THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

 

Lights and Shadows of Farming.

 

BY THEODORE THINKER.

 

varmer’s life is a very happy

one. Everybody knows that, I
suppose. ‘The farmer is sur-
rounded by a multitude of things

which cannot fail to interest him. The
cows, the horses, the ducks, the pigs—
the bees, the squirrels, the rabbits, the
birds—the flowers, the trees, the brooks,
the hills,—there are charms in all these.
It is pleasant, too, to see a man mow-
ing. How beautifully the grass falls
before his sharp scythe. How nice it
is, when at work in the field, to sit
down under the shade of a great oak
tree, at luncheon time; to eat ginger-
bread and cheese ; and drink pure spring

water from a wooden cask. Why, dur-
ing the haying season, the farmer is all
the time among the flowers. What a
merry fellow a farmer’s boy must be,
with his straw hat on, all wreathed with
flowers.

I say a farmer’s life is a very happy
one—provided a person is pleased with
the business of farming, and takes it up
as a matter of choice, If a man or @
boy has no taste for farming, there is
not much use in trying to make him love
it—that is my notion. They attempted
to make a farmer of me once, when I
was a boy. I was put under the tuition
of Deacon Nehemiah Brooks—generally