1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FARM. 191 



that he so often grows up without the instincts of economy and 

 thrift? 



Then too, if he gets money, all the surrounding temptations are 

 forspending it for present and immediate gratification; no waiting 

 for larger harvest by and by. The very toys in the shop windows 

 are regulated by the season. Skates and sleds are everywhere in 

 sight in, winter when the temptation is to buy them. As a boy I 

 saved eggs in the spring, and bought a nice sled in the summer 

 for the next winter's coasting; it seemed the only natural way. In 

 the city the sled would have been out of sight and out of mind, 

 and some other temptation for immediate use been displayed in 

 the enticing shop window. 



Again, the incentives to saving and thrift are entirely unlike in 

 the two homes. 



The farmer's boy's first property is usually something of com- 

 paratively small value to begin with, but which grows and increases 

 with his care, and he sees it grow. It may be some crop he plants 

 and sees spring up and mature. More often it is some young ani- 

 mal which he sees increase under his care. If a calf, he watches 

 its growing strength and size; the young, budding horns have a 

 strange interest to him; he sees the beast waxing greater and more 

 valuable under his eyes, and each evidence of growth is an incen- 

 tive to renewed care and attention ; and with its growth there is a 

 personal interest in the possession, stronger than mere property 

 interest. 



How is it with the city child? He puts his pennies into a 

 so-called " bank " where they accumulate, but do not grow. He 

 must not even see the growing pile in the little tight boxj because 

 the temptations to spend are so many and so strong. He may 

 shake the box and hear them rattle; that is all. So he keeps them 

 — until Christmas. If he puts the money in a savings bank, he is 

 told that the interest accumulates, but he does not see it groiu ; 

 he merely knows it, as an intellectual conception; there is no 

 personal interest in it other than that of mere property, and it 

 requires much outside encouragement, and perhaps restraint, to pre- 

 vent him from withdrawing it and spending it for some of the 

 luxuries that tempt on every side. The country boy has a very 

 different feeling towards his growing calf, or colt, or lamb. He 

 does not want to sell it. It is endeared to him more than as mere 

 property possession, he sees it still growing under his care, and is 



