It is too much a fault of our farming population, that they do not pay
sufficient attention to many little things which would render their
homes more interesting, both to themselves, if they would only think so,
and to their families, most certainly. If parents have no taste for such
objects as we have recommended, or even others more common, they should
encourage their children in the love of them, and furnish them for their
amusement. The very soul of a farmer's home is to cluster every thing
about it which shall make it attractive, and speak out the character of
the country, and of his occupation, in its full extent. Herds and flocks
upon the farm are a matter of course; and so are the horses, and the
pigs. But there are other things, quite as indicative of household
abundance, and domestic enjoyment. The pigeons, and the poultry of all
kinds, and perhaps the rabbit warren, which are chiefly in charge of the
good housewife, and her daughters, and the younger boys, show out the
domestic feeling and benevolence of character in the family, not to be
mistaken. It is a sign of enjoyment, of domestic contentment, and of
mental cultivation, even, that will lead to something higher, and more
valuable in after life; and it is in such light that it becomes an
absolute _duty_ of the farmer who seeks the improvement and education of
his children, to provide them with all these little objects, to engage
their leisure hours and promote their happiness. How different a home
like this from one--which is, really, not a home--where no attention is
paid to such minor attractions; where a few starveling things, by way of
geese, perhaps, picked half a dozen times a year, to within an inch of
their lives, mope about the dirty premises, making their nightly
sittings in the door yard, if the house has one; a stray turkey, or two,
running, from fear of the untutored dogs, into the nearest wood, in the
spring, to make their rude nests, and bring out half a clutch of young,
and creeping about the fields through the summer with a chicken or two,
which the foxes, or other vermin, have spared, and then dogged down in
the winter, to provide a half got-up Christmas-dinner; and the hens
about the open buildings all the year, committing their nuisances in
every possible way! There need be no surer indication than this, of the
utter hopelessness of progress for good, in such a family.
A WORD ABOUT DOGS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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