The advantage of our climate is, that there is not a day in the whole year that walking exercise cannot be enjoyed. I use the term _enjoyed_ advisedly. The roads may of course be dirty; but what of that? A good, thick pair of boots will be the remedy. Do then, let me entreat you, insist upon your girls and boys taking plenty of exercise; let them almost live in the open air! Do not coddle them; this is a rough world of ours, and they must rough it; they must be knocked about a little, and the knocks will do them good. Poor youths who are, as it were, tied to their mothers’ apron-strings, are much to be pitied; they are usually puny and delicate, and utterly deficient of self-reliance. 332. _Do you approve of horse or pony exercise for boys and girls?_ Most certainly I do; but still it ought not to supersede walking. Horse or pony exercise is very beneficial, and cannot be too strongly recommended. One great advantage for those living in towns, which it has over walking, is that a person may go farther into the country, and thus be enabled to breathe a purer and more healthy atmosphere. Again, it is a much more _amusing_ exercise than walking, and this, for the young, is a great consideration indeed. Horse exercise is for both boys and girls a splendid exercise; it improves the figure, it gives grace to the movements, it strengthens the chest, it braces the muscles, and gives to the character energy and courage. Both boys and girls ought to be early taught to ride. There is nothing that gives more pleasure to the young than riding either on a pony or on a horse, and for younger children, even on that despised, although useful animal, a donkey. Exercise, taken with pleasure, is doubly beneficial. If girls were to ride more on horseback than they now do, we should hear less of crooked spines and of round shoulders, of chlorosis and of hysteria, and of other numerous diseases of that class, owing, generally, to debility and to mismanagement. Those ladies who “affect the saddle” are usually much healthier, stronger, and straighter than those who either never or but seldom ride on horseback. Riding on horseback is both an exercise and an amusement, and is peculiarly suitable for the fair sex, more especially as their modes of exercise are somewhat limited, ladies being excluded from following many games, such as cricket and football, both of which are practiced, with such zest and benefit, by the rougher sex. 333. _Do you approve of carriage exercise?_ There is no muscular exertion in carriage exercise; its principal advantage is, that it enables a person to have a change of air, which may be purer than the one he is in the habit of breathing. But, whether it be so or not, change of air frequently does good, even if the air be not so pure. Carriage exercise, therefore, does only partial good, and ought never to supersede either walking or horse exercise. 334. _What is the best time of the day for the taking of exercise?_