The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-01-27
How to Bring Up the Boys.

,thers as how to bring up their boys.
The mother makes the man." nine
hes in ten. Mrs. Hungerford, who
is the domestic department of our
,mtry Home, handles this subject adj
rably. She first prints a genuine
US composition on Asking Cues
MS"
What I always want to know is,
bw can a boy know what he wants to
ow if he can't ask questions? It's
ferent with girls; they can wait to
d out; boys can't wait, anyhow can't.
But who is going to answer ques-
|ns? That's another thing l want to
ow. Sometimes father only says,
Don't bother me, 60 to your MOTHER
d then she says, Oh, Jack, you do
such lots of questions. Now can't
u wait till l can sit down and think
w to answer you?'
IS But mother never does stop and
down and have nothing else to do,
d Aunt Jane don't have so much
ne as mother, cause she's got only
e child and folks that's got six, like
bther, never has so much to do as
ks that has one. It's kind of hen
th-one-chicken business then.
|" Miss Brownleigh says, If you don't
bderstand things, ask somebody to eX-
aim Well, that's what Pm always
ling, but nobody seems to want to
plain. Last Sunday Mr.. Lathrop
cached about getting dead and going
heaven, and when he came into Sun
y-school, in the afternoon, | asked
m how my soul could keep in good
ape without any skin, or what it
build do while new skin was growing
it while the old one was buried in
e ground, and he said he didn't have
me to answer me then.
" And when the doctor came to see
the baby's vaccination was took, |
ked him where the vaccination staid
ter he put it in her arm till it got ready
be boil, and he said he'd explain
me some other time.
I" And l asked the school committee
by there wasn't any east and west
pie same as a north pole, and then l
ked them what the poles were good
II, anyhow, and Deacon Brown was
e only one that answered me, and he
id they were good to tie boys to that
ked foolish questions. But they amt
olish, for l want them explained,
ause when Pm man some little boy,
ay be, will ask me the same things, and
can't tell him if | don't find out my
(lf.n
A conversation springs up over this
bcument, and one mother advised
Lat if one cannot answer such ques-
ons she should frankly say so. Another
leries:
But wouldn't he soon get to feeling
gger than his mother if he found out
be didn't know the things he thinks
be does?"
A third says:
CT think a child's clear eyes soon see
trough its mothers thinly-veiled pre-
Pnce of being too busy, or too sick, and
ben he has to learn that she not only
not able to give the information he
eeks, but stoops to deceit to cover her
liability. l pity boy when he finds
ut that his mothers lips can utter a
Ford that is not strictly true, but pity
is mother far the most"
Then another says:
So do /, and I'm going to own up
my children when they ask me puz-
lesome questions. They're going to
ave four times as good an education
S | had, if their pa lives, and so,
ooner or later, they've got to get by
be, and they might as well know it one
ime as another"
Finally another tells the company:
"My sister always spends the even
hg studying with her boys and girls
nd all the afternoon the family make
heir plans to secure the study houl
or her. She is a Woodworking woman
90, and they all help. Now, Jimmy
lean the knives one girl will say
while | scour the tins and Maggie
res the doughnuts; there's an awful
ong geography lesson tonight anC
namma won't get time for it if We
ont help lots this afternoon and sc
hey do help with real good will. dom
know mother more adored by hel
children, and yet she has given then
In independent, fixed habit of looking
lp things for themselves by putting
hem in the way of doing so when the,
we're very small. The whole family
including father and mother, saved ode
pennies for years till they bought
big unabridged dictionary, and the bool
never has long rest; if it does not eX
plain looked-for thing, where tC
search next becomes a subject for fam
ly council, but no child thinks of ask
ing a question till he can first say HI
has tried the answer for himself"
"What if all resources fail, as the,
surely would in some cases?"
"Then they dispatch postal card t.
one of the three papers they subscrib
to and beg for enlightenment, but tina
is always saved for last resort, for m
brother-in-law says: No time is NOR
valuable than an editor's.''
This all seems very interesting to us
and we hope some of our Househol
company will take the subject up an
discuss it.