It is a good thing to own something that is growing while you sleep, and Science has made a discovery that helps everybody to do so. It has found out that fruit trees slumber in the daytime and work at night. This modern idea is that fruit trees acquire most of their growth at night. Dr. Krauss has observed and calculated that the fruit of the cherry laurel increases in the night at the rate of ninety per cent. and only ten per cent. by day, while apples increase eighty per cent. at night and twenty per cent. in the daytime.

At the late annual conference of the Church some very interesting statistics were presented in the various reports read. There were reported thirty Stakes of Zion, embracing the Territory of Utah and parts of Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico. Within these stakes are eleven Apostles, sixty-five Patriarchs, six thousand seven hundred and forty-four Seventies, three thousand one hundred and twenty-three High Priests, twelve thousand four hundred and forty-one Elders, two thousand four hundred and twenty-three Priests, two thousand four hundred and ninetyseven Teachers, six thousand eight hundred and fifty-four Deacons, 81,228 members making a total of officers and members of 115,699. There are children under eight years of age 46,684. Total souls 162,383.

The Relief Society reported 235 societies with 18,000 members, having assets $9,166 cash, $21,032 property, $6,479 real estate, 66,409 bushels of wheat. Receipts for the year were $6,172 cash, $6,032 property, 4,074 bushels wheat. Disbursements for relief $4, 126 cash, $4,369 property, besides various contributions to hospitals and other charities.

The Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association reported a membership of 7,744, average attendance at meetings 4,119, meetings held 3742. Chapters in Church works read by members 12,959. Miscellaneous papers 258, and original essays 1,010. They have in libraries 2,476 volumes and cash on hand $745.

The Deseret Sunday School Union reported 425 Sunday schools. Male teachers 4981. Female teachers 3368. Total officers and teachers 8.349. Male children in attendance 26.152, female children 25.428. Total children 51.580. Grand-total of officers and pupils in the Sunday schools 59.929. There are 363 Theological classes, 859 Bible and Testament classes, 490 Book of Mormon, 232 Doctrine and Covenants, 158 Juvenile Instructor, 293 Catechism, 2,234 miscellaneous, making a total of 4.929 classes taught. The libraries contain 40.844 books.

The report of the Y. M. M. I. Associations was read at the semi-annual conference held on the evening of April 8th in the Provo Tabernacle. While it was very incomplete, some of the largest Stakes failing to report, the exhibit it makes of the Associations reporting is most creditable. Twenty Stakes reported showing 179 associations and 7749 members, an increase of 716 in six months; average attendance at meetings, 4755, or over sixty per cent. Meetings were held as follows: Stake conferences, 61; regular weekly meetings, 2783; conjoint sessions, 771; extra meetings, 119. Total, 3734. Missionary appointments filled, 612. Visits of general and Stake officers, 266. members on missions, 116. Libraries, 73, volumes, 5294. Manuscript papers read, 350. Essays, 782. Testimonies borne, 3615. Questions answered, 1462. Declamations, 661. Musical exercises,

558.

Number of

Subjective lectures were as follows: Bible, 1975. Book of Mormon, 1146. Doctrine and Covenants, 1132. Church History, 544. Doctrinal, 650. Historical, 238. Scientific, 85. Biographical, 165. Political, 38. Travel, 40. Miscellaneous, 1585. Total, 7598.

Of all these totals fifty per cent. may be added for an approximation of the true status and condition of the associations, as the above represents only twenty out of the thirty Stakes. This addition would make the total of associations 268 and of members 11623, which we believe is about correct.

THE village of Sudbury is, as every New Englander knows, in Middlesex county, Mass., not far from Concord town, of Revolutionary fame.

One afternoon, about sixty years ago, the rattling stage-coach which ran on the high-road between Boston and the Connecticut Valley, was making its usual stop three miles from the village, at the Red Horse Inn.

As ancient is this hostelry

As any in the land may be. Among the passengers who alighted here, was a young man lately graduated from Maine's renowned college, Old Bowdoin, and now on his way to foreign lands. Glancing around him with all the glad eagerness of youth, he stood for a minute in the shadow of the great oaktrees before the door. The red glow of sunset suffused meadow and woodland, painting in brilliant hues the time-worn and weather-stained inn, its tiny woodbine-curtained windows, and gayly prancing horse depicted upon the signboard. In the yard below was a busy scene; a noisy gathering of teamsters, travelers, market - women, peddlers, strolling players, beggars and inn servants: the Red Horse tavern was a farfamed place of refreshment for man and beast.

In the door-way stood the smiling host, welcoming his guests. When they had entered the house, and were doing justice to a generous meal, he informed them (as was his wont) that the Red Horse had been kept by his father in King George's time, when Massachusetts was a colony. He recounted how his parent had led a body of volunteers down to Concord, to help protect the stores of ammunition from the king's troops. The sword which the gallant Colonel Howe had worn on that memorable day now hung over the wide fireplace, and all were free to examine and admire it.

When they had finished supper, the travelers were ushered into the presence of their host's daughter, Miss Jerusha

Howe, who always kept aloof from the ordinary guests of the inn, being a young woman of superior culture. She had been educated at a city boarding-school, and was, therefore, looked upon as a prodigy of learning and accomplishments. The inn-parlor was her especial domain; it was a large, low-raftered room, with wainscotted walls and tiled chimneypiece, and for decoration, the Howe coatof-arms in brilliant colors. Opposite the fire-place hung a picture of Princess Mary, daughter of King George the Third, and on another wall was a double oval frame containing the portraits of a man and woman, with beneath them the rather startling assertion: "We are one!" These were Jerusha's great-grandparents. And the crowning glory of the room was the new spinet-the object of the neighbors' awe and admiration, being the first article of the kind seen in those parts. Happy and envied was she who could say to her sister-gossips, "I've seen Jurusha's pianny, and I heerd her play on it, tew!"

Yielding to the solicitations of her father, brother and visitors, the young lady seated herself at the instrument, opened her music-book, and discoursed sweet melodies and thrilling fantasias, and, notably, the noisy "battle of Prague," to the great delectation of her listeners. Thus was the evening passed. and then the guests climbed the creaking staircase to the tiny sloping rooms above. At break of day they were in their places in the coach again, and as the driver started his strong horses and set off toward the brightening east, the youthful traveler turned his gaze back to the quaint old inn, and kept the memory of it in his poet heart. The name of this young man was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

gallant steed on the sign-board grew more and more indistinct, until he seemed but the shadow of his former self; still, he held his head erect and pranced as gaily as of yore, although his reign was over. The house became known as Howe's Tavern, its glory a thing of the past, and its guests comparatively few.

In 1848-about twenty-five years after Longfellow's visit-a professor from Harvard College, Daniel Treadwell by name, chanced to pass a night at the wayside inn, and, appreciating the rural beauty and seclusion of the spot, determined to make it his home during the long vacation. Accordingly, he busied himself in securing some congenial spirits, who agreed to join him in his summer retreat. Among these chosen ones was Dr. T. W. Parsons, a gifted and promising writer of classical poems; Luigi Monti, a Sicilian youth of ardent temperament and versatile talent; and Henry Washington Wales, of graver bearing, a great student, traveler and linguist.

Professor Treadwell himself was a learned man of science and an inventor, and at the same time a theologian of broad views and far-reaching philanthropy. He was a man of somewhat gruff exterior, but one whose kindliness, extending even to the brute creation, would prompt him to turn his horse rather than crush a worm, that lay wriggling in the path; or to feed assiduously a nestful of bereaved young robins, ostensibly for the purpose of seeing how much the birdlings would eat.

The summer days were passed peacefully and pleasantly by the party at the quiet old inn. Musical was the murmur of the trout-stream in the woods hard by, soft and brilliant were the sunset skies, calm and bright the moonlight evenings. And when the summer deepened into autumn, and the afternoons grew chill, a fire of logs was lighted in the parlor, and many an hour passed in music and merriment that made the rafters ring.

An appreciative listener, though a somewhat timid conversationalist at these evening gatherings, was Lyman

Howe, the youngest member of the family whom Longfellow had met, and the only one left in Sudbury. He was nominally the landlord of the inn, and though he had long since delegated his authority and domiciled himself in a cottage near by, the greater part of his time was spent in his childhood's home. His chief delight was to descant to newcomers on the antiquity of the family name, to point to the Howe coat-of-arms and the Revolutionary sword of his grandsire, and to wonder what Lord Howe would say if his American cousin should cross the sea and visit him. Being a justice of the peace, he was known as "Squire," and having picked up a great variety of learning, was looked upon as an oracle by his neighbors. With these he was wont to be lofty and pompous in his bearing, but in the presence of his more intellectual city-bred acquaintances, he was merely a delighted listener.

His parents and his sister Jerusha were dead, his brother had married and removed to a distance, but the fair spinster's parlor was unchanged, and when landlord and guests gathered round the fire, its fitful flame still lighted the pictured face of Princess Mary, the rustysword and the Howe coat-of-arms, and danced on the spinet's yellow, rattling keys.

Such is the prose version of the "Tales of a Wayside Inn." The reader will have already recognized the originals of the Poet, Theologian, Student, Young Sicilian and Landlord who are so graphically described in the prelude of the poem. With the exception of the landlord, all these characters were personal friends of Mr. Longfellow's, and from them he received the details of their repeated summerings at the Sudbury inn, as well as the description of Lyman Howe, who was a very young man at the time of the poet's visit.

The Musician and the Jew of the poem, though never actually in Howe's Tavern, were not creatures of the poet's brain, as has been said of all seven characters, and even of the inn itself;

they were men personally known to Mr. Longfellow, and their characters introduced to give variety to the tales. The Spanish Jew, Edrehi, whose

eyes seemed gazing far away,
As if in vision or in trance,
He heard the solemn sackbut play,

And saw the Jewish maidens dance, lived and died in Boston, where he was indeed a "vender of silks and fabrics rare," and other costly articles of oriental make. The fair-haired, blue-eyed Musician of the North, who is represented as interluding wild Scandinavian legends with the inspired strains of his violin, was no other than Ole Bull:

His figure tall and straight and lithe,
And every feature of his face

Revealing his Norwegian race. The charming descriptions of inn, landlord and guests, with the first seven tales, were first published in 1863. These comprised the inspiriting account of Paul Revere's Ride; the sad story of Ser Federigo's falcon; the triumph of Rabbi Ben Levi over the death-angel; the beautiful legend of King Robert of Sicily; the saga of the fierce bold Norse king, Olaf; the dreary, horrible Torquemada, and the pretty and musical Birds of Killingworth.

Nine years later appeared the seven tales supposed to have been told on the "Second Day," the rainy one. These were: The Bell of Atri, that touching appeal in behalf of the brute creation; the Eastern tale of the Miser of Kambalu; the Cobbler of Hagenau; the ghostly Ballad of Carmilhan; Lady Wentworth; the Baron of St. Castine; and the justly named Legend Beautiful.

The "Aftermath," or Third Part, soon followed. This included Azrael, another legend of the death-angel; the story of Emma and Eginhard; the Quaker-Colonial sketch, Elizabeth; the Monk of Casal-Maggiore; the warlike Scanderberg; Charlemagne; the quaint little ballad of Mother's Ghost; and the Rhyme of Sir Christopher.

Shortly after the completion of the poem, Longfellow made his second and last visit to the wayside inn. He found, alas, that the scene was changed and the

shrine desecrated. Lyman Howe had been gathered to his illustrious fathers, and as he had died a bachelor and the house had been sold at public auction, Miss Jerusha's parlor had been invaded by a vulgar throng, whose ruthless grasp appropriated and scattered its once revered contents. The finest of the old oaks before the door had disappeared, having been destroyed by a stroke of lightning; and the distinguished visitor, saddened, turned away.

It has been noticed that at the close of the poem there are five, not seven members of the inn party accounted for:

Two are beyond the salt sea-waves, And three already in their graves. Ole Bull and Edrehi are omitted. The three who died before Longfellow's death were the Theologian, the Student and the Landlord. The first of these, Professor Treadwell, left a name renowned for scientific inventions, and to those who knew him well, the memory of his unaffected kindness. Henry W. Wales, the youth

of quiet ways,

A student of old books and days,

To whom all tongues and lands were known,
And yet a lover of his own—

had lived in Rome for many years, where he became known as the "Prince of Wales," on account of the elegance of his establishment. At his death he bequeathed to Harvard College the valuable collections of books which had been "his pastime and delight."

The two characters who survived Longfellow are still living. One of these is Dr. Parsons, the Poet

whose verse

Was tender, musical and terse, in Longfellow's estimation, and who has become famous by his metrical translation of Dante and other works. The other, the Sicilian, Mr. Luigi Monti

In sight of Etna born and bred, is now a pale, white-haired gentleman, with intellectual face and genial manners. It is to his faithful memory that we are indebted for these details.

The wayside inn is still standing, but,