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Show HAMMOCK GNCE WAS SACRED Article Now So Common in the Household House-hold Used to Ee Tenderly Guarded Guard-ed by the Whole Family. 'Ajnong their sorrows the ancients an-cients missed the hammock. That boon was reserved for recent generations, genera-tions, and only during the last quarter quar-ter of a century has it risen to its zenith. Of course the ship's hammock ham-mock has long been in use ; the frieml-of-the-honsehold sort is comparatively com-paratively new. Before it grew common com-mon how sacred it was ! The whole family guarded it as it swung in the orchard, Collier's says. To forget it during a thunderstorm was the unpardonable un-pardonable sin. The junior members, of the family were supposed to take it down every night jt dew time. To leave it would have been like leaving a sofa pillow outdoors. Lees care was applied to the piazza hammock, but that isNnot the highest form, though of late it has ramified into many species of suspended porch benches and hanging beds. The real hammock hangs between two trees. There the occupant is linked hand in hand with nature, and it is as if a gentle current passed along the strands and through the body and mind. Above is the canopy of leaves. Mottled sunshine filters through and patterns the ground with mellow light. The birds nutter through their daily found. While the body is enmeshed in the hammock the mind lies lapped in perfect peace. The hammock also lulls to slumber. It is innocuous. It conduces to congeniality con-geniality among the group of si tiers. It is the supreme trysting place in the shadows of a moonlight night. All in all, it may claim kinship to the two other mightiest resting places it is a cradle for peace and a grave for care. |