Part 5 (1/2)
He boasted about his success with them, showed an affectionate regard for the different individuals, calling them by name. The horses, too, might have aroused the envy of the entire neighborhood. They were sleek and well-fed, full in flesh and fair in form. There was provided every convenience for feeding and caring for the horses and the hogs, so that the hired men found the work about the barn exceedingly easy and pleasant.
Then the attention of the visitors was turned to the farmhouse. Yes, it was small and run down and poor, the intention being to build a larger one ”some time.” But that same intention was known to have been expressed repeatedly for a period of twenty years past. And where were the boys? Well, that was the trouble, and furnished the excuse for his willingness to sell the place. He simply could not induce the boys to stay there and take an interest in things. Two of them, barely more than boys, had left the home nest in its meanness and degradation and hired out in town. The mother of the boys was living there because she had to, but upon her face were lines of suffering and disappointment and degradation. Yet in the midst of it all, strange to say, the father seemed to blame the boys and their mother for having conspired against the interests of the farm home and plotted to get away. In the course of his conversation he made it somewhat evident that he would have sold out and left sooner had the other members of the family not been so urgent about the matter, and that he was now holding on partly to indulge his spite and feeling of stubbornness in reference to them.
The cheap novels one may pick up depict many a fict.i.tious tragedy. But in the place just described lies the typical scene of thousands of real tragedies during the course of which numberless lives of boys and girls have been wrecked forever,--lives latent with possibilities of goodness and beauty, of mental and moral strength. And then, the bitterness and anguish of soul of the mothers of these lost members of a high humanity--what of that? The silent walls of an untimely grave in many cases closed them in, while much of the memory of their secret suffering lies buried with them.
THE CHILDREN'S ROOM
Even though the means available will not allow for more than the humblest sort of cottage, there should be definite thought of providing therein some room or niche or corner to be considered as the private property of the children. In a three-room dwelling on the Kansas prairie in which lives a happy family of five, and about which thrifty young shade trees and orchards are growing, there may be seen a children's room that would surprise and inspire any ordinary observer. In a little attic room facing the east and reached by a mere step-ladder arrangement, may be found the ”den,” which is the private place of the three children. A small window opens out to the east and a small improvised dormer window about twelve by twenty inches admits light and air from the south. There is no plastering or other expensive covering upon the sloping roof walls, but the artistic mother has provided dainty white muslin for concealing the rough places, and with the help of the children she has decorated the little room in a manner that would attract the very elect. None of this has required a money cost, but it has all been done beautifully at the expense of thought and good sense and artistic taste, prompted by rare consideration for the needs of the boys and girls.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE VI.
FIG. 6.--A commodious farmhouse in Canada, equipped throughout with a complete water system. Many farmers waste enough trying to build a house without a modern plan to pay for this extra convenience.]
The two little girls and their brother, ranging in age from five to ten years, spend many a happy hour in their attic chamber. The heat from the room below comes through a small aperture and warms the little place in winter time, while the breeze pa.s.ses through the little windows in summer, tempering the room satisfactorily excepting upon extremely hot days. Upon the walls are arranged beautiful post cards, larger pictures gathered from magazines and other sources, and small though beautiful home decorations of every conceivable sort. The little seven-year-old boy has a small a.s.sortment of curios collected from the hills and streams, while the girls have a small display of their childish needlework, their dolls, and some of their best school drawings. How suggestive and how helpful it would be if this little den could be displayed before the eyes of all the humble cottagers throughout the rural districts!
Yes, the hogs may live out-of-doors and the horses get along very well indeed with a temporary barn thatched with straw, but the places of the boys and girls must be looked after and that in the interest of making them happy, of filling their lives with every good, clean sentiment, and of preparing them for that large sphere of usefulness which may mark their future. If the house be larger than the one we have described, then provide accordingly for the children. Give them a good room of their own. Put their ornaments and playthings in it. If there be s.p.a.ce, provide a library containing a few suitable volumes. And after this thoughtful provision has been made, see to it carefully that their schedule for work, schooling, and the other duties allows for ample time and opportunity for their enjoyment of the apartment set aside for them.
In years to come, that sweet poetic sentiment running back to the home of one's childhood will be given greater strength and beauty because of the fact that this thing just urged has been done. And more than that, the man (or woman) who has the blessed privilege of recalling these bygone scenes of childhood receives from such contemplation a new sense of inner strength and new enduement of power to go on with life's struggle and master the larger problems that come to him.
THE EVENING HOUR
No matter what the cares of the day may have been, how many things may have gone wrong, how much hay left out in the field unprotected from the rain, how many acres of corn unplowed and losing in the battle with the weeds, how many items of household duties unperformed--there is every justification for laying aside these work-a-day affairs at the approach of bedtime and for the spending of a precious hour with the problems of the children. Farm parents as well as other parents can thus preserve their youth and add immeasurably to the joys of their own lives. This thing of being with the children at evening may seem slightly awkward and prosaic at first, but it will slowly grow into a habit and will become transformed into an experience of great charm and beauty. Best of all the high refinement, potential in the lives of the children, will thus be gradually brought to an expression, and the foundation stones of substantial manhood and womanhood will be laid in their lives. Yes, it is true, even farm parents may learn to lay aside their cares and perplexities and enjoy the splendid privilege of getting intimately acquainted with the hopes and desires and aspirations of their boys and girls!
REFERENCES
The Outlook to Nature. Revised edition. L. H. Bailey. Page 79, ”The Country Home.” Macmillan.
Low Cost Country Homes. A. Embury, Jr. _Collier's_, June 10, 1911.
A Primer of Sanitation. John O. Ritchie. Chapter x.x.xIII, ”Public Sanitation.” World Book Company, Yonkers, N.Y.
Recommended for general use.
From Kitchen to Garret. Virginia Van de Water. Chapter X, ”The Boy's Room.” Sturgis-Walton Company.
Home Waterworks. Carleton J. Lynde. Sturgis-Walton.
”Comforts and Conveniences in Farmers' Homes.” W. R. Beattie.
Yearbook, Department of Agriculture, 1909. Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., pp. 345-356. See also in same volume, ”Hygienic Water Supply for Farms,” pp. 399-408.
Water Supply for Farm Residences, The Plan of the Farm-House, Saving Steps. Cornell Reading-Courses.
Rural Hygiene. H. N. Ogden. The Macmillan Company.
Rural Hygiene. I. N. Brewer. J. P. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.
Earn your Child's Friends.h.i.+p. J. Balfield. _Lippinott's Magazine_, January, 1911.