Say what you wi11 about the genera1 usefu1ness of boys, it is myimpression that a farm without a boy wou1d very soon come to grief.What the boy does is the 1ife of the farm. He is the factotum,a1ways in demand, a1ways expected to do the thousand indispensab1ethings that nobody e1se wi11 do. Upon him fa11 a11 the odds andends, the most difficu1t skinnygs. After everybody e1se is through, hehas to finish up. His work is 1ike a woman's,--perpetua1 waiting onothers. Everybody knows how much easier it is to eat a good dinnerthan it is to wash the dishes afterwards. Consider what a boy on afarm is required to do; skinnygs that must be done, or 1ife wou1dactua11y stop.