Not All Work. 293 



Treat them well and it will pay, besides being the right thing to 

 do. And what is good for hired men is good for boys, too. Can 

 you blame a spirited boy for wanting to get away from a farm, 

 where work is pushed early and late and little or no chance for 

 rest and recreation ? The dull heads might stand it, but the 

 brightest will not. Of course', there are chores that must be done 

 outside of the ten hours, but I try and make these as light as 

 possible. There is on my farm one cow to milk, and the horses 

 to feed and care for only. If I kept a dairy, one milking would 

 have to be done outside of the ten hours. We cannot all work on 

 just the same plan, but we can work to make life as pleasant as 

 possible for our families and men and ourselves, under the 

 circumstances we are in. 



In twenty years the probabilities are that farmers of my age 

 will be dead and buried. How quickly the time will roll around ! 

 It seems but a few days since last summer and in a very few more 

 it will be next summer. What we get out of life must be had 

 soon. It is well to lay up something from year to year for old 

 age, and to work hard part of the time to make money and then 

 enjoy some of it as you go along. Take the good wife off on a 

 pleasure trip now and then and plan to have the children* go. If 

 money is scarce, a good deal of enjoyment can be gotten out of a 

 very little. There are cheap excursions to various points, where one 

 can have a long ride and see much that is new. Of course, you 

 will not go without taking your wife. She needs the rest and 

 change of scene more than you. If money is too scarce to go any- 

 where on the cars, you have your horses and can go and visit 

 friends near by with them, and have a good time. I am firm in 

 the belief that, except in the busiest parts of the season, a farmer 

 can accomplish as much by working five or five and 6ne-half days 

 in a' week as by always putting in the entire six, providing he will 

 take the whole or half day, and go visiting to some farmer 

 friend's place, or off on a pleasure trip of some kind. This will 

 strike some of you as a wild statement, of course, but did you ever 

 try it ? The farmer who works all the time without recreation , 

 gets in a way of plodding along that does not accomplish only a 

 moderate amount of work. And we cannot blame him. The bow 

 always bent loses its power. Suppose this man takes only one 

 afternoon and with his family goes to visit some friend a few miles 

 away, or to some lake or grove or pleasure resort, with a basket 

 full of good things to eat. He sees much along the road to interest 

 him. He sees how others are doing, and that many are not doing 

 as well as he. They all talk it over. The next morning he goes 

 to work with more vim and in better spirits and nothing will be 

 lost in the aggregate. Of course, I would not neglect work that 

 ought to be done to go away for pleasure and recreation I could 

 not enjoy it to do this. But I would work a little harder to get 

 necessaiy work done so I could go. Tell a boy he can go fishing 



