THE RACE
This amusement is frequently practised at a military muster, which generally takes place on a common, where there is good room for the sport. Although donkeys in general are noted for anything but their speed, there are some that may be made to exert themselves a little on such an occasion. The boys often get a tumble; but the best part of the sport is a good supper, with which to conclude the entertainment.
That’s right, honest Balaam, you step it out well!
And you, master: Neddy, try hard to excel:
Halloo! whip and scamper, and make the dust fly!
One will soon win the race, and the next, by and by.
Ha! there, Jockey Charley has managed a fall!
He only turn’d round with his saddle, that’s all;
His donkey bolts forward, and flings out the wider;
Not at all running worse for the loss of his rider!
But Balaam is in at the post, I declare,
With the length of his ears double measured to spare.
Hurrah! for the winner, now let us all sup,
With a goose for the stakes, and a can for the cup!
PLOUGHING
Ever since the fall, when man was turned out of Paradise, and the ground was cursed for his sake, it has been necessary for him to contend with the unwilling earth for his daily bread. The best land in the world will not produce crops of grain, nor permanent food for man and beast, without the toilsome processes of tillage. The earth must be turned over and dressed again every year or oftener, and her powers of production must be aided by manure, before she will render us our needful supplies of grain. The plough has been in use from the most ancient times for this purpose, an instrument like a large broad knife, or a wedge, which makes a deep furrow by turning the ground over on one side. Oxen used to be much more employed for drawing the plough than at present; but they are still employed thus in some places. The art of ploughing well is not attained by every man with ease. They who can make the straightest furrows are the best workmen. Potatoes are sometimes turned out by the plough, and sometimes they are planted by children following in the furrows made by that machine.
BIRDS
This is a busy and most interesting scene in the spring. Birds frequently build in the same trees from year to year, and seem to have a strong attachment to their accustomed trees, whose lofty tops are sometimes revisited by their tenants with great regularity in April or May. There is nothing more wonderful in all the various habits and instincts of animals than the nidification, that is, the nestmaking of birds. How it is that they weave so firmly together the sticks, straws, and other loose materials, of which these airy habitations are composed, we cannot quite understand, for we never can get near enough to observe their work minutely. Certain it is, that it would baffle human skill to make anything like it with the bird’s bills, their only tools!
Here’s a cawing and a fuss,
All confusion in the air;
So it seems at least to us,
Not understanding the affair.
See, in clamorous mood they bring
Spoils from many a distant grove:
Darken’d by their jetty wing
Are the tree-tops which they love.