thought and care. They will be prized because they are rewards, theif, study 

 will increase the sum of his pleasures, healthfully employ a portion of his leis- 

 ure, elevate and increase his motive forces. And when thus engaged, some of 

 Satan's occupation is gone; for we have been taught when children, that 



" Satan finds some mischief still 

 For idle hands to do." 



Then you may, perchance, see him going into the tield to plow, with his 

 box, — no tobacco in it by the way, — a small vial of chloroform, and a few pins. 

 When his plow is moving, or when he rests his team, or in going to and from, 

 he will catch his bug, touch him with a drop of chloroform, as an act of mer- 

 cy, and with a pin fix him safely and go about his work. When the day is 

 gone, or at other leisure hours, he takes his box and book, he studies up the 

 nature of the insect and makes a note of it. Thus he may find himself when a 

 man in actual possession of the God-given dominion over creeping things, even 

 the irrepressible potato bug. The young divinity student finds a deep interest 

 in the study of original sin and forms of human depravity ; for he will discover 

 some of the possibilities of human nature under a spiritual culture, and be moved 

 by a Christly compassion to actively engage in it. The young student in agri- 

 culture may find a similar interest and profit in studying the depravity of moth- 

 er earth and its manifestations, if only he is taught how to do it. Take for in- 

 stance a top inch of ordinary upland sward some ten or a dozen years from the 

 plow, and put a piece as big as the hand in a hot- bed, or upon a shelf where 

 heat and moisture can be given, like some of the moist, warm dog-days. In a 

 short time he may count some forty plants to the squaie inch which have started. 



Many of these are weeds, and under certain conditions, — such as the warm 

 days in August, after a dry and scorching July, — these weeds vs^ill grow and 

 thrive, and the grasses do not. Beginning here, he has a field for study and 

 practice, which may result in his becoming "master of the situation," learning 

 how to get rid of the weed pest and increase the quantity and quality of forag- 

 ing grasses. Land worth $100 per acre in ordinary condition is worth $100 

 more if free from weeds and their seeds. Such clean land may be had and at 

 a profit, though the first cost and labor may be rather hard to bear. " Jim," 

 whispered a boy to his mate with whom he had stayed over night, "do you 

 have your hair combed every morning ? Golly, — mine gets combed only once a 

 week at home, and then it, most kills me." The home education of the boy 

 may have more to do in influencing his choice of a life employment than all 

 other things. Every farmer at a suitable period of his life, should have a home 

 of his own. Then he should have children either his own or somebody's, to 

 educate and set forward in the duties and labors of life. And if that home is 

 what it may be, many a man of other occupation or profession will be glad to 

 have his child under its tuition and care. No man can make a home alone. 

 What can he do without his other and better (?) half? In this condition he is 

 some like one blade of scissors, — called sometimes a state of single blessedness ! 

 Some seem to think it the wisest plan to get a house first, and then seek a com- 

 panion to live with him in it. And I venture that there are some houses now 

 that one would think were built with no idea that a woman was ever expected 



