PART SECOND.

SPECIAL LESSONS FOR BOYS.

FARMER BLAKE'S FIRST LESSON. WHEN I first went to live up at the Grange, Farmer Blake took me into the fields to talk to me. I was young then, but quite old enough to understand what he said.

'My lad,' said the farmer, if you are to learn farming, and we are to go on smoothly together, either I must teach you, or you must teach me. Now, as I happen to know more than you, it will be but proper that I should take the lead; and it will be time enough when you are the wiser of the two to alter the plan.'

Farmer Blake said this in a kind tone of voice, but the firmness with which he spoke convinced me at once that his word was to be law.

'You have picked up a little knowledge at the school,' said he, and now you must try to pick up a little at the Grange Farm. The first lesson I shall give you to learn is this-A little at a time, and go on. Almost all great things are done in The rain from the skies comes down in little drops, and the snow comes down in little

this way.

F

flakes; and yet both of them, by going on, cover the face of the ground.'

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'Look here,' said Farmer Blake, stopping at a bush on which a spider was weaving his web, see how the little creature is employed. First he fastens one line and then another, without wasting his time by idling between, and it will not be very long, I am thinking, before he catches his fly. The weaving spider is following the rule-a little at a time, and go on.'

What Farmer Blake said appeared so very clear to me, that I wondered the same thing had not occurred to me before. But the farmer wished to impress his first lesson deeply in my mind.

On turning round a corner we came suddenly upon a woodman who was felling an elm tree, and the dry chips flew around him as he dealt his lusty strokes with his axe. 'Oh,' thought I, 'the farmer will be at me again now, about his first lesson;' but no, not a word did he speak. I saw, however, that his eye was now and then fixed upon me. Though the woodman did not appear to get on very fast, yet, by repeated strokes, he had made a great gash more than half through the trunk of the tree; and, not long after, down came the elm with a loud crash.

Farmer Blake walked on in silence, and I was silent too; when suddenly he said to me, 'Well, my lad, what are you thinking of?' 'I was thinking, sir,' said I, 'that the woodman has brought down the tree by doing a little at a time,

and going on.' 'Just as I expected,' he replied: 'and now I see that you have learned my first lesson.'

When left to myself I thought over every word that Farmer Blake had spoken, and felt sure, not only that he was the wisest man I knew, but also that I could not do a better thing than attend to his remarks. In the course of that day I could hardly look around without seeing some object which brought before me Farmer Blake's first lesson. A bricklayer was building a wall near a cottage; a shepherd with his crook was climbing a high hill; and two men were filling a cart with gravel. By laying a brick at a time, and going on, the bricklayer would build the wall; by taking a step at a time, and going on, the shepherd would get to the top of the hill; and by throwing in a spadeful at a time, and going on, the men would fill the cart. I felt myself much wiser than I was before.

I lived many years at the Grange, and have great reason to be thankful for the many useful lessons that the honest farmer taught me; but not a single day, of all these years, do I remember better than the first day that I entered on the farm, and not a single lesson is more deeply impressed on my mind than the very first that he taught me,-A little at a time, and go on.*

* Old Humphrey's Rural Rambles.

BOYS' GAMES.

ALL boys like play; and who is there amongst them that has not his favourite game? Often and often have I heard a lad say, 'Let us have a good game at Ring-taw,' whilst another would cry out, 'No, no, bays, let it be Peg in the Ring; for I think top-spinning about the best fun in the world.' Then, perhaps, a little fellow, who was not clever at either of these games, would venture to chime in and say that of all things he thought nothing equal to Rounders.' In such cases the most friendly way of settling the matter is for the players to have as many of the games one after the other as they have time for.

Now there is certainly no reason why a boy should not be fond of play and have it too, provided he does not take that time for it which ought to be spent in work. All persons like to see the young enjoy themselves, and more pleasure and interest is taken in their sports by others older than themselves, when it is known that the players are as earnest and hardworking when at their books as they are in the playground. The wise Solomon said, 'To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven;' and it is during childhood and youth that more leisure is found for amusement than at any future period of our lives. It has been truly said, that 'Blithe boyhood is the holiday of life;'

and what merry lad has not learnt the old saying, that ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.' And I am sure that if boys will but make good use of their early years, never allowing play to interfere with work, nor work with play, but giving to each its proper share of time, they will not be ashamed nor feel sorrow in after life when they think of how their boyhood was passed. On the contrary, they will remember with much pleasure how very happy and merry they used to be. Neither will they ever look back upon the time given to their sports as misspent. A man will often show 'the play-place of his early days,' and will point out to his own boys the spot where he had many a time, like them, entered heartily into a game at marbles. 'Here,' he would say, 'I used to "knuckle down and do my best to conquer at "Ring-taw;" or he would tell them of a number of pegs he had carried off in triumph at famous 'Peg in the Ring;' and how, at Follow my Leader,' daring and dangerous feats were done. Nor would he willingly forget his winter sports; when, instead of crouching and shivering by the fire, he joined his school-fellows in the warm and spirited game of 'Prisoner's Base,' or made his cheeks glow at 'Leap-frog;' or, when the ice was thick on the pond, he was sliding or skating. He might relate, too, that as winter departed, and the days began to lengthen, how 'Whip-top,' 'Kite-flying,' Cricket,' and other games of the season, each had its turn. All boys who have joined in such games (and what

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