to go to carting saw-logs right
off, and haint had a chance to 60 a squirrel
hunting till to-day. The barns done, cellar
and all, and shed to put the old waggin un-
der, and the hull yards kiyered with muck a
foot deep or more.
Wal, meow, that's Jest like yew, John Nu-
gent, alters nosed round bya woman Ye see
Miss Bogart knows her place-knows that
she can't nose me round, emmy how. | ex-
pect to dig my grave about the time dig a
barn cellar
This conversation between jeremiah Bogart
and John Nugent shows quite a change since
we drew the sketches of these old-style far
mcrs not quite two years ago. We had oc-
casion 10 pass their houses lately, and were
about as much astonished at the change as
they seemed to be at each others improve
monts. There stood Jerry, leaning against
the side Of his now barn, enjoying the Octo.
Der sun and fresh quid, in very contempla-
tive mood. The new barn was maniiesty a
great event in his history, and we fear was not
paid lor There was no muck in the yard
and f the cwner has his way there probably
never viii be,
Tho broken-down corn-crib is yet standing,
though in a moro dilapidated condition than
ever. More boards are missing from the rear,
and more shingles from the roof Yet even
in this receptacle Of all the rundown tools
upon the farm. we saw new plow, cultivator
and harrow, showing that jerry is getting
new ideas into his head in spite Of himself
When we reached J. Nugents we thought
we had lost the way. but tho old one-horse
wagon with the white-oak thils unpeeled was
Landmark not to be mistaken. There was
new barn, with the inevitable cellar, and
Misunderstanding woman, with both
hand. or her hips. looking on with as much
satisfaction as if she was monarch Of all she
surveyed. A ditch had been dug straight
through the old swamp, and heaps of muck
were tipped up by the road side, good eyid-
ence that a new leaf had been turned over
True the ditch was not very Deep ard no
sufficient outlet had been provided for the
water, but a beginning to drain had been made,
and this always has logical consequence
That swamp will bear better grass next year,
and more of it, and Johns wife will see it, if
he does not. She will suggest, if that water
could only run off all it wanted to, the grass
would be much higher and sweeter still and
there would be more butter to sell She has
John under her thumb, though he does not
know it.. and there will be more ditching there
next fall done by herself in the same way
she built the barn. tits a blessed thing that
some Of our farmers have good wives. 1t
takes a woman to read the papers, and then
follows reform.
THE BAPTIsTs OF VERMoST.--It appears
from the Minutes of the Baptist State Conyen-
tim lust nuhlishad that tharo arc in tho