BOY LIFE IN THE OPEN 231 



tasks that shall develop their sense of responsibility 

 and cultivate habits of industry and application. 

 Although I could afford to have a man to take care 

 of the lawn and attend to the furnace, I have the 

 boys do this work for their own sakes. It is good 

 as far as it goes, but I am afraid it does not go far 

 enough. They have too much time to spend in do- 

 ing nothing, and habits of idleness formed in boy- 

 hood are likely to stick when one comes to man- 

 hood. I do not believe in manufacturing tasks or 

 setting them at work which is not real, for boys are 

 keen observers and you cannot fool them into be- 

 lieving that they are doing something worth while 

 when compelled to take wood from one corner of 

 the cellar and pile it in another corner, and then 

 shift it back again. The man who devises some 

 way of supplying real tasks for the boys of the 

 well-to-do city families will be a public benefactor. 

 " Now, that you have started the discussion of 

 this subject, how about the physical health and 

 strength that I brought from my country life to 

 the work which I am doing? Of course, we have 

 our sleeping porches and playgrounds and medical 

 inspection in the public schools, and are doing what 

 we can to build sound bodies for our city children, 

 but I suspect that the out-door life of the country 

 boy and his regular exercise and plain food furnish 

 a far and away better physical preparation for the 

 strenuous work of business life than anything we 

 are able to devise for our children in the city. 



