THEY would cut down a pretty large oak tree and saw off a block about three feet long, square at both ends, set it upon end, build a hot little fire in the middle of the upper end and watch it to keep it from burning too far out, and by burning two or three days they would get a hole burned out in the shape of a basin, then hang a heavy maul to a spring-pole, so that the spring-pole would partly raise the maul; then shell some corn and put it in, and put in a little water to toughen the husk; then stand there and jerk the maul down on the corn and beat it into meal. And it took a good deal of jerking to make a little meal. Our Native State. ILLINOIS being our native State; the State of our cradle, and is to be of our grave. The State where our pathway has been strewn with beauties; where the God of Nature has been so plainly seen in every swelling bud and in every snowflake; where the very air has been laden with mercies. No one can be surprised if our feelings prompt us to speak pretty highly of our native home, Illinois, the great fertile prairie valley between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, like a choice gem placed between the more hilly states on the East and the West. Illinois, the second and soon to be the first agricultural state in the Union; destined by her Creator to do a worthy share in feeding the world. Her merits and her charms have drawn on the intelligence and industry of every nation upon the globe. Pioneer Work. THE Author would like to picture to the reader the mold-board plow and the reap-hook, the flint-lock gun and shuck horse collar, the hominy mortar, the goose-quill pen, the fire-place and skillet, the deer-skin coat and pants, the whip-saw and the frow, the pot-rack, and the ox-yoke. We would like to show you the pioneer’s tramping out wheat on the ground, with their six or eight horses going round and round; then we would like to show you the four or five big yoke of cattle breaking prairie, and the plow cutting about two feet and turning over every sod distinct to itself; then to see the three boys taking every alternate sod, the foremost boy striking over-handed cutting holes in the sod with an ax, the second boy dropping the seed corn in that hole, the third boy striking over-handed and with the back of the ax closing up that hole, keeping motion the while by the foremost boy repeating the word “now”, “now”, “now”, and them three boys could plant five acres of sod corn in a day. Now we go and see the man riveing out clapboards to cover his cabin; and we would love to show you how the cabin is built and covered and not a nail used only in the door. Now we go and see the ten or twelve boys and girls pulling flax, but you must watch for snakes; see that little spider of a girl, she is ahead, because she is quick. See that field of corn, the crows and blackbirds have taken it nearly all. We would like to show you the smoke-rags hanging to the horses’ harness, to drive away the greenhead flies.