SEED-TIME AND HARVEST. 
PLUCK AND PRAYER. 
There wa’nt any use o’ fretting. 
An’ I told Obadiah so. 
For ef we couldn’t hold on to things, 
We’d just got to let ’em go. 
There were lots of folks that’d suffer, 
Along with the rest of us, 
An' it didn’t seem to be wu'th our while 
To make such a dreffle fuss. 
To be sure, the barn was ’most empty. 
An’ corn an’ pertaters scarce, 
An’ not much of anything plenty an’ cheap 
But water—an’ apple-sass. 
But then—as I told Obadiah— 
It wa’nt any use to groan, 
For flesh an’ blood couldn’t stan’ it; an’ he 
Was nothing but skin an’ bone. 
But laws! ef you’d only heerd him, 
At any hour of the night, 
A-prayin’ out in that closet there, 
’T would have set you crazy quite. 
I patched the knees of those trousers, 
With cloth that was noways thin, 
But it seemed as ef the pieces wore out 
As fast as I sot ’em in. 
To me he said mighty little 
Of the thorny way we trod, 
But at least a dozen times a day 
He talked it over with God. 
Down on his knees in that closet 
The most of his time was passed; 
For Obadiah knew how to pray 
Much better than how to fast. 
But I am that way eontrairy 
That ef things don’t go jess right, 
I feel like rollin’ my sleeves up high 
An’ gittin’ ready to fight. 
An’ the giants I slew that winter 
I ain’t goin’ to talk about; 
An’ I didn’t complain to God, 
Though I think that he found it out. 
With the point of a cambric needle 
I druv the wolf from the door, 
For I knew that we needn’t starve to death 
Or be lazy because we were poor. 
An’ Obadiah he wondered, 
An.’ kep’ me patchin’ his knees, 
An’ thought it strange how the meal held out. 
An’ stranger we didn’t freeze. 
But I said to myself in whispers, 
“God knows where his gift decends; 
An’ tisn’t always that faith gits down 
As far as the finger ends.” 
An’ I wouldn’t have no one reckon 
My Obadiah a shirk. 
For some, you knovi*, have the gift to pray, 
And others the gift to work. 
—Josephine Pollard, in The Countryside. 
Two Ways to Manage Boys. 
Farmer A lived upon a large farm and 
brought up quite a family of children, very 
much after the old methods. The boys 
were never accorded any special privileges. 
Their father never thought it desirable that 
his boys should possess anything in their 
own right during their minority. True, he 
furnished food and clothing, vhich he con¬ 
sidered all they needed, and in return for 
which he demanded constant, unremitting 
toil. “They must pay for their bringing 
up,” as the farmer said. They were taught 
not to expect the unnecessary possessions 
of village boys, and to abandon the idea of 
seeking for fun and enjoyment. At least, 
these pastimes were not encouraged at 
home, and the boys were educated to look 
elsewhere for their sport. Boys thus train¬ 
ed in youth very naturally longed for the 
time to arrive when they should be free. 
As fast as they came of lawful age, one 
after another left the paternal home, and, 
disgusted with farm life, sought more con¬ 
genial employment. The girls also arrived 
at a similar conclusion, and finally married 
husbands who were not engaged in farming. 
In pursuit of a mistaken policy, Farmer A 
has been left in his old age without son, or 
even son-in-law to lean upon in the man¬ 
agement of his farm, and the natural in¬ 
firmities of age have so reduced his capacity 
that it finally became necessary to sell the 
homestead to a purchaser out of the family, 
breaking up the pleasant associations which 
might surround the house of many gen¬ 
erations. This true incident is but a spec¬ 
imen of what is occuring every year among 
the farming classes. I will now refer to 
the other side of the question under con¬ 
sideration. 
Farmer B also lived upon an extensive 
farm, and he, too, reared a large family of 
children, but under methods quite different 
from those pursued by Farmer A. As soon 
as B’s oldest son arrived at years of under¬ 
stands g, his father took him into his con¬ 
fidence and daily discussed his plans with 
him, often asking his opinion of matters 
within his observation and comprehension, 
and thus making him an interested party. 
Soon he gave him a pair of calves to con- 
