202 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS. 



farmer who "drives" everything before him, including 

 his wife and children ! In the long run he comes out a 

 good ways behind his more efficient and more enlight- 

 ened neighbor, who takes things easily and does things 

 pleasantly, and steers clear of that kind of haste which 

 makes waste. The first step toward making boys "hate 

 the farm " is to cut down their rightful hours of sleep, 

 and make the beginning of every day thoroughly wretched 

 to them. 



Children can hardly be too much in the "open air." 

 We all observe how much healthier and happier they are 

 in the bright dry weather with which we are blessed for 

 a portion of the year. With the long, cold rains of 

 autumn begins the dismal time for birds and children ; 

 and even we grown people, in spite of our work and our 

 mental resources, feel depressed and saddened. To the 

 children's loss of soft breezes, warm sunlight, and the 

 freedom of all out- doors, is added the crushing knowledge 

 that they "make tracks," that they "litter the carpet," 

 and they "kill people with their noise." In our North- 

 ern States there will be five or six months of this sort of 

 thing. Now, much of the winter discomfort to all par- 

 ties might be saved if children had such clothes as would 

 enable them to be out at play a part of the time even in 

 forbidding weather. No matter how coarse and plain 

 the clothes if they are warm and stout, and as waterproof 

 a possible. An investment in thick, high-buttoned 

 over-shoes, and extra cloaks and jackets is, of course, 

 pleasanter and less expensive than an investment in 

 doc tor- visits. To be sure doctor-visits are not always the 

 alternative, but the better the regimen under which 

 children live, the fewer visits of this sort. As for 

 " toughening " children by sending them half -dressed in 

 the damp or biting air, none but ignorant and stupid 

 parents do such things, our churchyards are already suf- 

 ficiently full of little graves. Give the children warm 



