This section is from "The Horticulturist, And Journal Of Rural Art And Rural Taste", by P. Barry, A. J. Downing, J. Jay Smith, Peter B. Mead, F. W. Woodward, Henry T. Williams. Also available from Amazon: Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.
JohN PiERpoNt, fit a clever and witty poem, delivered at the centennial celebration at Litch field, Conn thus admirably sketches the uni-venal New-England juvenile habit of whittling, and its significance in more ways than one: -
The Yankee boy,before he's sent to school,
Well knows the mysteries of that magic tool,
The pocket knife. To that his wistful eye
Torns, while he hears his mother's lullably;
His-hoarded cents he gladly gives to get it.
He leaves no stone unturned, till he can when it:
And, in-the education of the lad,
No little port that implement hath had.
His pocket knife to the young whittler brings
A growing knowledge of material things.
Projectiles, music, and the sculptor's art',
His chestnut whistle, and his shingle dart,
Hie elder pop-gun with its hickory rod.
Its sharp explosion and rebounding wad,
His cornsinlk fiddle, and the deeper tone,
That murmurs from his pumpkin-leaf trombone,
Conspire to leach the boy. To these succeed
His bow. his arrow of a feathered reed.
His wind-mill, raised the passing breeze to win,
His water-wheel that turns upon a pin;
Or, if his father lives upon the shore,
You'll see his ship. " beam-ends" upon the floor,
Full rigged, with raking must, and timbers staunch,
And waiting, near the wash tni. for a launch.
Thus by his genius and his jack-knife driven,
E're long, he'll solve you any problem given; -
Make any gim-crnek. musical or mule,
A plough, a coach, an-organ or a flute,-
Make you a locomotive or n clock
Cut a canal or build a flouting dock,
Or lead forth Beauty from a marble block;-
Make anything, in short, for sea or shore,
From a child's rattle to a seventy-four: -
Make it, said I? Ay, when he undertakes it
He'll make the tiling, and the machine that makes it.
And. when the thing is made, - -whether it' be
To move on earth, in air, or on the sea.
Whether on water, over the Waves to glide,
Or, upon land,to roll, revolve, or slide ;
Whether to whirl or jur, to strike or ring,
Whether it be a piston or a spring,
Wheel,-pulley;, tube sonorous, wood or bra,
The thing designed shall surety come to pass; -
For when his hand's upon it. you may know,
That there's go in it, and he'll make it go.
 
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