Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1891-08-27
The Country as Seen by the Fresh Air
Children.


The fresh air children see the country
with their own eyes, not with yours or
mine. They steadily refuse to crafty the
tastes of sentimental and exacting persons
oy becoming morbidly lost in marvel. or
rapt III poetic fancy. Occasionally one
finds child whose mind is sensitive and
who develops rare appre ciation OF the
beauty of living close To the heart of
things, but usually these charity children
enjoy whatever comes To them n just the
same nnrehecting, prosaic. wholesome
way that we find most gratifying and
heaithful in our own children.
Very strange and wonderful everything
Is to them, to be sure; but 10 a land where
everything is strange and wonderful one
loses sight of special marvel. peculiar
| and disastrous hail-storm once swept over
farm where dozen children were stay
ing. The children of the household ere
! terrified, but the little visitors were per-
fectly calm.
II thought maybe it always rained sharp
glass in the country" said one little girl,
when they asked her why she wasn't
afraid.
Here are few incidents and anecdotes
set down a. they came to me from a troop
OF little ones who came back a few DAYS
ago from fortnight at Glens Falls Some
are sad some are funny. some only child
Ike. | hope they are all significant.
gathered a lot Of these children about me,
and asked them what they had seen and
| done.
II seen COW" shril!S one little girl in
s,autly. Cows has horns, and lets down
milk, and hooks You when your hair is the
same color As hers"
Pooh = says the handsome Italian boy
back Of her, who had come as listener
pooh they don't neither"
The girl thrns look of calm scurn up
un him II seen the cows, aud You didn't. "
She resi- "nds, and the boy feels the force
OF the argument from cXperieucc and re-
tires
They talk brcathl,ssly and with eager en-
thu>lasm, not only those who are Just
home, with their experiences fresh upon
them, but thosr who have to go back Il year
or two for what they tell. 1t IS wonderful
how sharply and clearly the details are
preserved.
"Wot de country is ike is dis" says a
small red-haired Irish boy, spreading his
| arms wide, while the look OF one who
wishes to give an accurate and careful i'm
preston comes into his sun.burned.
frcCklcd face; "dcre's de whole wort an
9
lin hear mile wccn you holler, cause it,
80 still An all de streets is dirt an soft.
an de- birds sings. an dtre's cherries on dt
trees.
A pastoral, surely, that YOU and might
wish To have written IN 50 few words and
with so true touch.
In the number OF those newly returned
i Bertha. Bertha /. blue-eycd little
German girl from Gotham Court who had
never seen the grass aud the trees until
now. Bertha has poet soul in that squat,
sturdy body Of hers. II never saw a child
IKE her said the good woman Of the
farm where the child had -taid. And 1t i
very likely such children are not common
Was it very strange in the country :"
asked her
~ could hear the clock tick all the time I"
answered the child
~ down q Gotham Court and YOU will
understand that. All day there j. the long
rumble of the ctty'S streets. Sometimes
the sound i loud and smitcs sharply on
the nerves; sometimes it i, heavy and
dull, or pierced through with The cries Of
men and Of little children. Can you think
what it would it he TO live where Won could
never be sure you heard the sound of your
timepicce. and to come to hold it as the
>transc>t Of surprises that YOU could hear
the clock tick all the timcs"
Most children ike the grass and trees
but this child loved them with an eager.
qniyerlng delight that was pathetic Bcr
tha seldom Joined the children in their
play, bat as soon aS her meals and her
sleeping time were over ran out to throw
herself at full length in the grass, face
downward, and with arms wide stretched
A. If 10 gather il all To her bosom And