BOYS I HAVE MET 343 



they say good-bye to the scenes of their childhood. 

 Each boy on leaving has a trade at his finger-ends. 

 Situations are found for the industrious human 

 tenants of this wonderful beehive on farms in 

 Wales and Canada, as bootmakers, carpenters, 

 tailors, and cooks, or to serve King and country 

 in the Army or Navy. 



The present cook — and I can testify to the 

 excellence of his dishes — tells the visitor with 

 evident pride that he is an old boy. Now he is a 

 fine, tall, handsome fellow, lives in a delightful 

 cottage in the grounds with a devoted wife and 

 family, and has around him several boys training 

 to become cooks and to accept situations as such 

 when they have served their apprenticeship. 

 I hardly know what to single out for special 

 mention from the mass of interesting things I 

 saw and heard during this pleasant week-end. 

 Whether I watched " Farmer Giles " — a braw, wee 

 laddie of about thirteen years of age — at his farm 

 work, feeding the pigs, or leading the well-groomed 

 horse; the lovers of the willow sporting for their 

 very lives on the green sward, batting, bowling, 

 and fielding with a brilliancy that would do credit 

 to many large public schools where coaches are 

 engaged; the discipline of the whole company at 

 drill or at meals; the busy cobblers, tailors, and 

 carpenters; the laundry boys: each and all could 

 not fail to interest the most indifferent looker-on. 



