Gymnastics In The Barnyard

It is plam why the fonner genorations WOT9 unfriendly to amusoinents of the circus class. They didu't need 'em. Families wore large, the old and young rcniained under the same roof, and the antics oí' a parecí of irrcprcssiblc childron in naturo's tights occurred as regularly with bed timo in wmt?r and dayhght in summer, as moniing and evening pmyer, and kepi the hous-hold in a succession of entertoinmenta with the unprecedented run of 3G5 performances in a year. ïhere used to be-a marvelloug " Bub " in every fauiily to whoiB do India rubber brothers" coiUd hold a candió - continually " bringing down tha house,"- tcaring it rtown, the old people thought- sometimes. People who kept, their private troupe of gymnasts and daneers would scarcely sympathizo with the privations in circles not 80 well supplied. Upon old style farma there were a hundred things buside, that the people of our nianufacturing villages have to givo a half a dollar to see the like of.. Earnum's " happy family " is bui a meagre substituto tor the continual uleasure of watching the habits of the fcathered families of ono's own ruaring. A fair assortment of the ibur footod aniiaals of the fann-yard is au open page of natural history - bettor than any menagerie can atford, because of the chances of observing charactor. Pigs display their uelfishnes3 and pugnacity as soon as born, almost, and root, scrabblo, and tight lor their gwu particular duodecimal of udder. Sheep are admirable study of physioguomy- Uncle Peleg C could teil every ono of his hundred and fiity as well as any person can distinguish the members of his flock - by their faces. The least experience of the other domestic animáis convinces of their varioty of physicül and intelloctual gifts. For the peculiarities of our own stock our eyes and ears, sharpened by selfishnoss, become as acute as an Indian's or an artist's, and to lean over the fence - occupying a tree seat in the pit, so to speak, must have always been a perpetual delight to our Puritan ancestors. I heard the momber of the former generation, who restrained me frooi attending the circus as long as he conveniently eould, niakiug considerable noise out back of the barn, (uitc early in the morning Crius of " Shoo ! - 't'er-boy I" and so on - as if in soine squabblc with animáis. I found him in what had been a little 20x20 feet back-yard, with three calves of six or eight weeks old, whoso lives, hitherto, had been passed upon a serai-circle of the barn Hoor, at the end of a rope. - The formor generation was enacting tlu; part of inaster of the ring. He had eoncluded, it seems, to let these calves go out to grass, to run and caper and become soniething used to outside life in the cool of the morning, so tlmt they shuuliln't hurt themselves, and rather thoughtlessly he was keeping all the sport to himselr'. Ho had let down the bars, but not ;i tuit would venture over 'em. Éach had mude several eccentric gyrations about the yard, coming rather suddeuly in contact with one another, or the fence, and had grown cautious. iney couldn t bo dn ven thro the bars. The ono side of the foncc was pulled away - leaving no line but green turf to mark the end of the old yard and the begiuning of the paddock they were at liberty to race in. The calves stared at the grass with eyes that had only seen sunlight through the plenteous cracks in the old barn. The master of the ring had no whip, but he swung his hat and gosticulated vehemently. The calves continued to gyi-ate precisely as if there was no ou tiet to the yard - facing the green grass of the opposite side, when brought to a stand, as if it were the Connecticut river. At this moment somebody laughed. " Get over here and help me drive 'em out - can't ye r" " Why not wuit a minute and let 'em think it over ? That big feüer'a got his head bruised - we shall have to lift hun over the line - or blind fold him. "VVu.it Vill the children come out to see 'em caper - can't you. But the day's programme presred and the balance of the family lost its fair proportion of the fun that was going. If we had set the day and given out notice with handbills, a-ndsD on, and freii tickets to reporters, perhaps not much of a crowd would have got together, but it is poor eeonomy to let slip innocent chances tor household mirth at such a cheap rate, while we pay our hard earned dollars for quostionable amusements trom abroad. After the calves wercin the paddock - whether from the discouragement of the ono with the sore head, or what - the excitement was not great.and theformer generation took occusion to n mark that he'd "seen calves jump higher'n them."