corn-stalks and planting his buckwheat-cakes in July instead of
August.

"Concerning the pumpkin.--This berry is a favorite with the
natives of the interior of New England, who prefer it to the
gooseberry for the making of fruit-cake, and who likewise give it
the preference over the raspberry for feeding cows, as being more
filling and fully as satisfying. The pumpkin is the only esculent
of the orange family that will thrive in the North, except the
gourd and one or two varieties of the squash. But the custom of
planting it in the front yard with the shrubbery is fast going
out of vogue, for it is now generally conceded that the pumpkin
as a shade tree is a failure.

"Now, as the warm weather approaches, and the ganders begin to
spawn"--

The excited listener sprang towards me to shake hands, and said:

"There, there--that will do. I know I am all right now, because
you have read it just as I did, word for word. But, stranger, when
I first read it this morning, I said to myself, I never, never
believed it before, notwithstanding my friends kept me under watch
so strict, but now I believe I _am_ crazy; and with that I fetched
a howl that you might have heard two miles, and started out to kill
somebody--because, you know, I knew it would come to that sooner or
later, and so I might as well begin. I read one of them paragraphs
over again, so as to be certain, and then I burned my house down
and started. I have crippled several people, and have got one
fellow up a tree, where I can get him if I want him. But I thought
I would call in here as I passed along and make the thing perfectly
certain; and now it _is_ certain, and I tell you it is lucky for
the chap that is in the tree. I should have killed him sure, as I
went back. Good-bye, sir, good-bye; you have taken a great load off
my mind. My reason has stood the strain of one of your agricultural
articles, and I know that nothing can ever unseat it now.
_Good_-bye, sir."

I felt a little uncomfortable about the cripplings and arsons this
person had been entertaining himself with, for I could not help
feeling remotely accessory to them. But these thoughts were quickly
banished, for the regular editor walked in! [I thought to myself,
Now if you had gone to Egypt, as I recommended you to, I might have
had a chance to get my hand in; but you wouldn't do it, and here
you are. I sort of expected you.]

The editor was looking sad and perplexed a