The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-01-23
THE COUNTRY BOY.
No Farm without It's Boy Is Worth
Considering.

Did anyone ever know of a prosperous
farm that was not supplied with a boy?
L mean farm that had horses and cows
and poultry and pigeons, and swallows
nests under the caves of the great. ram
bling barn; and apple orchard and
huckleberry patches, and a brook where
speckled trout darted from bank to bank;
and woodchuck holes and yellow-jackets
nests off in the corners of the pastures;
and wild strawberries, and plenty OF woods
that afforded excellent opportunities for
traps and snares. If there ever was such
combination-such paradise Of farm
and no boy-I hope it may be kept in
the background. 1 never want to hear of
it. never want to go there. What
dreary, melancholy sort of place 1T must
be. Even the birds whose eggs he some
times steals. and the woodchucks' and rab-
bits against whom he wages perpetual
war, must miss the cheerful whistle and
warm, ready laugh.
II l were going to stock farm, would
first be aesthetic and supply it with a boy
and a strawberry patch; ii would be time
enough for the practical afterward. Per-
maps they would be useless; but so would
the Wild Mowers, and the birds, and the
butterflies, and the laughter of the wind as
1t tantalized the boughs of the apple trees,
and the trout under the messy banks, and
half a thousand other sweet and beautiful
things that go to make up country life, and
without which the farm would be a waste
both body and soul.
The farm boy is not an incumbrance, bur
factor. If he is in the way occasion
ally, and is sometimes mischievous and
unmanageable, he is also a necessity and
the source OF endless pleasure and salts
faction: How could the farm dog and the
MI 1Q 0rad h.
along without him? And would the pigeons
and the brook and the social squirrels be
content If he We're away? L trow not
IL Is lie who picks up stones in the spring
ana potatoes and apples in the fall; who
rides horses for the blowing does barn
chores, cuts wood. attends school, runs
endless errands. and stiH finds time for
his own private world of birds and ami
mails and traps and snares. He keeps
down the woodchucks and other mischiev-
Gus providers that menace the farmers
prosperity. He manufactures successful
scarecrows to ward off robins from the
strawberry bed and crows from the corn
field. And it is upon him that the house,
hold depends in the spring for cowslips,
and in the summer for huckleberries and
Dlackberries, and in the fall for a rich
store OF nuts, and perhaps an occasional
feast Of partridge quail. He keeps the
house clear of rats. and the flower garden
clear of weeds, and the brook clear of
trout; and he follows every trespassing
boy who has not the favor of his counten-
ance with relentless severity
But 1t is in the fall, when the bulk of
the farm work is over, that the boy rises
in all his glory. He has more time Of
his own, and every second of 1t Is occupied.
His few chores are accomplished with q
rapidity that takes away ones breath. and
his own concerns reap the benefit of the
captured time. His shrill whistle is heard
from the barn and from the fields and from
the garrett and from the top of apple
tree, where he is exploring a promising
G 90
paign Is approaching, and the mornings
and evenings are devoted to inspecting and
passing Judgment upon last years war
paraphernalia. Traps and skates and sleds
and apparatus for fishing through the ice
are approved or rejected, according to their
deserts: and then he anxiouSly examines
his pocket money for the wherewith to
make up deficiencies. The ancient gun is
never brought into the question. 1t is the
only one in the family, and even the older
members do not dream of questioning its
perfection. To the boy 1T is a treasure, to
be carried with due reverence and solicit
tude.
If there are any lazy bones in the farm
boy, they all disappear when the game
laws are on: After that he is up before
light, and off TO his snares with gun and
dog and shrill whistle. His heavy boots
are heard upon the stairs long before those
OF the farmer or his hired men, and he is
always back in time for his breakfast
and sometimes for his chores. His school
Is generally one or two miles away; and
IL he is late and punished his noncom-
initial face never betrays the fact at home.
Again, there is the usual round of chores
and supper after dark. Then he spends
short time with his books and a long
time making snares to repair damages in
his hedges. After that comes the nightly
feast of nuts and apples. sometimes shared
in by hilarious party of friends and
usually cut short by the farmers per-
emptory order to go to bed!'
The farm boy, i have found him. IS
good-nature6 and cheerful, and ready to
oblige He is always the first to greet
ones arrival, and the last to yell goodbye
generally from a fence-post or the creak-
ing top Of tall tree. Is 1t any wonder that
I place him first on my list of farm at
fractions, or that / would hesitate to go
pleasuring in the country If were not sure
of finding him?