THE COUNTRY HOME 143 



or the store or the factory. The mother is frequently also busy at the 

 club or the shops or the matinee. The child is left more or less to his 

 own devices, and he plays with his school friends, often in the street 

 or alley, having no other place to play. Here schoolboy "gangs" are 

 formed. Here he learns every form of meanness that boys know, and 

 very frequently right here is planted the seed that later develops into 

 the hardened criminal. The country child, on the other hand, has his 

 chores to do both morning and evening. The woodbox must be filled, 

 the chickens fed, the eggs gathered, the cows milked. Those chores 

 are just as much a part of his day's routine as eating his three meals 

 or going to bed at night. So, while his city cousin is playing with 

 the gang in the street or going to a movie or otherwise offering a 

 fertile field for Satan who "finds mischief for idle hands to do," the 

 country boy is keeping his hands busy doing useful work, and what 

 is more important, is forming the habit of doing things on time. 



Another point in favor of the country child's training is that he 

 knows nature and learns to distinguish between the fundamentals 

 and the non-essentials of life. To him clothes are incidental, and 

 the tricks of so-called polite society are unknown. But he knows how 

 things grow, and he knows something of the relative value of the 

 things that we eat and wear and work with. The city boy of twelve 

 probably knows the latest fashion in clothes, the latest fad in haircuts 

 and the newest song hit on the street. But in many cases he does not 

 know whether potatoes grow on trees or bushes, whether some of the 

 cows give buttermilk or whether we "keep a bee" to furnish the 

 honey for our table. 



THE FARMER'S LIFE AN OPEN BOOK 



There is one feature of the farmer's business that has an important 

 effect upon his home life and his moral development. In his business 

 there is little chance for concealment or deceit. While the work of 

 others may be surrounded with considerable secrecy, which may lead 

 to misrepresentation, the farmers' business is always open to inspec- 

 tion. He cannot hide his fields or his stock from his neighbor's eyes. 

 So, while the business man may talk in terms of many figures and 

 may contrive to make his business appear much more important than 

 it really is, it is a comparatively easy matter for any farmer to know 

 in a general way what his neighbor is doing in any of his productive 

 enterprises. When a man's business is thus open and above board, 

 it is reflected in the character of his home life. He is a better hus- 

 band, a better parent, a better citizen. 



