The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1878-12-17

up our thDle-bcThpS anu Kltcnen-re-
fuse"
" He'll do it," said the man, " and"
continued the potato-digger, who was an
humble member of the same church
with ourselves, "he'd clean out all the
flesh pots of Egypt, If you had 'em,
without growin' at being overworked."
Then he'd grow enormously fat"
said L, adopting the aggressive form of
argument, in my anxiety for favorable
expression of opinion about my live
stock.
I" Fat 20 echoed the man, leaning
upon his potato-fork, "why, all the fat
of all them hogs that's lived since Noah
turned their dad out of the ark wouldn't
be enough to grease rusty needle"
What = what are they good for,
then p'' / meekly asked.
"That's just the question: said the
man, as he resumed his work.
The mans apparent reticence annoy
ed me somewhat, and 1 informed my
wife of it.
Well" said she, "as we are going to
have several hogs we can experiment
with different kinds. Soppose we get
some of those cunning, white, roly-poly
pigs, such as we saw at the county fair.
To be sure they're already fat, but if we
buy young ones they will grow taller
and broader"
Again blessed the star under which
my sensible wife was born. That day 1
purchased two plump shoats which the
seller assured me contained very fine
mixture of blood They were in the
garden when went home to dinner, and
though they had just arrived, they were
busily examining the earth from which
all potatoes were now removed.
" That potato-digger, said my wife
as she met me at the door, "seems to be
full of cruel hatred for that hog of
ours. If the animal just walked upon
the grass-plat, which isn't near the po-
tatoes, the man threw great clods of
earth at him. And 1 know they must
have hurt him dreadfully, they made
such q hollow sound"
1 promised to demand an explanation
| of the potato-digger, and we proceeded
to dinner; after dinner, however, we
looked into the garden and beheld our
original hog and his two new compan-
ions all busily engaged in upturning
with their noses the bit of grass which
grew between the four clothes-line
poles.
"Oh, isn't it dreadful ~ exclaimed
rhof
ly thinks there are potatoes under the
ground anywhere, and he has taught
the others to do as he does.''
Fortunately the garden was narrow,
SO L had three stakes driven in a row
behind the grass, sent down some fenc-
| ing wire from the store. and by night
had the pigs fenced off in the back part
of the yard, though not until they had
disarranged my grass-plat until it look
ed like highly magnified section of the
moons surface, with its abrupt cavities
and elevations. But even then my trib-
ulations were not at an end. Around
the yard, close to the fence, were hardy
herbaceous plants which had died down
to the roots, the autumn being well ad-
vanced; there were also dahlias, gladioi
and tuberose which had not been taken
up; all of these were rooted up by my
pigs, and some of them were destroyed.
The new animals seemed to prefer
soft ground, but the patriarch was above
any such slothful tendencies; he in
single morning reduced long section of
garden walk to the condition of irregu
larly plowed ground, and though his
own walk was not straight and narrow
as that of the righteous should be, he
atoned for an occasional irregularity by
his persistent industry.
what are we to do ?" exclaimed my
wife, as she tip-toed nervously in from
the garden, holding at arms length
such of her precious plants as she had
been able to rescue from the general
ruin. tits almost as bad as having the
house ransacked by thieves"
81 don't know, my DEAR" said 1,
"but I'll inquire"
And inquire L did, though the first
result of my questions were counter en-
quiries which compelled me to display
my ignorance and its deplorable results.
But one good-natured old fellow who
had laughed heartily at my recital led
me aside after / had concluded and
said
If you don't want hog to make