The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-09-07
TIE CHILD OUT OF DOORS
BY Christine Terhune Herrick.
Continued from last week..


Continued from last week)
Of course, the standby of all picnics,
whether for children or adults, is sand
witches, and of these the variety is end
less. The delicate squares and rounds
that would appeal to the guests at an
afternoon tea are out of their element at
a picnic. Still, the sandwiches here may
also be attractive, but they should be
good sized slices of bread and butter,
with a filing of minced chicken or ham
or beef or of eggs chopped and seasoned,
or of almost anything else that appeals
to the taste of the eaters. Sweet sand
witches are nice for the children who are
denied cake but who will be quite as we'll
pleased in most cases with thin bread
and butter spread with jam or Jelly
especially if these have received the adj
ditional dainty touch by being tied up
with a bit Of ribbon, even if this be no
more elegant than that used to tie hand
kerchiefs in boxes.
Fruit is the easiest sweet to take to a
picnic and the most wholesome. Ice
cream is a joy when it can be trans
ported, but this is not always feasible
For beverages, bottled lemonade may be
taken and the grown ups may dissipate
with cold tea or coffee, also taken in
bottles.
While all these makeshifts serve to
tide over the trying season they are,
after all, but poor substitutes for the all
day and all night enjoyment Of country
air. The most devoted mother generally
relaxes her vigilance a little and thinks
that now the children are we'll out Of
town, her anxieties are at an end.
In a way she is right, but not in all
things. In the first place, unless she is
in her own country cottage, she cannot
hope to have the dietary exactly what
she would choose She has to watch
what the youngsters eat and drink more
carefully than she did at home, where
she planned out every meal for them
herself. Here, if she is in a country
boarding house, she will find that there
are temptations gastronomic besetting
them on every side. The great American
pie comes to the front, and she is ac-
cused, mentally, at least, of hard heart
edness by all those who see her refuse
that standby to her offspring. Fried
foods will abound and salt fish and meat
will be much in evidence.
Through these perils the mother Of
obedient, well trained children may
steer her flock without danger. But she
cannot be with them everywhere, warn
ing them from this Or that risk against
which it had never occurred to her to
caution them. She tell them not to eat
green fruit nor to taste anything grow
ing unless they We're sure it was not
poisonous, but she had not thought they
would fill themselves up with sassafras
and sweet flag root and birch bark and
partridge berries to an extent that upset
their digestion for days afterward
Neither had she remembered to warn
them against playing too long In the
hot sun, and the result may be a feverish
child, who has really had slight sun
stroke, and has to be carefully watched
all the summer to save him from a worse
attack
Children are VIGOROUSLY imprudent
It never seems to occur to them that they
are only mortal. They climb trees, walk
ridge poles, get their feet wet and have
sore Threats and cold in the head as a
consequence, and do a variety of other
wild things, 1t may sound hard hearted
to tell the mother to think as little as
she can of these things, but it is the only
course to follow if the matron does not
expect to be a prey to nervous prostra-
ton before the end of the summer. She
must make up her mind that the chill
dren must take their chances. When
her boy comes in with his hair wet and
his shirt on wrong side out and then
wonders how his mother guessed that he
had been swimming, she makes a blum
der if she takes the matter too seri-
ously. From time immemorial bows
have done these things and the major
ity have survived. There is little cause
for fear thai the race Will suffer ma
terially from such performances in the
ages to come
So while the mother should warn her
children against certain obvious and
dangerous risks, and endeavor above all
things to keep their confidence. so that
she may know if they have any excep-
tionally daring project on hand. she
should not try to keep them tied to her
apron string. No doubt their guardian
angels, who whether for boys or for girls
have their work cut out for them. must
draw a long sigh of relief when the SIM
mer IS over and the children taken out
OF the safe" country, so-called. and re-
stored to the comparatively slight perils
Of city streets and trolley cars. But
the mother should take what
she can in the thought that after
all the guardian angels are probably
about their business. More than that
she can know that in spite Of risks and
the defects of food the children are in
haltng pure and ozone laden air and
are laying up a stock Of strength that
will stand them in good stead the whole
winter through.