A farmer's recreations. 211 



mean starvation of the mind or any of the forces which help to make a perfect be- 

 ing. One of those fat hogs will pay the bill, and if necessary put less in the 

 stomach and more in the head. There is no limit to newspaper literature if you 

 exercise proper judgment and can afford it. If the children run to specialties, fos- 

 ter their inclinations — the doctrine of vocations is a good one. For the macljinist, 

 take a mechanical gazette, for the musician, a musical publication, etc. Encour- 

 ages them to be cranks, you say ? Since this is the age of cranks, let me remind 

 you that Fulton and Franklin and Morse would be called cranks if they lived 

 now; Joan of Arc was one, Edison is one to-day, and yet all have done great and 

 lasting good. To be sure Barkis says : " Nothin's sure but death and taxes,'' and 

 fame is a fractious animal in a large field, but let the children enter and catch 

 him if they can. 



Next we come to the library. If it is full of stale agricultural reports and 

 religious debates as some we know, take the former to the attic, place the latter 

 on the top shelf, and educate up to them, teaching Christianity by every day work. 

 Begin at the bottom, put in histories first for the children and progressively up to 

 concise standard works for adults, interspersed with good biographies and books of 

 travel. The next shelf is for poetry and fiction, and we place caution at your 

 elbow to make you put in only the best. If you don't, the whole family by dint of 

 borrowing and exchanging Avill get hold of the trashy, "Saturday Night" kind, 

 and even yellow-back novels. We presume every county has had a boy who tried 

 to turn Buffalo Bill. It is said our impulses spring from something within us re- 

 sponsive to a call from without, and we are largely dependent on literature for our 

 incentives. A good deed will call forth a good one ; then let the tales of bravery 

 and valor be of the best. Such books as David Copperfield, Ivanhoe, and our own 

 peerless Ben Hur will educate and elevate. Scientific and religious treatises come 

 next in order, then the encyclopedias and indispensable dictionary. Compare a 

 family thus supplied with one where the tables are primly neat, with only a basket 

 of work on them. Which one is first in business and society? Whose childeu are 

 most at ease in older company ? W^hose example is most commended, whose advice 

 most sought? Litter your house with papers and books. They are fresh and clean 

 and will shut out tobacco and other ills attendant. Two young men, rivals in 

 business, each recently fitted up a library. One, in accordance with his dignified 

 bearing, placed over the entrance the motto, '^ Dum vivimus, vivamus," which as you 

 know means " while we live, let us live," and learn, ought to be added. The other, 

 a shrewd fellow with an eye to business, in a few days placed over his door on the 

 opposite side of the hall, "^Git a plenty when you're a gittin'." Both are to the 

 point, and if you follow them, thus getting quality and ijuantity, be assured your 

 winter hours of recreation will be u.seful and happy. 



As summer brings so much work on the farm, the idle hours are more limited, 

 but none the less enjoyable. There is usually an extra horse which may be driven 

 to the postoffice or county seat. If there are errands to do, make it a pleasure in- 

 stead of a task. The plowman will ride for recreation, the one who drives much 

 will relish a walk. Let quitting time be at a reasonable hour. The body must be 

 refreshed for the next day's labor, or else in a week's time there will be lagging and 



