The Weekly Messenger

The Farmer Boys and Girls.
At the Farmers' Institute, Foster, Mo., Miss Mabel Baily read the following paper on the above subject:
In our meetings, thus far, we have discussed some of the important products of the farm, but sufficient attention, I think, has not been paid to that grandest product-the boys and the girls.
The country, God's country, is the natural home of boys and girls and while their life may be filled with hardships, and be uninteresting to many, the final outcome is often beautiful.
The farmer boy may go barefooted, wear patched clothes and work for his living; he may have but little in which to improve himself, but he is storing up an experience that is better than gold.
While the town boy is idling away his time, the rough, country boy is pushing along the road to fame.
"With a book under one arm and a few extra clothes in his hand, he passes the elegant home of the town boys and looks in upon ease and luxury for almost the first time. He may be called a tramp, and be refused a crust of bread."
Some day, however, he will return and buy that mortgage covered house.
It is a notable fact that in the colleges of our land the best students are the boys and girls from the farm, for they have the intelligence and the constitution to win.
In every avenue in life where thrift, capacity and energy are required, the man who pushes ahead is the son of a farmer. In the work shop, in the halls of legislation, and in the pulpit, ninety-nine hundredths of those men who stand on the summit, were once boys on the farm.
Therefore, boys and girls on the farm, let us not despise our humble lives, but rather let us make them a joy and a blessing-make them a preparation for the great work of life, so that one day we may be able to stand in the foremost ranks of the good and the great.-Vermillion Star.