Now, the chief function of these transitory interests in special forms of work and learning as shown by the young growing boy is this: to furnish the occasions for a great variety of activities and practices for trying him out on all the possible sides of his nature. Not one of these intense boyish interests is necessarily very directly preparatory to his final choice of a vocation, while all are indirectly so. Therefore, if the fifteen-year-old son chances to win in a corn-raising contest, or at a live-stock exhibition, or if he manifests unusual interest in arithmethic, declamation, or nature study, do not regard any of these as necessarily pointing to his best possible vocational work. Presumably, at such an undeveloped age, he is still in possession of some latent interests and aptitudes, one of which may far outweigh any such thing hitherto awakened in his life. Give him time to mature and, if at all practicable, send him on to college. WHAT COLLEGE FOR THE COUNTRY BOY It is the opinion of the author that the State Agricultural College, as now situated and organized, is the ideal institution of higher learning for the country-bred youth. It offers him every reasonable incentive and opportunity for continuing in the calling of his father, if he be so inclined, while at the same time it gives instruction in many other departments of learning. Whether the state institution be a separate one or merely a college within the organization of the state university matters little. In either case the young man will be brought within reach of a course in scientific farming, stock raising, horticulture, and the like, either to choose or let alone--and the so-called cultural work will still be there for the taking. THE FOUNDATION IN WORK Many rural parents, weighted down with the over-work of the farm, cherish and express a very earnest desire that their sons may find some easier form of earning a living. So they deliberately plan with the boy the "easy" course to be pursued. Said one such farmer: "Wife and I decided that there would not be much in it for Henry except hard work if he settled down on the home place, so we decided to send him to college and educate him for something that offered less work and more pay." So they shielded the son from the heavier duties of the farm and encouraged in every way the boy's thought of an easy way to success. But one thing these well-meaning parents failed to foresee. That is, when the boy entered college, he began to look for that same sort of royal road to learning. The assigned lessons and tasks soon took the appearance of drudgery and he dodged and avoided them wherever possible. In less than a year the youth had failed at college and was back home. "The confinement of the college did not agree with his health." More than three years have passed since, and the boy has spent the time drifting from one "job" to another and all the while growing weaker in character and integrity.