265 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Hope Farm Notes 
Ttir Child Crop.— The Interest In chil¬ 
dren and their doings Is astonishing to 
me. It is likely to wrinkle a fellow’s vanity 
when he thinks he does a smart thing and 
gives the results of long years’ study of 
some scientific question, and nobody even 
sniffs at it, while a few remarks about 
the children draw out a volume of com¬ 
ment. I take it that most readers of The 
R. N.-T. are child-people—that is, lovers of 
children and anxious to give the little ones 
a good start. I could fill a whole paper 
with letters that have come from just such 
kindly people. One man wants to know 
whether the Hope Farm children are “real 
flesh and blood creatures.” Well, he would 
And that they are if he tried to earn the 
food they consume, or the shoes they scuff 
out, or the little clothes in which they tear 
big holes. Let him undertake the job of 
keeping them quiet some night when the 
Madame takes a “night out” and see what 
happens! Flesh and blood? Quite ener¬ 
getic flesh and “blood” with many strange 
and unexpected outbreaks. These little 
folks represent three different families, 
and if 1 were to go back Into pedigrees 
and name some of the habits and ten¬ 
dencies which lie back of them you would 
wonder how the Madame has been able to 
keep the “blood” from ruining the “flesh.” 
Second Childhood.— Here is a letter 
from a friend in far-off Washington: 
•T w'as glad that your Hope Farm Notes, 
page 173, took the form of a children’s 
story. I had to read it over twice; and 
.seem to be getting more and more a child 
as ihe years increase, and what I will be 
when second childhood comes on it is 
hard to say.” 
I think I shall have to admit that my 
talks about Cousin Woodchuck and Brother 
Rabbit are more popular than any so- 
called scientific work that I can ever do. 
Science is all right in its place, but the 
great majority of the home folks whose 
lives are to make the world sweeter and 
better have not yet worked up a consum¬ 
ing thirst for it! Our friend ought to be 
as happy as a lark over the fact that he 
is getting to be more and more of a child, 
if some men I know of were sure of such 
progress their value to society would in¬ 
crease 25 per cent in one week! Childhood 
covers the best years of life, for it is the 
time of faith and hope and perfect trust. 
As most of us gain “wisdom” and experi¬ 
ence we doubt and question and worry 
and grieve. Instead of adding to the faith 
of the child we take our axes and chop 
it down. Sometimes my children gather 
around me at night and tell hopeful stories 
of what will happen when they “grow up.” 
Probably at the very time I am full Of 
doubt and worrying over some prized plan 
that has turned to ashes. Thank God these 
little ones have not yet learned to doubt, 
and they shall not learn it from me if 1 
can help it. A “second childhood” ought 
to be the very ideal of human life. After 
all the worry and questioning and fight¬ 
ing against fate which occupy so much of 
our mature years to drop it all and come 
back to the simple and hopeful faith of 
childhood! A childhood with a purified 
experience—that’s what it should be! 
Business Children.- Another good friend 
tells this story, which many of us could 
duplicate: 
“When a boy of 12 or 13, living on the 
farm with my parents, a relative made 
me a present late in the Fall of a pair of 
turkeys. Next season the hen turkey 
hatched and raised 10 turkeys, making 12 
in all when they were ready for market. 
I supposed at the time that the entire 
proceeds of the fowls were to go to me, but 
when they were sold, the price of only 
two was given to me. Well, I felt sore. 
Looking at the matter at this late day, I 
see that, as I furnished no feed for them 
and looked after them very little, it wasn’t 
really unfair after all. Had a little pains 
been taken to explain it to me then, there 
would have been a few less hard feelings. 
Bear in mind there was no promise that 
I should have all, yet it was very evident 
to all that I was expecting it. Nor was 
there the least intention on the part of my 
parents to be unjust or close with me, but 
I can’t help wishing, to-day, that they had 
taken the trouble to explain the business 
side of the matter to me.” 
I am sure that Is the soundest of sense. 
Children should learn something about the 
principles of honest business, and there is 
no better way of teaching them than to 
enter into their own little enterprises. I 
iry to do this, though it is often hard to 
make things clear to them. The Bud has 
been taking music lessons. She came to 
me with her little bill as proud as though 
it were a promise to pay Instead of a re¬ 
quest for payment. I gave her the money 
and told her to be sure to have the bill 
receipted. I explained that her teacher 
must sign her name at the bottom of the 
bill when she got the money. 
“But why. Father?” asked the little girl. 
“Miss Beth will know she got it and so 
will I. We won’t forget it!” 
it would make a fellow pretty near 
ashamed of himself to tell such a little 
thing why wc demand signature and wit¬ 
ness from most of the folks we do business 
with! Not long ago I said that 1 found ii 
hard to explain to the children why inter¬ 
est should be paid on borrowed mone> 
Now a western friend starts up and mildly 
challenges me to give a good reason why 
interest shouid ever be paid! Now I have 
paid interest for a good many years, but 
have collected very little. With such a one¬ 
sided record 1 cannot pretend to be an 
expert. Still 1 do not object to some of 
the Interest I have been obliged to pay, 
and on the whole my creditors .have used 
me kindly. . . . While living in the city 
this Winter the children made many 
friends, and they tell me they have in¬ 
vited most of these friends out to the farm 
this Summer. Among others who are said 
to have accepted the invitation are the 
policeman on our beat, the shoemaker and 
the tailor around the coriier, the druggist 
and others. Well, we shall be glad to see 
them all. If the policeman will come when 
the cows are stealing the corn or the Po¬ 
tato bugs are murdering the crop we car. 
make him very useful. We will save our 
old boots and shoes for the shoemaker, 
and the tailor will surely not forget his 
craft when he sees the outfit of Hope 
harm clothes. You see this shoemaker is 
a wise man. He tapped the Graft’s shoes, 
and when the children went to pay him 
he gave them all one cent! Now they are 
diumming up work for him all over the 
neighborhood. 
Hope Farm School.— The Madame is now 
considering a new enterprise for the farm. 
We are coming to the point where we can 
reel proud of our young trees and horses 
and pigs and hens, but the Madame takes 
more interest in the human crop than in 
any of these. She is an old-time school 
teacher, and has found a friend who in 
former years made a great success in the 
school room. These two women think of 
opening a little boarding school at Hope 
harm. They reason that there must be 
people in the country who for one cause 
or another cannot care for their children. 
A man may have lost his wife and be 
without near relatives. One parent may 
be very sick, or both may desire to take a 
long journey. The Madame and her part¬ 
ner would like to take the little children 
of such parents right to the farm and care 
for them just as they would for their own 
little ones. Such children would be taught 
and fed and kept sweet and clean and 
loved—and the Madame says tliat first of 
all they would be taught obediencel This 
is not a benevolent scheme, but a business¬ 
like arrangement, and if these two women 
start it I think their crop will take high 
rank. But what does the Hope Farm man 
think about it? Well, 1 want everybody 
about me to be happy in their work. 
F very one must have some business-like 
job, but I know that the job will never 
pay unless some part of it is in line with 
the best that is in us. Charlie hates a 
hoe but loves a horse, while Philip does 
not care for a horse but hoes well. The 
Madame does not enjoy cooking well 
enough to master the principles of it, but 
she can get down into the mind and heart 
of a child. If she can earn enough at her 
little school to hire a stout woman to do 
her housework, is it not perfectly legiti¬ 
mate for her to do so? I have said that 
this is to be a business-like arrangement. 
And yet we cannot get away from the fact 
that there is a side to it that no mere 
business can touch. The Madame is after 
the class of children who need home and 
love and the simple, happy childhood 
which is the true foundation of human' 
life. The Hope Farm man will be delight¬ 
ed to see such little ones grow up as 
deeply rooted into loving character as his 
Stringfellow trees are rootmg into the soil. 
Farm Notes.— We have never known 
such March weather. The month came in 
like a lamb and bids fair to stagger gently 
out like an old sheep. An April freeze 
would do us lots of damage, but with the 
buds all starting there is nothing to do but 
go ahead. ... I am planting 100 Kieffer 
pear trees in a piece of light soil at the 
back of the farm. I am satisfied that this 
variety should never be put on heavy soil. 
On the lighter soils, well fed and picked 
at the right time, Kieffer is, to my taste, 
our best canning pear. Eating out of the 
hand? No. sir—its best use for the hand 
is to throw at a dog! I Intend to grow 
canning pears. . . . Shall we cut the 
roots back when planting this year? Cer¬ 
tainly. We feel sure that we get, in the 
end, a more satisfactory tree by cutting 
back both root and top. It is true that 
our trees are small yet, but we have groa, 
confidence in the system. . . , We held 
our last shipment of Baldwins too long. 
They had begun to shrivel a little and 
found poor sale as the market was full of 
plump fruit right out of storage. The pri¬ 
vate customers found little fault, but the 
commission men found sales very slow 
What variety are we to depend on for 
March and April sales? That question de¬ 
lights my neighbors, for they can get 
right up and yell Ben DavisI Surely this 
la election time for old Ben. h. w. c. 
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THE MOWER 
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Box 75 Chicopee Falls, Mass. 
Planet Jr. 
The No. 72 *’PUnet Jr.’*' 
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A IS Ml F fulverizing Harrow 
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Sizes 
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