San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-05-08
FUN ON THE FARM.
Memories Which Cling to the
Grown-Up Farmer Boy.
They Follow Him Into His City
Life When IN After Years He
Becomes a Resident of the
Metropolis.

1t is probably true that a large pro-
portion of the most ardent and enthu-
siastic sportsmen are those whose boy
hood days were spent upon the farm;
whose early associations were with the
woods and fields, and whose recreations
were largely found in hunting and fish
ing. Led by inclination or the force of
circumstances to the large towns, con-
fined to sedentary occupations and de-
prived for the greater part of the year
of open air and freedom and exercise,
men find that although the cords which
bound the boy to his country home were
very elastic when he pulled away, later
in life they become tense and tug at the
heart. Echoes and whisperings of the
old days come back to the city man at
his desk or counter, in the crowded
streets or amid the whir of machinery.
The odor of a flower, the note of a bird
may bring the past all back to him; the
subtle influence will be potent, and, q
barefooted boy, he will again drive the
cows to pasture through the dew of the
morning. Again, the bubbling song Of
the bobolink or the clarion call of the
bluejay will be borne to his ears; again
the odor of the fresh-turned soil or the
smell of the ripening corn will greet his
nostrils: and yet, again, visions of sum-
mer fields ripping in the heat, or still
autumn woods, whose leaves are falling
"at the Earring of the earth's axis, viii
appeal to him and draw him-aye, drive
him-to the meadow and forest once
more.
In the sparsely7settled farming dis
tricts of the north one is apt to find his
sympathy and commiseration going out
to the children whose homes are in
these lonely and seemingly unattractive
places. Remote from towns and vii
lagos and compelled through scant COM
radeship to rely upon their own re-
sources for enjoyment, it would indeed
appear that in their isolation and home
ly surroundings were things to be re-
GREETED. But if we knew all that these
little people know, perhaps, we would
find that they have less need of pity
than ourselves; they are very close to
nature, and nature takes care of her
own. The first messages of spring are
given to the farmers boy. The mild
south wind which softens the ice and
sets the meadow brooks to overlooking
also causes his spirits to thaw and over
flow. 1t is to him that the first blue
bird calls out her sweet and CHEEKY well
come, and it is his sharp ears and eyes
that discover the pioneer robin in the
top of the tall maple. In his brown fist
lhe brings home the earliest spring
flowers, blue violets, anemones and adj
der's tongues. The pussy willow blooms
for him before others see it, and all the
creeping, crawling and flying things
report their advent to him before the
rest of the world is aware of their ar
rival. 1t is not always he who travels
furthest that learns the most. The in
telligent boy who has spent a dozen
years or more on a 50-acre farm, almost
every square foot of which he has
worked over with hoe or AK or scythe,
gets to have very thorough knowledge
of large part of the earth's surface,
even though he may never have crossed
the limits of the county in which he was
born. Being for the most part mechan.
ically employed, his faculties are alert
to what is going on around him. He
sees the wild creatures in all their
moods, surprises them on their most
furtive errands, and sooner or later
draws their secrets from them.-Forest
and Stream.
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