Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-12-29
IfIWere A Boy Again.

OF the things 1 would do if were boy
again some of the too often neglected act:
| would strive to accomplish if it were il
my power to begin all over anew.
would learn the art Of using tools o.
various sorts. | think | would insist OF
learning some trade, even if knew ther.
would be no occasion to follow 1t when
grew up. What a pleasure it is in after ti.G
to be able to make something, as the saying
is to construct a neat box to hold one
pen and paper, or pretty cabinet Tor
sisters library or to frame fa7orite en-
craving for Christmas present to dear
kind mother What loss not to know
how to mend chair that refuses to stand
up strong. only because it needs few tack:
and bit of lea ther here and there. Some
Of US cannot even drive nail straight. and
should we attempt to saw off an Obtrusive
piece of wood ten to one We should lose O
finger in the operation.
| think | should ask permission-if had
happened to oe born IN city-to have the
opportunity of passing all my vacations In
the country, that | might learn the rames
of trees, and flowers, and birds We are,
as people, sadly ignorant of all accurate
rural knowledge. We guess at many
country things, but We are certain CT very
few. 1t is ine1cusable in grown-up per-
son, like my amlable neighbor Simkins,
who lives from May to November on a farm
of sixty acres, in beautiful wooded count
try, not TO know 4 maple from beech,
or bobolink from a cat-bird. Ho once
handed me bunch Of pansies, and called
them violets, and on another occasion he
mistook sweet peas for gersmiums. What
right has human being, while the air is
full of bird music, to be wholly ignorant
of the performers name? When We 60 to
the opera, we are fully posted up with
regard to all the principal singers, and Why
should VIC know nothing of the owners OF
voices that far transcend the vocal powers
of Jenny Lind and Christine Nilsson. A
| boy ought also to be at home in a barn and
learn how to harness horse, tinker up q
wagon, iced the animals, and do a hundred
useful things, the experience of which may
be of special service to him in after life as
an explorer or a traveller, when unlocked
for emergencies befall him.
i'll were boy again. would learn how
to row boat and handle sail, and above
all, how TO become proof against sea-sick-
ness. | would conquer that malady before
grew to be fifteen years old. 1t can be
done, and ought to be done. in youth, for
all of US are more or less inclined to visit
foreign countries, either in the way OF
|
| nothing of pleasure. Fight the sea-sick
malady long enough. and in can be con-
quered at very early age. Ofcourse every
young person nowadays, malc or female,
| learns to swim, and 80 no advice on that
score need be profered; but If | were boy
again, | would learn to float half day, il
necessary, in as rough bit of water as |
could find on our beautiful coast. A boy OF
fifteen who cannot keep bis head and legs
all right in a stiff sea ought to-try until he
can. No lad in these days ought TO drown
if he can help it
would keep "better hours if | were
boy again that Is. would 60 TO bed
earlier than most boys do. Nothing gives
us more mental and bodily yigor than sound
rest when properly applied. Sleep is our
great replenisher. and if we neglect to take
! II naturally in childhood. all the worse for
US when We grow up. If We 90 to bed
early, We ripen il We sit up late. We decay.
and sooner or later We contract disease
called insomnia allowing 1t 10 be perma-
nently fixed upon Us and then We begin to
decay, even in youth. Late hours are
shadows from the grave.
II Iwere boy again. | would have a
blank book in which | could fecord, before
going 10 bed, every days events just as
they happened TO me personally. 1t | be-
gan by writing only ;wo lines day IN my
diary. would start my little book, and
faithfully put down what happened 10 in-
terest me. On It's pages | would note down
the habits of birds and animals as | saw
them, and If the horse iell III. down should
90 his malady in my book, ard what cured
him should 90 there too. If the cat or the
dog showed any peculiar traits, they should
all be chronicied 10 my diary, and nothing
worth recording should escape me.
There are hundreds of things | would
correct in my life il were a boy again and
among them j. this special one | would
be more careful ot my teeth. Seeing since
have grown up how much suffering Is
induced by the bad habit OF constantly
eating candies and other sweet nuisances,
would shut my mouth to all allurements
Of that sort. Very hot and very cold sub
stances would studiOusy avoid. Tooth
ache in our country Is one Of the national
crimes. Half the people We meet have
swelled faces. The dentist thriyes here
as he does on no other land on the planet
and It Is because We begin to spoil our teeth
at the age of FIVE or six years. child.
eight years old, asked me not long ago If |
could recommend him 10 q dentist who
didn't hurt" pitied him but was ur-
hurt, and they cannot help it, poor, hard.
working gentlemen, charging, as they do,
like Chester.
Iwoud have no dealings with tobacco.
in any form, If Iwere a boy again. My
friend Pipes tells me be Is such martyr
to cigsr-boxes that his life j. a burden.
The habit OF smoking has became such
tyrant over him that he carries tobacco
bowsprit at his damp discolored lips every
hour OF the day, and ne begs me to warn
all the boys OF Ing aequalntances and say
to them emphaucsliy, Don't learn to
smoke 3" lie tells me, sadly, that his head
Is sometimes in such dizzy whirl, and his
brain so foul from long habits Of smoking
he cannot break of. that he Is compelled
to forego much that il pleasant in exist
enee, and live a tobaecO-tOrtured lite from
year to year. Poor Pipes he is sad warn
ing to young fellows who are just learning
to use the dirty ,unmannerly weed - Youths
Companion.
Etiquette and Custom.