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moved from the influences which contaminate, rugged from" 

 strengthening toil, earnest from realities of life, yet softened 

 by the shelter of home and purified by its love, wdiere can 

 we hope better to nourish the germ of manhood ? 



What wonder that New England farms cannot furnisli 

 sufficient scope to such, — their sons ! Let then the farmer's 

 boy go to the city : he will be welcome, as he is needed. 

 But whatever his prosperity, let him preserve in grateful 

 recollection the old homestead where were given the early 

 lessons that formed the ground-work of his success. 



But the farmer's boy who stays at home yields to no hard 

 necessity. His gains, though small, are certain ; and his 

 life, though uneventful, is like the clear stream which re- 

 flects upon its placid surface the simple beauty of its course. 



And not without deepest import is the quiet routine of 

 farm life. It is not alone the rushing, surf-capped billow 

 that forms the ocean. True, it bears the ship, but is itself 

 borne up from silent depths below. And thus it is behind 

 the new generations of farm-raised boys ever coming to feed 

 the eternal fever of city life, that we must look to find the 

 true well-spring of vigor to the country. 



To the farmer's boy who stays at home all honor ! for he is 

 none other than the future representative and preserver of th<^ 

 old New England stock. 



