Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-11-29
All Sorts of Work.
= TALK FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
Ply THOMAS X BEEcuEu.


BY THOMAS X BEECHEu.
am always sorry for man who knows
how to DO but one thing. | have seen
many such men l gave ten dollars to
one who could speak and write beautiful
"; but in the middle Of hard winter he
could not get living. ] remember an
other man who had preached twenty. FIVE
years, till his throat failed him, and he
used to 90 round looking very blue and
sad, until people pitied him, and made
little donation parties for him, because he
was good for nothing except to preach.
have met many such men. One was
a wool-stapler, but when there was no
more wool to sort, he was helpless as a
baby. Another one knew how to drill and
polish needle-eyes, but neither he nor
had any needles to drill, nor eyes to pol
ish
knew a lady once, that had taught
school for twenty years, till she was poor,
nervous, broken-down woman, and really
didn't know how to make dress for her
self.
| know a man that wants to keep store
and he sits with his thumb 10 his mouth,
waiting for a store to come to him to BE-
kept
| heard Of a minister, who. when his
people gave him horse and buggy, had
to wait for the deacon's wife to come over
and show him how to harness, for he didn't
know the bits from the crupper.
Now, boys and girls, every real man
should know how to do one thing right
well. and he ought 20 know how TO DO
great many things tolerably well.
Every farmer has a principal crop; but
ne always puts in little something else.
so that if the main crop fails, he viii have
something to live on. Don't carry all
your eggs in one basket Don't put all
your money in one pocket. If you want
to get along right well, learn one sort of
work to get living by, and all sorts OF
work to get along with when your one sort
gives out
When tree loses its limbs by the wind
or by your saw, it does not give up and
die. Watch it 1t bursts out from I'M
derneath the old, dry bark, with little
tricks Of twigs which it learned and laid
away years ago, when it was a saping
OF course the tree chose three OF four Of
its twigs, and lived by them they grew
and it grew but when they got twisted
off, the tree laughed and said There's
more than one way to get a living. And
so those little things that it had not
thought Of for twenty years, began to grow,
Just as l have seen some men and women
when they got into trouble they stirred
round and went at something that they
used to do when they were young.
That's the reason Why l 90 IN for all
sorts of work. | believe in boys learning
how to do girls work, and girls learning
how to do boys work.
remember once out in Indiana, before
the days Of railways one Of the incest wO-
men that l ever saw. She could make
bread and pies, pickles and preserves,
roast beef and turkey f.; she could make
beds and boquets, paper rooms, and shake
carpets there was no end to what she
could DO But one day she was sick, and
there she lay, fiat on her back in bed, and
there were eight in the family, and no
bread, and no beef, and nothing to eat, and
nobody to do this wOman's work. Hold
on Not so fast. For | remember wash
ing day, and baking day, mending day,
and that we men and boys laughed. We
took off our shoes and stockings, and
stamped the clothes in the suds. We
rolled up our sleeves and washed our
hands wonderfully clean, and made bread,
and when our hands were in, we made
pies and cake too. And on Thursday, |
think, the dear woman was helped along
famously, when we held sort Of sewing
society by her bedside, and sewed on but
tons, and darned our stockings and her
stockings. | think the laugh did her
good And for two or tire weeks we were
as Jolly as sailors or soldiers, and got along
famousIy.
Let girls learn to do boys work, too.
lent my horse and wagon to a very nice
girl, not long ago, and when she brought
them home, she hitched the horse to the
post by that large ring that the lines go
through on the saddle. Of course the
horse pulled and broke the halter, and did
great damage.
Now it seems to me, that every girl
should learn to harness a horse, and that
every boy should know how TO darn stock
ings and every mason should learn the
5uOCLudhCl = blduC3 hLA OfNiJ N@AAOA ACt~A "a
the carpenters trade, and everybody learn
now to do every thing a little, and one or
two things perfectly.
When we are young and thrifty, we
ought to start half-a. dozen more buds than
we intend to have grow into branches.
Boys and girls fool away enough time to
learn many a thing which may be ofuse to
them by and by.
Il amt going to be a girl and learn to
sew
Yet sailors and soldiers are certainly
manly enough, my boy and | have seen
two hundred sailors, some of them gray
haired men, sitting down on the clean
decks of a man-of-war, with their bags aud
ditty-boxes, making their flannel shirts or
blue caps, or white duck trousers, and en-
broider NJ anchors and eagles, and other
badges on their shirt collars, with white
silk, just as quietly as so many sewing
girls.
At West Point, too, where they take