at he might pronounce on its authenticity. The following,
however, we know to be true--on the word of a very _spirituelle_ dame,
long resident in the Old North State. When the present war first sent
its murmurs over the South, an old bushman earnestly denied that it
'would ruin everything.' 'Kin it stop the turpentime from running?' he
triumphantly cried. 'In course not. Then what difference _kin_ it make
to _the country_?'

* * * * *

The following sketch, 'Hiving the Bees and what came of it,' from a
valued friend and correspondent in New Haven, is a humorous and truthful
picture of the old-fashioned rural 'discipline' once so general and now
so rapidly becoming a thing of the past:--

HIVING BEES AND WHAT CAME OF IT.

When a boy at school in the town of G----I became acquainted
with old Deacon Hubbard and his wife--two as good Christian
people as could be found, simple in their manners and
kind-hearted. The deacon was 'well to do in the world,' having a
fine farm, a pleasant house, and, with his quiet way of living,
apparently everything to make him comfortable.

He took great delight in raising bees, and the product of his
hives was every year some hundreds of pounds of honey, for which
there was always a ready market, though he frequently gave away
large quantities among his neighbors.

One Sunday morning, when passing the place of Deacon Hubbard on
my way to meeting, I saw the deacon in his orchard near his
house, apparently in great trouble about something in one of
his apple trees. I crossed the road to the fence and called to
him, and asked him what was the matter. He was a very
conscientious man, and would not do anything on the Lord's day
that could be done on any other; but he cried, 'Oh, dear! my
bees are swarming, and I shall surely lose them. If I was a
young man I could climb the tree and save them, but I am too old
for that.' I jumped over the fence, and as I approached him he
pointed to a large dark mass of something suspended from the
limb of an apple tree, which to me was a singular-looking
object, never having before seen bees in swarming time. I had
great curiosity to see the operation of hiving, and suggested
that perhaps I could help him, though at the time afraid the
bees would sting me for my trouble. The gratification to be
derived I thought wou