THE COUNTRY HOME [CHAPTER 
The ball players must always be counted upon as 
constituting a large fraction of any group of boys, 
while many of the girls do not object to games 
of prisoner’s base, or even hockey and basketball. 
In this country we shall always find a percentage 
of young folks who have not lost the instinct ex- 
pressed in “ Robinson Crusoe” and “‘Swiss Family 
Robinson.”” Their happiness will not be complete 
while playing with the crowd. They must have 
something in the way of retirement, and a chance 
to climb trees and dig caves, where their imag- 
inations can revel. 
Dr. Hutchinson tells us that those children who 
are not allowed to enter school until eight or ten 
years of age, going with more physical vigor, soon 
overtake those who enter school earlier by two or 
three years. Give achild normal surroundings, and 
he is pretty sure to learn to use his brain wisely — 
very much as he learns to use his legs and arms 
wisely. If this idea is carried out as it ought to be, 
in every country homestead, the school and the 
home become nearly supplements of each other. 
I asked an old man why he kept his youth, and he 
answered, “Because I like all Ido. I try to find 
the spirit of it. Bringing my boyhood along with 
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