10 
TWENTY-ONE. 
BY LUCY DEWEY CLAY. 
The shadows are length'niug on the walls. 
The sun sinks low in the west, 
And she sits in the ling'ring twilight soft, 
With her babe asleep on her breast. 
And songs ®f thankfulness well from her heai-t, 
Replete with a mother’s joy, 
As she fondly kisses again and again 
The lips of her baby boy. * 
Again, ’mid trumpets and kites and tops, 
And traps all scattered about, 
She waits and listens with loving heart 
For a gleesome, merry shout, 
As a dark-eyed boy with a springing step 
Comes bounding in joy to her side, 
And she checks the song on his glad young lips, 
With a kiss of love and of pride. 
She listens again, and her pulses thrill 
At a measured and manly tread. 
It pauses beside her, a hand is laid 
In tenderness on her head; 
In accents musical, soft and low, 
She hears a loved voice say, 
“A kiss, dear mother, a kiss for your boy 
Who is Twenty-One to-day.” 
She starts, she wakes—it is all a dream, 
In the darkness she sits alone, 
The presence of baby and boy and man 
With the dream and the day are gone. 
God pity the mother! the child of her love 
Is thousands of miles away, 
And she cannot kiss the lips of her boy 
Who is Twenty One to day. 
She muses long on the years that are past, 
And she thinks of the years to come; 
And she wonders if time and change will bring 
The wand’rer again to his home. 
She raises to Heaven her tear-wet eyes, 
And fervently does she pray 
That God will guide and protect her boy 
Who is Twenty-One to day. 
Small Fruit Growing for Boys. 
It would be a good plan, and one that 
would interest the boys and make them 
more contented with farm life, if their 
fathers would give them the management 
of the garden. Buy seeds for them and 
make them do all the cultivating and tend 
to all the work. Let them keep books and 
set down every item of expense, and then 
charge the family with what is used on the 
table and give the boys what little cash the 
garden products bring if taken to market. 
This will interest the boys, as they can 
see a little “spending money” in it, and 
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they will do the work with a will and do it 
thoroughly too. They will eagerly look 
forward to the marketing time, and will 
carefully put down all the items on both 
sides of the book and balance it up ,at the 
end of their season, and if they have suc¬ 
ceeded well, will point to the “credit” side 
of their book with pride. It will give them 
an interest in the farm and this is just what 
the boys want. 
There is a growing tendency among 
farmers’ sons to migrate to the city and 
engage in some city business. Work 
on the farm grows monotonous and they 
become tired of this quiet life. Any such 
interest in the farm or garden crops will 
give the boys something to work for and 
they will be much better contented. 
After they have managed the garden a 
year or two they can then be given a larger 
patch, and with what profits they made 
from the garden products, they can buy a 
stock of small fruit and as much of it as 
they have money to invest. 
They are then getting hold of a good pay¬ 
ing business, and as nice and neat a little 
business as can be engaged in. It is quite 
easy for them to learn how to cultivate the 
berry plants, and where there are none 
grown in the neighborhood, a good share 
of them can be sold at a good profit without 
going far. 
The boys can set out the plants and study 
their nature and the best results obtained 
by the different methods of cultivation, and 
they will find a great deal to please and 
instruct them. 
Small fruits are not as common, and . 
command a higher price comparatively 
than vegetables do every year. They are 
more of a luxury than vegetables are, and 
of course bring a higher price in their • 
season. A patch of well set, carefully cul- 
tivated berries of any kind are' indeed a 
profitable crop and will yield a good income 
if taken care of properly. But have the 
boys still keep books so that the}' know and 
can tell just what they are doing and how. 
much profit they make each season. 
It will give the boys excellent training 
and it will only be a few years before the 
sons can lighten their father’s burden and 
be a great help in successfully managing 
