2O Edward Livingston Youmans. 



met, so that the question of ways and means was ever 

 urgent. The children were early taken into the fam- 

 ily counsels, as each one for himself, through individ- 

 ual needs, had a living interest in the issue of these 

 deliberations. The educational effect of this, though 

 unthought of at the time, was manifold. Keeping 

 their minds active about practical matters and their 

 wits at work to achieve desired ends, supplied to these 

 children a needed supplement to the abstract and un- 

 applied teaching of the school. They were vitally in- 

 terested in promoting domestic and farm operations, 

 and in intervals when work at home was not pressing 

 the boys gladly " hired out " to the neighbouring farm- 

 ers. The situation had also its moral reactions. The 

 painful consciousness of defective dress or other ap- 

 pointments led to reflection, and to the feeling of the 

 relative unimportance of such things. Nor did this 

 discipline diminish self-respect, for it led to an early 

 classification of the interests of life in which good 

 character and intelligence were most honoured. And 

 so, by common consent, although the family income 

 was larger at Milton than at Greenfield, if any increase 

 in expenditure was afforded, it was for the purchase 

 of more books, in subscriptions to church and reform 

 funds, rather than in any outlay for matters of mere 

 fashion or appearance. There was no relaxation of 

 toil or economy. Constant improvements demanded 

 outlay, interest had to be met, the mortgage gradu- 

 ally paid off. Careful tillage and good management 

 brought their reward. When Vincent Youmans had 

 w r orked his farm eight years he was able to sell it 

 for three thousand dollars ; it had cost him originally 

 but a third of that sum. 



Until his sixteenth year Edward helped his father 



