e buyer congratulated himself not a little on
having got a good thing at a low price. But there was one member of his
family who was not altogether pleased.

The son, a dapper young man, wanted a little more "style," and would
have preferred a new vehicle of fashionable build. He said so much about
it that his father at length lost all patience, and told him seriously
that he was tired of his talk, and would hear no more about it.

"But, father," said time young man, "don't you think we had better have
that 'B. C.' painted out?"

"I tell you," said his father, "that I will not hear another word from
you about it."

"All right, sir," said the son, dutifully; "you know best, of course,
but I thought that perhaps people might think _that_ was when it was
made."

The father surrendered.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

FARM LIFE.

A writer in _Scribner's Magazine_ asserts that the farmer, having the
most sane and natural occupation, ought to find life pleasant.

He alone, strictly speaking, has a home. How can a man take root and
thrive without land? He writes his history upon his field.

How many ties, how many resources, he has; his friendships with his
cattle, his team, his dog, his trees, the satisfaction in his growing
crops, in his improved fields; his intimacy with nature, with bird and
beast, and with the quickening elemental forces; his co-operations with
the cloud, the sun, the seasons, heat, wind, rain, frost.

Nothing will take the various social distempers which the city and
artificial life breed, out of a man like farming, like direct and loving
contact with the soil. It draws out the poison. It humbles him. Teaches
him patience and reverence, and restores the proper tone to his system.

Cling to the farm, make much of it, put yourself into it, bestow your
heart and your brain upon it, so that it shall savor of you and radiate
your virtue after your day's work is done.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

WHAT IS MADE OUT OF PIT-COAL.

Once mankind saw nothing in mineral coal but a kind of black stone, and
the person who first found out by accident that it would burn, and
talked of it as fuel, was laughed at. Now it is not only our most useful
fuel, but its products are used largely in the arts. A few of them are
described below:

1. An excellent oil to supply lighthouses, equal to the best sperm oil,
at lower cost.

2. Benzole--a l