TO A CHILD.

BY JOANNA BAILLIE.

WHOSE imp art thou, with dimpled cheek,
And curly pate, and merry eye.
And arm and shoulder round and sleek,
And soft and fair?--thou urchin sly!
What boots it who with sweet caresses

First call'd thee his-or squire or hind?
Since thou in every wight that passes
Dost now a friendly playmate find.
Thy downcast glances, grave, but cunning,
As fringed eyelids rise and fall;
Thy shyness, swiftly from me running,
Is infantine coquetry all.

But far afield thou hast not flown:

With mocks, and threats, half-lisp'd, halfspoken,

I feel thee pulling at my gown,

Of right good will thy simple token. And thou must laugh and wrestle too, A mimic warfare with me waging; To make, as wily lovers do,

Thy after kindness more engaging. The wilding rose, sweet as thyself,

And new-cropt daisies are thy treasure: I'd gladly part with worldly pelf

To taste again thy youthful pleasure. But yet, for all thy merry look,

Thy frisks and wiles, the time is coming When thou shalt sit in cheerful nook,

The weary spell or horn-book thumbing. Well; let it be !-through weal and woe, Thou know'st not now thy future range; Life is a motley, shifting show,

And thou a thing of hope and change.

THE FIELD IS THE WORLD.

BY MONTGOMERY.

Sow in the morn thy seed,

At eve hold not thine hand;

To doubt and fear give thou no heed,
Broad-cast it o'er the land.

Beside all waters sow;

The highway furrows stock;
Drop it where thorns and thistles grow;
Scatter it on the rock.

The good, the fruitful ground,
Expect not here nor there;
O'er hill and dale, by plots 'tis found;
Go forth, then, everywhere.

Thou know'st not which may thrive,
The late or early sown;

Grace keeps the precious germs alive,
When and wherever strown.

And duly shall appear,

In verdure, beauty, strength,
The tender blade, the stalk, the ear,
And the full corn at length.

Thou canst not toil in vain :

Cold, heat, and moist, and dry,
Shall foster and mature the grain,
For garners in the sky.
Thence, when the glorious end,
The day of God is come,
The angel-reapers shall descend,

And heaven cry-"Harvest home."

BYGONES.

"LET bygones be bygones"-they foolishly say, And bid me be wise and forget them; But old recollections are active to-day,

And I can do nought but regret them: Though the present be pleasant, all joyous and gay,

And promising well for the morrow,
I love to look back on the years pass'd away,
Embalming my bygones in sorrow.

If the morning of life has a mantle of gray,
Its noon will be blither and brighter;
If March has its storm, there is sunshine in May
And light out of darkness is lighter:
Thus the present is pleasant, a cheerful to-day,
With a wiser, a soberer gladness,
Because it is tinged with the mellowing ray,
Of a yesterday's sunset of sadness.

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS. TWILIGHT's Soft dews steal o'er the village green, With magic tints to harmonize the scene; Still'd is the hum that through the hamlet broke, When round the ruins of their ancient oak The peasants flock'd to hear the minstrel play, And games and carols closed the busy day. Her wheel at rest, the matron thrills no more With treasured tales and legendary lore. All, all are fled; nor mirth nor music flows To chase the dreams of innocent repose. All, all are fled; yet still I linger here! What secret charms this silent spot endear!

Mark yon old mansion, frowning through the

trees,

Whose hollow turret woos the whistling breeze. That casement, arch'd with ivy's brownest shade, First to these eyes the light of heaven convey'd. The mouldering gateway strews the grass-grown

court,

Once the calm scene of many a simple sport, When Nature pleased, for life itself was new, And the heart promised what the fancy drew.

Childhood's loved group revisits every scene,
The tangled wood-walk and the tufted green!
Indulgent Memory wakes, and lo, they live!
Clothed with far softer hues than Light can give,
Thou first, best friend that Heaven assigns below
To soothe and sweeten all the cares we know;
Whose glad suggestions still each vain alarm,
When Nature fades and life forgets to charm;
Thee would the Muse invoke !-to thee belong
The sage's precept and the poet's song.
What soften'd views thy magic glass reveals,
When o'er the landscape Time's meek twilight
steals!

As when in ocean sinks the orb of day,
Long on the wave reflected lustres play;
Thy temper'd gleams of happiness resign'd
Glance on the darken'd mirror of the mind.
The school's lone porch, with reverend mosses

SACRED QUOTATIONS.

"PEACE" was the word our Saviour breathed,
When from our world His steps withdrew;
The gift He to His friends bequeath'd,
With Calvary and the cross in view :-
Redeemer! with adoring love

Our spirits take thy rich bequest,
The watchword of the host above,
The passport to their realm of rest.
MRS. SIGOURNEY.

He is the happy man whose life, e'en now,
Shows somewhat of that happier life to come;
Who, doom'd to an obscure, but tranquil state,
Is pleased with it, and, were he free to choose,
Would make his fate his choice; whom peace,
the fruit

Of virtue, and whom virtue, fruit of faith,
Prepare for happiness; bespeak him one
Content indeed to sojourn, while he must,
Below the skies, but having there his home.
COWPER.

POUR forth thy fervours for a healthful mind,
Obedient passions, and a will resign'd;
For love, which scarce collective man can fill;
For patience, sovereign o'er transmuted ill;
For faith, that, panting for a happier seat,
Counts death kind nature's signal of retreat;
These goods for man, the laws of Heaven ordain,
These goods He grants, who grants the power
to gain;

With these celestial wisdom calms the mind,
And makes the happiness she does not find.
DR. JOHNSON.

INTERESTING VARIETIES.

117

THE flea, grasshopper, and locust, jump two hundred times their own length, equal to a quarter of a mile for a man.

GARDINER, Kirby, and Spence, assert that the motions of a flea on a night-cap, have been discerned like the clack of pattens. The chirp of the cricket is produced by rubbing the legs together.

AT a French table d'hôte, if there are two kinds of wine upon the table, a stronger and a weaker, an Englishman or an American will commonly take the stronger, undiluted, while a Frenchman or an Italian will generally take the weaker, and dilute it with water.

IT is stated, in the course of an elaborate article in the New York Herald, upon the oyster trade, that the number of boats employed in supplying that city with oysters is 1,520; and that the value of the oysters consumed in New York, in one year, is 5,300,000 dollars-nearly 15,000 dollars per day.

THE following is supposed to be the number of newspapers in the world:-10 in Austria, 14 in Africa, 24 in Spain, 20 in Portugal, 30 in Asia, 65 in Belgium, 85 in Denmark, 90 in Russia and Poland, 300 in Prussia, 320 in other Germanic states, 500 in Great Britain and Ireland, and 1800 in the United States.

IN 1730, fresh butter was 5d. per lb. ; in 1780, 6d. and in 1830, 1s. 2d.; cheese in 1730, was 3d.; in 1790, 4d.; and in 1818, 6d.; peas in 1729 were 4s,; in 1780, 7s. 3d.; and in 1818, 10s. 9d. per bushel.; flour in 1790 was 43s. 4d.; in 1810, 88s.; and in 1818, 65s. 11d. ; oatmeal in 1730 was 4s. 6d. ; in 1780, 5s. 3d.; and in 1818, 13s. 6d. ; in 1730, malt was 29s per quarter; in 1780, 31s. 1d.: and in 1818, 83s. 9d.

THE rental of land at the close of the 17th century; before the debasement and increase of the currency by paper, was from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. per acre. But land being an article of the first necessity, and always in demand, rose with the amount of currency; and since 1790, has risen to 25s., 30s., and 50s. per acre, or nine or ten times its price in 1690. Houses also have risen four or five times. In the meantime surplus labour from individual competition has in many instances not risen at all, and in no case above 50 to 75 per cent.

THE wings of insects afford an immense variety of interesting and beautiful objects. Some are covered with scales, as in the butterfly tribe. Some are adorned with fringes of feathers, and the ribs or veins are also feathered, as in many of the gnat family; and even these scales and feathers are ribbed and fluted in a variety of ways. The earwig is not generally known to have wings, from their being folded on the back in so small a compass. In size, wings differ as much as in every other particular: some are so minute as to be scarcely perceptible, and others are several inches in length. The elytra, or wing-cases, of many insects are beautifully transparent objects; such as those of the boat-fly, the grasshopper tribe, and many of the minute cicadae.

DOMESTIC RECEIPTS.

CURING MEATS, POTTING, AND

COLLARING.

MEAT intended for salting should hang a few days till its fibres become short and tender, instead of being salted as soon as it comes from the market; though, in very hot weather, it may be requisite to salt as soon as possible; beginning by wiping dry, taking out the kernels and pipes, and filling the holes with salt.

Beef and pork, after being examined and wiped, should be sprinkled with water, and hung to drain a few hours after, before they are rubbed with salt: this cleanses the meat from blood, and improves its delicacy. The salt should be rubbed in evenly; first, half the quantity of salt, and, after a day or two, the remainder. The meat should be turned every day, kept covered with the pickle, and rubbed daily, if wanted soon. The brine will serve for more than one parcel of meat if it be boiled up, skimmed, and used cold.

In salting beef, the brisket and flat ribs should be jointed, so as to let in the salt, which should also be rubbed well into each piece; the meat should then be put down tightly in the salt-bin, the prime pieces at the bottom, and covered with salt: the coarse pieces being at the top, to be used first.

Bay salt gives a sweeter flavour than any other kind. Sugar makes the meat mellow and rich, and is sometimes used to rub meat before salting. Saltpetre hardens meat, so that it is rarely used but to make it red. In frosty weather, warm the salt, to ensure its penetrating the

meat.

Remember, that unless meat be quite fresh, it cannot be kept by salting. Neither will salt recover stale meat; for, if it be in the Jeast tainted before it is put into the pickle, it will be entirely spoiled in one hot day.

In frosty weather, take care the meat is not frozen, and warm the salt in a frying-pan. The extremes of heat and cold are equally unfavourable for the process of salting. In the former, the meat changes before the salt can affect it: in the latter, it is so hardened, and its juices are so congealed, that the salt cannot penetrate it.

If you wish it red, rub it first with saltpetre, in the proportion of half an ounce, and the like quantity of moist sugar, to a pound of common salt.

In summer, canvass covers should be placed over salting-tubs to admit air, and exclude flies, which are more destructive to salt than fresh meat.

Pickle for Beef, Pork, &c.-To four gallons of pump-water add eight pounds and a half of muscovado sugar, or treacle, two ounces of saltpetre, and six pounds of bay or common salt. Boil the whole, and remove all the scum that rises; then take off the liquor, and, when cold, pour it over the meat, so as to cover it. This pickle is fine for curing hams, tongues, and beef, for drying; which, upon being taken out of the pickle, cleaned and dried, should be put into paper bags, and hung up in a warm place. Another pickle

is, six ounces of salt, and four ounces of sugar to a quart of water, and one quarter of an ounce of saltpetre; to be boiled and skimmed. A round of beef, of twenty-five pounds, will take a pound and a half of salt to be rubbed in at once, and requires to be rubbed and turned daily: it will be ready, but not very salt, in four or five days; if to be eaten cold, it will be finer flavoured, and keep better, for being a week in the brine. An aitch-bone, of a dozen pounds' weight, will require three-quarters of a pound of salt, mixed with one ounce of coarse sugar, to be well rubbed into it for four or five days.

Pickle for Beef.-Allow to four gallons of water two pounds of brown sugar, six pounds of salt, and four ounces of saltpetre; boil it about twenty minutes, taking off the scum as it rises; the following day pour it over the meat which has been packed into the pickling-tub. Pour off this brine, boil and skim it every two months, adding three ounces of brown sugar and half a pound of common salt. By this means it will keep good a year. The meat must be sprinkled with salt, and the next day wiped dry, before pouring the pickle over it, with which it should always be completely covered.

To salt Beef red.-Choose a piece of beef with as little bone as you can (the flank is the best), sprinkle it, and let it drain a day; then rub it with common salt, a small proportion of saltpetre, bay-salt, and a little coarse sugar; you may add a few grains of cochineal, all in fine powder. Rub the pickle every day into the meat for a week, then only turn it. It will be excellent in eight days. In sixteen, drain it from the pickle; and let it be smoked at the oven's mouth when heated with wood, or send it to a smoke-house. A few days will smoke it. It is extremely good eaten fresh from the pickle, boiled tender with greens or carrots. If to be grated, then cut a lean bit, boil it till extremely tender, and while hot put it under a press. When cold, fold it in a sheet of paper, and it will keep in a dry place two or three months, ready for serving on bread and butter.

The Dutch way to salt Beef.-Take a lean piece of beef, rub it well with treacle or brown sugar, and turn it often. In three days wipe it, and salt it with common salt and saltpetre beaten fine; rub these well in, and turn it every day for a fortnight. Roll it tight in a coarse cloth, and press it under a heavy weight; hang to dry in wood-smoke, but turn it upside down every day. Boil it in pump-water, and press it: it will grate or cut into shivers, and make a good breakfast dish. To twelve pounds of beef the proportion of common salt is one pound.

To salt Beef for immediate use, and to make into Soup.-Take the thin flank or brisket, cut it into pieces of the size you wish for your family -from three to seven pounds. Rub the pieces thoroughly with dry salt; then lay them in a tub and cover it close. Turn the pieces every day, and in a week it will be excellent boiled with vegetables or made into plain peas soup. It will last six weeks in this way. Mutton may be salted in the same manner.

An excellent Pickle for Hams, Tongues, &c.-Take one gallon of water, one pound and a half of salt, one pound of brown sugar or molasses, one

ounce of allspice, and one ounce of saltpetre; scald, skim, and let it cool. Rub the meat with salt, and let it lie two days; then pour the pickle over, it. Let the hams remain from a fortnight to a month in this pickle, according to their size, turning them every day. Care must be taken to secure bacon and hams from the fly. The best method is to put them in coarse calico or canvass bags; paper is apt to break in damp weather. Always keep smoked meat in a dark place.

To salt fat Pork.-Pack it down tightly in the barrel, each layer of pork covered with clean coarse salt; then make a strong brine with two gallons of water and as much coarse salt as will dissolve in it; boil and skim; let it stand till it is perfectly cold, and then pour it to the meat till that is covered. Pork is best without sugar or saltpetre, provided it be always kept covered with this strong brine.

Beef Tongues.-These may be cured by any of the receipts which we have already given for pickling beef, or for hams and bacon. Some persons prefer them cured with salt and saltpetre only, and dried naturally in a cool and airy room. For such of our readers as like them highly and richly flavoured, we give our own method of having them prepared, which is this:-Rub over the tongue a handful of fine salt, and let it drain until the following day; then should it weigh from seven to eight pounds, mix thoroughly one ounce of salt petre, two ounces of the coarsest sugar, and half an ounce of black pepper; when the tongue has been well rubbed with these, add three ounces of bruised juniper berries; and when it has lain two days, eight ounces of bay salt dried and pounded; at the end of three days more, pour on it half a pound of treacle, and let it remain in the pickle a fortnight after this; then hang it to drain, fold it in brown paper, and send it to be smoked over a wood fire for two or three weeks. Should the peculiar flavour of the juniper-berries prevail too much, or be disapproved, they may be in part, or altogether omitted; and six ounces of sugar may be rubbed into the tongue in the first instance, when it is liked better than treacle. Tongue seven to eight pounds; saltpetre, one ounce; black pepper, half an ounce; sugar, two ounces; juniperberries, three ounces: two days. Bay salt, eight ounces: three days. Treacle, half a

pound: fourteen days.

Obs.-Before the tongue is salted, the gullet, which has an unsightly appearance, should be trimmed away: it is indeed usual to take the root off entirely, but some families prefer it left

on for the sake of the fat.

Beef Tongues (a Suffolk Receipt). For each very large tongue, mix with half a pound of salt, two ounces of saltpetre, and three-quarters of a pound of the coarsest sugar; rub the tongues daily, and turn them in the pickle for five weeks, when they will be fit to be dressed, or to be smoked. One large tongue; salt half a pound sugar, three-quarters of a pound: saltpetre, two ounces: five weeks.

Keeping Meat in Snow. -An excellent way to keep fresh meat during winter, is practised by the farmers in the country, which they term 'salting in the snow." Take a large clean tub,

119

cover the bottom three or four inches thick with clean snow; then lay in pieces of fresh meat, spare ribs, fowls, or whatever you wish to keep, and cover each layer with two or three inches of snow, taking particular care to fill snow into every crevice between the pieces, and around the edges of the tub. Fowls must be filled inside with the snow. The last layer in the tub must be snow pressed down tight; then cover the tub and keep in a cold placethe colder the better. The meat will not freeze; and, unless the weather should be very warm, the snow will not thaw, but the meat will remain as fresh and juicy as when it was killed.

French Method of Smoking Hams.-Stop up all the crevices of an old cask, as a sugar hogshead, and cut a hole in the bottom of it, large enough to introduce a small stove or pan, to be filled with saw-dust, wood, or other fuel, which produces much smoke. The articles to be smoked must then be hung upon a cross stick, fixed near the top of the cask, and the head must be covered with a cloth. It is stated, that half a dozen hams may be completely cured in this way in forty-eight hours. Tongues, fish, and beef, may be smoked in the same way.

Hung Beef-Rub the beef well with salt and saltpetre, in the proportion of two ounces of saltpetre and seven pounds of salt to fifty pounds of beef. Put the beef into a cask or tub, place a board over it, and weights upon that; leave it so for about a fortnight, then take it out and hang it in the kitchen to dry, which will generally take about three weeks. Some persons leave it for a longer time in the tub, which they merely cover without the weight; but the above is the better way.

Welsh Beef.-Rub two ounces of saltpetre into a round of beef, let it remain an hour; then season it with pepper, salt, and a fourth portion of allspice; allow the beef to stand in the brine for fifteen days, turning it frequently. Work it well with pickle; put it into an earthen vessel, with a quantity of beef suet over and under it; cover it with a coarse paste and bake it, allowing it to remain in the oven for six or eight hours. Pour off the gravy, and let the beef stand till cold. It will keep for two months in winter, and will be found very useful for household fare in the country.

To Dress Beef Tongues.-When taken fresh from the pickle they require no soaking unless the usual time, or have been cured with a more they should have remained in it much beyond than common proportion of salt; but when they have been smoked and hung for some time, they should be laid for two or three hours in cold, and as much longer in tepid water, before they are dressed: if extremely dry, ten or twelve hours must be allowed to soften them, and they should always be brought very slowly to boil. Two or three carrots and a large bunch of savory herbs, added after the scum is cleared off, will improve them. They should be simmered until they are extremely tender, when the skin will peel from them easily. A highly dried tongue will usually require from three and a half to four hours' boiling; an unsmoked one, about an hour less; and for one which has not been salted at all, a shorter time will suffice.

1. K. P. 2.
2. K. B. P. 2.

3. B. to Q. B. 4.

4. K. R. P. 2.
5. Q. P. 1.

6. P. takes P.

7. B. to Q. Kt. 3. 8. P. takes P. 9. K. Kt. to B. 3. 10. K. to B. 11. Q. to K. 2. 12. Kt. to K. 5. 13. B. takes P. ch. 14. Q. B. P. 2. 15. R. to R. 3. 16. K. Kt. to B. 3. 17. B. to R. 4. 18. R. takes Kt. 19. R. to K. 5. ch. 20. Q. Kt. P. 1. 21. R. to K. B. 5. 22. B. takes P. ch. 23. K. P. 1. (d). 24. P. takes B. 25. Kt. to K. 5. 26. Q. to K. 4. 27. B. takes Kt. 28. Q. takes R.

Black-Mr. Bogle.

1. K. P. 2.
2. P. takes P.

3. K. Kt. P. 2. (a)

4. Q. to K. 2.

5. Q. B. P. 1.

6. Q. P. 2.
7. P. takes P.

8. Q. takes K. Kt. P. (b) 9. Q. to Kt. 6. ch. (c) 10. K. B. to Q. B. 4. 11. Q. Kt. P. 1. 12. Q. B. to R. 3. 13. K. to K. 2. 14. K. Kt. to B. 3. 15. Q. to Kt. 4. 16. Q. to Kt. 2. 17. Kt. takes B. 18. Q. to K. B. 2. 19. K. to Q. 3. 20. K. to B. 2. 21. Q. to Kt. 2. 22. B. to Q. 3. 23. K. to Kt. 2. 24. Q. Kt. to Q. 2. 25. Q. R. to K. B. 26. Kt. takes Kt. 27. R. takes R. ch. 28. R. to K. B.

29. B. takes Q. 30. K. to Kt. 31. Q. P. 1.

32. P. queens. ch.

33. B.to B.6.ch.and wins.

29. R. takes Q. ch. 30. R. to K. Kt. 4. 31. K. to B. 2. 32 K. takes Q.