El
pa trq.
WIFIE 9 S BACK'AGAIN,
Short syno I had no 4.eart to sing'
My harp untuued vaoThairward ring;
Noo Vvo got back the mast string,
" An' music I can mak again :
l'ho Weariest night it ends wi' morn,
The langecjt lane at last will turn:
An' um, I,sing ha° mnir forlorn—
My winsome witio's back again.
Lang days and nights-passed ower in gloom
I thought the simmer no'er wad come:
But nno, at care I snap my thumb,
An' eanty I can crack again.
Noo simmer smiles—Wyllie sing the birds;
The bairns o' joy strike a' the chords:
An' I—Oh!what needs wastin' words—
Ny duo is back again!
Man! without 21111 f e's care,
Bo your house full, or bu i lt bare,
There's something wantin' late and air',
To 1111 your heart an' make you fain.
Your selfish life's a lanosome splith;
But Wiiil3 . B smile, In pain br health,
Steals woo limn want, or blessos wealth—
Thank Heaven! my wifie'4 back again!
gJltrt trait.
GIRL HUNTING
A HALF LENGTH FICOM LIFE.
EY MRS. C. M. KIRKLAND
"A theme apt - alloys risk
Thu handiest, and hot fires beneath thy path,
The treacharons ashes nurse."
`Cant you let our folks have some eggs?'
;lid Daniel Webster Larkins, opening the
loor and sticking; in a little straw colored
teat.l.and a pair of very mild blue eyes, just
ar enough to reeonnotre; 'cant you let our
olks have some eggs ? Our Old hen don't lay
iothin'* but chickens how and mother can't
cat pinii, and she an't had no breakfast, and
Ihe baby ain't dressed, nor nothin' l' •
`Wliut is the. matter, Webster? where is
your girl?'
'Oh ! we an't got,no girl but father, and
he's had to go away to the raisin'—and moth
r. wants to know if you eart',t tell her Where
to get a girl ?'
Poor Mrs. Larkins! Her husband makes
but an indiffereut 'girl' being a remarkably
public spirited person. The good lady is in
very Aelicate health, and having an incredi
ble number of a little blue eyes constantly Ma
king fresh demands upon her time and
strength, she usually keeps a girl when she
can get -one.- When she cannot, which is
unfortunately a larger part of the time, her
husband dresses the Six thildren—mixeS
stir-cak for the eldest blue eyes to bake on
the griddle, which is neverat refit—milkS the
cow—feeds the pigs = and then goes to his
business, which we have supposed to con
sist principally in helping at raisings, wood
bees, bushings, and such like important af
fairs; afid 'girl-hunting—the most impor
Cant and arduous, and profitless of all.
Yet it must be owned that Mr. Larkins is
a tolerable carpenter, and that he buys as
many comforts as his neighbors. The main
difficulty seems to be 'that help is'not often
liurchasable. The very small portion of
' other damsels who will consent to enter any
body's 'door, for pay, makes the &use after
them very interesting from its uncertainty,
and the damsels themselves, subject to ca
well known foible of their sex, become very
coy from being ovencourted. Such racing
and chasing, and begging and praying, to
get a girl for a month! They are often got
for life with less trouble. But to return.
Having an esteem for Mrs. Larkins, and •a
sincere experimentaLpity for the forlorn con
dition of 'no girl but father," loset out at
once to try if female tact and perseverance
might not prove successful in feretting out a
'help,' though mere industry had not succee
ded. For this purpose 1 made a list in-my
mind fur those, neighbore- iu .the first place, •
whose daughters sometimes condescended to
be girls ; and secondlY„of the few who were
enabled la good luck, good management,
and good pay, to keep them, If I tided in
attemptsmy upon. one class, I hoped for
some new light from the other. When the 16.
object is of such importance, it is well wor-
thy to string one's bow quite double.
In the first category stood Mrs. Lowndes,
whose forlorn log-house had never known
door or window ; a. blanket supplying the
place of one, and the other being represen
ted by a crevice between the logs. Lifting
the sooty curtains with soma timidity, I found
the dame with some dirty, tangled yarn; and
ever and anon kicking at a basket which
hung suspended from the beam overhead by
menes of a strip of hickory btirk.—The
basket contained a nest of rags and an in.
describle baby;
. and in
. the ashes on the
rough hearth played several dingy objects,
which Iliuppose hail once been babies. ~
"Is your daughter at home now, Mrs.
Lowndes?"
"Well yes! M'randy's. to huni, -- liat sho'ti
out now. Did you want her?"
- "I came to see if she could not go to Mrs.
Larkins,', who is very unwell, and Sadly in
V ent of help."
"Miss Larkinel why da telll I want to
know! Is she sick again? and is her gal
gone? Why? I want, to know! I thought
she had:Lo-i-sy Paddon! Lo 7 i-sy gone?
"I'suppose so. You will let Alionda go
to Mts. Larkins', will you?"
"Well, I don't know, but I would let her
go qt. a spell just to 'commode — tea them.
Wren(ly May go if she's, a mind tor. She
needn't live out' Unless she chooses. She's
got a comfortable honte, and' no thanks to
nobody. What wages do they give?"
"A dollar a week,"
"Eat at the table?"
"Oh! certainly,"
"Have Sundays?"
"Why no—l believe not the whole of Sun
day—the children you knoW—"
"Oh, ho I" interrupted Mrs. Lowndes, with
ii most disdainful toss of the head, giving at
the same time a vigorous impulsd to the
cradle, "if that's how it is, M'ratidy• don't
stir a step! She don't live no where if she
can't come home on Saturday night and stay,
until Monday morning:"
I took my leave without further parley,
having often found this point sine qua non
in such negotiations.
My next effort was at a pretty little cottage,
whose overhanging roof and neater outer ar
-rangements, spoke of- English ownership.
The interior by no means corresponded with
the exterior aspect, being even more bare
than .usual,, and far from neat. The pre
siding power was a prodigious creature, who
looked like a man in woman's clothes and
whose blazing face, ornamented here and
there by great hair moles, spoke very intelli•
Elie Beer barrel, il`of n g rirorc
excitiog. A daughter of this virago had
once lived in my family, and the mother met,
me, with an air ofdefiance, as if she thought
bad come with f in accusation. When I
u nfolded my errand 'her aboeb 93ftened a
, ittle, lint she scornfully rejected lhe idea of
her Lucy living with any more Yankees. '
"You pretend to think everybody alike,"
said she, but when it comes to "the pint,-
you're a sight more uppish, and saucy than
the ra'al quality nt home,—and I'll see the
whole Yankee race to-----.
I)IVC,f
I made my exit without waiting for the
com.lusion of this complimentary observa
tion ; and the less reluctantly for having-ob
served on the table the lower part of one of
my silver teaspoons' the top of which had
been violently wrenched off. - The spoon was
a well remembered loss during Lucy's ad-,
ministration, and I knew that :Mrs. Larkins
had none to spare. .
Unsucdessful thus far• among the arbiters
of our destiny, I thought I would stop at the
house of a friend and make some inquiries
1 which might spare me further rebuffs. On
making My way by the garden gate to the
i library where I tisually saw Mrs. Stayner, I
was surprised to see it silent and uninhabited.
The windows were closed; a half finished
cap lay on the sofa, and a bunch of yester
day's wild flowers upon the table. All spoke
of desolation.. The cradle—not exactly an
appropriate adjunct of a library elsewhere,
but quite so at the west—was gone and the
9 Jc - rocking chair was no where to be seen.
went on through the parlor and hall, find
• ig no signs of life, save the .breakfast table
Still standing with crumbs left findisturbed.
Where bells are not ]mown, ceremony is out
of the question; so I penetrated to the kitchen,
where at length I caught sight of the fair
face of .my friend. She- was bending over
the bread tray, and at the same time telling
nursery stories as fast as possible, by way of
coaxing her 'little boy of four year old to
rock the kirtalle which contained his baby
sister.
"What does this mean."
"011 I nothing more than usual. My Polly
took herself off yesterday without a moment's
warning, saying she thought she
,had lived
out long enough; and poor Tom, our facto
tum, has the ague.• Mr. Stayner has gone to
some place Sixteen miles off, where he was
told he might hear of a girl and I am sole
representative of the family energies. But
- ou'vo no idea what capital bread I can
I lake." -
'This looked rather discouraging for my
(lat, but knowing that the main point of
table companionship was the source of most
of Mrs. Stayner's difficulties, I still hoped for
Mrs. Larkins, who-loved - the closest intimacy
with her 'help,' and always took them visiting
with her. So I passed on for another effort
at Mrs: Randall's, whose three daughters had
sometimes been known to lay aside their
dignity long enough to obtain some much
coveted article of dress.—nere the mop was
in full play, and Mrs. Randall, with her gown
turned up, was splashing diluted mud on the
walls and furniture in the received mode of
these rekionsovhere 3 stained glaSs windows"
' are made without a patent. I did not ven
ture in, but asked from the door, with my
Ortiolc fjcralb.
best diplomacy whether Mra. Randall knew
of a girl.
"A gall no; who wants a gal?",
i 'Mrs. Larkins:"
"Sect, why don't ,she get up and do her
own work 7"
"She is too feeble."
"Law sakes! too feeblet she'd be as able
as any body to thrash around, 'if her old
man didn't spilt her by waitin"
We think Mr. Larkins deserves small
blame on this score.
"But Mrs. Randall, the poor woman is
really ill and unable to do anything for her
children.—Couldn't you spare Rachel for a
few days to help her?" "
This was said in a most guarded and de
precatory tone and with a manner carefully
moulded between indifference and undue so,
"My gals has enough to do: They are not
willing to do their own work. Caroline hasn't
been worth the fust red cent -for hard work
even sinee'sbe went to school to A.
"Ohl I did not expect to get Caroline. I
understand she is going to get married."
What,. to Bill Green! She would'nt let
him walk where she had walked last year?"
Here I saw I had made a mis-step. Re
solving to ho more cautious, I left the selec
tion to the lady herself, only begging for,one
of the girls.—But my eloquence wa,t wasted.
The Miss Randalls had been a whole quarter
at a select school and will'not li-N7e out again
until their present stock of finery is unweara
ble. Miss Rachel, whose company I had
hoped to secure, was even then paying at
tention to a branch of fine arts.
---- 44 Itachel--TA-manda-cried-Mrs-Randall-at 7
the foot of the ladder which gave access to
the upper region—"bring that thing down
here! Its the prettiest thing you ever seen
in your life I" turning to me. And the edu
cated young lady brought down .a doleful
looking compound of card board and many
colored wafersovhich had it seems, occupied
her mind and fingers for some days.
"There!" said the mother, proudly, "a gal
that's learnt to make sich baskets as - that,
ain't a going to be nobody's help, I guess!"
I thought'the boast likely to be verified as
a prediction, and went, my way crestfallen
and weary. Girl-hunting is certainly among
our most formidable "chores."— Western.
Clearings. - --
~ Ikii Llu i)[IL .
THE ENGLISH CENSUS.
A paragraph has been floating around in
our exchanges, stating that the increase in
the British popidation within the last gene•
ration, has been equal to an array of twelve
hundred thousand men. Curious as it may
seem at first sight, the fact is really so, as is
shown by a comparison of the census of
1821 with that of 1851. For example, in
the former Year the nun:ber of males - in
Great Britain, between the ages of twenty
and forty, was 1,966,664, while in the latter
year it was 3,194,496, being au increase of
1,226,832, or more than sixty per cent.
Forty years of peace have, it appearS, in
creased the available fighting force of Lug
laud two-thirds.
This, however, is not the only useful or
curious bit of intelligence'4lfich:an analysis
of the last British census affords. Au article
in Blackwood's Magazine from which this
fact was originally culled, gives other items
equally as note-worthy. For example, it ap
pears that more than half a million of people
in Great Britain are over seventy years of
age; more than a hundred and twenty-nine
thousand are over eighty; nearly ten thou•
sand over ninety; two thousand over ninety
five, and three hundred and nineteen ovei.
hundred: The number who have passed the
"three score and ten" appears extraordinary,
when it is remembered that seventy is gene
rally considered the limit even oLa long life;
but after
. seventy the mortality increases
rapidly, and beyond ninety it moves forward
at an astonishing. velocity. Of the millions
in Great Britain, but three •hundred and
nineteen were alive a century ago. What a
lesSon on the shortness of human life as
compared with time! -
A frightful factibreught; out by the census,
is the terrible waste ot"existenee in child.
hood imthe' great maniilacturing cities. In
Manchester, out of every hundred thousand
infants born, less than fifty thousand are
alive at the end kt. six years, and 'but thirty
nine thousand at the end of twenty. In the
large.commercial towns the waste of life is
not so appalling, but
, still is comparatively
enormous. For example, in - LRerpool, out
of' every hundred thousand persons born,
about forty-five thousand survive to the age
of twenty. The chances of life in Liverpool
as compared with Manchester are, therefore,
as forty-five to thirty-nine. The great mor
tality'in the first six years of life in the latter
town, can only be explained by the close air,
bad food and the insufficient comforts of the
operatives. Compared with the rural dis
tricts, both Liverpool and Manchester are
pest houses, so to speak. In'Surrey, for in.
stance, out of a hundred thcusand children
born nearly seventy-one thousand reach the
age of twenty. England Wales, on the
average, give sixty-one thousand able-bodied
men between twenty and forty years of age
to every htladred thousand infants born.
Manchester, as we have seen, gives but. thirty
nine thousand. The mortality in the manu
facturing towns is, consequently, two-thirds
greater than in the kingdom at large, and
about twice as large as in the healthier rural
districts. This is a telling fact against the
morbid growth of cities, the neglect of sani
tary measures in towns and the too common
indifference to the physibal condition of the
working man. We might profit even here
by taking it to heart.
One would think that the liberal profes
sions in civilized countries would vary
greatly in numbers; that •for example, there
would be more clergymen than lawyers, and
more doctors than either. But the census of
Great Britain does not sustain this view.
The number of lawyers is about seventeen
thousand, of physicians nineteen tho'nSand
five hundred. The policemen, meantime,
are eighteen thousanalhree hundred, so that
they run neck by neck with the clergy, the
law and medicine. The blind are one out of
every nine hundred 'and seventy-five. The
deaf and dumb are one to every sixteen
hundred and seventy. The total number of
criMinals in confinement is about twenty-
seven thousand. There are about four hun
dred thousand widows;. about two to one, -it
will be seen; a fact which goes far to prove
that the sex which has the liberty of 'asking
fares better than the sex which has to wait
to be asked.
The British census also confirms the old
saying, that people who abandon their 'native
air' do not live as long as those who remain
by it.' The towns, it likewise appears, have
to be continually recruited from the country
—verifying the French statement that few
families survive a century in PariS. Most of
these facts are doubtless true, to a greater or
less - degree, of the United States; - and it is
for this reason, and not merely to gratify idle
curiosity, that we have collected them.—The
census of any civilized .cation, iu fact, can
impart truth to other nations.
TUE OLDESTTEIthON IN VIRGINIA.—A Cor
respondent of the Richmond Inquirer says:
--- , There is a negro woman in Powhatan, now
living in my immediate neighborhood, whom
I have recently seen and tdked with, who
was born the year after George 11., ascended
the throne of England, and four years be
fore the birth of George Washington! She,
is now one hundred and twenty-six years
old, and was, of course, very near half a
century old at the time our Declaration of
Independence was proclaimed, on the 4th of
July, 1776. I state this upon information
that I believe -to be true; and the appearance
of her pegson serves to confirm it. Her
memory . seems to furnish her an indelible
record of all the events, great and small, of
her long life, when aroused 'from the'. state
of drowsy forgetfulness that frequently be,-
tides her. When, I saw her, she was wide
awake, and full, of chat. She had remark
ably fine eyes, and, I was told, could thread
a needle, and Sew nearly as well'as she ever
could. She said she had been the mother of
sixteen children', all of whom died of old age,
and that there was precisely one year and
one day between their births, respectively;
that she ]tad never been sick=never had a•
physician to see her—and never took a
single dose of physic in her life. She talked
cheerfully and fluently;' and quoted many
passages of Scripture readily and appropri
ately; said she had been to Heaven twice,
and wanted to go again. Whenever she
touched upon religion, her mind seemed to
become absorbed at once; and the (to me)
unexpected fluency and beauty of her lan
guage, indicated "the gift" that we some
times hear of. Though no Doctor, I was
.prompted by curiosity to feel' her pulse, to •
see if it beat like other people's.' I found it
quite regular and strong. I inquired if she
had never lost her eyesight, She said, no,
never, nor appetite either: . .
Now,., gentlemen, as this case may be in
"t*sting to the curious, the facts herein
stated are at your disposal. Yours; truly.
l'Ar A yorffig lady thus writes, anony
mously, in the columns of nn Irish paper:—
Vey my part," confess, that the desire of my
heart, and my constant prayer is, that I may
be blessed with a goodland affectionate hus
band, and thatli may be,t good and affection.
at fe and mother:- Should Ibe denied
this, I hopWbr grace to resigiPanyself,but I
it will be a hard trial for me."
LONG LIVES AND lIERLTIIY ONES
"How few really die of old age l" observes
Dr. Van Oven, in an interesting ivolurne .
which he has published in London, on the
causes of longevity.• To prove the truth of
his remark, he gives tables of 7000 persons
who lived ages from 100 to 185 years. Tim
following are some of the instances he re
fors to :—Parr's death at 152 was premature,
induced by a foolish change from the simple
diet and active habits of a peasant to the
luxurious ease and exciting foods of a coun
try gentleman. His body was examined by
the great Harvey. who found all the.. organs
in 86 sound a condition,.that, but for intem
perance and inactivity, he would in all proba
bility, have lived many years longer." An
English gentleman named Hastings, who
died in 1650, at the
- age of 100, rode to the
death of a stag at 90. Thomas Wood, a
parish clerk, lived to 106, and " could read
to the last without spectacles, and only kept
his bed one day." J. Witten, a weaver,
" was never sick, never used spectacles, bun.
-tsd a year before his death, and died sudden•
ly,"at then& of 102. Francis Atkins " was a
porter at the palace gate, Salisbury. It was
his duty to wind a clock which was at the
top of the palace, and he performed this duty
until within a year of his death (102) He
was remarkably upright in his deportinent,
and walked well to the last." Margret Mc-
Ddrval, a Scottish woman, who died at 106,
married thirteen husbands, and survived
theta all." Cardinal de Sails, who died in
1785, at tbe age of 110, used to say—" By
being old when I was young, I find • myself
-young-now-1-am - tudi• -
oils, but not lazy or sedebtary life ; my diet
was ever sparing, though delicate ; my li
quors the best wines of Zeres and La Mancha
of which I never exceeded a pint at a meal
except in cold weather, when I allowed my
self a Pint more ; I rode and walked every
day, except in rainy weather, when I exer
cised for two hours. So far I took care of
the body ; and as to the mind, I endeavored
to preserve it in due temper by a scrupulous
obedience to the divine commands, and keep
ing (as the apostle directs) a_conazience void
of offence to God,and man." J. Jaech,
native of Switzerland, " when 127. years old
was sent as a deputy to the National Assem
bly of France." He - died the-following year.
Others might be mentioned, but we have
only room to add, that within the past two
centuries and a half, ten yell-certified cases
of individuals, in England and Wales living
to ages ranging from 152 to 200 years, have
occurred; and here, in modern times, we
have repeated the length of days commonly
believed to belong exclusively to the •patri.
archal ages,
AN INDIGESTIBLE MEAL—An immense
anaconda recently arrived in Boston from the
neighborhood of the Congo river, in Africa.
It is said that his length is between twenty
and twenty-five feet, with a girth of thirty
inches in the largest part of his body. Just
before leaving his native land he took a
hearty meal of a dog, and no other food was
eaten by him for seven months after. After
the first of October this king of snakes ar
rived in Boston, and was lodged in a,large
case with very strong glass walls, and a dou
ble English milled blanket, folded into four
thicknesses, furnished for his bed. , On the
20th of November Mr. Sears, the proprie
tor,- thought it was full time to tempt his
appetite, and therefore introduced a rabbit
into Itis'den just at evening. On viewing
the interior the folloWing morning, the blan
ket was missing, while the-rabbit was still
'alive! On Wednesday, seven days after
the blanket was discharged, whole and unim
paired, after a circuitous journey through an
intestinal tulie.of nearly one hundred and
,fifty feet. It is suppos'«l that when ho
sprarg at the rabbit, by some mistake in
calculation' the latter-escaped, and the edge
of the blanket was seized by the teeth,—
When these are once engaged, being for
holders and not for mastication; it is quite
impossible to disengage them ; and hence
whatever is once drawn into the mouth must
necessarily go down his throat. _ • •
nueTINT OF MEDICINE.—Thett are
times unquestionably, when pills are good
things; but generally pillows are better.:--
We are of opinion that the former hitve often
got not a little credit, when fairly belonged
to the latter, When a man is ill, the doctor
tells him to go to bed, and be contented;
probably he gives him a , little, taste of ph).
sic ; but quiet; a recumbek posture, and.
tempory abstinence are, in very many ea•
ses, the, successful remedial agents after
all. Giving pills is the way the doctor has
of turning, the key upon his patient, keeping
him at home, establishing healthful bodily
functions, and opening his mind,to good t td
vice.
D