The Wahpeton times., 1891-10-01
611R 1 lBE
INTERESTING MATTERS PRR-
TANNING TO THE YOUNG.
The Prairie Boy--l1onest Regret
How QuarreIe Be0in--An
-Obediont Egg--Paul ana
Chiokabiddy--Ho
the Prairie
IookS. a
The Prairie Boy.

The Prairie Boy.
The boy on the western prairie,
transplanted from the East, may find
life monotonous for while, especially
If settlement on the land be made in
the fall.
But when the spring comes and the
farm or settlement begins to grow-to
add COWS, horses, pigs and fowl-then
the boy has work enough and play
enough.
Among the early experiences of the
settlers boy in his encounter with the
lack-rabbit. He meets them on the
prairie, perhaps not farfrom the house.
The jack. startled goes a few PAGES
stops and stretches out his long ears.
Hal" says the boy, II want you, and
IN have YOU" He advances cautious
iy. Tho jack moves away on three
legs, apparently lame in every Joint.
The boy makes a rush, when, 10! the
jack has vanished. A few pieces of fly
ing grass, q vanishing streak OF yellow
and brown, and the vision is past.
The boy rubs his eyes and wonders if
he saw any rabbit at all. "Ill bring
Rover the next time," he says; "he'il
catch him."
The dog has the same experience,
Jack puts himself out of sight with a
jerk and q twist Immediately. The
fact is, only greyhound can catch q
jack, and a greyhound does not sue
ceed unless he has been deprived of
iood three or four days. Even then
he Is not successful always.
But the boy has pets enough with
out the jack, although Jack, if taken
in hand in infancy, makes docile pet,
and a most destructive one, for hehas
liking for everything of vegetable
kind, and one day in a garden will
make great havoc.
Quail came into the yard of the
house at first, and prairie chicks take
possession of the corn field when the
corn begins to shell. Our boy traps
these for the table, and for market if
he lives within ten or twenty miles of
q large town; and of young quail and
chicks he has several in process of
tanning.
Among the early acquisitions is a
litter of pigs. These may run wild,
but they must be rounded up' at
night and put in the enclosure. This,
and the excepting of an eye" to them
all day, is part of his labor or pas
time. OF the stock. the boy has
probably calf, "all his own," and it
receives much attention.
His duties keep him busy, and
neither his mind nor his body grows
rusty from disuse. If he lives on
creek he has the creek to play with,
but if he be n iar-east boy he may not
find much. pleasure in it, for between
prairie creek and an eastern brook
there is as much difference as between
slow OK and a fast horse. The
prairie creek creeps along as though
ashamed of itself, silently without
cheerful gleam- :.or sparkle-much
different from. the talking, laughing,
dancing brook otthe East!
But the crowning of the prairie
boys happiness comes Siwhen he is
sole owner of a'pony-aTexan pony,
perhaps one with q yellow coat with
white dapple, white name and tail;
the boys fortune is made now. The
pony can carry man weighing 200
pounds. How easily, then, does the
pony carry the boy.
The boy and the pony are INSOFAR
able, and of great usefulness, too,
for they herd the COWS, look up and
bring home straying animals, and
constitute the express llne' between
home and the outlying places, going to
town, twenty miles away, may be, for
the mail and making really the con-
Meeting line between the new home and
the old home in the East.
The boy grows strong, wiry and
brown. His appetite is astonishing,
and he eats whatever comes without
question. His racing up and down
quickens all faculties. He enjoys the
outdoor life, delights in all his posses
sions and surroundings, and asks for
Or thinks of nothing better. He Is
one of the many boys racing on
to manhood full of hope, energy,
"pluck:" and good nature, of which
the world cannot have too much.
Blessings on the prairie boy!-Geo. A.
stockwell, in Country Gentleman.
How ouarreIs Begin.
II wish that pony was mine," said
a little boy, who stood at the window
looking down the road.
"What would you do with him?"
asked his brother.
"Ride him; that's what I'd do"
"All day long?"
eyes; from morning till night"
"Yoltd have to let me ride him
sometimes" said his brother.
"Why would 1? You'd have no right |
in him If he were mineD -
"Father would make you'll me have
him part of the time"
"No; he wouldn't"
"My children" said the mother,
who had been listening to them, and
now saw that they were beginning to |
get angry with each other all for
nothing, "let me tell you of a quarrel
between two boys no bigger nor older |
than you are, that Tread about the |
other day. They were going along the
road, talking together in a pleasant
way, when one of them said:
II wish had all the pasture land
in the world
"And the other said, and wish
had all the cattle in the world.''
What would you do then?" asked
his friend.
"'Why, I would turn them into
your pasture land.
t'No YOU wouldn't was the replv.