Adopting an Abandoned Farm

lkins to be a thoroughly re

"He is the very soul of honor; couldn't do a

this, for I'm just going

hor

-a h

know anythin

UE T

palling situation to alter one vowel in my Manorial Hall. The haul altogether amounted to eighteen loads besides a hundred bags of vilely smelling fertilizers. Agents for every kind of phosphates crowded around me, descanting on the needs of the old land,

e was somethi

ght, but as I look back, it seems a rosy dream, com

ruly enjoy the country, and it seemed a simp

was a lady and had just come among 'em, they would trade easy and treat me well. Each mentioned the real value, and a much lower price, at which I, as a special favor, could secure the entire rig. Their prices were all abominably exorbitant, so I decided to hire for a season. The dozen beasts tried in two months, if placed in a

sed as just the thing th

can lie worse than

racer in Canada-can travel easily twenty-five miles a day. Will go better at the end of the journey than

stable and found John disgusted beyond measure with my bargain. A worn-out, tumble-down, rickety carriage with wobbling wheels, and an equally worn-out, thin, dejected, venerable animal, with an immense blood spavin on left hind leg, recently blistered! It took three weeks of constant doctoring, investment in Kendall's Spavin Cure, and consultation with an expensive veterinary surgeon, to get the whilom race horse into a condition to slowly walk to market. I understood now the force of the one truthful clause-"She will go better at the end of the

d seemingly unsophisticated, brought the animal. It looked well enough, and I was so tired. He was anxious to sell, but only because he was going to be married and go West; needed money. And he said with sweet simplicity: "Now I ain't no jockey, I ain't! You needn't be afeard of me-I say just what I mean. I want spot cash, I do, and you can have horse, carriage, an

eeled round the corner as if possessed, and after trotting, then breaking, then darting madly from side to side, started into a full run. I pulled with all my might; Gusta stood up and helped. No avail. On we rushed to sudden death. No one in sight anywhere. With one Herculea

ver before been driven by a woma

mong the local items of inter

ry at Frogville, is now to preside over chair number f

is trying a

Boston poetess had purchased the Britton Farm, and was fitting up the old homestead for city boarders!" I couldn't import a few hens, invest in a new dog

usalem, ca

isin' some f

this," I exclaimed, "is just what I don't want and can't allow. Now if you should drive in here some day and discover me dead, reclining against yonder noble elm, or stark at its base, surrounded by

ay my friend the rubicund surgeon to test some of the

would shy at a stone, stand on hind legs for a train, with various other minor defects. I grew fainthearted, discouraged, cynical, bitter

two fore legs were well bent out at the knees; both hind legs were swelled near the hoofs. His ears nearly as large as a donkey's; one eye covered with a cataract, the

t; "ef you don't care for style, ef ye want a good, steddy critter, and a critter

nterested neighbor (who really pitied me?) induced me

ek I chang

way, and no one wo

overworked mare at a livery stable. I hear that "D.B." has since killed two I-talians b

st venture

n their badness, as human beings. Under kind treatment, daily petting, and

will be killed," writes an anxious friend

nce whose motto is "Nulla vestigia

t back," over her stall-but with no effect. The "Lend a Han

d the advantage. A woman looked back and was turned into a pill

thrown over their heads and slid over their tails; have been dragged by saddle, stirrups, and tossed out of wagons. I have had them to back and to kick, to run and to bolt, to stand

y doing precisely what they ought not to do; a pest

n amiable idiot; at its w