Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1875-01-29


had so many uses for them. They were
beauty and 10y to us forever. We knew
that in creating them the good Lord had
made no mistake. Besides the variety OF
every day, there was the variety which the
seasons brought US.
Before we had grown tired Of summer the
autumn was ushered in with pomp and
glory that no other part Of the world can
boast. The apple trees become favorite places
of resort now. We have favorite seats
among the boughs, We take our books to
them and feast the intellectual and physical
nan at the same time.
Oh the delights of those harvest days.
Nature wears her festive robes-the air
grows bracing, the corn is gathered in slen-
der pyramids, and the yellow pumpkins lie
about the fields.
Do you know what glorious hiding |
places there are among the corn stacks! The
memory Of a rollicking games OF hide and
seek there makes croquet on the lawn seem
tame and spiritless. The charm is not lost
when the well filled stocks are piled away |
in the barn.
Can speak of the poetry of farm-liie and |
forget to mention the barn? The great |
rcomy castle filled. even in autumn, with |
the perfume of new mown hay-the verl-
table article for the fragrant piles are IN |
the cracks of the high loft overhead. |
londer is the tall, straight ladder which |
leads up to it, and to the nee Jumping |
places as well, and the new hens nests. lt
shakes little when you take hold OF 1t. |
and your head swims and your heart beats, |
although YOU know it is fastened securely, |
every time you try to mount It. But you
do mount it nevertheless. looking straight
up and praying for courage. 1t Is Just so
trying to take steps up in tho world. The
ladder is strong and stands firm enough
The places beckon. but II your head Is weak
you grow giddy-it you forget TO look up
You fall.
There are many apt lessons, and parallels.
and aileg0ries hid away IN tins grand store
house. 10 him who listens they are reveal
ed. | wonder that the man who spends
much time here is ever at loss for helpful
hint for the prayer-meeting. Do we forget
to consider the lilies, or the grass OF the
field which our heavenly Father has clothed
with 50 much thought?
This barn has moods and lenses. lou
should come TO ii early in the summer when
the echoes haunt 1t, or later when the
! cattle will be at home here cows with their
meek faces and solemn eyes looking up from
their low stalls; horses neighlng impa-
| tiently Tor attention ; colts, calves, geese,
turkeys, ducks and hens, motley crew,
noisy and lively in the great sheltered yard.
world by itself where each one lives his
own separate animal lite, with his own
/ ends in view. a. unmlndiul oil US, our
| iavors and our dIctation as We perhaps OF
our minlstcring guiding spirits ia the world
above.
| Dairymen's associations have meetings
where money and time and wisdom are
| freely spent To ind out what ~ best for
these unthinking herds.
! Do you suppose they ever have meetings
in Heaven to devise best means Tor our
good? have read that there was icy up
! there over one sinner that repenteth.
But | liuger. | remember that farm llie
i not all play, one grand festive time out
| of doors, and that there l. another expert
ence than that OF childhood in our lives.
Because it is ~. becau &c childhood aud play
time are 50 soon passed, we ought to try 10
make the most OF them. and because these
early memories stay with u always think
We Should he very careful Of what sort they
are
Nv friends. it i good thing to talk
about our cattle, the best methods OF pro-
ducing perfect article of batter, and that,
! if we keen the ultimate end, the wel!-being
of the family always IN view. There i 4
! demand for best things in any market.
One who can produce a perfect article that
the world stands in need of j. rich IN the
good things of this life. The one who can
| furnish a man OF women, Oh whlch the
world stands IN sore need always, Is richer
! still, for he Will receive wages from earth
and Heaven. We love our children. We
woGld add to their lives beside the one
thing nccdful. all the pleasant things this
world affords But If We are not able t.
procure for them the golden key which I'M
locks the worlds iavors. five cannot secure
! for them the training of the schools, which
| seems 80 desirable there are better things yet
| that We can do Tor them. We can furnish
them with pure and happy memories OF
/ home and childhood, memories that will
serve to keep their hearts warm always,
that will serve to keep alive their faith IN
good people. in God and Heaven.
! do not believe there was ever a mlsan-
| thropc, or an infdel q use this term in
/ its broad sense) who had happy home IN
/ his youth. or pleasant childhood.
! Does the poetry of tarm-liie change INTO
prose rs We grow older. as the hard. real
| work ui life begins2 Ii IL does my friends,
depend upon ii there l. something wrong.
! The fields do not lose their beauty A. our
| lives advance. The mountains. Ike the
I righteousness Of God. are round about Us
| always. The sky above remains a glorious
! as when the morning stars first sang to-
gether in it, OBJECTIONABLE depths. And
I into the very presence chamber OF nature,
| in the midst of such mystery and beauty
| that one who secs puts Oh his shoe, the
| farmers work brings him. Is it a small
thing to minister daily in such a temple?
| The associations that cluster around
| this work Of tilling the soil are many and
| romantic The first man. the ideal man
! fresh from the hand of his creator. given
/ toe dominion of the whole earth. was set at
an ideal employment, and that employment
was farming. lis farm was q garden OF
| great extent ana has work was 10 dress and
10 keep it.
| The crandest Of the grand CID Romans
whom the BOYS when they 20 70 college
never tire Of telling Us about, were farmers.
| The Roman people chose their rulers from
| ploughmen, Their shopman, tradesmen,
/ mechanics were plebeian; their agricul-
turists patrician, honorable.
When our Saviour was on earth his
| lessons, Illustrations. parallels. were drawn
50 often from the work of the husbandman
! that kind of halo gathers around II. |
wonder that the thoughtful man can 20
from Lis morning prayers to his work In
the spring time without thinking oil the
sower who wen. forth 70 sow or watch the
gradual growth OF the up-springing plant
without remembering how like the kingdom
Of Heaven it j., coming not with obseriG-
ton but slowly. silently, first the blade
then the ear and last the fall corn IN the ear.
Ii must be that farm work i gOod-goot
for the bOdy-good for the soul.
How Is 1t that | hear complaints from
Young men ard young women-irom men
and women who are olter-0f its drudgery,
its mOnOtOnYI
When our city friends say unpleasant
things of cur life here, | can smile. They
do not know.
But when the farmers themselves are dis
contented. and repine at their lot. am sad
Not that | would have one pretend 10 en-
thusi-sm that he does not feel. or swallow
down his isto Ike 4 bitter pill, holding his
peace. and making L. .ign.
This Is not conten.uent; i &c endurance,
and God has given the dairymen Of Yer
mont too gOOdly an Inheritance. Tor them
simply to endure their lot.
If there 10 Nc beauty, no happiness, no
rest in our lives. let Us search for the thing
that hinders Do | not know that ones
back may be 50 bent with labor that be can
not see the sky or the mountains T-0ne's |
time so filled with digging that he is never
free to find out what the Romans thought,
or even what Christ has said? And then
what II larm INC NC iull Vi poetry, anu thc
farmer have no music in his soul? What II
tie world be full of beauty. and the wor-
shippe. to blind? What if there should be
celestial music - the wind-harps. and tue
one who should listen &c tesi2
My friends, if there Is a p;SE Wlio leads !
his daily life in the presence Of ou1 El-n~ /
hills and mountains. and never feels hjs |
heart stirred within him; one who goes to |
the field in summer time, day after day. |
urmindiul of the songs of birds, or the |
thousand harmonious voices of nature: one |
WkG looks out upon our winter landscape, |
when the sunlight has gloriied it, and does |
n OF feel his wEolo soul awed and hushed, as
in the presence OF rcger outside himself, |
superior, mysterious divine. ,e, him pray |
earnestly that his blind eyes may se ap,l-
Ell, that his deaf cars may he unstopped, ana |
that he NAV be born again of the spirit. |