THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



The ball players must always be counted upon as 

 constituting a large fraction of any group of boys, 

 while many of the girls do not object to games 

 of prisoner's base, or even hockey and basketball. 

 In this country we shall always find a percentage 

 of young folks who have not lost the instinct ex- 

 pressed in "Robinson Crusoe" and "Swiss Family 

 Robinson." Their happiness will not be complete 

 while playing with the crowd. They must have 

 something in the way of retirement, and a chance 

 to climb trees and dig caves, where their imag- 

 inations can revel. 



Dr. Hutchinson tells us that those children who 

 are not allowed to enter school until eight or ten 

 years of age, going with more physical vigor, soon 

 overtake those who enter school earlier by two or 

 three years. Give a child normal surroundings, and 

 he is pretty sure to learn to use his brain wisely — 

 very much as he learns to use his legs and arms 

 wisely. If this idea is carried out as it ought to be, 

 in every country homestead, the school and the 

 home become nearly supplements of each other. 

 I asked an old man why he kept his youth, and he 

 answered, "Because I like all I do. I try to find 

 the spirit of it. Bringing my boyhood along with 



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