1807.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
187 
KDYS & (BHIBILS' ©(D&WMm 
Boy 'JTrainiaBg*. 
'■ There ! it may lay there, for what I care, and a plague 
on all grammars, I say ! " 
These words burst out with something of the same 
force which dashed a well-thumbed book across the room. 
Hal believed that his uncomfortable feelings were owing 
entirely to a "plaguey hard lesson" for to-morrow, but 
it is possible that circumstances may have aggravated the 
hardship; as for instance, a bright sun, smooth, hard 
snow, and other signs of a first-rate skating time. After 
looking out of the window a moment, Hal again broke 
forth with all the indignation of twelve years: "It's a 
real dog's life to be a boy !— school, school — work, work, 
from one day's end to another. Stupid books! — and 
what's the good of it all, I'd like to know ! " " What is 
the good, sure enough?" said a voice behind him. — Hal 
had forgotten the quiet reader by the fire. He colored a 
little, but answered: "I'm sure I can't see, Cousin Ralph. 
Reading and writing are well enough, or learning a trade, 
and all that: but tobe studying so much stuff, and shut 
up all the pleasantest days of one's life — I tell you what, 
I'd rather be a savage at once. What a jolly time ! Free 
all day, in the real wild woods, hunting and fishing — 
why, what is their work, we call play." 
"Stop a moment, Hal. We are speaking of boys — do 
you think savage boys have nothing to learn?" 
u Nothing like Latin grammar, I'll bet my head I It is 
only fun to learn to make arrows, to hunt and to fight— I 
would change work with them, any day." 
" Be not so sure of that. Hear a specimen of boy train- 
ing I have just been reading. 'All the boys over ten 
years are chosen to be companions of the son of the chief. 
They are taken to some lonely spot in the forest where 
huts are built for them. The old men go out daily to 
teach them their war dances and their notions of law and 
government. Much beating is necessary to bring them 
up to the required perfection, so that when they return 
from the forest their backs have many scars. When the 
boys have reached the age of fourteen, the great ceremony 
of their lives takes place. They all stand naked, in an 
open space, each with a pair of sandals as a shield on his 
hands. Facing the boys stand the men of the tribe armed 
with long wanda of tough wood. They put such questions 
to the boys as ''Will you guard the chief well? Will 
you guard the cattle well ? " and while the boys answer 
" Yes," rush at them, each aiming a blow at the back of a 
boy, causing the blood to squirt out of a wound often 
eighteen inches long. Thus the boys 1 backs are seamed 
with wounds, the scars of which remain through life. 
This i3 their initiation into manhood." 
" norrible ! " said Hal, with a sigh, ™ why that is suffer- 
ing for worse than nothing." 
" Yes, and you may be sure that the demands of ignor- 
ance and superstition are harder than any which civiliza- 
tion imposes upon us." 
Hal thought a moment, still unwilling to admit the ex- 
pediency of school education, and then be said, u But 
any way, I wish I had lived in old 
times — the real, grand old times, 
you know, when there were 
knights and tournaments, and men 
did such brave deeds. There were 
no school books then, and a man 
might be brave and true and make 
a great name for himself without 
even learning how lo read. Rid- 
ing, and fighting and punishing 
all bad people. Oh 1 I could be 
happy while I was a boy with on- 
ly thinking of such a life. And 
those men were not savages — they 
lived in castles, and were. Christ- 
ians— they hud to say ever bo many 
prayers, and do each man his best 
for Cod and his lady— Ob, Ralph! 
was it not easier and pleasanter 
to become a great man then, than 
to study up to it as we have to do 
now?" "As to the desirable- 
ness of that, life, Hal, we will not 
argue just now, we will keep to 
the boys and see what their work 
was." And Cousin Ralph, taking 
a book from the shelf, read as fol- 
lows: "Young Roland passed his 
earliest years with bis mother and 
her attendants, who taught him 
the pater nosters, and Ave Marias, 
besides the first, ideas of that de- 
votion to women which belonged 
to thr* age of chivalry. But at the 
age <<i seven years his education began in earnest, as was 
usual then. Though the father might be capable of con- 
ducting {n'o education of bis sou, it was always intrusted 
to some other knight, lest the tenderness of the parents 
should spare any of the trials and hardships necessary to 
the after career. So the little Roland, at that early age. 
left the indulgences of his own home to shift for himself 
in a strange household. The first place he was to fill was 
that of page to his new lord, his duty being to accompany 
the knight on excursions, do his errands, serve him at 
the table and pour out his drink, though the boy was of as 
noble blood as the man he served. At the same time 
great care was taken in the training of the boy. Every 
moment not devoted to the service of his lord was given 
to the practice of severe gymnastics or horsemanship ; 
while the custom of waiting upon visitors, and listening 
to their conversation helped to give the grace of manner 
so necessary to a knight of renown. Meanwhile the 
young page had to encounter the Jed's of his companions 
at his awkwardness, and bear with sore and aching limbs 
from his violent exercise, besides the carefully concealed 
pain of home- sickness. Seven years of this hard service 
brought Roland to his fourteenth year, the eagerly ex- 
pected time when be was to exchange the sliort dagger of 
the page for the sword of the 'squire.' This was a religious 
ceremony and conducted with due solemnity. His exer- 
cises now became more severe still, such as springing 
upon horseback armed, turning somersets in heavy 
armor, besides careful instruction in managing his horse 
and arms. As squire he continued to follow his lord to 
battle; held his stirrup, lance, shield, or gauntlets; 
cleaned his armor, and took care of his horse. In battle 
the squire waited at a distance ready to furnish a fresh 
horse or to draw his master from the field if wounded. 
If a noble squire had done well during his service, the 
honor of knight-hood was conferred at the age of twenty- 
one. Roland prepared for this great occasion by long 
fasts with numerous prayers and masses." 
Hal had flinched at the idea of giving up the indulgences 
of home almost before the end of baby-hood, fidgeted at 
services altogether menial in his eyes, and finally wound 
up with a prolonged "whe e — w!" There, Hal, 
I think you will never have to bear harder training than 
that, and, whatever of good or of romautic interest, it is 
well to keep from the "old times," j*ou may be sure 
that true faith, in an "excelsior" ever before us, is the 
best aid to insure a manhood worth having. 
" ££al> y Uie<l " one day saw his father punish 
his older brother ; his tender little heart was much grieved. 
Hia mother explained to him that Wally was naughty, 
and Papa "slapped" hi ra to make him good. The next 
day he came into the dairy as she was " patting butter " 
with the ladle. "Lap but, (slap butter) mama?" asked 
Ned. "Yes," said- his mother. "Is not but .?" (naughty 
butter,) asked the little fellow earnestly. H. 
New Puzzels to be Answered. 
No. 261. Arithmetical Problem. — Five hundred dollars 
at interest at ten per cent, per annum, is to be paid up in 
five equal, annual payments. Required the amount of 
each payment. 
No. 362. Woi'd Square— With the following letters, i?. 
i?, S, S, P, L. A, A, A, A, E, E, E, E, /, Z form a word 
square, that is, a square arranged so that the words will 
be the same, whether read across or downward. 
" - v.- - 
The Fate of "Greedy I>ick." 
All the boys and girls who arc careful to keep clean 
hands and faces, hair combed, clothes brushed, and all 
things about them as neat as their work will allow, and 
who love to share their good things with their compan- 
ions, can afford to laugh at the unhappy fate of poor 
No. 263. Illustrated Sebus. — Very good advice. 
No. 204— Geographical Enigma— -By Myron A. Eddy. 
I am composed of 28 letters. My 1, 7, 13, 2.3. 15, 19, 22, 
27, is a lake in Nevada. My 3. 10, 21, 12. 25, is a lake in 
Russia. My 4, 1G, 24, IT, 2. 21. is a lake in Canada. My 6, 
11, 14, 15, 26, 27, 12, is a lake in China. My T. 15. 4, 28, 
12, 11, is a lake in New York. My S, 11. 24, 3, is a lake In 
Lombardy and Venice. My 9. 22, 4, 4, 20, 1, 5. 21, is a 
lake in Florida. My 14, 12, 25, 24, 16, is a lake in Ethiopia. 
My 15, 13, 18, 28, is a lake in California. My 18, 21. 11, 
14, is a lake in Nicaragua. My 20, 25, 12, 10, 14, 2, is a 
lake in Wisconsin. My 24, 19, 4, 9, is a lake in Ireland. 
My whole is the name and location of a lake in the TJ. S. 
No. 205. Arithmetical Problem, to be solved mentally. 
If 6 cats catch rats in minutes, how long will it take 
50 cats to catch 100 rats ? 
Answers to Prol>lems and Puzzles. 
The following arc answers to the puzzles, etc., in the 
April number, page 147. No. 25S. Clock Problem. — It will 
strike correctly at 11 o'clock ; the number of strokes will 
Greedy Dick. lie didn't do any of these things, and our 1 be 71.... No. 259. Illustrated ttOus.— Foul weather stops 
artist traces him at last to a barrel of lard. There wo , plain sailing. .. .No. 200. i$titema(ieal RvNap.— Diara- 
lcavo him.awarmug to those who ch>mcc to need it! I cter of smaller circle, 381 feel: of lar r circle, S92 feel. 
