Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-11-08
Miseellaneous.
BOYS AS FARMERS.

Boys in general would be very good
farmers if the general notions about
farming were not very different from those
they entertain. What passes for laziness
is very often an unwilingness to farm in
particular way For instance: some
morning in early summer, John is to
eaten the sorrel mare, harness her into the
spring wagon, and put in the buffalo and
the whip, for father is obliged to drive
over TO the Corners, "to see man" about
some cattle. to talk with the road commits
sloner, to 60 to the store 'for the women
folks" and to attend to other important
business; and very likely he will not be
back till sundown. 1t must be pressing
business; for the old gentleman drives off
IN this way somewhere, almost every
pleasant day, and appears to have great
deal on his mind.
Meantime he tells John that he can play
| ball, after he has done up the chores-as
ii the chores could ever be "done up on
farm. He is first to clean out the horse
| stable; then to take n bill-hook and cut
down the thistles and weeds from the
fence corners in the home moving lot, and
along the road toward the village; to dig
up the docks round the garden patch to
weed out the beet-bed; to hoe the early
potatoes; to rake the sticks and leaves out
of the front yard in short there is work
enough laid out for John to keep him busy,
it seems to him, till he comes of age and
at half an hour to sundown he is to 90 for
the cows, and mind he don't run 'em!
"Yes, sir" said John; ''is that all p''
well, if you get through in good sea-
son, you might pick over those potatoes in
the cellar; they are sprouting: they amt
| fit to eat"
John is obliged to his father, for if there
is any sort of chores more cheerful to a
boy than another, on pleasant day, it is
rubbing the sprouts off potatoes, in a dark
cellar. And the old gentleman mounts
his wagon and drives away down the en-
tlclng road, with the dog bounding along
beside the wagon, and refusing to come
back at Johns call. John half wishes that
he were the dog. The dog knows the
part of farming that suits him. He likes
to run along the road and see all the other
dogs and people, and he likes best of all
to lie on the store-steps at the Corners
while his masters horse is DOING at the
post, and while his master is talking poll
ties in the store-with the other dogs of his
acquaintance, swapping at mutually annoy
ing flies, and indulging in that delightful
dog gossip which is expressed by wag of
the tail and q sniff of the nose. Nobody
knows how many dogs characters are des-
troyed in this gossip or how dog may
be able to insinuate suspicion by wag of
the tail, as man can by shrug of the
shoulders, or a sniff a SANDER as a man
can suggest one by raising his eyebrows.
Jhon looks after the old gentleman driv-
ing off in state, with the odorous buffalo
robe and the new whip, and he thinks that
ia tba af f,r, ln
And he cries after his departing parent.
Say, father, can't l go over to the fur
ther pasture and salt the cattle? John
knows that he could spend half day
very pleasantly in going over to the pas
ture, looking for birds nests and shying
at red squirrels on the way, and who
knows but he might ''see" a sucker in the
meadow brook, and perhaps get '.jab"
at him with long stick. He knows a
hole where there is whopper; and one
of his plans in life is to 90 some day and
snare him and bring him home in triumph
1t, therefore, is strongly impressed upon
his mind that the cattle want sailing. But
his father, without turning his head, re-
plies: ''NO, they don't need sailing any
more'n you do" and the old equipage
goes rattling down the road, and John
whistles his disappointment When was
u boy on a farm, and l suppose it is so
now, cattle were never salted half enough.
Jhon goes to his chores and gets through
with the stable as soon as he can, for that
has to be done but when it comes to the
outdoor work, that rather drags. There
are so many things to distract the atten-
ton, the chipmunk in the fence, a bird on
near tree, and hen-hawk circling high
in the air over the barnyard. John loses
a little time in stoning the chipmunk,
| which rather likes the sport, and in watch
| ing the bird, to find where its nest is and
he conyinces himself that he ought to
watch the hawk, lest it pounce upon the
chickens, and therefore, with an easy con-
science, he spends fifteen minutes in hal
looing to that distant bird, and follows it
away out of sight over the woods, and then
wishes it would come back again.
And then carriage with two horses,
ana a trunk on behind goes along the
road, and there is girl in the carriage.
who looks ont at John who is suddenly
aware that his trowsers are patched ON
each knee and two places behind; and he
wonders ifshe is rich, and whose name is on
the trunk, and how much the horses cost,
and whether that nice locking man is the
girls father, and if that boy on the seat
with the driver is her brother, and if he
has to do chores and as the gay sight dis
appears, John falls to thinking about the
great world beyond the farm, of cities,
and people who are always dressed up,
and great many other things of which he
has a very dim notion. And then boy
whom John knows, rides by in a wagon
with his father. and the boy makes face
at John, and John returns the greeting
with twist of his own visage and some
symbolic greeting. All these things take
time. II is dinner-time before John fin
ishes the weeds, and it is cow time before
John has made much imnression on the