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HOME LIFE OF THE AFRICAN. 
If the little lad emerges into boyhood safely escaped from all 
childhood dangers, he has a comparatively happy time. The insult¬ 
ing words and angry curses which he was taught as witty sayings 
(his first successful utterances of which were received with shouts 
of admiring laughter, but for which subsequently said by him volun¬ 
tarily in real anger, he received many a blow) he can now indulge 
in to his heart’s satisfaction, his legs being able to carry him swiftly 
from the wrath of the object of them. 
He is not compelled constantly to do hard work, but will do 
many small jobs or errands; he is mostly idle, however, shooting 
with bow and arrow at birds, angling in the brook, flinging mimic 
spears, carrying toy canoes, or building playhouses, all which plays 
become strong realities in his future labors as a man. Growing to 
be a stout lad he is pleased to be allowed to follow with men into the 
forest, setting traps for wild animals, or gathering the milky sap of 
India rubber, watching them cut down trees for canoes, and learn¬ 
ing from them the way to hollow out the log with adze and fire. 
AMBITIOUS BOYHOOD. 
It is a proud day when he is allowed to carry a gun and join 
the men in a hunt. Or he goes into trade, elated if he can get into 
a white man’s employ, at first as boy valet, then as table boy, waiter, 
cook, steward, and trader, with chance to steal goods with which to 
buy a wife some day. Then, as a young man, he begins to build 
a real house. It may be worked at only by fits and starts, perhaps 
two years before it is finished, in expectation of seeking a wife. 
She goes through most of the same treatment as her little 
brother. She is not allowed to idle as much as he, but stays more 
about the kitchen fire with the women, eating tid-bits as they cook, 
and learning to cook little possets for herself; or following her 
mother to the plantation (distance one-half to one mile from the 
village), imitating her mother in carrying a basket on her back, its 
weight supported by a broad strap going around it and over her 
forehead. 
Some burden is always put into that basket, often one beyond 
the child’s strength, as a jug of water. The little one staggers under 
