News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-08-09
BOYS AND GIRLS.
bill ARP" DISCUSSES AN INTER-
ESTING TOPIC.
The Effect of n Picnic on Old FOIks-VaIue
of Nice, Healthy GirI-WhHt Natural
Orators nre Worth.

From the Atlantic, (Ga.) Constitutional
We went to another picnic the other
day and had a glorious time. It was on a
lawn in a beautiful grove close by a big
spring, and a long table was spread and
we feasted on bright eyes and fried
chicken and Jelly cake, and happy faces
and ice cream, and sweet smiles and
merry laughter and lemonade all mixed
up together, and we staid till most mid
night and heard the Calliopean Club go
through their exercises of music and
reading and composition, and then drove
home by moonlight, and I think Mrs.
Arp is a little younger and prettier than
ever and renewing her youth in cOnse-
quence. I never saw the like. Our
people are getting hilarious and are frol-
licking more this spring than usual.
This makes three neighborhood picnics
in a little while and they are fixing up
for another, and my wife is getting
ready. We have got her out Of the
chimney corner and it looks like we Will
never get her back again. Mr.. Gibbons,
says he to me, did you ever see such a
crop of girls as we have got a growing
i'll the country? Well, says [, [ reckon
the boys are at home, at work. No, slr,
says he, there amt hardly any boys any
where. I've counted 'em up in this
neighbOrhood and there are about two
girls to one boy, and, what is worse, the
girls are the smartest and have got the
| best education.
Well, there is a reason for everything
and a cause for every effect, but L don't
know why there are more girls than
boys, and [ wish somebody would tell
me. Some folks say it is a sign of peace.
| The girls are the smartest, [ know, for
they have the most education. Before
the war the boys were put forward and
the girls kept i'll the background but
now the boys have to work, and so the
girls are sent to school and college, and
the boys have to help pay for it. That
is the reason why the girls are the smart
est, and my fear is that they are a little
too smart and won't marry these young
fellows who can't quote little poetry
and don't know whether Byron wrote
Shakespeare or Shakespeare wrote By
ron. But [ reckon they will sooner or
later.
| Mrs. Arp says that girls marry too
soon, anyhow, and she don't want any of
hers to marry under twenty, unless the
offer is a very splendid one in all re-
spects. I reckon that is the reason she
went off at sweet sixteen, but [ think
Mr.. Gibbons is mistaken. The census
shows about as many boy children in
Georgia as girl children. We've got
six boys and four girls, and that is about
right. There is more anxiety about the
girls. They are sorter helpless and de-
pendent. and we have to watch these
young fellers mighty close for fear of
trouble, for the old saying still holds
good:
"A son is a son till he marries wife;
daughter is daughter all the days of her
life"
It is mighty sad to see a girl come
back to her fathers house to live after
she has been married a year or two.
Poor thing She never knew what a
good home she had until she left it, and
by and by she comes creeping back, pale
and sad, and the man she trusted goes
another way. That is the wreck Of a
life. No more happiness for her No
wonder that parents feel anxious about
thoi~ 7-ua'. .aT ''a 7.u~htor-