Where turkeys and geese are kept, handsome feather fans may as well be
made by the younger members of a family, as to be bought. The sooner
children are taught to turn their faculties to some account, the
better for them and for their parents.

In this country, we are apt to let children romp away their existence,
till they get to be thirteen or fourteen. This is not well. It is not
well for the purses and patience of parents; and it has a still worse
effect on the morals and habits of the children. _Begin early_ is the
great maxim for everything in education. A child of six years old can
be made useful; and should be taught to consider every day lost in
which some little thing has not been done to assist others.

Children can very early be taught to take all the care of their own
clothes.

They can knit garters, suspenders, and stockings; they can make
patchwork and braid straw; they can make mats for the table, and mats
for the floor; they can weed the garden, and pick cranberries from the
meadow, to be carried to market.

Provided brothers and sisters go together, and are not allowed to go
with bad children, it is a great deal better for the boys and girls
on a farm to be picking blackberries at six cents a quart, than to be
wearing out their clothes in useless play. They enjoy themselves just
as well; and they are earning something to buy clothes, at the same
time they are tearing them.

It is wise to keep an exact account of all you expend--even of a