n 



that open their portals to tempt our youth from the 

 farm. There are those of the Mechanic and the Manu- 

 facturer, which are supposed to be less hazardous than 

 that of the Merchant, but more remunerative and less 

 toilsome than that of the Agriculturist. 



But let us consider this matter. It is not always ad- 

 visable to take a bare supposition on trust. Behold the 

 lot of the Mechanic. From the time he puts on his har- 

 ness as an apprentice, till he lays it aside in later life, 

 he must work as unremittingly as the sun shines. He 

 must have customers, and they must be served with 

 promptness and regularity. The constancy of labor 

 must precede those rewards of labor on which his living 

 depends ; Avhile, in most mechanical pursuits, the con- 

 stant repetition of the same things — the sameness of the 

 w^ork — must render it tiresome. It is with each of them 

 as with Longfellow's Biacksmifk : 



" Week in, ■week out, from morn till night, 

 You can hear his bellows blow ; 

 You can hear him swing his heavy sledge, 

 AVith measured beat and slow." 



Finally, after years of hammering, he reaches the 

 close of his working days, and then what ? Why, he 

 seeks rest for his body and refreshment for his mind, in 

 the pursuits of a farm ! and feels himself happy if he 

 has been sufficiently successful to be able to purchase a 

 few acres, in connection with a modest dwelling, and 

 barn room enough to accommodate a horse and cow. 



The Manufacturer may not be forced, it is true, to 

 this ceaseless exertion of the muscles ; but he may have 

 to endure that severer toil of the brain which wears di- 

 rectly on the sources of health and strength and life, 

 and he has not even that brief exemption which the 



