No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 363 



can ever laugh. Childish curiosity is denounced as impertinence. 

 The parlor is a parlianieiit, and everything is in everlasting order. 

 Balls and tops in that home are a nuisance and the pap that the boy 

 is expected most to relish is geometry sweetened a little with the 

 chalk of blackboards. For cheerful reading the father would recom- 

 mend "'Young's :Night Thoughts,"' and ''ilervey's Meditations Among 

 the Tombs." At the first chance the boy will break loose. With one 

 grand leap he will clear the catechisms, lie will be so glad to get 

 out of Egypt that he will jump into the Red Sea. Restraints are 

 necessary, but there must be some outlet. Too high a dam will over- 

 flow its banks and inundate all the meadows. 



Do people of the cities realize what it means to have a family of 

 boys and girls growing up with so many dangers surrounding them? 

 Saloon next door, gambling room across the way, and evening amuse- 

 ments to take all the money they can get. 



City people come to the country and say: ''I could not live here, 

 there is nothing to see, nothing to hear, the evenings are so long and 

 quiet." One girl says, "I could stay in the country during the day, 

 but not in the evening, it is too dull then." What do such people 

 lf;ck? They lack an important part of practical education. They 

 have not the idea of true life. We are not made to sit at a city win- 

 dow and gaze at passing sights and listen to the pleasing sounds. 

 We are to be up and doing. Actors in this great drama of life and 

 not empty vessels to make the noise. 



What can w^e say of the country home? Pleasure and the pursuit 

 of it are not the first things inculcated in the young minds of Ameri- 

 can farming people. 



Pleasure comes after duty has been done ,and it is the reward for 

 duties that have been well done. This placing of duty first is the 

 great disciplinary advantage in the training our country boys and 

 girls receive. The farm work cannot be postponed. The accom- 

 plishment of it becomes a habit fo'- life. Nearly everything a coun- 

 try boy or girl encounters day by day has a tendency toward the de- 

 velopment of a healthy and wholesome individualty. The boy's 

 work, mostly out of doors, inculcates industrious and regular habits, 

 while it contributes to a physical development which in later years 

 ik just as valuable as any athletic training that can be had. The 

 girl gets exercise in various works as beneficial as the famous del- 

 sarte drills. 



After the day's work on the farm, after the school hours, the 

 members of the family with glad hearts gather around the fireside. 

 How^ good the supper kind mother has prepared! Girls then tidy the 

 table and do away the dishes. The family is next ushered into the 

 warm sitting room where the evening is spent. Perhaps some game 

 is played in which all can take part, occasionally music and singing. 



