The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-03-04
Bill Arlp'S Letter.

sicker and perhaps die away from home.
/ suspected that he was homesick, but he
looked sick and l sent up his application.
The army had been for some days swell
tering in the hot summers sun not far
from Richmond. The application was re-
ferred to headquarters at Richmond, and
l took it in to the proper official. who
glanced at it and said: Important move
nents are daily expected, and all fur
loughs to SO home are strictly prohibited.
The best | can do is to send the captain
tc Farmville for thirty days" There was
ar army hospital at Farmville, which was
only 80 miles south of Richmond, where
sick officers were sent to rest and be
treated for their ailments. And so he
indorSed upon it Farmyille, and in the
next blank said thirty days. Suddenly a
thought came over me that l could not
resist. | knew that "Old Hooks" post
office in Georgia was named Farmville. |
stepped into the hotel and took a pen
and quickly added Ca" to the word. l
knew that it was risky and rascally, but
l did it, and took it to 'Oid Hook" and
told him 10 get ready to leave next morn
ing. How quickly he frightened up and
how thankful he was to me. He went
home on that pass and came back in due
time, renewed and recovered. He said
the conductor looked ard at him and at
the pass, but let him go by the hospital
and then he felt safe. | knew if | had
told him what / had done he couldn't
face the music and tell a lie. After the
war his people sent him to the LegisIa-
ture and my people sent me there, too,
end We rejoiced to get together again
every night and rehearse the soul-stirring
times that we had in old Virginia.
From time to time | receive good,
earnest letters from the young folks
girls and boys-asking what books to
read and where to get them. One came
today from a young miss who is teaching
a country school. She says she cannot
go to college, for she is too poor, but
manages to save a little money and wants
to know what books to buy to improve her
mind. Well, if l was too poor to buy
some good encyclopedia, l would buy a
Shakespeare, Macaulay, Goldsmith, Tom
Moore, Burns, Pope Gray, Cowper, Camp
bell, Tom Hood, Coleridge, Wordsworth,
and some of SCOTS novels such as Ivan
, hoe, 'KenilwOrth" and Anne of Guern-
stene.' Buy some of Dickens works, as
"DOmbey and Son. and David Copper
field Then there is John Halifax" by
Mrs. Muloch, and Ten Thousand a Year,
by Warren. Buy THE Vicar of Wake
field" fer the sake of the hermit. OF
course our own authors should not be
neglected, such IS some of Irying's works
and Hawthorne and Longfellow and Bry-
ant. Buy Halleck for his Marco Bozaris''
il nothing else. There are two textbooks
by Miss Rutherford, of Athens, Ca, the
cultured principal of Lucy Cobb Institute,
that should be in every respectable house
hold. One is English Authors and the
other is American Authors. Both together
n axe e good library and are always ready
for reference. l had rather give up any
two other books than these. THE Fish
erman's Prayer" by Jean Inge1ow, in the
frs named, is worth twice the cost of
the book. Now most of these books can
be bought nicely bound at prices from 80
cents to 81. But there. are hundreds of
good books by such authors as Mrs. Aus
ten and Charlotte Bronte and Mrs. He
mans, Mrs. Sigourney and others. / name
only a few TO fit the slender purses of ou1
young people. You can now buy the plays
of Shakespeare separately for a small
cost, and so l would get "Hamlel,' Mac
BETH" Romeo and Juliet and Mer-
chant of Venice" When you are able by
all means get a Cyclopedia of biography
so that you can turn to the interesting
sketches of any great man or woman
such as Gallileo, Mozart, Handel, Ra-
phael, Beethoven, Audubon, Linnaeus and
hundreds of others. But don't crowd your
youthful mind with modern novels. They
are made to seIl-that's all.
BILL ARP.