deed, but made good the saying "Feather by feather, the goose was plucked."

Bill the Groom, who formerly was in a gentle'man's service, maintained that there was no kind of harm in a white lie.-But a lie is a lie, my friend, let it be of whatever colour you please.

IV.

He also said, for Bill was a sharp fellow in his way, that no man had ever seen his uncle Dan overcome with liquor; and, therefore, uncle Dan was a very sober man.-This, however, was a sad mistake, for all the village knows that uncle Dan, every day, drank too much. "Tis true, drink as he would, uncle Dan always looked sober and solemn; but a more soaking sot than uncle Dan was seldom to be

seen.

V.

Jonathan Sawney was a religious character; but he was withal a lazy sort of a body. "Jonathan," says his wife, day after day, "Jonathan, why don't you look out for work? How are we to get on with these six children?" "Wife," says Sawney, "I put my trust in God who will not see the righteous man forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread."—But it was not Jonathan's calling to expound Scripture, or he would have known better what those words mean. It is most certain that God never will help those people who are too lazy to endeavour to help themselves.-See Prov. vi. 9, 10, 11.

VI.

Farmer Bulhead never would allow that there was any use in a Sunday School. "Servants," says he, "will become so learned soon, that we shall get nobody in the world to milk the cows."-But this is proved to be a mistake, farmer; for there are hundreds of servants able to read their Bible, and write their names, who, nevertheless, milk a

Bill the Groom.

301

cow as willingly and cleverly as the most ignorant milkmaid you can wish for.

VII.

But the farmer was not to be silenced; he was determined to hate all Sunday Schools. He told a neighbour one day, they did nothing but make poor children proud and saucy.-His neighbour answered "That's a mistake, farmer, for pride is, as the saying goes, a disease that's bred in the bone. Do what you can, it will be sure to come out in the skin; the Sunday School rather teaches poor children to be humble. We tell them to be faithful and obedient to their masters, because God as well as man, will surely punish them if they be not found faithful. This kind of learning is not the way to make a proud, a saucy, or bad servant."

VIII.

Whenever Bill, the groom, heard of a fair or a revel in the neighbourhood, off started Bill, forgot his wife and children, and spent in drinking and gaming, what might have kept himself and family comfortably for months. His company, to be sure, called Bill a fine fellow, a jolly dog, a lad of the right sort. But his wife went to a different tune. She said it was all folly, all wrong, that it could not end well; and all the parish agreed that his wife was nearest the truth.

IX.

Bill, moreover, would often come out with an oath, and cry "God forgive me for swearing." Did Bill imagine God would hear such a prayer? If he did imagine such a thing, he was sadly mistaken; for what say the Scriptures ?-Read St.

66

X.

Old Crabtree, the miller's man, made hoards of crown pieces in different nooks about his house. Aha!" cried the old man, "this is for a rainy day, and that is for a rainy day; this is for a merrymaking at Christmas, and that is for little Tom, my grandson." But it turned out otherwise; for in came a cunning thief; out went all the broad silver; the old man beat his head in despair;-and all the while there was a Savings' Bank within a mile of old Crabtree's door.

XI.

Bill, the groom, could talk almost as glibly as a lawyer. Bill once maintained, at the Red Dragon, before the exciseman and half the parish, that if a poor man took from a rich man what the rich man could never want and never miss, the taker, therefore, was no thief. But, not long after, Bill caught one of Polly Ginger's children picking a few blossoms from his wife's jasmine that grew about his door. "Hah! you little thief," cried Bill," learn the Eighth Commandment." And so saying, he flogged the child soundly.

XII.

But Bill always had a right notion on one point. He said "That they who are commonly called the poor, are often called the poor by mistake." For the cottager that owes no man any thing, is richer than any man whose outgoings are greater than his incomings. This, I say, was the only notion Bill ever had that was on the right side of the hedge: -let it, therefore, be told to his credit.

(To be continued.)

On Grafting.

303

ON GRAFTING.

To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor.

MR. EDITOR,

THE observations of your correspondent H. (in your May Number) are curious; and, as they are derived from experiment, they are worthy of attention. Before we attempt to account for any supposed fact, it is wise to be sure that the fact is fully ascertained; and it would be therefore satisfactory to see H.'s remarks confirmed by further experiment. I should however conceive that the additional time between the blossoming and the ripening of the fruit must be likely to be advantageous, as there is thus an increased opportunity for the fruit to grow in size, and to receive those benefits which the sun, the air, the rain, &c. are calculated to produce. X. Z.

May 8th,

ON GRAFTING.

REPLY TO H.

AN apple-tree, growing on a paradise stock, will never form a large tree; and the fruit of a pear, growing on a hawthorn stock, will be much harder than if it had been grafted on one of its own species; this evidently arises from the smallness of the stock, not permitting the ascent of a quantity of sap sufficient to nourish the more luxuriant graft. Healthy and free-growing stocks, which many of the late apples afford, should therefore be selected, unless it be desired to retain the tree as a dwarf.

It has not come under my observation, nor that of any of the friends to whom I have communicated

influence in hastening or retarding the maturity of the fruit. I should, therefore, apprehend, that, in "H.'s" experiment, the time of the ripening of the fruit produced by the grafts which were inserted on the russet, was delayed either by the soil, or by the situation, or by some other cause which has escaped the notice of "H." It is however easily repeated, and, if the result be uniform, certainly the fruit "becoming nearly as large again in size, much richer in flavour, and keeping better," are decidedly very considerable advantages.

Birmingham, May 6.

E. W. B.

ON THE CULTURE OF THE ROSE, AND ON GRAFTING.

To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor.

SIR,

THE Yose, the queen of flowers, forms so generally one of the chief ornaments of the garden, that some account of its culture may not be unacceptable.

The numbers of the species which are found wild, is very great. Some thrive in the hottest, others in the coldest, climates. It is, however, very remarkable, that no rose is found south of the Equator.

Most of the cultivated kinds of single roses, and all the double ones, have been raised from seed; the only method by which new varieties can be obtained. The seed hips should be selected, in the autumn, from semi-double flowers; and, after having been permitted to rot through the winter in a damp place, must be sown in the ensuing spring. The ground must not be disturbed during the summer, as rose seeds generally lie twelve months before they vegetate.