494 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
THE YOUNG CH 
Cutting tlie Brusli«iVood. 
It is an old saying that a child must creep before 
it can walk. We grow by degrees in almost every 
thing, and in nearly every direction. The child 
gradually increases in size—though not so very 
gradually sometimes—until it comes to the stature* 
of a man or woman. We grow in knowledge— 
at first knowing but little, the child slowly acquires 
the information that, if rightly used, will make 
him wise in mature years. So it is everywhere, 
“ little by little ” the great gains are made. It is 
step after step that the highest mountain is climbed; 
one brick upon another and the greatest wall is 
laid. “Little drops of water; little grains, etc.” 
Thoughts like these come to me as I glance back 
to my boyhood days, and review in memory the 
actions and the hopes of the child. Like most 
farmer’s boys I had a liking for the axe, and was 
always glad to go to the forest, and help make the 
firewood for the year. It was my ambition to swing 
the sharpest axe at the foot of the largest tree, and 
with ray own hands bring the giant of the forest, a 
subdued monarch, crashing to my feet. All boys feel 
more or less this inborn spirit or longing for doing 
great things, and it only needs the proper training 
to transform the ambitious youth into the strong 
and useful man. It is not the most natural thing for 
a boy to content himself with the cutting of the 
brush, when he sees the more manly work of felling 
trees going on before him. I know just how the 
boy feels, because I was once a boy; and it is not 
PPERS AND THE SURPRISE AT T1 
difficult for me to realize the state of mind the boy 
is in who cuts the “small wood,” while the great 
sticks of timber are being worked out of the body 
of the tree by the skilled workmen with the saw 
and axe. But the young woodsman must “creep 
before he can walk,” in the use of his edged tool, 
and when he is set to the work of “ cleaning up the 
brush,” he is having that done for him that is by 
all means the best. This is a kind of chopping at 
which the lad can make some considerable head¬ 
way. The fruits of his labors are easily seen in a 
pile of Are wood, while if he had attempted to cut 
a large log in two, he would only have made an 
ugly looking gash in the log—perhaps also one in his 
foot!—and a quantity of scattered chips, each one 
of which would have told a Chopper that the young 
wood cutter was not equal to his work. “ A work¬ 
man is known by his chips.” The cutting of the 
brush-wood is boy’s work, and is just the kind that 
not only should give an opportunity to train his 
hands and arms for harder chopping, but also keep 
him from getting at all discouraged. He can here 
do a finished work, and have a pile of valuable 
wood to show for his efforts. This is the “ creep¬ 
ing,” which, if rightly done, both as to the swing 
of the little axe, and the spirit in which the work 
is entered into, that will enable the young chopper 
to “walk” with a firm and confident step, when 
the axe of manhood must be put to the root of the 
great hard-wood trees. 
1 had an encouragement or inducement to cut 
brush-wood that made the axe go easier, and this 
E BRUSH HEAP. 
was in the shape of a three-cent silver coin, for 
every hundred sticks of fire-wood that I made, the 
wood to be neatly piled, much after the method of 
the real man Chopper. The first money of any con¬ 
siderable amount that I ever earned was in this 
“ school for chopping.” It was such an encourage¬ 
ment that I cleared up all the brush, and had 
enough money to buy several little things, besides 
the satisfaction of knowing that I was a fair brush 
chopper, and could do something for my own sup¬ 
port at that work, should it ever be necessary. 
There is a great deal of brush for the boys to 
chop in this world. There are a vast number of 
things upon the farm, and in fact wherever a boy 
can be found, that he may better do than to assume 
to fill a man’s place, and make a failure of it, learn¬ 
ing only a lesson of disappointment. To the girls 
it may be said that there is much work for them to 
do that comes under the head of “ cutting small 
wood.” They also should be very patient in doing 
the work of “ creeping,” that they may be able to 
“walk,” when the days of childhood are gone. 
The engraving herewith given, is the artist’s idea 
of brush cutting. He was once a boy, and he 
tells me it was his good fortune to have a plenty 
of fire wood to prepare for the fire. There is much 
to attract and amuse the sharp-eyed boy, even if 
he has a task put upon his shoulders now and then. 
In the picture the stirring up of the rabbit and its 
escape has added a life to the scene that breaks 
whatever of the monotony that may have existed 
in the minds of the young choppers. Unclk Hal. 
