S. W. Darby, of Frederica, who is largely engaged in the piling business around Ellendale and near Milton, was in town last week.

A great many of our citizens have been, and yet, attending court. There are several cases from this town to be tried, in which many people are interested.

Arbutus was much in evidence on Sunday. It is a pretty button-hole ornament for men, and a nice bosom ornament for ladies, fragrant and pretty.

The engine house is being painted this week by William T. Atkins.

The flour mill of the Wagamon Brothers is now doing its best work. Harry Robinson, under whose charge the work is done, is an adept in the milling business and the pond has a full head of water, and when this fails, a plenty of steam can be raised. All of these facilities and conveniences, combined with a good market and ready sale for all of their manufacture, and plenty of custom work beside, makes this mill a paying one to its owners. The Wagamon Brothers made a decided hit when they built their mill in Milton.

The cannery at the river is raised, and the weather-boarding about all on. The one at the depot is nearly completed as regards the carpenter work.

The ties on the Queen Anne railroad are decaying fast. Particular, is this the case west of Milton: although a section gang is kept constantly at work replacing the old with new ones. The bed of the track has also been widened at the trestles near town.

From some cause the noon trains have been late in arriving at this station, recently one hour behind time on Monday.

Shad are scarce and high. A good catch, however, was made on Monday morning. There are but few herring caught. They have been selling on the streets, from Indian River at eighteen cents per dozen. Nevertheless, with all the scarcity of shad, people are yet making preparation and building new seines to catch them.

Fred Welch is painting his dwelling on Union Street, North Milton.

Robins appear to be more plentiful this spring than for years, they are chirping along the branches and in the woods they are singing in the trees of the town and are preparing to build their nests in the fruit trees of the garden and elsewhere. Mr. Robin is a pretty bird, if he does play havoc with the cherries and other small fruits. Some people call him a thief, but we expect he does as much good in the destruction of insects as he does harm in stealing fruit. Anyway, we hope there will be a plenty of them, for it is to be deplored that our domestic birds are becoming so scarce. The English sparrow has driven away our little domestic sparrow, the blue bird is scarcely ever seen now-a-days and a general scarcity of all that were a plenty a few years ago is now apparent and the subject of remark by those who notice the fact. If we can, by any means, detain the robin in this latitude, and bring back the others that have migrated hence, and exterminate the English sparrow, the pest of gardens, it will be wisdom to do so. We did not expect to write a subject on “birds: for this issue, but being scarce of news and seeing two robins picking in our garden, and hearing others elsewhere, we have been led into the above train of thought.

The townspeople have been busy in their gardens for many days, and though the weather has been unfavorable for planting, some have been compelled to put in their seed regardless of “the sign,” and the phase of the moon, or wait another four weeks, and then it will be too late “to raise anything (?)” They are nearly all done planting and while they know they will raise nothing under the unfavorable conditions, they are partly happy in the knowledge that much of life’s work is done.

Farmers are burning off the debris of last year’s accumulation, sowing fertilizer, and plowing for the crop of this year ad we may remark that farmers are using a great deal of fertilizer around an near Milton, This means better crops for them, and better business for others.

Some carpenter work has been done in the “Times” office this week.

Isaac Nailor is in Philadelphia negotiating for the erection of a large building to be built for Philadelphia parties in Sussex County.

Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Sussex County Bible Society, that was held in the M. E. Church, in this town, last year, are now in the hands of J. B. Welch, vice-president for the hundred; and can be obtained on application. The next meeting will be held at Lewes, Del., on May 16^th, of the present year.

The little boys, and some older ones, both white and colored-can be seen these spring days playing marbles on the sidewalks about town. And while some of the older people object to these boys occupying the sidewalks, and would like to deprive the little fellows of all enjoyment, the query naturally arises, did they not do the same when they were young? We presume they did, unless they were lazy.