410 STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the wistful whinny of the old horse; the perfumed breath of the meek-eyed 

 cows; the oxen reaching their upturned tongues for the tempting feast 'so 

 near, and yet so far ;' the parti-coiorcd hens, the ducks, and the geese, with 

 rattling croak and iiusky hiss, and quick, vibrating tail ; the festive pig, and 

 innocent, sportive lamb, whose querulous voices come floating on the breeze ; 

 the pile of husks from whose bleached and rustling sheaths are picked the 

 little ravelings of brown silk for mimic cigarettes," — all this is very poetical. 

 But when, in hot weather, the boys have to sleep in the loft over the stables, 

 wearing the same clothes in which they have tugged and sweat all day in the 

 hay-field or harvest, it is i.ot only not poetical, but it's mighty uncomfortable. 

 They impeach Milton in one passage. The mind is oiot its own place; and in 

 itself can not make a heaven of hell; but they are with him in another: — 

 "When night darkens the streets then wander forth the sous, * * * * 

 And execute their airy purposes." Or, if the boys are huddled into the garret 

 or any ugly, uncomfortable, ill-ventilated, meagerly furnished cubby-hole, with 

 no carpet, no paper, no curtains, no decorations, no elbow-room, no place for 

 a boy's hobbies ; while the girls have a pretty, sunny chamber in the front part 

 of the house, furnished prettily — carpets, rugs, window-drapery, book-racks, 

 flowers, — 



" The way into their parlor is up a winding stair; 

 Gay Japanese umbrellas are fastened here and there, 

 And fans and peacock feathers hang with a careless air," — 



and may be jugs, jars, vases, urns, shields, cracked china, a chaos of colors, 

 knicknacks, and all sorts of fantastic foolishness adorn the room, can the 

 boys be contented? Boys like a place of their own in the house, and they like 

 to be recognized as a part of the institution. A boy is something better than 

 a featherless biped, or a forked radish with a curiously carved head. 



If, in the absence of company, mother and sisters sit down to dinner or tea 

 with soiled calico gowns, clamped at the throat with a clothespin, no bows, no 

 ribbons, and hair as frowsy as the make up of a political primary, why should 

 not the boys take it as a personal affront? Or if there is such stern discipline 

 in the arrangement of the house, such precision, rigidity, angularity, mathe- 

 matical exactness, that an open book, a chair awry, a spot on the paint, or 

 window, is considered a capital offense, why shouldn't a healthy boy think 

 such a room dead and full of rottenness, — a place for company, surface life 

 talk, and lies? A well ordered home, and a happy one, is the groat blessing of 

 earth ; but it mustn't be too awfully nice, so that those w\\q need it most must 

 live in the woodshed or barn. 



Boys are likely to be particular about food and notional about clothing. 

 Let a farmer tell them as often and emphatically as he pleases, that one may 

 live on fried pork, soggy potatoes, saleratus biscuit, and dried apples, and if 

 he only breathes the pure air of the country, he will have healthier blood, 

 finer skin, and brighter eyes, than the consumer of the choicest meats and 

 most luscious fruits, who breathes furnace heated air, and if they know any- 

 thing, as they usually do, they will ask for good living and good air too, and 

 they are right; and the boy is riglit not to be satisQed with stogy boots, sack- 

 cloth trowsers, denims siiirts, a chip hat, and a cheap Jew-store ready- 

 made Sunday suit, bought when it is two years too large for him, and worn 

 till its three years too small. The country boy does not want to look outland- 

 ish in a suit of clothes made over from some his father wore years ago — 

 pantaloons that bag at the knees and seat of war, only one suspender, and 

 his arms and face and neck, and a strip a yard long down his spinal column 



