difference between a bullfrog and a wood-thrush.--_The Poet at the Breakfast Table._ * * * * * "That is rather a shabby pair of trousers you have on, for a man in your position." "Yes, sir; but clothes do not make the man. What if my trousers are shabby and worn? They cover a warm heart, sir." FREDERICK S. COZZENS LIVING IN THE COUNTRY It is a good thing to live in the country. To escape from the prison-walls of the metropolis--the great brickery we call "the city"--and to live amid blossoms and leaves, in shadow and sunshine, in moonlight and starlight, in rain, mist, dew, hoarfrost, and drought, out in the open campaign and under the blue dome that is bounded by the horizon only. It is a good thing to have a well with dripping buckets, a porch with honey-buds and sweet-bells, a hive embroidered with nimble bees, a sun-dial mossed over, ivy up to the eaves, curtains of dimity, a tumbler of fresh flowers in your bedroom, a rooster on the roof, and a dog under the piazza. When Mrs. Sparrowgrass and I moved into the country, with our heads full of fresh butter, and cool, crisp radishes for tea; with ideas entirely lucid respecting milk, and a looseness of calculation as to the number in family it would take a good laying hen to supply with fresh eggs every morning; when Mrs. Sparrowgrass and I moved into the country, we found some preconceived notions had to be abandoned, and some departures made from the plans we had laid down in the little back parlor of Avenue G. One of the first achievements in the country is early rising: with the lark--with the sun--while the dew is on the grass, "under the opening eye-lids of the morn," and so forth. Early rising! What can be done with five or six o'clock in town? What may not be done at those hours in the country? With the hoe, the rake, the dibble, the spade, the watering-pot? To plant, prune, drill, transplant, graft, train, and sprinkle! Mrs. S. and I agreed to rise _early_ in the country. Richard and Robin were two pretty men, They laid in bed till the clock struck ten; Up jumped Richard and looked at the sky; O, Brother Robin, the sun's _very_ high! Early rising in the country is not an instinct; it is a sentiment, and must be cultivated.