The prairie news. [volume] (Okolona, Miss.) 1851-1875, 1858-12-16
A Boys Trials.

ouNH ufH'b PONVhluS oitIClC, IcHliHu
ing us 40 forcibly of the time when W.
We're required to submit to the "rule,
and regulations" of the "old man = ant
when we had to sit with the humbles,
girl at school and then endure the NOR
tification of being called "gal boy !" and
refreshing our memory concerning oul
first "long-tail blue" that We ever wore
when we used to 90 and see " Sally
J Jones;" and taking us back 50 life-like to
the time when We commenced "making
up" to the finest looking girl at school
or at the "apple pearing bee;" and
causing US TO experience some of the
"agonies' we endured while endeavor-
ing to screw our courage up to the
sticking point" and keeping our flut-
tering hearts out our mouths, long enough
for us to say to our beau ideal of Juno
or Venus, "may go home with you y
I'd est Omne genus,-tlat we are tempted
to present it to those who can appreciate
IT, namely, "grown up boys:'
Ills REGULATIONS WITH THE "oLD MAN."
We suppose that the first severe trial
a boy has to undergo is to submit his
will to the old man, whom he is taught to
consider his father. 70 be restrained in
doors at night, to be forbidden to 90 in
swimming five times day, or to be
hindered from pinching the rest of the
children just for fun, is an interference
with natural inalienable rights, every way
injurious to the feelings. And then, when
upon some, overwhelming temptation, the
boy asserts his independence of parental
control, and receives IA tanning" with
switch from ounce bush, either upon
his back or his bare feet, it becomes re-
ally very serious thing. We never
could see that the smart of an operation
like this was at all assuaged by the af-
| fectionate assurance that ii was bestowed
out Of pure love,
SITTING WITH THE GIRLS.
The next great trial of that boy is to
he obliged by cruel master to sit with
the girls at school. This usually comes
before the development of these undenia-
BILE aflinites which, in after life, would
tend to make the punishment more en-
durable. To be pointed out as "gal
boy" to be smiled at grimly by the
master, who is 50 far delighted with his
own inefable pleasantly as to give the
little boys license to laugh aloud, and to
be placed by the side of a girl who had
no handkerchief, and no knowledge of
the use of that article, is, we submit,
trial of no mean magnitude. Yet we
have been there and have been obliged
to " sit up close" with big Rachel, laugh
ing and blushing till We came to hate her
name. We wonder where the over
grown, frowzy creature is now, and what
the condition of her head is
THE FIRST LONG TAILED COAT.
We do not believe that any boy ever
put on his long tailed coat without
sense of shame. He first twists his back
half off looking at it in the glass, and
then when he steps out of doors it seems
TO him as if all creation was in broad
grin. The sun laughs in the sky the
cows turn to look at him there are faces
at every window; his shadow mocks
him. When he walks by the cottage
where Jane lives, he dares not look up
for bis life. The very boards creak with
consciousness of the strange spectacle,
and the old pair of pantaioons that stop
light in the garret window nod with de-
rision. If he is Obliged to pass group
of men and boys, the trial assumes its
most terrific stage, His legs get all mix
ed up with embarrassment, and the flap
of the dangling appendage is felt upon
them, moved by the wind of his own i'm
agination he could not feel worse were
it dish-cloth, worn as a badge of dis
grace. 1t is happy time for him when
he gets to the church and sits down with
his coat tails under him; but he is still
apprebensive with thinking of the Sun
day shool, and wonders if any one Of the
children will ask him to "swing his long |
tail blue"
GOING HOME WITH THE GIRLS.
The entrance into society may be said
to take place after boyhood has passed
away, yet multitude take the initiative
before their boards are preseniable. 1t
is great trial either to tender or a
tough age. For an overgrown boy to go
to door, knowing that there are a doz-
en- girls inside, and to knock or ring with
absolute certainty that in two minutes
all their eyes will be upon him. is a se-
we're test Of courage. Togo before these
girls and make satisfactory tour of the
room without stepping on their toes, and
then sit down and dispose of ones hands
without putting them into ones pockets,
is an achievement which few boys can
boast. If a boy can get so far as to
measure off ter yards oftape with one of