A farmer's recreations. 213 



another's teaching, will drive the boys to hay-mows and vacant rooms. Haven't 

 some of you, in boyhood, done this very thing, making a wrong by the deception? 

 The proverbial profligacy of preachers' sons comes from just such stringent rules. 

 They are a whetstone to the morbid curiosity, which will be gratified. A tight pa- 

 rental rein makes an uneasy, restless child, sure to break loose sooner or later. A 

 good lesson of self-government may be taught along wiih these games, and the dan- 

 gerous fascination will wear out before a boy comee to manhood, just as a child's 

 pleasure with a new toy. We have set-n cards admitted in good fauiilies, and have 

 never known a case where it caused trouble, and since we are to learn from exam- 

 ple, let us profit by it. 



We have disposed of quiet games, and must hastily speak of the rollicking 

 blind-man's buff and puss-in-the-corner, so dear to childish hearts. Of course they 

 are noisy and boisterous, but a little indulgence will not hurt you. Give the 

 family the range of the house a few times each winter for parties, taffy puUings, 

 and the like. Do not frown on these pleasures ; give your neighbors' children a 

 warm welcome and enter into the sport yourselves. Add ten years to your life by 

 being a boy again once in a while. Perchance in just such roguish play you first 

 saw the rosy face of the wife who now watches your children with happy eyes. If 

 you are bilious and blue, if crops are bad and hogs low, call the family together 

 and have a hearty romp and laugh. You will see them growing healthy and 

 strong, and the reaction will be better than a doctor's prescription. 



For summer there are the out-door games of croquet, tennis, and base ball. If 

 you u.se proper judgment, and know when enough's enough, no moment devoted to 

 healthful exercise will ever be wasted. Your pay will come in the li^jht heart and 

 willing hands of your own boy, or the lad you may hire. Treated as men, they 

 will work like meu. 



Passing over many things with mere suggestions, I want to deal a little with 

 generalities. I feel a little out of place here, being conscious that I address n pre- 

 sentative men, who I can not believe come from homes illy supplied with the things 

 which make life enjoyable and progressive. Yet I would like you to think about 

 it and talk it to your neighbors. A^ssist those really unable to procure reading 

 matter and they will soon learn to help themselves. It must be an, excellent coun- 

 try where you can not find the whistlers and whittlers at every fourth house. 

 Doubtless you can think of boys within a mile of you, who spend their evenings at . 

 the village store or show, where roughs congregate and spin foul y^.rns. Their sis- 

 ters are foremost in the hugging and kissing bees yet held by this class. Follow 

 these children home and methinlcs you will stop at neighbor Brown's cottage, where 

 the sources of pleasure are vested in two mongrel dogs and a wheezy cat. We have 

 in mind a family of sad-eyed, listless children whose educational advantages in the 

 way of school have been good, who have been reared in a Christian home, are reg- 

 ular attendants at Sunday school and church, and yet are lifeless, aimless and un- 

 informed, lacking the vim and ruddy faces of hearty youth. The truth is the 

 Christianity stopped with the moral teaching — the moral, mental and physical de- 

 velopment have been neglected and the germs of perfect man and womanhood have 

 shrunken into a mere shadow. Their reading is canfined to one channel, their 

 amusements to the mildest games. Through mistaken kindness, the common laws 



