Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1877-03-22

90 "al'els 10 spend his evenings
III ieaolhg' talking and assisting George in
his studies. Thus encouraged and su,ro,,,d
GU ny s''ch influences, is it strange that tbe
boy should learn to love knowledon. AMI r.
appreciate beauty and purity of character .
Is IL my wonder that his progress was both
rapid and substantial?
But what We're William Severn,s snr
ro'ndlngs? His father was one of those
'iie'l "hoin one does not know how to elias
SLY" 1t would not do to call him a GOOD
ana honorable man, because he had too
many Dad traits of character: it would moi
no 10 clll MN a bad man, because he nos
sesscd too many good qualities. He was a
soft OF halfway man, thorough in nothing,
ana deficient in many things that 60 to
make up the true man. lie was, however.
a man i'll fair standing; was considered a
good fellow" by his associates. who Of
Ten took advantage of his failings. His
farm was keptin q s~lovenly manner He
dld not exactly neglect his work, but he
manifested no taste and employed no sys-
TEN IN It's management. His son. of course.
was managed in the same way. He cared
little what tastes orhabits William acquired.
lie took no interest the boys studies; ney-.
Ell tried to encourage him in anything that
ne deemed OF so ittleimportance. lie looked
upou his son as a sort of animated machine
Tor doing the odds and ends of the farm. and
took no thought for that higher nature
which needs such careful training in every
youth.
In the house, physical wants and physi-
Cal comforts only were regarded. Mrs.
Severn was q good-hearted woman. but her
aesthetic tastes, never very high, had been
gradually dying out in the uncongenlal eli
mate of her husbands grosser tastes and as
sociations. The house had a gloomy, bar
rem appearance. A chill crept over you as
you entered this dwelling, yet you could
not tell just why. There was nothing Of
fensive aboutit. Its offence lay in the alb
sence of anything attractive. No books or
papers were to be seen, no. cheerful pictures
hung against the wall. There were no flow
ers, no music, no anything to refine the in
mates and make them feel that home is the
dearest spot on earth. Nor did Mr.. Severn
so esteem it. The haunts of the village
gossips and loaters suited him far better. and
thither he 9 at every opportunity. 1t is
not strange. then, that with nothing at
home to attract him. and with the example
of his father for excuse, William should ear
" become a village loafer, and should fall
;,+n nthnr hal ln}st, f>n ,.(;,J, ~, 4.41.u.,
practices gave license. Self-culture was not
held up to him as a duty; temperance was
not taught him as a virtue !; purity of habit
was not set before him in its moral beauty.
1t is not strange that he became what we
have already seen. Who shall say that the
fault was all his own?
AS story writers say, we shall now step
forward a few years. George Walters and
William Severn are young men now. The
difference in their tastes and habits has
grown with their years. The friends and
classmates of other days are now widely
separated, though still living in the same
neighborloed. The north and south poles
are not geographically farther apart than
mentally ana morally are THESE TWO young
men. Yet William is not, even now, con-
sidered an abandoned man. lie passes in
the society of the neighborhood for a fast
young man." but people will excuse " fast
ness" in some men, and William is one of
those unfortunates whom people do not
hold to a strict account. The habits of his
early life have grown with his manhood.
He still seeks questionable company; still
snnnI. naInh Of lic time nLen morn than