OBJECTIVE POINT BOYS AND GIRLS 273 



later always come, both in city and country life. The 

 strength, courage and patience which come from 

 rural life will then be worth more than the lily-white 

 complexion. 



The wood, with its multitude of wild animals to 

 hunt and trap, is no more; the evening social function 

 at schoolhouse and farmhouse has passed into dim 

 remembrance; even the inspiring winter revivals in 

 the country church have gone out of fashion. If he 

 has no colt to drive, there seems no place nor time 

 left for the farmer's boy to secure relaxation and 

 recreation but to find it by scouring the country on 

 the Sabbath days by means of back-breaking, bowel- 

 curling bicycles. The boy does secure a change by his 

 Sunday wanderings; but he is likely to secure much 

 else in country inns, fruit plantations, and associa- 

 tion, in too many instances, with those whose charac- 

 ters are the reverse of the girl's he has left at home. 



It will be seen by the most casual reader that. my 

 objective point is the boys and girls on the farm, 

 while the horse is treated as a means to an end. Only 

 yesterday I saw this boy and girl, as I stopped at their 

 home to get a drink of milk. Large -headed, muscular, 

 clear of eye, alert and hanging on every word from 

 the outside world. Already a little ashamed of their 

 work -day clothes, and already, for want of oppor- 

 tunity and experience, imbibing something of the 

 false notion that fine clothes and soft hands are sure 

 indexes of respectability, virtue and learning. The 

 three things most prized by the children in this far- 

 away, serni- mountain home, were the colts, the flowers 



