The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-05-17
THE FARM.YARD CLUB OF LOTHIAN,
BY DR.. George B. Loring,

NINTH MEETING-SUBJECT FEUTlllIhl's.
"The harvest is past, the summer is end
cd" and the club, which had been sus-
pended for months, began, through its
committee, TO show signs of life. The
season had been rcfulgent. Never had the
hills and valleys of lothian been greener
through the hot months than in this period
of genial warmth and frequent yltalizing
showers. Never had the crops been bet
ter. Never had the farmers been more
The Rev. Mr.. Howe had re-
joiced with them in the goodness of Prov
idence, whose smiles had been constant
and he performed this part of his parochial
labor with unusual zeal and interest from
his official connection with the club and
the knowledge he had obtained through its
deliberations. He had never been so much
a pastor to his people as now and he
found that the closer he stood by their
sides on the earth, the easier it was to lead
them on the path to Heaven. John
Thomas had kept the varied business Of
his large farm in flourishing condition his
hay crop was ample and well cured his
corn had Yielded well ; his potatoes had
come almost up TO the fabulous crops of
his ancestors; his butter and cheese had
found good market his swine had grown
and fattened with un"sual thrift; his
young cattle had done well in the pastures
his poultry had been busy and prosperous
his two colts had grown into quite sizeable
horses and somehow his general system
of farming, carried On with good land,
good sense and good purse, had been as
remunerative as some of the more exact
and moderniZcd methods of his neighbors.
Nobody seemed to know exactly how it
was done; but they we're all aware that
1ohn Thomas's farm always looked thrifty,
his buildings were veil painted, his walls
were well laid his orchards were c.ean,
the borders of his fields were free iiom
bushes, his cattle and horses had an air Of
comfort and happiness, his tools and i'm
plements were alw Is ia good order and in
their places when not in use. Peter llsley
had never driven so lively a business in
selling milk, and had never tried so dill
gently to spruce up in his buildings and
around his yards. William Jones had sold
hundred dollars, and Mambrno for nine
hundred, and he realized triumphantly the
profits of breeding horses. Phineas Barnes
had used his hammer and anvil faithfully,
and had also derived a wonderful income
from his little strawberry beds and his
vines and pear trees. To MIR. Hopkins the
agriculture of the summer had been q
source of great delight. His drained low
lands had yielded most abundant grass
crops. From his old exhausted fields,
upon which he lad applied with liberal
hand every kind of manure and fertilizer
which he thought to be adapted 10 their
wants, he had secured crops of barley ard
corn, and potatoes, and turnips, ami gar
den vegetables, which the first ministerial
Hopkins, on the virgin SOIL might have
envied. His barn was well filled The
new ness of his improvements was wearing
off; and his entire homestead, house, barn,
stalls, floors, yards, greensward and paths
had become humaniZed by use, and had
taken on that domestic and civilized AR
which constitutes the chiefest charm of q
well-ordered estate. He had added dog
house to his establishment, and he had pro-
vided his dog-house with sedate and dig
nified st. Bernard dog called Bob--a dog
which seldom smiled, and had an impress
sive air of ownership about him. He had
also supplied himself with substantial
pair of bay horses, well-built carryall
and an open beach wagon, feeling that a
barouche or brougham was q little too
much for country life and the outfit of a
genuine farmer. And so the people out of
lothian had all done well, and the season
had been one which they could look back
upon with supreme satisfaction.
THE SUMMER LIFE IN LOTHIAN.
The social enjoyments of lothian during
this summer had not been unusual or re-
markable, nor had the disasters been great
Fourth of July had been noisily celebrated
with changing church-bell, and few fire.
crackers, and musket or two; but it was
all oyer long before the heat of high noon
and ended in holiday of rest and rational
repose; while as evening came on the
usual thunder-shower of the day rose up
with rafting fury, washed the roads,
drenched the hay-cocks aud splntered the
great elm on the common with flash and
stunning report that brought all lothian
to its feet with subdued cry of alarm.
The usual trials of the haying season had
fallen upon those whose grass was standing
as late as the Goth of July, and was ex-
posed to the drenching storms which then
set ina lesson which they had been
taught each year, and which had been each
year forgotten. HeIe and there a root
crop had been choked by the weeds, which
grown while the men slept or were too
busy to attend to them. Not every farmer
had made successful warfare on the cater
pillar and the canker worm; and through
the long season the blight of the insect re.
NAMED to reproach the owner A few
cornfields had been damaged by cattle, be-
cause the farmers would neglect their
fences. bright and beautiful boy had
been drowned while bathing in the lake !;
and another had been killed by the upset
ting of an ox-cart. But these were the
clouds which were apt TO pass across the
sky and the people deemed that to be
fortunate season in which domestic peace
had been preserved, and no startling mani
festation of meanness or. wickedness had
occurred within their borders.
The people of lothian had not in the
midst of their cares and labors omitted the
placid pleasures of country summer life.
Their holidays and leisure hours had been
few, but their simple outdoor and indoor
amusements had not been forgotten. The
cloudy and showery days in the hay season
had found the young men fishing in the
could attend to, until the heavens cleared
up and the sun returned to his work as a
hay-maker. To cheerful parties of young
women, the broad, half-wild, undulaiing
pastures, intersected by nnumerable wind
ing cow-paths, and fragrant with sweet
fern and bay-berry, and furnished with a
living interest by the straying AMI bro VS.
ing cattle, had presented most buuntcous
stores of those small fruits for which New
England is famous, and whose deicacy of
flavor has not yet been surpassed by the
crops OF the most cunning cullivator. The
social gatherings of neighbors and friends
had been unusually delightful and the hos
pitality of the town had been freely and
cordially extended to long succession of
the city friends of Mr.. Hopkins. who re-
lolced in his country home and began to
believe that agriculture was not so bad an
occupation after all.
GOING TO THE SEASIDE.
Among the customary annual entertain