lad to hear from you.

Yours,

I. PLOPP.

* * * * *

The present aspect of the great question is well set forth by a
correspondent, 'LEILA LEE,' in the following sketch:--

OUR OLD PUMP.

The writer was once placed in circumstances of peculiar
interest, where a word in season was greatly needed, and that
word was not spoken, because it would have been thought unseemly
that it should fall from the lips of a woman. Our supply of
water had failed. The well was deep, and, like Jacob's well,
many had been in the habit of coming thither to draw. My father
had called in advisers, men of experience, and they decided that
the lower part of the pump was rotten, and must be removed. It
had probably stood there more than fifty years, and had been so
useful in its day, that it was like an old and familiar friend.

The work was commenced, and all the family stood by the closed
window, the children's faces pressed close to the glass, as
with eager eyes we all watched the heavy machinery erected over
the old well. A mother came out of a neighboring house, and
stood with a babe in her arms to see the work. A large rope was
firmly placed around the pump, and made fast to the derrick.
Then came the tug of war, and with a long pull, a strong pull,
and a pull all together, the wooden pump rose up gradually from
its hiding-place of years.

'Oh, mother! mother!' I exclaimed; 'see, the derrick is not long
enough to raise the pump out of the well! Why don't they saw it
off, and take out the old pump in two or three pieces?'

Just then papa screamed to Mrs. Rice, 'Run out of the way,
quick, with your baby!'

There stood all the workmen in dismay. What was to be done? My
father had no idea that he had undertaken such a tremendous job,
and now he was in great perplexity. Who, indeed, could have
believed that the well was deep enough to hold a pump of such
immense size as this, that had become so old and rotten? Oh, for
ropes longer and stronger! Oh, for muscle and nerve! Oh, for men
of herculean strength to meet this terrible crisis! At that
moment, a timely suggestion, from any quarter, would have been
welcome. But, even then, it might have been too late; for the
pump fell with a tremendous crash, carrying with it all the
machinery. Papa fell upon the g