Farm Boys and Girls Part 5

He boasted about his success with them, showed an affectionate regard for the different individuals, calling them by name. The horses, too, might have aroused the envy of the entire neighborhood. They were sleek and well-fed, full in flesh and fair in form. There was provided every convenience for feeding and caring for the horses and the hogs, so that the hired men found the work about the barn exceedingly easy and pleasant.

Then the attention of the visitors was turned to the farmhouse. Yes, it was small and run down and poor, the intention being to build a larger one "some time." But that same intention was known to have been expressed repeatedly for a period of twenty years past. And where were the boys? Well, that was the trouble, and furnished the excuse for his willingness to sell the place. He simply could not induce the boys to stay there and take an interest in things. Two of them, barely more than boys, had left the home nest in its meanness and degradation and hired out in town. The mother of the boys was living there because she had to, but upon her face were lines of suffering and disappointment and degradation. Yet in the midst of it all, strange to say, the father seemed to blame the boys and their mother for having conspired against the interests of the farm home and plotted to get away. In the course of his conversation he made it somewhat evident that he would have sold out and left sooner had the other members of the family not been so urgent about the matter, and that he was now holding on partly to indulge his spite and feeling of stubbornness in reference to them.

The cheap novels one may pick up depict many a fict.i.tious tragedy. But in the place just described lies the typical scene of thousands of real tragedies during the course of which numberless lives of boys and girls have been wrecked forever,--lives latent with possibilities of goodness and beauty, of mental and moral strength. And then, the bitterness and anguish of soul of the mothers of these lost members of a high humanity--what of that? The silent walls of an untimely grave in many cases closed them in, while much of the memory of their secret suffering lies buried with them.

THE CHILDREN'S ROOM

Even though the means available will not allow for more than the humblest sort of cottage, there should be definite thought of providing therein some room or niche or corner to be considered as the private property of the children. In a three-room dwelling on the Kansas prairie in which lives a happy family of five, and about which thrifty young shade trees and orchards are growing, there may be seen a children's room that would surprise and inspire any ordinary observer. In a little attic room facing the east and reached by a mere step-ladder arrangement, may be found the "den," which is the private place of the three children. A small window opens out to the east and a small improvised dormer window about twelve by twenty inches admits light and air from the south. There is no plastering or other expensive covering upon the sloping roof walls, but the artistic mother has provided dainty white muslin for concealing the rough places, and with the help of the children she has decorated the little room in a manner that would attract the very elect. None of this has required a money cost, but it has all been done beautifully at the expense of thought and good sense and artistic taste, prompted by rare consideration for the needs of the boys and girls.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE VI.

FIG. 6.--A commodious farmhouse in Canada, equipped throughout with a complete water system. Many farmers waste enough trying to build a house without a modern plan to pay for this extra convenience.]

The two little girls and their brother, ranging in age from five to ten years, spend many a happy hour in their attic chamber. The heat from the room below comes through a small aperture and warms the little place in winter time, while the breeze pa.s.ses through the little windows in summer, tempering the room satisfactorily excepting upon extremely hot days. Upon the walls are arranged beautiful post cards, larger pictures gathered from magazines and other sources, and small though beautiful home decorations of every conceivable sort. The little seven-year-old boy has a small a.s.sortment of curios collected from the hills and streams, while the girls have a small display of their childish needlework, their dolls, and some of their best school drawings. How suggestive and how helpful it would be if this little den could be displayed before the eyes of all the humble cottagers throughout the rural districts!

Yes, the hogs may live out-of-doors and the horses get along very well indeed with a temporary barn thatched with straw, but the places of the boys and girls must be looked after and that in the interest of making them happy, of filling their lives with every good, clean sentiment, and of preparing them for that large sphere of usefulness which may mark their future. If the house be larger than the one we have described, then provide accordingly for the children. Give them a good room of their own. Put their ornaments and playthings in it. If there be s.p.a.ce, provide a library containing a few suitable volumes. And after this thoughtful provision has been made, see to it carefully that their schedule for work, schooling, and the other duties allows for ample time and opportunity for their enjoyment of the apartment set aside for them.

In years to come, that sweet poetic sentiment running back to the home of one's childhood will be given greater strength and beauty because of the fact that this thing just urged has been done. And more than that, the man (or woman) who has the blessed privilege of recalling these bygone scenes of childhood receives from such contemplation a new sense of inner strength and new enduement of power to go on with life's struggle and master the larger problems that come to him.

THE EVENING HOUR

No matter what the cares of the day may have been, how many things may have gone wrong, how much hay left out in the field unprotected from the rain, how many acres of corn unplowed and losing in the battle with the weeds, how many items of household duties unperformed--there is every justification for laying aside these work-a-day affairs at the approach of bedtime and for the spending of a precious hour with the problems of the children. Farm parents as well as other parents can thus preserve their youth and add immeasurably to the joys of their own lives. This thing of being with the children at evening may seem slightly awkward and prosaic at first, but it will slowly grow into a habit and will become transformed into an experience of great charm and beauty. Best of all the high refinement, potential in the lives of the children, will thus be gradually brought to an expression, and the foundation stones of substantial manhood and womanhood will be laid in their lives. Yes, it is true, even farm parents may learn to lay aside their cares and perplexities and enjoy the splendid privilege of getting intimately acquainted with the hopes and desires and aspirations of their boys and girls!

REFERENCES

The Outlook to Nature. Revised edition. L. H. Bailey. Page 79, "The Country Home." Macmillan.

Low Cost Country Homes. A. Embury, Jr. _Collier's_, June 10, 1911.

A Primer of Sanitation. John O. Ritchie. Chapter x.x.xIII, "Public Sanitation." World Book Company, Yonkers, N.Y.

Recommended for general use.

From Kitchen to Garret. Virginia Van de Water. Chapter X, "The Boy's Room." Sturgis-Walton Company.

Home Waterworks. Carleton J. Lynde. Sturgis-Walton.

"Comforts and Conveniences in Farmers' Homes." W. R. Beattie.

Yearbook, Department of Agriculture, 1909. Washington, D.C., pp. 345-356. See also in same volume, "Hygienic Water Supply for Farms," pp. 399-408.

Water Supply for Farm Residences, The Plan of the Farm-House, Saving Steps. Cornell Reading-Courses.

Rural Hygiene. H. N. Ogden. The Macmillan Company.

Rural Hygiene. I. N. Brewer. J. P. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.

Earn your Child's Friendship. J. Balfield. _Lippinott's Magazine_, January, 1911.

Fireside Child Study. Patterson DuBois. Dodd, Mead & Co.

Home Decorations. Dorothy T. Priestman. Chapter XIV, "Rooms for Young People." Penn Publishing Company, Philadelphia.

CHAPTER VI

_JUVENILE LITERATURE IN THE FARM HOME_

It may be truly said that the strength and impressiveness of the personality depend on the nature of the inner thought of the individual.

Now, thoughts are not unlike the trees and the growing grain, or, for that matter, any other living thing; unless they have proper nourishment they wither, perish, or dwindle away to a puny shadow of their possible selves. How shall we measure the strength and force of the human character other than by the bigness and the purity of the daily thoughts of the individual? It matters little what the occupation may be--a hewer of stone, a hauler of wood, a captain of industry, or a governor of a state--each of these may be mean and little in his respective position provided his thoughts be sensuous and groveling. On the other hand, each of these can shine in his allotted place in a light all his own, provided he have the habit of entertaining clean and inspiring ideas in his secret consciousness.

Now, one of the larger problems of the rural life is that of supplying the many hours necessarily devoted to silent reflection with a suitable form of thought culture. Proverbially, the farmer and his wife and their children are hurried along with the work-a-day affairs and tend gradually to acquire the non-reading habit. This is bad for the parents in that it keeps their minds running around upon a little cycle of hard, industrial facts. It is worse for the children in that it fails to supply the proper nourishment for the dream period through which their lives are necessarily pa.s.sing. What can be done, therefore, to nourish and build up the best possible thought activities, especially in case of the rural boys and girls?

HOW GOOD THINKING GROWS UP AND FLOURISHES

It may not be out of place to show here somewhat more definitely how attractive forms of literature gradually work themselves into the lives of the young. In the first place, the young person cannot invent his own ideas. He does not manufacture his thoughts out of something latent within his organism. The latent situation consists merely of a nervous system prepared to receive manifold impressions and to retain them and give them back through the process of ideation. That is, the young person thinks only about things that have actually happened in his life.

All he knows has come to him through the avenue of his senses; what he has seen and heard and felt, and so on, const.i.tutes the "stuff" out of which his thoughts are made. So he must have the widest possible experience, while young, in the use of his natural senses.

The literature best adapted to the child would be that which appeals to the interests predominating in his life at any given time. During his early years not hard, prosaic facts, but situations that stretch the truth and sport with the fixed condition of things are especially appealing to him. He should therefore be indulged in the cla.s.sic myths, fables, fairy tales, and the like. The parent will of course be on guard against his acquiring any seriously erroneous beliefs in respect to such things, and also against his receiving any serious shock or fright from the tragic aspects of the tale. Later on, during the early teens, the boys and girls will become more and more interested in the stories of the wars of old and in the fact and romance of history. Stories supplementing the text-book history of the home country may now be introduced.

As a possible means of bringing the minds of the boys and girls into a more intimate knowledge of the rural situation, nature studies and nature stories should be offered. It must be remembered that it is quite possible for the boy to grow up within a stone's throw of many of the living things of nature and yet scarcely recognize their presence, much less know anything definite about them. Therefore, nature-study books and leaflets written perhaps in story form and containing attractive ill.u.s.trations of the birds, bees, flowers, and trees to be found near about the rural home will prove most interesting and instructive to the young. Through such helpful literature the mind will gradually acquire the habit of casting about in the home environment for the description of possible objects and conditions new to one.

One of the best and most helpful results accruing to the young person who indulges the habit of reading good literature is this: he acquires a large vocabulary of words and phrases in which to clothe his secret thought and with which to express himself to others. All this furnishes, not merely a splendid form of entertainment for the silent reflections, but it also gives the thinker a sense of the power and the worth of his own personality.

TYPES OF LITERATURE

It may be stated as a foregone conclusion that no farm is well equipped for the happiness and well-being of those who dwell thereon unless there be an ample supply of good literature in the house. No matter how well stocked with high-grade farm animals, how productive in point of farm crops, how well kept the hedges and lanes may be, secret poverty and littleness of mind lurk in that home if the literature is wanting. So, first of all, let us lay the foundation by means of enumerating some periodicals and books of a more general nature.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE VII.

FIG. 7.--It is a mistake to try to make bookworms of children. Many of their best books are "green fields and running brooks," also frequent opportunity to play together in groups and neighborhoods.]

1. _The best reading._--Of course the Bible might head the list. Whether or not there be a large "family" Bible, there should be at least a text of convenient size and form for everyday use. This book should contain a good concordance.

Then there should come into the home a first-cla.s.s weekly newspaper; possibly the local paper will supply this need. Many farm homes now receive a daily paper regularly.

In addition there should be available a weekly or monthly summary of the current events of the nation and the world. The _Literary Digest_, the _World's Work_, and the _Review of Reviews_ are examples of standard magazines of this particular cla.s.s. Either one of them will stimulate most helpfully the quiet thought of the farmer and the members of his family and keep one in touch with the most important movements of the country.

Along with the foregoing, there should be kept constantly at hand a first-cla.s.s farm magazine. There are numberless periodicals of this sort, but perhaps among those of the first rank and those which especially give definite helps for the boy-and-girl life of the farm may be mentioned _Wallaces' Farmer_, Des Moines, Iowa, the _Farmer's Voice_, Chicago, Illinois, and the _Farmer's Guide_, Huntington, Indiana. Also, the semi-official state paper well known in many of the commonwealths is usually very helpful.

Look out for trash. There are many papers published, ostensibly in the interest of farm life, which are in fact cheap and trashy sheets made use of almost wholly as a medium of advertising quack medicines, get-rich-quick schemes, and other frauds. A reliable means of testing the value of any one of these so-called "farm" or "home" papers is to examine the advertis.e.m.e.nts. If there be any considerable number of advertis.e.m.e.nts which offer sure cures for chronic diseases, confidential treatments for secret troubles, fortune telling, and attractive high-priced articles at a trifling cost, then the whole thing is probably fraudulent and not worthy to come into your home. Also avoid the paper or magazine which advertises intoxicating liquors. It is very low in moral tone, to say the least.

2. _Books for children._--In selecting a list of books for farm boys and girls, we should make little or no distinction between them and the children of the city homes. Their earlier literary needs are practically all alike and their youthful minds must be nourished in about the same fashion. In offering the lists to follow we do not pretend to have selected nearly all the profitable books available, but rather to have named a few examples of volumes already found enticing and helpful to the young mind. The majority of them are standard and well known. While the price and publisher are given in many instances, often a cheaper edition may be had.